Celebrate the Month of Love with Writer and Musician Julie Scolnik

At Online Event via Zoom

There is no better month to speak about love, true love. Paris Blue: A Memoir of First Love, Julie Scolnik's first book is set against a magical backdrop of classical music and Paris in the late 70’s. It is a true fairy-tale memoir with a dark underbelly about the tenacious grip of first love. In addition to talking about her moving book, Julie is the perfect host for our Center as she was raised in Maine and now divides her time between Boston and France. This interview will be mixed with pieces of music that play important roles in this story.

This author talk will be followed by a live Q&A, so come ready with your questions!

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About Julie Scolnik

Julie Scolnik is a concert flutist and artistic director of Mistral Music, a chamber music series she founded in 1997 that has brought her accolades for the high caliber of her artists, her imaginative programming, and the personal rapport she establishes with her audiences. She lives in Boston with her husband, physicist Michael Brower, and their two cats, Daphne and Chloë. They have two adult children, Sophie and Sasha Scolnik-Brower, also musicians. Julie also continues to spend several months a year in France.

About the Book

PARIS, 1976: Twenty-year-old American student Julie Scolnik arrives in the City of Light to study the flute when, from across a sea of faces in the chorus of the Orchestre de Paris, she is drawn to Luc, a striking (married) French lawyer in the bass section. This deeply moving tale of an ebullient young American and a reserved Frenchman will transport readers to the cafés, streets, and concert halls of Paris in the late seventies, and, spanning three decades, evolves from deep romance to sudden heartbreak, and finally to a lifelong quest for answers to release hidden immutable grief. A deeply felt, bittersweet reflection on how youthful passion changes you and clings to you forever, this is a story that has embedded itself in Julie’s heart and mind for forty years. It is time to share it.

Letters play a fundamental role in the memoir, each chapter beginning with a letter that Luc has sent during their separation, and each letter foreshadowing what is to follow. Time moves quickly in the final chapters, and Scolnik’s self-discovery about the role of memory in our lives brings satisfying closure to the story.

To learn more, visit www.JulieScolnik.com.

Purchase the Book
Paris Blue: A Memoir of First Love is available in Hardcover, Trade Paper, and eBook at bookstores nationwide and online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound.

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La Pause Café

Friday, April 17, 2026

Join us for "La Pause Café”, a DROP-IN activity for you to practice your French skills, immerse yourself in stimulating conversations, and make new friends.