Denison: Titus-Hepp Lecture

The Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Wesley Cray, assistant professor of philosophy at Texas Christian University, presenting “Transparent and Opaque Performance Personas.” Recent work in the philosophy of music has focused on the relevance of a singer’s public persona to the aesthetic evaluation of that singer’s public performances of popular song. Cray will distinguish between two kinds of personas: those which are transparent (such as when a singer performs more or less as that singer) and those which are opaque (such as when a singer performs more or less as a fictional character). After introducing and elucidating this distinction, Cray discusses ways in which it further informs aesthetic evaluation of such performances.