2009 Centenary Programme
Friday, May 29
13.00 Opening of exhibition, “Isaiah Berlin and the Riga of His Time” in the Latvian National Library (LNB)
Monday, June 1st
10.00-10.20 Introductory remarks: Dr Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
10.20-11.30 Henry Hardy, “IB in Person”
11.45-13.00 Steven Lukes: “IB The Liberal”
14.00-15.30 Avishai Margalit: “IB, Home and Homeland”
The First Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture:
19.00-20.00 Timothy Garton Ash: “Isaiah Berlin, Europe, and Diversity”
20.00-21.30 Reception
Tuesday, June 2nd
09.00-09.15 Introductory remarks: Evan Zimroth
09.15-10.15 Gershon Hundert: “IB, Jewish History and Biography”
10.30-11.30 Aivars Stranga: “The Jews of Riga”
11.45-13.15 Barry Rubin: “What Would IB Say About Israel Today?”
14.15-17.00 Bus tour of Riga ghetto, and Rumbula massacre site
17.00-18.30 Discussion with Arkady Suharenko: “The Jewish Community in Riga Today”
19.30 “IB as I remember him”. Dinner-discussion moderated by Berel Rodal, with Peter Halban
Wednesday June 3rd
09.00-09.15 Introductory remarks: Pauls Raudseps
09.15-10.15 Aryeh Neier in conversation with Charles Grant: “On Positive Liberty”
10.15-11.15 Ian Buruma in conversation with Bill Emmott: “IB as a public intellectual”
11.30-12.45 Justin Cartwright: “The Song Before It is Sung”
14.00-14.45 Tatyana Pozdnyakova: “Akhmatova and IB” (in Russian with English translation)
15.00-15.45 Jon Stallworthy: “The Philosopher King, the poet’s subject”
16.00-16.45 Extracts from Jonathan Levi’s opera, “Guest FromThe Future”
18.15-19.15 Paul Delany: “IB and the Animal Instinct”
19.30-21.00 Alla Demidova reads the poetry of Anna Akhmatova (in Russian)
21.30-22.30 Arkady Ostrovsky: “The Coast Of Utopia”. Moderated by Baņuta Rubess.
Thursday, June 4th
15.30-17.30 “Liberalism in Latvia and the region today”. Open discussion relating Berlin’s thought to practical issues in contemporary Latvian society and politics, introduced by Nils Muižnieks
18.30-20.00 “Nationalism is a threat to Europe”. Oxford-style public debate between teams of invited speakers, with questions and vote. Moderator: Charles Grant. Speakers: Ian Buruma, Maria Golubeva, Anatole Kaletsky, Edward Lucas
Friday, June 5th
15.00 Premier of Gints Grūbe documentary film, “Isaiah Berlin”.
19.30 Piano recital. Jevgeņijs Samoilovs plays Beethoven and Tchaikovsky
Saturday, June 6th
12.30 Dr Vīķe-Freiberga unveils the Centenary Bust of Isaiah Berlin, by Anthony Stones, in the Latvian National Library
