Brunner Gives Keynote at International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy
A mayoral citation discovered in the archives of a German opera house earned Ludwig Brunner a trip to New York City last week to speak at the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in the USA. Brunner, the executive director of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, gave the keynote talk on Friday, the final day of the three-city, five-day symposium titled “U.S. Cultural Diplomacy in Practice: Building Cultural Bridges to Strengthen the Relationships between America and the Global Community.” The first three days of the symposium were held in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. A native of Austria, Brunner was the artistic and organizational consultant for the production of “Porgy and Bess” in Berlin (1988-1994). It was the first time that a European opera house auditioned for singers in Harlem. Ed Koch, then mayor of New York, issued a glowing citation in 1988 to the city of Berlin, calling the venture “a vital part of a truly importan...