John Anthony Maltese, a Meigs Professor and the Albert Saye Professor of Political Science, will appear in an upcoming episode of the PBS series American Masters.
Maltese also is the head of the political science department in the School of Public and International Affairs. His academic expertise centers on U.S. executive and judicial branches, but he also has an interest in classical music.
He will be featured prominently in American Masters-Jascha Heifetz: God’s Fiddler. The documentary about the influential violinist will air April 16-17 on PBS; it will be rebroadcast on WUGA-TV April 24-25 and 28.
God’s Fiddler had an advance screening at UGA’s Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall in 2011 before its New York premiere.
Maltese and his father, a retired violinist and music professor also named John Maltese, are co-authoring a biography about Heifetz, who emigrated from Russia to the U.S. in 1917. He would go on to be called “perhaps the greatest violinist of all time” by The New York Times. They plan to complete the biography by 2017, the 100th anniversary of Heifetz’s U.S. debut.
The younger Maltese said that the collaboration with his father has been one of the highlights of his life. He also is completing the ninth edition of his textbook, The Politics of the Presidency, which will be published next year.
