Performing in the Parlor: The Golden Age of Guitar and Elocution

Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 2:00pm CDT

McClintock Choral and Recital Room

Anne Waller, Mark Maxwell, and Brian Torosian, guitar; Fiona Maxwell, theater artist

A “musical and literary entertainment” in the style of 19th-century parlor performance. Hear American, French, Austrian, and Italian music for classical guitar on original instruments, placed in conversation with literary selections recovered from the archives of Northwestern’s Cumnock School of Oratory. “Performing in the Parlor” is the final event of a weekend devoted to 19th-century guitar, which includes Raphaella Smits’s Segovia Classical Guitar Series performance and her coaching of the Bienen guitar studio on historical repertoire. 

John Dowland, My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home 
William Shakespeare, Hamlet’s Advice to the Players (featured in Cumnock’s Choice Readings) 
Edmund Foster, Al Fresco 
Alfred Chenet, Boston Express (Caprice) 
Justin Holland, Fra Diavolo from Scraps from the Operas 
Anonymous, “The Jiners” from Cumnock’s School Speaker 
Alfred Cottin, Ballade du fou 
Samuel Lover, “The Gridiron” from Cumnock’s Choice Readings 
J. K. Mertz, Vespergang 
J. K. Mertz, Mazurka 
J. K. Mertz, Caprice sur un thème favori de C. M. de Weber, Op. 50 
Rosa Cassetari, “Entertaining the People” from Rosa: The Life of an Italian Immigrant 
Mauro Giuliani, Gran Pot-pourri, Op. 67 

Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with valid ID.