Writer, musician, filmmaker Kerry Candaele comes to Explore to talk about his book Journeys with Beethoven and the films he’s made about Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  The book offers a unique and dynamic exploration of the composer’s musical, cultural and political influence.

Candaele traveled the world to film the global impact—in movements for freedom and in people’s daily lives—of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In China he meets with a student leader who played the Ninth over a loudspeaker as the troops moved in to Tiananmen Square.  In Japan, the Ninth is performed hundreds of times each December, sometimes with thousands of singers in the chorus.  He tells the story of how a young East German woman--and famed conductor Leonard Bernstein--marked the falling of the Berlin Wall, aided by Beethoven.

The first film in the trilogy, “Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony,” was seen in over 150 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Each film finds the moment when social conflict and music cross paths, with compelling, humane stories about people attempting to heal and repair their worlds with musical art.