Paul du Quenoy

Paul du Quenoy graduated summa cum laude from George Washington University at age 20 and received his Ph.D. with distinction from Georgetown University,[1] where he was the last Ph.D. graduate of the late Russian History scholar Richard Stites. He has held two Fulbright fellowships in Russia (2003-2004 and 2012) as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, the American Historical Association, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center at Hokkaido University in Japan. He taught at Georgetown while completing his Ph.D. and then briefly at the American University in Cairo before joining the American University of Beirut, where he was on the faculty from 2008 to 2019.[2]

Paul du Quenoy's first book, Stage Fright: Politics and the Performing Arts in Late Imperial Russia (2009), was acclaimed by Princeton University Russia scholar Caryl Emerson, who declared it "wonderfully unusual" and praised "its devastating command of the historical record."[3] Professor E. Anthony Swift of the University of Essex welcomed it as an "important new contribution to the field" that "should be read by anyone interested in the relationship of politics and the arts."[4][5] According to The American Historical Review, Stage Fright "demolishes Soviet arguments" and conclusively demonstrates the vital commercial elements in Russian culture, which du Quenoy argues was relatively free before the Revolution of 1917.[6] The Modern Language Review said that "this book offers a detailed counter-argument to teleological readings of the cultural and political situation in late imperial Russia."[7] Du Quenoy subsequently published Wagner and the French Muse: Music, Society, and Nation in Modern France (2011), which University of Illinois French literature specialist Margaret Miner lauded as a "pleasantly readable, extensively documented narrative"[8] of the German composer Richard Wagner's reception in France. Novelist, poet, and Welsh National Opera dramaturg Simon Rees's review in Opera magazine called it a "rattling good read" and "well-written analysis."[9] His third book, Alexander Serov and the Birth of the Russian Modern (2016), was hailed by the influential journal Russian Review for its "new angle" and "views that allow for a reexamination of some of the century's biggest controversies."[10] The award-winning critic George Loomis praised it as "well researched and readable." Music and Letters extolled the book as "ably written, balanced, highly detailed, and documented with care ... As such it outdoes existing Russian efforts."[11]

Paul du Quenoy is a member of the University Council of the American University in Bulgaria, the Advisory Council of the Free Speech Union, and the World Affairs Council of Palm Beach.[12]

Paul du Quenoy regularly contributes criticism and commentary on art, society, and politics to leading publications. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Examiner, the Spectator, the New Criterion, the Weekly Standard, Musical America, City Journal, the American Conservative, the Critic, Opera Today, New York Classical Review, Al Jazeera, and numerous academic journals, including the American Historical Review, the Journal of Modern History, International History Review, and Russian Review. His music criticism has included bylines from New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, San Francisco, Milan, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Barcelona, Santa Fe, and the Salzburg, Bayreuth, Verona, and Glimmerglass Festivals.[13][14][15][16]

Paul du Quenoy is also a sought after lecturer in travel and tourism, particularly in cruise itineraries. He has been a Distinguished Guest Speaker on Seabourn Cruise Line's World Cruise.[17] and frequently appears in the Far East, South America, and Mediterranean.

In 2011 du Quenoy became one of the youngest people ever elected to membership in Washington, DC's Cosmos Club, where National Geographic magazine was founded. He also belongs to the New York Athletic Club, the Metropolitan Opera Club, and the University Club of Washington, DC. Since 2013 he has been Chairman of the Russian Ball of Washington, DC.

Books

• Stage Fright: Politics and the Performing Arts in Late Imperial Russia (2009)
• Wagner and the French Muse: Music, Society, and Nation in Modern France (2011)
• Alexander Serov and the Birth of the Russian Modern (2016)
• Through the Years with Prince Charming: The Collected Music Criticism of Paul du Quenoy (2021)

Articles

• "In the Most Uncompromising Russian Style: The Russian Repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera, 1910–1947," Revolutionary Russia, 28: 1, 2015.
• “Arabs under Tsarist Rule: The Russian Occupation of Beirut, 1773–1774,” Russian History/Histoire Russe, 41: 2, 2014.
• "Staging Russia: The Russian Repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera, 1943–1972," Beirut Humanities Review, 1: 1, 2014.
• “‘It Could Be A Lot Worse:’ Imperial Russian Theatrical Censorship in a Comparative Perspective," Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 46: 3, 2012.
• “Tidings From A Faraway East: The Russian Empire and Morocco,” International History Review, 33: 2, June 2011.
• “‘Honeymoon to Bayreuth:’ French Appreciations of Richard Wagner in the Interwar Era,” Wagner Journal, 5: 1, March 2011.
• “Vladimir Solov’ev in Egypt: The Origins of the ‘Divine Sophia’ in the Development of Russian Religious Philosophy,” Revolutionary Russia, 23: 2, December 2010.
• “The Russian Empire and Egypt, 1900–1915,” Journal of World History, 19: 2, June 2008.
• “Perfecting the Show Trial: The Case of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg,” Revolutionary Russia, 19:1, June 2006.
• “With Allies Like These, Who Needs Enemies?: Russia and the Problem of Italian Entry into World War I,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, 45: 3–4, September–December 2003.
• “Warlordism à la russe: Baron von Ungern-Sternberg’s Anti-Bolshevik Crusade, 1917–1921,” Revolutionary Russia, 16: 2, December 2003.
• “The Role of Foreign Affairs in the Fall of Nikita Khrushchev in 1964,” International History Review, 25: 2, June 2003.
• “The Opiate of the Intellectuals?: Reflections on Communism at the Turn of the Millennium,” Security Studies, 11: 3, Spring 2002.
• “Guillaume de Beauplan’s Description de l’Ukraine and its Place in Ukrainian Historiography,” Ukrainian Quarterly, 57: 3–4, Fall-Winter 2001.
• “The Skoropadsky Hetmanate and the Ukrainian National Idea,” Ukrainian Quarterly, 56: 3, Fall 2000.