Through the Darkness

In 1906, Arnold Schoenberg and his wife befriended the brilliant young Austrian painter Richard Gerstl. Soon afterwards, Gerstl eloped with Schoenberg’s wife, Mathilde. Schoenberg eventually persuaded his wife to return – and then Gerstl was dead, apparently by suicide, although the circumstances remain unclear. All the while, Schoenberg was creating the turbulent, radical works that would cement his legacy. The documentary Through the Darkness (2021) tells this story of two geniuses who inspired and tormented one another. With filmmaker Hilan Warshaw, art historian Jane Kallir (Galerie St. Etienne), and musicologist Susanne Keppler-Schlesinger (Austrian Cultural Forum).

About the Speakers

Jane Kallir is Co-Director of the prestigious Galerie St. Etienne in New York, the oldest gallery in the United States specializing in Austrian and German Expressionism. The Galerie was founded by Kallir's grandfather, Otto Kallir, who brought Viennese modernism to the attention of the American public and discovered Grandma Moses. In 2017, Jane and Hildegard Bachert established the Kallir Research Institute (KRI) to continue the scholarly tradition established by Otto. In 2021, the Galerie St. Etienne closed it exhibition space and became an art advisory, and the gallery’s library, archives and educational activities were taken over by the KRI.

Kallir has curated many museum exhibitions and is the author of a number of books, including Abrams' Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, Gustav Klimt: 25 Masterworks, and Grandma Moses: 25 Masterworks.

Susanne Keppler-Schlesinger is the Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the field of multilateral as well as bilateral diplomacy. From 2009 to 2015 she was the Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Paris and thus responsible for the promotion of the cultural and scientific exchange between Austria and France. Keppler-Schlesinger chaired negotiations at the United Nations in New York in the context of the Austrian Presidency of the European Union in 1998, and 2006 in the context of the World Conferences and Special Sessions of the UN on Women and Gender Equality, Human Rights and Social Development, Drug Control and Ageing. At the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2003, she focused on the promotion and protection of human rights, gender equality, social development, international drug control and the prevention of organized crime as well as the fight against terrorism. At the headquarters of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna, Keppler-Schlesinger was responsible for diplomatic dossiers related to humanitarian and refugee questions, public diplomacy, the European Union, Africa, the recruitment for the Austrian MFA and diplomatic training. She also served in the Cabinet of State Secretary Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Keppler-Schlesinger holds a Ph.D. in musicology, French language and literature from the University of Vienna. She is a graduate of the Diplomatische Akademie Wien/Vienna School of International Studies (graduation with distinction). She also holds a diploma as a concert pianist.

Hilan Warshaw is a film director and writer. Through his production company, Overtone Films LLC, he produces, directs, writes, and edits internationally broadcast documentaries as well as projects for organizations including Carnegie Hall, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, New York City Opera, the Drama League, Fund for the City of New York, and many others. His feature-length television films include Wagner’s Jews (WDR/ARTE, PBS‐WNET, and others), Secret Song (SVT), Rachmaninoff Revisited (WDR/ARTE, co-producer and editor), and the forthcoming Through the Darkness (ORF, SVT, YLE), Mahler in New York (SVT), In the Key of Bach, and Unwanted.

Warshaw has taught film courses at Barnard College and the Film and Television Production program at Western Carolina University, and has been a lecturer and panelist at New York University, Yale, Hofstra, and Boston Universities among others. His research articles about music and film have been published by Cambridge University Press, McFarland Press, The Wagner Journal, and Wagner Spectrum. His other published writing includes program notes for Carnegie Hall, letters published on The New York Times’ opinion page, and the libretto for “Songs of Rebirth,” a song cycle by Lera Auerbach, published by Sikorski Musikverlage.

Warshaw holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. An experienced violinist and conductor, he studied orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School.