Leon Theremin film at the next Discover Auburn Lecture Series

The next Discover Auburn Lecture Series, presented by Auburn University Libraries and the Auburn University Department of Music, will feature a film on the life of Leon Theremin, inventor of the unique electronic musical instrument that bears his name. The film, “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” (1993), will be shown on Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. in the Caroline Marshall Draughon Auditorium on the ground floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Prior to the film, Lee Johnson of the AU Music Department will introduce the movie and there will be a question and answer period after the film.

Russian-born Leon Theremin developed his revolutionary instrument in the late 1920s, but its greatest popularity came in the 1950s when it was used in science fiction films, such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951). Theremin’s extraordinary life, which included a period of imprisonment in a Soviet gulag and working with the KGB, is both enlightening and inspiring.

The film is open to the public and there will be free parking in the garage adjacent to the RBD Library.