Wagner and Berlioz with Erica Miner

Join us for a Zoom meeting where Erica examines the fascinating relationship between these two 19th-century titans. Wagner openly admired Berlioz and made frequent references to him in his writings. Berlioz, however, was much more reticent about Wagner. They attended each other’s performances, exchanged letters, and met on more than one occasion, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. This is the subject of Erica’s talk.

Violinist turned author Erica Miner now has a multi-faceted career as an award-winning author, screenwriter, journalist, and lecturer. A native of Detroit, she studied violin with Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Silverstein at Boston University where she graduated cum laude; the New England Conservatory of Music; and the Tanglewood Music Center, summer home of the Boston Symphony, where she performed with such celebrated conductors as Leonard Bernstein and Erich Leinsdorf. Erica went on to perform with the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Company for 21 years, where she worked closely with renowned maestro James Levine.

When injuries from a car accident spelled the end of her musical career, Erica drew upon her lifelong love of writing for inspiration and studied screenwriting in New York and Los Angeles with script gurus Linda Seger and Ken Rotcop. Erica’s screenplays have won awards in a number of recognized competitions such as WinFemme, Santa Fe, and the Writer’s Digest.

Inspired by journals she wrote during her travel adventures abroad, Erica penned the novel and screenplay of Travels With My Lovers, winner of the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. She also has written the feature screenplay and TV Series Bible for FourEver Friends, the first in her journal-based novel series chronicling four teenage girls’ coming of age in Detroit in the volatile 1960s. Subsequent novels in the series are set in Boston and New York. In addition, Erica wrote the screenplay of her mystery novel Murder In The Pit, now renamed Aria for Murder, which takes place at the Met. The entire series is being republished by Level Best Books, with new titles, covers, updates, and enhancements.

Erica’s lectures, seminars, and workshops on writing and on opera have received kudos in venues worldwide, including the Seattle Symphony; the Wagner Societies of New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Northern California, North Carolina, and Sydney, Australia; the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington; for the Creative Retirement Institute at Edmonds College near Seattle; the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall; and on the High Seas, where Erica was named a top-rated speaker for both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines. Her wide-ranging topics range from “The Art of Self Re-Invention,” to “Journaling for Writers: Mining the Gold of Your Own Experiences,” “Wagner and Bernstein: Parallels and Contrasts,” “Opera Meets Hollywood;” and numerous others.