American composer (b1923)
POPULARITY
SynopsisHappy Leap Year!Once every four years, we have the opportunity to wish the great Italian opera composer Giacomo Rossini a happy birthday — he was born on Feb. 29 in 1792 — and to note some other musical events that occurred on this unusual but recurring calendar date.The American Bicentennial Year 1976, for example, also was a leap year, and 12 months were cram-packed with specially commissioned works written on a grand scale to celebrate that major anniversary of our nation. But at Alice Tully Hall on Feb. 29, 1976, a more modest celebration was in progress: an afternoon of new chamber works for flute and harp, including the premiere performance of a piece by American composer Ned Rorem.This piece was titled Book of Hours, referring to the prayers that the clergy read at various times of the day. In 1976, when avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez was the music director of the New York Philharmonic and dense, complicated music was considered fashionable by the critics, and the reviewer for the New York Times was struck by Rorem's deceptive simplicity: “Many contemporary composers flaunt their abilities to make music complex,” he wrote, “but Rorem waves an altogether different flag. His Book of Hours seemed determined to be uneventful. Its calculated simplicities and unassertive manner recalled the bare-walls asceticism of Erik Satie, though Mr. Rorem's phrases and colors are more sensuous and do not quite evoke Satie's mood of monastic rigor.”Music Played in Today's ProgramNed Rorem (1923-2022): Book of Hours; Fibonacci Sequence; Naxos 8.559128
SynopsisIt's a play both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.”We're talking about Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bittersweet look at life, love and death in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900s, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter.It wasn't until decades after Wilder's death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an Our Town opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder's works.Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today's date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.The New York Times thought the resulting opera was a success, writing, “Our Town opens with a hymn, and Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”Music Played in Today's ProgramNed Rorem (b. 1923): Opening, from Our Town; Monadnock Music; Gil Rose, cond. New World 80790
Poetry has long served as a point of inspiration for classical composers. Just think of Beethoven's magnificent setting of Schiller's "Ode to Joy," Schubert's cinematic take on Goethe's "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel," or Ned Rorem's soulful songs based on the words of Frank O'Hara. And now there's a new work to add to this storied tradition from composer Brian Raphael Nabors. In Upon Daybreak, premiered by the Berkeley Symphony in late 2022, Nabors turns to a poignant poem by the late Maya Angelou, "A Brave, Startling Truth." Rather than set the poem's text to music, however, Nabors distills Angelou's visionary call for a great "day of peacemaking" into a powerful orchestral work that imagines a utopian world without hatred or malice. "In the poem, [Angelou] talks about all the chaos, war, and dystopia that come about from us being humans and destructive," Nabors says on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast. "But also all the beauty that comes from humanity and what we're able to offer. It talks about this day when all this war mongering ends finally and we realize that the true wonders of the world are ourselves and life itself." Commissioned by New Music USA as part of its Amplifying Voices program, Upon Daybreak has been performed by the Detroit Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra since its Berkeley premiere, and the work will make its way to the Seattle Symphony in 2024. In this episode, Nabors and I talk more about composing Upon Daybreak and what it was like working with the Berkeley Symphony's music director, Joseph Young, on a host of community engagement projects leading up to the premiere. Plus, he shares the important part his spiritual life plays in maintaining the energy to compose, how video games help him overcome creative blocks, and why skin care is always a top priority in his wellness routine. — Classical Post® is created and produced by Gold Sound Media® LLC, a New York-based marketing agency for the performing arts industry. Explore how we can grow your audience to make a lasting impact in your community.
Welcome to another conversation from the high/low art divide between opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas and comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony. For this end-of-the-year episode, Nick and Ema decided to talk about The Beatles and their influence on a few pieces of “high art”: new journalist Joan Didion's essay “The White Album” and avant garde singer Cathy Berberian's covers of Beatles' songs. They also briefly talk about American composer Ned Rorem's essay “The Music of the Beatles”. Their starting point is a 2021 documentary by Peter Jackson, Get Back. Nick and Ema circle around the question: Were the Beatles exceptional, lucky, or both? Does one need opportunity or even fame to create one's best work? Is trying to tell a story about the Beatles, or any other iconic artist, that answers these questions even useful? Music excerpts from this episode: Revolution 9 from the Beatles' White Album (1968) Gavin Bryars' “Jesus' Blood Never Found me Yet”(1971) Cathy Berberian's cover of “She's Got a Ticket to Ride” (1977) Cathy Berberian's Stripsody (1966) Things mentioned in the episode (in order of appearance): “Now and Then” (new Beatles' song): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opxhh9Oh3rg Deresiewicz's essay “We're All Bored of Culture Now”: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/bored-of-culture-william-deresiewicz Get Back, the Beatles documentary by Peter Jackson (it didn't come out “last year” like we said but in 2021): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles:_Get_Back Bernstein's lecture on the Beatles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32U0mjGz6g Rick Beato's music channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RickBeato Joan Didion's book of essays “The White Album”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Album_(book) Ned Rorem's essay “The Music of the Beatles”: https://jdsalas.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/article-the-music-of-the-beatles-.pdf Susan Sontag's “Notes on Camp”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_%22Camp%22 Collection of academic essays on Cathy Berbarian: https://www.routledge.com/Cathy-Berberian-Pioneer-of-Contemporary-Vocality/Karantonis-Placanica-Verstraete/p/book/9780367669294 Links:
Leonard Bernstein—the conductor and composer known globally for his charisma and style—comes roaring back into the public discourse. We celebrate Lenny's relationship with Yaddo via a conversation with one of his mentees, acclaimed composer Daron Hagen. PLUS: Edgar Oliver, “the poet laureate of New York's dispossessed” (The New York Times), performs an excerpt of his latest one-man show, Rip Tide, an ode to The Pyramid Club, which offered an early haven for artists and outcasts in New York City's downtown, late '70s scene. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Ned Rorem.
Ned Rorem was an American composer and writer, and was hailed by some as the greatest art-song composer of his time. Writing over 500 songs, his music has been described as Neoromantic, leaning at times towards a more lyrical nature. Early musical influences upon Rorem were Margaret Bonds, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland and also Arthur Honegger. After a period of living in Paris where he associated with members of Les Six, as well as frequent trips to Morocco, Rorem eventually settled back in the USA for the rest of his life. He went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his orchestral work, Air Music.Rorem also wrote seventeen books, six of which were intimate diaries. These earned him a certain reputation from the 1960s onwards, particularly for his openness about his regular sexual encounters with men. During this period, Rorem also had issues with alcohol and drugs, but his life steadily settled when he entered into a long-term relationship with the composer and choral director James Holmes. They purchased a house together in Nantucket, and Rorem often relied upon Holmes for feedback concerning his own music. This week, Donald Macleod reflects on Ned Rorem's life and music, remembering his own encounter with the composer when he interviewed Rorem for this series in 2003. Music Featured:Early in the morning The Lordly Hudson Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Dance Suite (excerpt) Piano Concerto No 2 (excerpt) Piano Sonata No 3 (excerpt) Sing My Soul Symphony No 2 (excerpt) For Poulenc Two Psalms and A Proverb (excerpt) Lions Love Divine, All Loves Excelling I will always love you Book of Hours Sky Music (Brisk and Smooth) Santa Fe Songs (excerpt) Praise the Lord, O My Soul Violin Concerto (excerpt) While all things were in quiet silence (Seven Motets for the Church Year) Breath on Me, Breath of God String Symphony (excerpt) Spring Music (Bagatelle) String Quartet No 4 (Still Life) More than a Day (excerpt) Evidence of things not seen (excerpt) Piano Album 1 (excerpts) Double Concerto for Violin and Cello (excerpt) United States: Seven Viewpoints for String Quartet (excerpt) Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (Recurring Dream) Our Town (excerpt) For Six Friends Four Prayers From An Unknown PastPresented by Donald Macleod Produced by Luke Whitlock for BBC Audio Wales and WestFor full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Ned Rorem (1923-2022) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001slxs And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we've featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z
We invite you to explore one of our previously aired episodes: a conversation with Dana Gioia. In this episode, I am joined by the poet and critic Dana Gioia to discuss Charles Baudelaire's famous book of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil. We tackle some big questions in this episode, such as whether and how evil can be beautiful, the nature of Catholic art and poetry, original sin, and the poet as a damned figure. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. Gioia has published five full-length collections of verse, most recently (2016), which won the Poets' Prize as the best new book of the year. His third collection, (2001), was awarded the American Book Award. An influential critic, Gioia has published four books of essays. His controversial volume, (1992), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Gioia has also edited or co-edited two dozen best-selling literary anthologies, including An Introduction to Poetry (with X. J. Kennedy) and Best American Poetry 2018. His essays and memoirs have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, Hudson Review, and BBC Radio. Gioia has written four opera libretti and collaborated with musicians in genres from classical to jazz. His work has been set to music by Morten Lauridsen, Lori Laitman, Dave Brubeck, Ned Rorem, Paul Salerni, and numerous other composers. He collaborated with jazz pianist Helen Sung on her vocal album, Sung With Words (2018). His dance opera (with Paul Salerni), Haunted, premiered in 2019. Gioia also served as the California State Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure he became the first laureate to visit all 58 counties of California. His statewide tour became the subject of a BBC Radio documentary. Jennifer Frey is the incoming inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa. Through Spring of 2023, she served as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and as a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. She also previously served as a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. Frey holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. from Indiana University-Bloomington. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology (Routledge, 2018). Her writing has also been featured in First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, Plough, The Point, and USA Today. You can follow her on Twitter @jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.
We invite you to explore one of our previously aired episodes: a conversation with Dana Gioia. In this episode, I am joined by the poet and critic Dana Gioia to discuss Charles Baudelaire's famous book of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil. We tackle some big questions in this episode, such as whether and how evil can be beautiful, the nature of Catholic art and poetry, original sin, and the poet as a damned figure. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. Gioia has published five full-length collections of verse, most recently (2016), which won the Poets' Prize as the best new book of the year. His third collection, (2001), was awarded the American Book Award. An influential critic, Gioia has published four books of essays. His controversial volume, (1992), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Gioia has also edited or co-edited two dozen best-selling literary anthologies, including An Introduction to Poetry (with X. J. Kennedy) and Best American Poetry 2018. His essays and memoirs have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, Hudson Review, and BBC Radio. Gioia has written four opera libretti and collaborated with musicians in genres from classical to jazz. His work has been set to music by Morten Lauridsen, Lori Laitman, Dave Brubeck, Ned Rorem, Paul Salerni, and numerous other composers. He collaborated with jazz pianist Helen Sung on her vocal album, Sung With Words (2018). His dance opera (with Paul Salerni), Haunted, premiered in 2019. Gioia also served as the California State Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure he became the first laureate to visit all 58 counties of California. His statewide tour became the subject of a BBC Radio documentary. Jennifer Frey is the incoming inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa. Through Spring of 2023, she served as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and as a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. She also previously served as a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. Frey holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. from Indiana University-Bloomington. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology (Routledge, 2018). Her writing has also been featured in First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, Plough, The Point, and USA Today. She also hosts a popular philosophy and literature podcast, Sacred and Profane Love. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is incoming inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.
Many young musicians dream of making a comfortable living as a solo artist playing recitals, appearing with orchestras, selling CDs. Frederick Moyer has been doing that for 40 years, making a living entirely on performances and record sales. The last teaching job he had was in 1983. What makes Fred particularly interesting to speak to on the subject of solo careers is that you probably have never heard of him! It is one thing to build a career out of a huge splashy success that puts you on the map. Fred has done it without ever having a major New York manager, or a recording on a major label. Since 1994, when he started keeping track, he has played over 7000 concerts. He has sold over 50,000 classical and jazz CDs, has played in 44 countries, and in such far-flung venues as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Sydney Opera House, Windsor Castle, Carnegie Recital Hall, Tanglewood, and the Kennedy Center, and has appeared as piano soloist with most of the major orchestras of the United States as well as many orchestras of Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. An avid computer programmer, he often incorporates technology into his concerts and owns patents for music-related inventions including the MoyerCam which allows everyone in the audience to see the pianist's hands during a concert. He performs note-for-note transcriptions of such jazz pianists as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Erroll Garner, bringing this great American music onto classical music stages. In 2009, he and Dr. Paul Green unveiled two unknown piano works by Robert Schumann. Many composers have written for Moyer, including David Ott whose Second Piano Concerto Moyer recorded with the London Symphony. Other composers include Pulitzer Prize winners George Walker and Ned Rorem. Find Frederick at his website, look at his cool CAMERA, check out his recordings. This episode is brought to you today by Happiest Musician Coaching. You are amazing, and I believe in you. What are you trying to create? What do you need your career to be and do for you? What are you not seeing that you need to do and work on? I love these conversations and supporting musicians like you. For a limited time, I'm offering a free 30-minute call to get you some clarity around your next steps, and see how I might help you get unstuck! Thanks for joining me on Crushing Classical! Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance. You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode! I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Synopsis On today's date in 1998 at King's Chapel in Boston, a new work by the American composer Daniel Pinkham received its first performance. Scored for baritone and organ and titled Three Latin Motets, it was intended as a birthday offering to Pinkham's fellow composer and colleague Ned Rorem, with a dedication that read, “For Ned Rorem and a half century of friendship.”But the premiere occurred on the 75th anniversary of Pinkham's birth, as a surprise at a concert in his honor. Organist James David Christie and baritone Sanford Sylvan had sneakily persuaded Pinkham to write the motets for Rorem, who was born in 1923 – the same year as Pinkham – but intended all along to premiere the music as a surprise at a concert in Pinkham's honor.Pinkham was noted for his church music, and once quipped, “I just like to hear my pieces more than once, and when you write music for the church you have a better chance at that… I [tell people] am available for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs.”Pinkham died in 2006, and Christie and Sylvan performed his Three Latin Motets once again in January of 2007— at Pinkham's memorial service. Music Played in Today's Program Daniel Pinkham (1923 - 2006) Three Latin Motets Aaron Engebreth, bar;Heinrich Christensen, o. Florestan FRP-1003
Synopsis For the 1958-59 season of the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, the orchestra's newly-appointed music director, was eager to program as much new American music as he dared. As luck would have it, early in 1958, the 35-year old American composer Ned Rorem had just returned from Europe with a new symphonic score. “I wrote most of my Third Symphony in France,” recalled Rorem. “It's a big piece but not a commission—I was still writing for the love of it in those days… So I showed it to Lenny and he said ‘OK, I'll do it, but I wish you would re-orchestrate the slow movement entirely for strings.' I replied ‘Sure,' but didn't, because Bernstein was always saying things like that and then would forget all about it.” The premiere of Rorem's Third Symphony—as written—occurred at Carnegie Hall on today's date in 1959, but for its composer, the thrill was tempered by some harsher realities. Rorem recalled, “I came late to the first rehearsal because in those days I was living off unemployment insurance … and I had to go down and stand in line to pick up my check. I guess they managed without me because Lenny conducted four wonderful performances.” Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Symphony No. 3 Utah Symphony; Maurice Abravanel, conductor. Vox Box 5092
Dana Gioia is the former Poet Laureate of California. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he is the author of seven collections of verse, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets' Prize for the best new poetry volume of the year. His critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award, and Studying with Miss Bishop: Memoirs from a Young Writer's Life (2022). His poems have been set to music by numerous composers, including Morten Lauridsen, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, and Dave Brubeck. Gioia has also written four opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies. James Morehead interviewed Dana for the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast to discuss his latest collection "Meet Me at the Lighthouse" (Graywolf Press, 2023). Reviews of "Meet Me at the Lighthouse": World Literature Today Front Porch Republic The Catholic World Report New York Journal of Books --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/viewlesswings/support
Synopsis The American composer Ned Rorem liked to classify music as being either French or German – by “French” Rorem meant music that is sensuous, economical, and unabashedly superficial; by “German” Rorem meant music that strives to be brainy, complex, and impenetrably deep. On today's date the Boston Symphony gave the premiere performances of two important 20th century piano concertos. The first, by Francis Poulenc, had its premiere under the baton of Charles Munch in 1950, with the composer at the piano. Poulenc's Concerto is a light, entertaining with no pretension to profundity. It is quintessentially “French” according to Rorem's classification. The second Piano Concerto, by the American composer Elliott Carter, had its Boston premiere in 1967, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, with soloist Jacob Lateiner. Carter's Concerto was written in Berlin in the mid-1960s when the Wall dividing that city was still new. Carter said he composed it in a studio near an American target range, and one commentator hears the sounds of machine guns in the work's second movement. Carter himself compared woodwind solos in the same movement to the advice given by three friends of the long-suffering Job in the Bible. Needless to say, Rorem would emphatically classify Carter's Concerto as “German” to the max! Music Played in Today's Program Francis Poulenc (1899 –1963) Piano Concerto Pascal Roge, piano; Philharmonia Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor. London 436 546 Elliot Carter (b. 1908) Piano Concerto Ursula Oppens, piano; SWF Symphony; Michael Gielen, conductor. Arte Nova 27773
In this episode, I am joined by the poet and critic Dana Gioia to discuss Charles Baudelaire's famous book of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil. We tackle some big questions in this episode, such as whether and how evil can be beautiful, the nature of Catholic art and poetry, original sin, and the poet as a damned figure. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. Gioia has published five full-length collections of verse, most recently 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets' Prize as the best new book of the year. His third collection, Interrogations at Noon (2001), was awarded the American Book Award. An influential critic, Gioia has published four books of essays. His controversial volume, Can Poetry Matter? (1992), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Gioia has also edited or co-edited two dozen best-selling literary anthologies, including An Introduction to Poetry (with X. J. Kennedy) and Best American Poetry 2018. His essays and memoirs have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, Hudson Review, and BBC Radio. Gioia has written four opera libretti and collaborated with musicians in genres from classical to jazz. His work has been set to music by Morten Lauridsen, Lori Laitman, Dave Brubeck, Ned Rorem, Paul Salerni, and numerous other composers. He collaborated with jazz pianist Helen Sung on her vocal album, Sung With Words (2018). His dance opera (with Paul Salerni), Haunted, premiered in 2019. Gioia also served as the California State Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure he became the first laureate to visit all 58 counties of California. His statewide tour became the subject of a BBC Radio documentary. Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy and Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow at the University of South Carolina. She is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @ jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.
In this episode, I am joined by the poet and critic Dana Gioia to discuss Charles Baudelaire's famous book of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil. We tackle some big questions in this episode, such as whether and how evil can be beautiful, the nature of Catholic art and poetry, original sin, and the poet as a damned figure. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. Gioia has published five full-length collections of verse, most recently 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets' Prize as the best new book of the year. His third collection, Interrogations at Noon (2001), was awarded the American Book Award. An influential critic, Gioia has published four books of essays. His controversial volume, Can Poetry Matter? (1992), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Gioia has also edited or co-edited two dozen best-selling literary anthologies, including An Introduction to Poetry (with X. J. Kennedy) and Best American Poetry 2018. His essays and memoirs have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, Hudson Review, and BBC Radio. Gioia has written four opera libretti and collaborated with musicians in genres from classical to jazz. His work has been set to music by Morten Lauridsen, Lori Laitman, Dave Brubeck, Ned Rorem, Paul Salerni, and numerous other composers. He collaborated with jazz pianist Helen Sung on her vocal album, Sung With Words (2018). His dance opera (with Paul Salerni), Haunted, premiered in 2019. Gioia also served as the California State Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure he became the first laureate to visit all 58 counties of California. His statewide tour became the subject of a BBC Radio documentary. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.
Greetings to all from my former home of Manhattan! Upon landing here a week ago, I was greeted by the news of the death of Ned Rorem, the man previously known as “America's Greatest Living Composer,” who just last month had celebrated his 99th birthday. Though he won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1976 for his orchestral work Air Music, Rorem was most celebrated for his vocal music, in particular his art songs. In this episode, I will delve into that aspect of his output, from his earliest published work to his extraordinary late masterpiece Evidence of Things Not Seen. The episode features singers who collaborated closely with the composer, including Phyllis Curtin, Donald Gramm, Beverly Wolff, Regina Sarfaty, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Kurt Ollmann, and others. Many other singers were also drawn to Rorem's songs, including Leontyne Price, Jan DeGaetani, Martina Arroyo, and Laura Aikin, all of whom are represented here. As celebrated as a frank and forthright diarist and essayist as he was as a composer, Rorem (like his British counterpart Benjamin Britten) had extraordinary taste in the poetry and texts he chose to set. In this episode alone, we hear compositions set to words of Sylvia Plath, Paul Goodman, Walt Whitman, Paul Monette, Theodore Roethke, Frank O'Hara, and others. The episode concludes with a tribute to another musician who died earlier the same day, the American collaborative pianist David Triestram, who accompanies his dear colleague and friend Roberta Alexander in Leonard Bernstein's poignant and timely song “Some Other Time.” Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel's lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody's core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody's Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.
Tomorrow morning I leave for three weeks and I've been desperately trying to come up with topics that would be a bit easier to produce while I'm away. What could be easier than birthdays for this month and next? Well… leave it to your intrepid producer to make that as complicated as it could be. But there's a good reason: so many exceptional singers have birthdays this month and next! In fact, November is so chock full of such artists that I decided to focus exclusively on the Birthday Girls. And what a lineup! Iconic divas like Joan Sutherland and Victoria de los Ángeles; tragically short-lived singers like Saramae Endich and the beloved Lucia Popp; forgotten artists like Kjerstin Dellert, Caterina Mancini, and Geneviève Touraine; exceptional Black artists like Barbara Hendricks and Marietta Simpson: all are represented. And let's not forget the pop divas, both celebrated (Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt), and less well-remembered (Chi Coltrane, Bonnie Bramlett). And that's just the tip of the iceberg. So lift a glass, cut a piece of Geburtstagkuchen, and tune in to Countermelody in celebration of these exceptional women! [n.b. This episode was posted before the death of Ned Rorem, who will be properly commemorated in next week's episode.] Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel's lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody's core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody's Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.
Synopsis On today's date in 1938, two works by the American composer Samuel Barber received their very high-profile premiere performances on a live, coast-to-coast broadcast by the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Toscanini was impressed by Barber's First Symphony, which was performed at the 1937 Salzburg Festival, so Toscanini asked the 25-year old composer for a short orchestral piece, which Toscanini might perform with the newly-formed NBC Symphony. Barber offered Toscanini his pick of two short pieces, and must have been surprised when Toscanini agreed to perform BOTH of them: a newly-composed Essay for Orchestra and Barber's arrangement for full string orchestra of a movement from a String Quartet he had written in 1936. Re-titled Adagio for Strings, it was destined to become Barber's best-known work. Barber's “Adagio” acquired a special resonance during World War Two, as a threnody for America's war dead. It was also performed at the funeral of wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt. More recently, Barber's Adagio has been used to great effect in several successful films, including “The Elephant Man” and “Platoon.” In a memorial tribute to Barber, American composer Ned Rorem wrote, “If Barber [25 years old when the ‘Adagio' was completed] later aimed higher, he never reached deeper into the heart.” Music Played in Today's Program Samuel Barber (1910-1981) First Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 Detroit Symphony; Neeme Järvi, cond. Chandos 9053 Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 Berlin Philharmonic; Semyon Bychkov, cond. Philips 434 108
How old did you think Dr. Woosley was before hearing this episode? Epic dad joke gifts, memory slips, Ned Rorem fans....these all await in today's episode. Did Dr. W use the term "stan"? Yes, yes he did. But in terms of cool lingo, can we bring back "groovy"?You have so much great wisdom! We would love to hear it and share it. Write to us any time (and feel free to request future topics).-twomoodydoctors@gmail.com-https://kevinwoosley.com/two-moody-doctorsSee ya real soon folks!
This episode begins with “Early in the Morning,” the song by Ned Rorem (who just turned ninety-nine). It proceeds with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'.” Later on, there is “Sunday Morning,” one of the “Sea Interludes” from Britten's opera “Peter Grimes.” Jay was not going for a morning theme. It just happened that way. There is other music too, including a hymn, both in its straightforward choral version and in an improvisation by a famous, and devoted, pianist. Rorem, “Early in the Morning” Rodgers & Hammerstein, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin',” from “Oklahoma!” Schoenberg, “Waldsonne” Britten, “Sea Interlude,” “Sunday Morning,” from “Peter Grimes” Shostakovich, Interlude No. 2, from “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” Chapí, “Carceleras,” from “Las hijas del zebedeo” Trad., “Come, Come, Ye Saints” Johannesen, Improvisation on a Mormon Hymn
This episode begins with “Early in the Morning,” the song by Ned Rorem (who just turned ninety-nine). It proceeds with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” Later on, there is “Sunday Morning,” one of the “Sea Interludes” from Britten’s opera “Peter Grimes.” Jay was not going for a morning theme. It just happened that way. There is other music too, including a hymn, both in its straightforward choral... Source
If These Walls Could Talk with Wendy Stuart & Tym MossHosts: WENDY STUART & TYM MOSSSpecial guest: JAMES GAVINWednesday, January 26th2pm EST LIVE from PANGEA Restaurant, NYCWatch LIVE on YouTube at Wendy Stuart TVManhattan-born and a graduate of Fordham University, Gavin is a much-published freelance journalist. Aside from the New York Times, he has written for Vanity Fair, Time Out New York, the Daily Beast, and JazzTimes. His subjects have included Annie Lennox, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, John Legend, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Miriam Makeba, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Ned Rorem, Edith Piaf, Karen Carpenter, and Jacques Brel. Gavin's 2015 feature for JazzTimes, “The Gates of the Underworld: Inside Slugs' Saloon, Jazz's Most Notorious Nightclub," earned him his second ASCAP Deems Taylor-Virgil Thomson Award. He has contributed liner notes to over 500 CDs; his essay for the GRP box set Ella Fitzgerald – The Legendary Decca Recordings was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2016, the Metropolitan Room in New York honored Gavin for his contributions to cabaret at an evening programmed by the writer himself. In 2018, the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) gave him its Board of Directors Award.Gavin has appeared in several documentaries, including an E! True Hollywood Story on Doris Day and Anita O'Day: The Life and Times of a Jazz Singer. He wrote and narrated a French TV documentary, Chet by Claxton, on legendary jazz photographer William Claxton and his muse, Chet Baker. Gavin has made hundreds of radio appearances, including multiple interviews on NPR, the BBC, and Australia's ABC Network; he has been seen on the Today show, Good Morning America, and PBS NewsHour. From 2011 through 2017, Gavin toured as narrator, host, and author of Stormy Weather: The Life and Music of Lena Horne, a show that starred former Supreme Mary Wilson. Aside from his Stormy Weather show, he has created and hosted shows based on all his other books, featuring Blossom Dearie, Nellie McKay, Jane Monheit, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman (Kiki & Herb), Spider Saloff, Oscar Brown, Jr., The New Standards, Catherine Russell, Jonatha Brooke, and others. These evenings have been presented at such venues as the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach, FL), the Miller Outdoor Theater (Houston, TX), the Castro Theater (San Francisco, CA), the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis, MN), and Joe's Pub (NYC).Who else but hosts Wendy Stuart and Tym Moss could “spill the tea” on their weekly show “If These Walls Could Talk” live from Pangea Restaurant on the Lower Eastside of NYC, with their unique style, of honest, and emotional interviews, sharing the fascinating backstories of celebrities, entertainers, recording artists, writers and artists and bringing their audience along for a fantastic ride.Wendy Stuart is an author, celebrity interviewer, model, filmmaker and hosts “Pandemic Cooking With Wendy,” a popular Youtube comedic cooking show born in the era of Covid-19, and TriVersity Talk, a weekly web series with featured guests discussing their lives, activism and pressing issues in the LGBTQ Community.Tym Moss is a popular NYC singer, actor, and radio/tv host who recently starred in the hit indie film “JUNK” to critical acclaim.
Dear ones, I present to you today the extraordinarily versatile bass-baritone and my fellow native Milwaukeean Donald Gramm (1927-1983), one of the central house singers at both the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera from the 1960s through his premature death at the age of 56. Gifted with an intrinsically beautiful voice, an impeccable technique and an expansive range, he also was a crackerjack musician whose repertoire easily encompassed musical styles from florid Baroque music through the thorniest contemporary idioms. He is probably best celebrated these days for his commitment to American art, and this episode features him singing songs by Ned Rorem, John Duke, Richard Cummings, Douglas Moore, and Paul Bowles, with a particular emphasis on texts by Walt Whitman. What is perhaps less well-remembered today is how versatile an opera singer he was, singing roles from Osmin to Scarpia, with a strong emphasis on both bel canto and buffo roles by Rossini and Donizetti. The episode also explores his collaborations with Igor Stravinsky, Glenn Gould, and, perhaps most significantly, Sarah Caldwell, another important musical figure from that era who is strongly deserving of reappraisal. Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel's lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody's core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody's Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.
In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer better known for his songs who won for an orchestral work, Ned Rorem. They may enjoy The Nantucket Songs but what will they think about Air Music? And was Air Music actually supposed to win the Pulitzer Prize??? Tune in to find out. If you'd like to know more about Ned Rorem, we recommend: Ned Rorem, The Paris and the New York Diaries, 1951-1961, Open Road Media J.D. McClatchy's 1999 interview with Ned Rorem in The Paris Review, Issue 150 A Ned Rorem Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)
Synopsis While many great composers have also been great conductors, this can be the exception rather than the rule. On today's date in 1959, the American composer Ned Rorem tried his hand at conducting the premiere of one of his own compositions, a chamber suite entitled “Eleven Studies for Eleven Players.” Rorem recalled: “I learned that the first requisite to becoming a conductor is an inborn lust for absolute monarchy, and that I, alone among musicians, never got the bug. I was terrified. The first rehearsal was a model of how NOT to inspire confidence. I stood before the eleven players in all my virginal glory, and announced: ‘I've never conducted before, so if I give a wrong cue, do try to come in right anyway.'” Fortunately for Rorem, his eleven musicians were accomplished faculty at Buffalo University, and, despite his inexperience, Rorem certainly knew how his new piece should sound. Rorem's Suite incorporated a few bits recycled from music he had written for a successful Broadway hit—Tennessee Williams' “Suddenly Last Summer”—plus a bit from an unsuccessful play entitled “Motel” that never made it past a Boston tryout. Rorem's own tryout as a conductor convinced him to stick to composing, although he proved to be a fine piano accompanist for singers performing his own songs. As for “Eleven Studies for Eleven Players,” it's gone on to become one of Rorem's most-often performed chamber works. Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) — Eleven Studies for Eleven Players (New York Chamber Ensemble; Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, cond.) Albany 175 On This Day Births 1866 - French composer Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie, in Honfleur; 1901 - German composer Werner Egk, in Auchsesheim, near Donauswörth; His original last name was Mayer, and it is said (although denied by the composer) that the he chose the acronym E-G-K because it stood for "ein grosser Komponist" ("a great composer"); 1923 - American composer Peter Mennin, in Erie, Pa.; Deaths 1935 - French composer Paul Dukas, age 69, in Paris; Premieres 1779 - Gluck: opera "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Taurus), at the Paris Opéra; 1890 - Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana," in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi; 1904 - Ravel: "Schéhérazade," in Paris, with vocalist Jane Hatto and Alfred Cortot, conducting; 1919 - Ravel: "Alborado del gracioso" (orchestral version), in Paris at Pasdeloup Concert; 1929 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3, in Paris, by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, with Pierre Monteux conducting; 1933 - Cowell: "Reel," for small orchestra, in New York; 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Alexander Nevsky," in Moscow; 1946 - Martin: "Petite Symphonie Concertante," in Zurich, Paul Sacher conducting; 1960 - Ned Rorem: "11 Studies for 11 Players," for chamber ensemble, at the State University of Buffalo (N.Y.), conducted by the composers; 1990 - Rautavaara: "Vincent," in Helsinki at the Finnish National Opera; 2000 - Michael Torke: "Corner in Manhattan," by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting; 2001 - Christopher Rouse: Clarinet Concerto, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with Larry Combs the soloist; Others 1922 - Music of "The President's Own" reached homes across the nation when the first Marine Band radio program was broadcast; 1969 - Leonard Bernstein's last concert as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, having conducted 939 concerts with the orchestra (831 as its Music Director); Bernstein conducted 36 world premieres with the orchestra; He continued to appear with the Philharmonic as an occasional guest conductor until his death in 1990; 1978 - Philips Electronics of The Netherlands announces a new digital sound reproduction system from flat, silver "Compact Discs." Links and Resources On Rorem NY Times feature on Rorem at 95
durée : 01:00:00 - En pistes, contemporains ! du dimanche 15 mai 2022 - par : Emilie Munera - Ce dimanche, Emilie et Rodolphe vous font découvrir le deuxième album portrait du compositeur Albert Schnelzer. Nous écouterons également Vestards Shimkus, Ned Rorem et Luis Sclavis. - réalisé par : Céline Parfenoff
Synopsis For their February 2013 cover story, the editors of BBC Music Magazine, came up with a list of the 50 most influential people in the history of music. Bach was on it, as you might expect – but so was Shakespeare. Any music lover can see the logic in that, and cite pieces like Mendelssohn's music for “A Midsummer Night's Dream” or Tchaikovsky's Overture-Fantasy entitled “Romeo and Juliet,” or all the great operas based on Shakespeare's plays, ranging from Verdi's “Falstaff” to a recent setting of “The Tempest” by Thomas Adès. And speaking of “The Tempest,” in New York on today's date in 1981, Sharon Robinson premiered a new solo cello suite she commissioned from the American composer Ned Rorem, a work titled “After Reading Shakespeare.” “Yes,” says Rorem, “I was re-reading Shakespeare the month the piece was accomplished… Yet the experience did not so much inspire the music itself as provide a cohesive program upon which the music be might formalized, and thus intellectually grasped by the listener.” Rorem even confessed that some of the titles were added AFTER the fact, “as when parents christen their children.“ After all, as Shakespeare's Juliet might put it, “What's in a name?” Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) — After Reading Shakespeare (Sharon Robinson, cello) Naxos 8.559316 On This Day Births 1835 - Austrian composer and conductor Eduard Strauss, in Vienna; He was the youngest son of Johann Strauss, Sr.; 1864 - Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist Johan Halvorsen, in Drammen; 1901 - American composer Colin McPhee, in Montréal, Canada; 1926 - American composer Ben Johnston, in Macon, Ga.; 1928 - American composer Nicolas Flagello, in New York City; Deaths 1842 - Italian composer Luigi Cherubini, age 81, in Paris; 1918 - French composer Lili Boulanger, age 24, in Mezy; 1942 - Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, age 70, in Larchmont, N.Y.; Premieres 1807 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 (first public performance), in Vienna, at a benefit concert conducted by the composer; 1885 - Franck: symphonic poem "Les Dijinns" (The Genies), in Paris; 1897 - Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 (Gregorian date: Mar. 27); 1908 - Ravel: "Rapsodie espagnole" (Spanish Rhapsody), in Paris; 1911 - Scriabin: Symphony No. 5 ("Prometheus: Poem of Fire"), in Moscow, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky and with the composer performing the solo piano part (Julian date: Mar. 2); 1981 - Stockhausen: opera "Donnerstag, aus Licht" (Thursday, from Light), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala; This is one of a projected cycle of seven operas, each named after a day of the week; 1994 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Chat Moss" (the name of a quagmire in Lancashire) for orchestra, in Liverpool by the orchestra of St. Edward's College, John Moseley conducting; 2000 - Corigliano: "Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan," at Carnegie Hall, by soprano Sylvia McNair and pianist Martin Katz; An orchestrated version of this song-cycle premiered in Minneapolis on October 23, 2003, with soprano Hila Plitmann and the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano; Others 1895 - Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, age 22, makes his operatic debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, singing the lead tenor role in Domenico Morelli's comic opera "L'Amico Francesco." Links and Resources On Ned Rorem An essay on "Shakespeare and Music"
Synopsis “English Horn” is an odd name for an instrument – for starters, it's not English and it's not a brass instrument like the French horn. The English horn is, in fact, a double reed instrument, a lower-voiced cousin of the oboe. The “English” part of its name is probably a corruption of “angle,” since it has a bend to its shape. Until late in the 20th century its primary role was to add a darker tone color to the reed section of the orchestra, and performers who played the English horn had precious few solo concertos written to showcase their dusky-voiced instrument. One performer, Thomas Stacy, decided to do something about that. He's commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for his instrument. One of them – a concerto by the American composer Ned Rorem – Stacy premiered on today's date in 1994 with the New York Philharmonic. Ned Rorem is perhaps best-known as a composer of art songs, but has also composed successful orchestral and chamber works. “My sole aim in writing the Concerto for English horn,” said Rorem, “was to exploit that instrument's special luster and pliability... to make the sound gleam through a wash of brass and silver, catgut and steel.” Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) — Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (Thomas Stacy, eh; Rochester Philharmonic; Michael Palmer, cond.) New World 80489
Synopsis “From whence cometh song?” asks the opening lines of a poem by the American writer Theodore Roethke… That's a question American composer Ned Rorem must have asked himself hundreds of times, while providing just as many answers in the form of hundreds of his original song settings. About his own music, Rorem tends to be a little reluctant to speak. “Nothing a composer can say about his music is more pointed than the music itself,” he writes. On today's date in 1979, Rorem himself was at the piano, accompanying soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson in the premiere performance of a song-cycle he called “Nantucket Songs,” a cycle that began with Rorem's setting of Roethke's poem. “These songs,” wrote Rorem, “merry or complex or strange though their texts may seem, aim away from the head and toward the diaphragm. They are emotional rather than intellectual, and need not be understood to be enjoyed.” Speaking of personal enjoyment, Rorem said at the premiere performance of his “Nantucket Songs ,“ which was recorded live at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. that “Phyllis Bryn-Julson and I, unbeknownst to each other, BOTH had fevers of 102 degrees.” Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) — Nantucket Songs (Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; Ned Rorem, piano) CRI 670
Listen to four specially selected works from David's recordings, discussions about each work and, of course, all things six strings!Guest:David LeisnerAn extraordinarily versatile musician with a multi-faceted career as an electrifying performing artist, a distinguished composer, and a master teacher.“Among the finest guitarists of all time”, according to American Record Guide, David Leisner's career began auspiciously with top prizes in both the 1975 Toronto and 1981 Geneva International Guitar Competitions. His recent seasons have taken him around the US, including his solo debut with the Atlanta Symphony, a major tour of Australia and New Zealand, and debuts and reappearances in China, Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, the U.K., Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Puerto Rico and Mexico. An innovative three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall included the first all-Bach guitar recital in New York's history, and currently he is the Artistic Director of Guitar Plus, a New York series devoted to chamber music with the guitar. He has also performed chamber music at the Santa Fe, Music in the Vineyards, Vail Valley, Crested Butte, Rockport, Cape and Islands, Bargemusic, Bay Chamber, Maui, Portland, Sitka and Angel Fire Festivals, with Zuill Bailey, Tara O'Connor, Eugenia Zukerman, Kurt Ollmann, Lucy Shelton, Ida Kavafian, the St. Lawrence, Enso, Escher and Vermeer Quartets and many others. Celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire, David Leisner has premiered works by many important composers, including David Del Tredici, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Sculthorpe, Osvaldo Golijov, Randall Woolf, Gordon Beeferman and Carlos Carillo, while championing the works of neglected 19th-century guitar composers J.K. Mertz and Wenzeslaus Matiegka.A featured recording artist for Azica Records, Leisner has released 9 highly acclaimed CDs, including the most recent, Arpeggione with cellist Zuill Bailey, and Facts of Life, featuring the premiere recordings of commissioned works by Del Tredici and Golijov. Naxos produced his recording of the Hovhaness Guitar Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Other CDs include the Koch recording of Haydn Quartet in D with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Hovhaness Spirit of Trees for Telarc with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis. And Mel Bay Co. released a solo concert DVD called Classics and Discoveries. Mr. Leisner is also a highly respected composer noted for the emotional and dramatic power of his music. Fanfare magazine described it as “rich in invention and melody, emotionally direct, and beautiful”. South Florida Classical Review called him “an original and arresting compositional voice.” Recent commissioners include the Rob Nathanson for the New Music Festival at UNC Wilmington, Cavatina Duo, baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, Arc Duo, Stones River Chamber Players (TN), Fairfield Orchestra (CT), Red Cedar Chamber Music (IA), and the Twentieth Century Unlimited Series (NM). Recordings of his works are currently available on the Sony Classical, ABC, Dorian, Azica, Cedille, Centaur, Town Hall, Signum, Acoustic Music, Athena and Barking Dog labels. The Cavatina Duo's recording of his complete works for flute and guitar, Acrobats (Cedille) was released to exceptionally strong reviews. His compositions are mostly published by Merion Music/Theodore Presser Co., as well as AMP/G. Schirmer, Doberman-Yppan and Columbia Music.David Leisner has been a member of the guitar faculty at the Manhattan School of Music since 1993, and also taught at the New England Conservatory from 1980-2003. Primarily self-taught as both guitarist and composer, he briefly studied guitar with John Duarte, David Starobin and Angelo Gilardino and composition with Richard Winslow, Virgil Thomson, Charles Turner and David Del Tredici. His book, Playing with Ease: a healthy approach to guitar technique, published by Oxford University Press, has received extraordinary acclaim.Website: www.davidleisner.com
Synopsis One of the finest music schools in the world opened its doors in Philadelphia on today's date in 1924. The Curtis Institute of Music was founded with a $12 million dollar grant from Mary Louise Curtis Bok. For many decades, that initial grant provided full scholarships for all Curtis students. According to Mrs. Bok, “The aim is for quality of work rather than quick, showy results." Distinguished Curtis alumni have included performers like Hilary Hahn, Peter Serkin, and Richard Goode. And here's an impressive statistic: today Curtis alumni occupy nearly 25% of the principal desk positions in the top five American symphony orchestras. Curtis also graduated many famous composers as well, including Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and Ned Rorem. To help celebrate its 75th anniversary in 1999, the Curtis Institute commissioned a new orchestral work from the American composer Jennifer Higdon, who had joined the school's faculty. Her “Blue Cathedral” was premiered by the Curtis Symphony in the spring of 2000. Higdon says her music is like “a story that commemorates living and passing through places of knowledge and of sharing – and of that song called life.” That description seems to fit the Curtis Institute as well. Music Played in Today's Program Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) — Blue Cathedral (Atlanta Symphony; Robert Spano, cond.) Telarc 80596
What is the role of a teacher in higher education? Is it possible to learn both new and old music at the same time effectively? How can we get comfortable with music styles we're not well versed in? Andrew, Chris, Greg, and I discuss these things and more in this week's episode!
The contemporary American composer Ned Rorem has called Beethoven's Ninth Symphony “the first piece of junk in the grand style.” He is in a decided minority. To many, Beethoven's Ninth is arguably the greatest symphony ever written. Not a few music lovers and scholars would claim that even without the Ninth, Beethoven was nonetheless the greatest composer of all time. For example, his Fifth Symphony, featuring the most recognizable musical motif ever penned, is one of the pillars of Western music. But as much as I love Beethoven's music, as one for whom food has always been a consuming passion, I think it's important not to overlook his eating habits. The old adage, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are,” applies to musicians too. Beethoven was not especially interested in food, sometimes skipping. meals altogether when working on a piece. He didn't know much about cooking, though there is one recorded instance of him donning an apron and preparing a meal for some
The contemporary American composer Ned Rorem has called Beethoven's Ninth Symphony “the first piece of junk in the grand style.” He is in a decided minority.
durée : 00:59:48 - En pistes, contemporains ! du dimanche 30 mai 2021 - par : Emilie Munera - A retrouver cette semaine également : trois pièces pour orchestre à cordes de Pēteris Vasks; deux concertos pour percussions de Ned Rorem et Alexis Alrich interprétés par la musicienne Evelyn Glennie; l'intégrale de la musique pour piano de Brian Ferneyhough par lan Pace... - réalisé par : Claire Lagarde
Synopsis On today’s date in 1969, Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein had assumed that post in November of 1957, becoming the first American-born and trained conductor to do so. For sports fans, these were Bernstein’s “stats” as of May 17, 1969: He had conducted 939 concerts, more than anyone else in Philharmonic history. He had given 36 world premieres, 14 U.S. premieres, 15 New York City premieres and led more than 40 works never before performed by the orchestra. At Philharmonic concerts Bernstein conducted Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel, but also Babbitt, Cage, and Ligeti. He led the world premiere performance of the Second Symphony of Charles Ives and included other elder American composers like Carl Ruggles and Wallingford Riegger on Philharmonic programs, as well as works by his contemporaries, Ned Rorem and Lukas Foss, and his own compositions as well. Bernstein would continue to appear with the New York Philharmonic as its Laureate Conductor, and as a popular guest conductor with major orchestras around the world. His final concerts were with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in the summer of 1990. He died in October of that year. Music Played in Today's Program Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990) Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano; Ulster Orchestra; Dmitry Sitkovetsky, cond. Hyperion 67170 On This Day Births 1866 - French composer Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie, in Honfleur; 1901 - German composer Werner Egk, in Auchsesheim, near Donauswörth; His original last name was Mayer, and it is said (although denied by the composer) that the he chose the acronym E-G-K because it stood for "ein grosser Komponist" ("a great composer"); 1923 - American composer Peter Mennin, in Erie, Pa.; Deaths 1935 - French composer Paul Dukas, age 69, in Paris; Premieres 1779 - Gluck: opera "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Taurus), at the Paris Opéra; 1890 - Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana," in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi; 1904 - Ravel: "Schéhérazade," in Paris, with vocalist Jane Hatto and Alfred Cortot, conducting; 1919 - Ravel: "Alborado del gracioso" (orchestral version), in Paris at Pasdeloup Concert; 1929 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3, in Paris, by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, with Pierre Monteux conducting; 1933 - Cowell: "Reel," for small orchestra, in New York; 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Alexander Nevsky," in Moscow; 1946 - Martin: "Petite Symphonie Concertante," in Zurich, Paul Sacher conducting; 1960 - Ned Rorem: "11 Studies for 11 Players," for chamber ensemble, at the State University of Buffalo (N.Y.), conducted by the composers; 1990 - Rautavaara: "Vincent," in Helsinki at the Finnish National Opera; 2000 - Michael Torke: "Corner in Manhattan," by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting; 2001 - Christopher Rouse: Clarinet Concerto, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with Larry Combs the soloist; Others 1922 - Music of "The President's Own" reached homes across the nation when the first Marine Band radio program was broadcast; 1969 - Leonard Bernstein's last concert as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, having conducted 939 concerts with the orchestra (831 as its Music Director); Bernstein conducted 36 world premieres with the orchestra; He continued to appear with the Philharmonic as an occasional guest conductor until his death in 1990; 1978 - Philips Electronics of The Netherlands announces a new digital sound reproduction system from flat, silver "Compact Discs." Links and Resources On Bernstein
Synopsis On today’s date in 1969, Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein had assumed that post in November of 1957, becoming the first American-born and trained conductor to do so. For sports fans, these were Bernstein’s “stats” as of May 17, 1969: He had conducted 939 concerts, more than anyone else in Philharmonic history. He had given 36 world premieres, 14 U.S. premieres, 15 New York City premieres and led more than 40 works never before performed by the orchestra. At Philharmonic concerts Bernstein conducted Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel, but also Babbitt, Cage, and Ligeti. He led the world premiere performance of the Second Symphony of Charles Ives and included other elder American composers like Carl Ruggles and Wallingford Riegger on Philharmonic programs, as well as works by his contemporaries, Ned Rorem and Lukas Foss, and his own compositions as well. Bernstein would continue to appear with the New York Philharmonic as its Laureate Conductor, and as a popular guest conductor with major orchestras around the world. His final concerts were with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in the summer of 1990. He died in October of that year. Music Played in Today's Program Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990) Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano; Ulster Orchestra; Dmitry Sitkovetsky, cond. Hyperion 67170 On This Day Births 1866 - French composer Erik Alfred-Leslie Satie, in Honfleur; 1901 - German composer Werner Egk, in Auchsesheim, near Donauswörth; His original last name was Mayer, and it is said (although denied by the composer) that the he chose the acronym E-G-K because it stood for "ein grosser Komponist" ("a great composer"); 1923 - American composer Peter Mennin, in Erie, Pa.; Deaths 1935 - French composer Paul Dukas, age 69, in Paris; Premieres 1779 - Gluck: opera "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Taurus), at the Paris Opéra; 1890 - Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana," in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi; 1904 - Ravel: "Schéhérazade," in Paris, with vocalist Jane Hatto and Alfred Cortot, conducting; 1919 - Ravel: "Alborado del gracioso" (orchestral version), in Paris at Pasdeloup Concert; 1929 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3, in Paris, by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, with Pierre Monteux conducting; 1933 - Cowell: "Reel," for small orchestra, in New York; 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Alexander Nevsky," in Moscow; 1946 - Martin: "Petite Symphonie Concertante," in Zurich, Paul Sacher conducting; 1960 - Ned Rorem: "11 Studies for 11 Players," for chamber ensemble, at the State University of Buffalo (N.Y.), conducted by the composers; 1990 - Rautavaara: "Vincent," in Helsinki at the Finnish National Opera; 2000 - Michael Torke: "Corner in Manhattan," by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting; 2001 - Christopher Rouse: Clarinet Concerto, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with Larry Combs the soloist; Others 1922 - Music of "The President's Own" reached homes across the nation when the first Marine Band radio program was broadcast; 1969 - Leonard Bernstein's last concert as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, having conducted 939 concerts with the orchestra (831 as its Music Director); Bernstein conducted 36 world premieres with the orchestra; He continued to appear with the Philharmonic as an occasional guest conductor until his death in 1990; 1978 - Philips Electronics of The Netherlands announces a new digital sound reproduction system from flat, silver "Compact Discs." Links and Resources On Bernstein
Synopsis Today’s date marks two anniversaries in the life of American composer, teacher, and organist Leo Sowerby, who lived from 1895 to 1968. Sowerby was born on May 1st in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on his 32nd birthday in 1927, was hired as the permanent organist and choirmaster at St. James’ Church in Chicago, where he remained for the next 35 years. Sowerby wrote hundreds of pieces of church music for organ and chorus, plus chamber and symphonic works, which are only recently receiving proper attention. It’s not that Sowerby was neglected during his lifetime–he won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1946–but many seemed “put off” by both his unabashedly Romantic style and his unprepossessing physical appearance. The younger American composer Ned Rorem, who took theory lessons from Sowerby, puts it this way: “Leo Sowerby was … of my parents’ generation, a bachelor, reddish-complexioned and milky skinned, chain smoker of Fatima cigarettes, unglamorous and non-mysterious, likable with a perpetual worried frown, overweight and wearing rimless glasses, earthy, practical, interested in others even when they were talentless; a stickler for basic training, Sowerby was the first composer I knew and the last thing a composer was supposed to resemble.” Music Played in Today's Program Leo Sowerby (1895 – 1968) Classic Concerto David Mulbury, organ; Fairfield Orchestra; John Welsh, cond. Naxos 8.559028 On This Day Births 1582 - Early Italian opera composer Marco da Gagliano, in Gagliano; 1602 - Baptism of English madrigal composer William Lawes, in Salisbury ; He was the younger brother of the more famous English composer Henry Lawes (1696-1662); 1872 - Swedish violinist and composer Hugo Alfvén in Stockholm; 1895 - American organist and composer Leo Sowerby, in Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1899 - Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, in Sólheimar; Deaths 1904 - Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, age 62, in Prague; 1978 - Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian, age 74, in Moscow; Premieres 1786 - Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro" in Vienna at the Old Burgtheater; 1886 - Franck: "Symphonic Variations" for piano and orchestra, in Paris; 1909 - Rachmaninoff: "The Isle of the Dead," in Moscow, conducted by the composer (Julian date: April 18); 1925 - Piston: Three Pieces for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (his first published work), at the École Normale in Paris, by the Blanquart-Coste-Dherin trio; 1939 - Barber: "The Virgin Martyrs," with students from the Curtis Institute of Music on a CBS Radio broadcast, with the composer conducting; 1971 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio "Truth Has Fallen," at the opening of the Center for the Arts in Midland, Mich.; 1987 - Harrison Birtwistle: "Endless Parade" for trumpet, vibraphone and strings, in Zurich (Switzerland) by the Collegium Musicum conducted by Paul Sacher, with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger; 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: "Blue Cathedral," by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music; 2003 - Lukas Foss: Concertino ("Passacaglia, Bachanalia, Passacaglia") for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting; Others 1761 - Franz Joseph Haydn begins his 30-year tenure as Second-Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy's estate in Eisenstadt; In 1766, Haydn succeeded the much older composer Gregor Joseph Werner as First-Kapellmeister; 1825 - first documented American performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 100 ("Military") at Boylston Hall in Boston, at a benefit concert for Haydn's former pupil, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner (1767-1836); 1837 - American premiere of Rossini's opera "Semiramide" in New Orleans; 1938 - The German Reichsmusikkammer (Imperial Ministry of Music) forbids Aryan music instructors to teach pupils of Jewish extraction. Links and Resources On Sowerby An essay "Leo Sowerby at 100"
Synopsis Today’s date marks two anniversaries in the life of American composer, teacher, and organist Leo Sowerby, who lived from 1895 to 1968. Sowerby was born on May 1st in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on his 32nd birthday in 1927, was hired as the permanent organist and choirmaster at St. James’ Church in Chicago, where he remained for the next 35 years. Sowerby wrote hundreds of pieces of church music for organ and chorus, plus chamber and symphonic works, which are only recently receiving proper attention. It’s not that Sowerby was neglected during his lifetime–he won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1946–but many seemed “put off” by both his unabashedly Romantic style and his unprepossessing physical appearance. The younger American composer Ned Rorem, who took theory lessons from Sowerby, puts it this way: “Leo Sowerby was … of my parents’ generation, a bachelor, reddish-complexioned and milky skinned, chain smoker of Fatima cigarettes, unglamorous and non-mysterious, likable with a perpetual worried frown, overweight and wearing rimless glasses, earthy, practical, interested in others even when they were talentless; a stickler for basic training, Sowerby was the first composer I knew and the last thing a composer was supposed to resemble.” Music Played in Today's Program Leo Sowerby (1895 – 1968) Classic Concerto David Mulbury, organ; Fairfield Orchestra; John Welsh, cond. Naxos 8.559028 On This Day Births 1582 - Early Italian opera composer Marco da Gagliano, in Gagliano; 1602 - Baptism of English madrigal composer William Lawes, in Salisbury ; He was the younger brother of the more famous English composer Henry Lawes (1696-1662); 1872 - Swedish violinist and composer Hugo Alfvén in Stockholm; 1895 - American organist and composer Leo Sowerby, in Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1899 - Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, in Sólheimar; Deaths 1904 - Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, age 62, in Prague; 1978 - Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian, age 74, in Moscow; Premieres 1786 - Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro" in Vienna at the Old Burgtheater; 1886 - Franck: "Symphonic Variations" for piano and orchestra, in Paris; 1909 - Rachmaninoff: "The Isle of the Dead," in Moscow, conducted by the composer (Julian date: April 18); 1925 - Piston: Three Pieces for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (his first published work), at the École Normale in Paris, by the Blanquart-Coste-Dherin trio; 1939 - Barber: "The Virgin Martyrs," with students from the Curtis Institute of Music on a CBS Radio broadcast, with the composer conducting; 1971 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio "Truth Has Fallen," at the opening of the Center for the Arts in Midland, Mich.; 1987 - Harrison Birtwistle: "Endless Parade" for trumpet, vibraphone and strings, in Zurich (Switzerland) by the Collegium Musicum conducted by Paul Sacher, with trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger; 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: "Blue Cathedral," by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music; 2003 - Lukas Foss: Concertino ("Passacaglia, Bachanalia, Passacaglia") for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, by the New York Choral Artists and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting; Others 1761 - Franz Joseph Haydn begins his 30-year tenure as Second-Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy's estate in Eisenstadt; In 1766, Haydn succeeded the much older composer Gregor Joseph Werner as First-Kapellmeister; 1825 - first documented American performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 100 ("Military") at Boylston Hall in Boston, at a benefit concert for Haydn's former pupil, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner (1767-1836); 1837 - American premiere of Rossini's opera "Semiramide" in New Orleans; 1938 - The German Reichsmusikkammer (Imperial Ministry of Music) forbids Aryan music instructors to teach pupils of Jewish extraction. Links and Resources On Sowerby An essay "Leo Sowerby at 100"
It’s a play that both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.” We’re talking about “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bitter-sweet look at life and love and death in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter. It wasn’t until decades after Wilder’s death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an ”Our Town” opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by the poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder’s works. Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today’s date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. The New York Times thought the resulting opera a success, writing “’Our Town’ opens with a hymn, and Mr. Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”
It’s a play that both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.” We’re talking about “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bitter-sweet look at life and love and death in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter. It wasn’t until decades after Wilder’s death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an ”Our Town” opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by the poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder’s works. Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today’s date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. The New York Times thought the resulting opera a success, writing “’Our Town’ opens with a hymn, and Mr. Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”
Raymond Bisha introduces a new album of 21st-century mallet percussion concertos performed by virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under Jean Thorel. The works by Alexis Alrich and Karl Jenkins put the marimba in the solo spotlight, while Ned Rorem’s 7-movement Mallet Concerto — written in 2003 and presented here in its world premiere recording — features Dame Evelyn in dynamic displays on both marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel and xylophone.
Dame Evelyn Glennie talks to Editor Martin Cullingford about her latest recordings of new works for percussion, by composers Alexis Alrich, Sir Karl Jenkins, Ned Rorem and Christian Linberg. The first three are released next week on a new album from Naxos called Concertos for Mallet Instruments, while Lindberg's new work - called Liverpool Lullabies, a concertante work for percussion and trombone - appears on a new album out today from BIS.
Composer Ned Rorem turns 97 today. In this hour from the archives, Rorem and Fishko share a long, winding conversation illustrated with plenty of his music, as well as some by those he admires - and those he doesn't. (Produced in 2002) For a feast of Fishko programs on music and culture, visit Fishko Hours. Fishko Files with Sara Fishko Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann
(S3, EP 5) In this week's episode, I spoke with my old friend Tereza Lee back in July. Tereza is a mother of 3, professional pianist, and a long-time immigration rights activist. Tereza was one of the pioneers of the DREAM movement in the early 2000's when her then-undocumented status inspired US-IL Senator Dick Durbin to sponsor the first DREAM Act proposal in 2001. In this interview, Tereza shared her experiences growing up undocumented, and how her music teacher inspired her to share her story to Senator Durbin. She reminisces back on the struggles of the undocumented movement, but also hopes for this current generation of DACA / undocumented activists. She recently received her doctorate, and talked about her research of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák and his mentorship of Harry Burleigh, one of the earliest African American composers as well as his work with Black and Indigenous music students. We talked about her experiences living in NYC during this Covid-19 era. Hope you get to listen in, and hear her powerful journey! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special thanks to my sponsor, Lawrence and Argyle, a Viet-American owned merchandise line representing immigrant empowerment. Get yourself a pin, hoodie or t-shirt and show off your immigrant pride. Visit them at www.lawrenceandargyle.com or on Instagram @lawrenceandargyle or on their Facebook page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bio -- Tereza Lee is a pianist “whose touch is exceptionally clear” (—Chicago Sun-Times), who is also a prominent advocate for immigrant rights. She began her performing career at the age of 11, as the pianist at her family's church. At 16, she became the first student from an inner-city school to win first prize in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition, and performed with the C.S.O. She has gone on to perform as a soloist at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Barge Music, Lincoln Center and the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. She has premiered works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Augusta Read Thomas, Ned Rorem, Josephine Lee, and Kenneth Frazelle. Tereza's role in helping to inspire Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois to introduce the DREAM Act has been documented in The New York Times, PBS, NPR, USA Today, The Economist, NY1, and WNYC. She has been engaged in activism especially on immigration issues, supporting the New York State Liberty Act, the New York State DREAM Act, Greenlight NY and Driver's License For All Campaigns. Tereza recently completed her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support
Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant and author most famous for her Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, uses a methodical approach to help people clean and organize their spaces. She is most known for asking people if an item “sparks joy” in their life.Martha Graham was a choreographer and American modern dancer whose technique is still taught around the world.Soprano Adele Addison was an early voice teacher for Trevigne at the Manhattan School of Music.Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Ned Rorem occasionally observed Trevigne’s lessons with Adele Addison.Tenor George Shirley and mezzo-soprano Hilda Harris were other early mentors for Trevigne.Choral conductor Robert Shaw is notable for bringing black vocalists, like soprano Adele Addison and tenor Seth McCoy, to the spotlight from the 1940s through the 1970s.During her senior year of high school, Trevigne sang the soprano solo in one of Gabriel Fauré’s most notable works Requiem.James Gandre, the former Dean of Admissions at the Manhattan School of Music, is now the President of the School.Early in her career, Trevigne sang under notable American conductor Julius Rudel.Adele Addison gave Trevigne original manuscripts of the French composer, conductor, and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger.George Szell, the former Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra once famously noted: “The Cleveland Orchestra plays seven concerts a week, and admits the public to the final two. We do some of our best playing in rehearsals.”Trevigne has worked closely with contemporary American composer Jake Heggie. She starred as Pip in Heggie’s operatic rendition of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick.A sitzprobe (German for “seated rehearsal”) is an opera or musical theatre rehearsal in which the vocalists sing with the orchestra—usually for the first time.concert:nova is a contemporary music ensemble based in Cincinnati, Ohio.Trevigne will perform the role of Patience in Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere production of Castor and Patience in the summer of 2021.Trevigne frequently watches the English television dramas Grantchester and Father Brown.Trevigne finds the following mobile applications useful: Gamechanger (for keeping tabs on her son’s baseball games), Beachbody (for exercising), and Stash (for investing).Trevigne enjoys eating at Conscious Kitchen in Cincinnati because they accommodate her alkaline vegan diet—a diet which does not allow any animal products, processed foods, coffee, and most grains.Outside of classical music, Trevigne listens to hip-hop (she mentions the artist Drake) and country music.
Nicola Campograndedirettore artistico"MITO Settembre Musica"http://www.mitosettembremusica.it/itFra sacro e profano, il tema della quattordicesima edizione declinato in oltre 80 concerti nelle sale torinesi e milanesiUn festival “tutto italiano” che si apre con l'Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi diretta da Daniele Rustioni, insieme alla violinista Francesca Dego, e si chiude con l'Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino diretta da Sesto Quatrini, con il pianista Giuseppe AlbaneseTra gli altri ospiti, i direttori d'orchestra Ottavio Dantone, Michele Mariotti e Alessandro Cadario;i violoncellisti Mario Brunello, Enrico Dindo e Giovanni Sollima;i pianisti Andrea Lucchesini, Benedetto Lupo, Emanuele Arciuli, Filippo Gamba, Davide Cabassi, Filippo Gorini, Bruno Canino e Antonio Ballista5 prime esecuzioni assolute, tra cui una nuova commissione del festivalPer la prima volta Radio3 trasmette tutti i concerti serali in diretta o differitaTorino – Milano, dal 4 al 19 settembre «Ci eravamo abituati a salutare il ritorno di MITO SettembreMusica come segno della ripresa delle attività musicali di Torino e Milano al termine dell'estate – dicono i Sindaci di Torino e Milano Chiara Appendino e Giuseppe Sala – . Un modo tutto particolare per riempire di suoni e di idee la vita delle due città, che da tempo condividono quest'avventura. Nel 2020 che stiamo vivendo, la ripresa di MITO prende un significato ancora più forte: fare di nuovo musica per tornare a vivere, superando le difficoltà. MITO ha scelto di resistere e di esistere, trasformando i vincoli in sfide, sapendo di essere un festival fortemente simbolico per la qualità della proposta artistica e per la sua storia popolare, seguito e amato dagli abitanti e dai frequentatori delle due città, oltre che parte dell'immagine internazionale di Torino e di Milano».S'intitola “Spiriti” la quattordicesima edizione del Festival MITO SettembreMusica, che si svolgerà a Torino e a Milano dal 4 al 19 settembre 2020 in una versione rimodulata e ripensata “in corsa” a seguito delle nuove regole dettate dalla pandemia, che conserva, però, la sua fisionomia e l'identità ormai consolidata. Gli oltre 80 concerti eseguiti nelle due città dureranno un'ora, si terranno al chiuso senza intervallo nel pieno rispetto delle misure di sicurezza, e avranno tra le sedi di riferimento il Teatro Regio e il Conservatorio a Torino e il Teatro Dal Verme a Milano. Nel capoluogo piemontese i principali concerti serali saranno replicati e proposti sia alle 20.00 sia alle 22.30, per consentire un più ampio accesso di pubblico; mentre in quello lombardo, dove la possibilità di afflusso del pubblico è maggiore in seguito all'ordinanza della Regione, manterranno l'orario unico delle 21.00. Gli appuntamenti pomeridiani si terranno alle 16.00 a Torino e alle 16.30 a Milano, mentre i concerti serali nel territorio metropolitano inizieranno alle 21 in entrambe le città. I prezzi dei biglietti quest'anno saranno ancora più contenuti e accessibili: quelli per i concerti serali costano 10 euro (ma chi è nato dal 2006 in poi paga solo 5 euro), quelli per i concerti pomeridiani e per i bambini 5 euro, mentre quelli per i concerti serali diffusi nel territorio metropolitano 3 euro.Gli appuntamenti presenteranno programmi originali costruiti appositamente attorno al nuovo tema: uno sforzo creativo effettuato anche sulla base della quantità di musicisti che possono esibirsi insieme sul palcoscenico rispettando i protocolli sanitari. Saranno programmi ricchi di musica sacra e di pagine riferibili a una dimensione spirituale dell'esistere. Tra le ulteriori novità principali di questa edizione, la presenza di interpreti tutti italiani, con un occhio di riguardo per le forze che sono espressione dei territori piemontese e lombardo, che permetterà di ascoltare le nostre eccellenze nazionali. Non mancheranno, poi, le brevi introduzioni ai concerti, ormai cifra stilistica del festival, curate da Stefano Catucci e Carlo Pavese a Torino e da Enrico Correggia, Luigi Marzola e Gaia Varon a Milano.«Sono diversi i territori entro i quali la musica ci mette in relazione con lo spirito – dice il Direttore artistico Nicola Campogrande – ed è a questi che MITO quest'anno si dedica, declinando un tema, scelto molto prima dello scoppio della pandemia, che è diventato, in modo drammatico, ancora più attuale. Certo, sarà un'edizione speciale del festival, e per la prima volta, eccezionalmente, non ospiteremo artisti stranieri: i vincoli negli spostamenti internazionali, durante i mesi di costruzione del cartellone, si sono fatti sentire; nel contempo, l'idea di dar vita a un MITO tutto italiano, in modo straordinario, ci ha consentito di valorizzare ancora di più i talenti del Paese e delle nostre due città, colpiti con la durezza che conosciamo. Date le limitazioni di organico imposte, il suono che avranno i concerti sarà nuovo, inedito, forse bizzarro, e l'energia degli interpreti coinvolti si diffonderà in modo speciale. A loro ci affideremo, perché tengano viva la fiammella e ci preparino al ritorno delle grandi formazioni, delle orchestre, dei cori che cantano gomito a gomito. Sarà un'edizione che permetterà al pubblico di accorgersi di quanto la musica ci unisce: seduti davanti a un pianista o a un'orchestra da camera, impegnati nell'ascolto di musica del passato o di brani appena composti, i cento centimetri che ci separeranno dalle teste dei nostri vicini diventeranno poca cosa. E, una volta di più, potremo specchiare tutti insieme le nostre emozioni in Mozart o in Čajkovskij, in Schumann o in Stravinskij, e guardare, con ottimismo, al futuro».«Il festival, possiamo dirlo con piacere e orgoglio – dice la Presidente Anna Gastel – va in scena, pur con tutte le prescrizioni e attenzioni dovute, e non si rinuncerà ai concerti nei quartieri e nei teatri decentrati né all'attenzione nei confronti dei più piccoli, con eventi a loro dedicati. Il costo dei biglietti, ulteriormente ridotto, è un altro segno dell'attenzione al delicato periodo economico e all'impegno di far partecipare proprio tutti a questo momento di rinascita spirituale».La serata d'apertura, venerdì 4 settembre al Teatro Regio di Torino e sabato 5 settembre al Teatro Dal Verme di Milano, è affidata all' Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi guidata da Daniele Rustioni, con la violinista Francesca Dego. Il concerto, intitolato “Futuro”, introduce il tema del festival nella chiave della dimensione spirituale che rivive nella memoria degli affetti con Souvenir d'un lieu cher op. 42 di Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij, proposto nella trascrizione per orchestra d'archi di Alexandru Lascae, nella serenità dipinta da Antonín Dvořák nella Serenata in mi maggiore per archi op. 22 e nei pellegrini che guardano al futuro di Pilgrims per orchestra d'archi di Ned Rorem, decano dei compositori statunitensi, in prima esecuzione italiana.MITO continua il suo impegno in favore della musica nuova, presentando cinque prime esecuzioni assolute. Tre di queste saranno composizioni originali: Spiriti sospesi, teatro spiritoso su sei corde per chitarra di Maurizio Pisati, Song da Acqua profonda per violoncello di Giovanni Sollima, che ne sarà anche l'interprete, e Concerto grosso nello spirito di Corelli di Federico Maria Sardelli, che lo eseguirà con il suo ensemble. Due di queste proseguono invece la grande storia della trascrizione: si tratta delle musiche di Jean-Philippe Rameau elaborate su commissione di MITO per clavicembalo, flauti e percussioni dal compositore e clavicembalista Ruggero Laganà (presente anche fra gli interpreti) per il nuovo spettacolo in prima nazionale intitolato “TOCCARE, the White Dance”, creato dalla coreografa Cristina Kristal Rizzo e co-prodotto con TorinoDanza e MilanoOltre, e della versione per pianoforte e orchestra d'archi di un capolavoro amatissimo di Fryderyk Chopin, la Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22 précédée d'un Andante spianato, realizzata da Federico Gon.Per questioni di sicurezza, MITO rinuncerà per quest'anno alla consueta parata di orchestre di grande dimensione. Per le stesse ragioni, il festival 2020 non contemplerà MITO Open Singing, che aveva avuto come guida il Coro Giovanile Italiano, comunque presente in questa nuova edizione con il concerto intitolato “Rinascere”. Altre sette formazioni vocali e diversi cantanti solisti contribuiranno a non far sentire la mancanza della “voce”.Tra le compagini strumentali e corali – presenti nelle configurazioni più diverse – figurano anzitutto quelli delle due città e delle due regioni: Torino e il Piemonte contribuiscono con l'Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, l'Orchestra del Teatro Regio, l'Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, l'Academia Montis Regalis, il Fiarì Ensemble, l'Orchestra dell'Accademia del Santo Spirito, l'Accademia dei Solinghi, il Consort Maghini, i Piccoli Cantori di Torino, gli ensembles dei solisti dell'OSN Rai, del Regio e della Filarmonica, il Trio Debussy; da Milano e dalla Lombardia sono espressi invece l'Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi, l'Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali, laBarocca, l'Orchestra dell'Università degli Studi di Milano, il Giardino Armonico di Giovanni Antonini, l'orchestra bergamasca Atalanta Fugiens, il Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri di Pavia, e i gruppi da camera della Verdi e dei Pomeriggi Musicali, segno concreto della collaborazione fra MITO e le istituzioni locali, fra le quali l'Associazione De Sono di Torino, rappresentata da alcuni dei suoi giovani strumentisti. Aggiungono interesse e garanzia di qualità altri complessi italiani: l'Odhecaton Ensemble, un gruppo poliedrico come il Brù di Krishna Nagaraja, il Modo Antiquo di Federico Maria Sardelli, il Venice Baroque Consort, il romano Libera Vox.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/
On today's date in 1998 at King's Chapel in Boston, a new work by the American composer Daniel Pinkham received its premiere performance. The work was titled "Three Latin Motets" for baritone and organ, and Pinkham intended it as a birthday offering to his fellow composer and colleague Ned Rorem. And so the work's dedication read, "For Ned Rorem and a half century of friendship." But the premiere occurred on the 75th anniversary of Pinkham's birth, as a surprise for the composer at a concert in HIS honor. Organist James David Christie and baritone Sanford Sylvan had sneakily persuaded Pinkham to write the motets for Rorem, who was born in the same year as Pinkham, namely 1923, but intended all along to premiere the music as a surprise at a 75th birthday concert in Pinkham's honor. Pinkham was especially noted for this church music, and once quipped, "I just like to hear my pieces more than once, and when you write music for the church you have a better chance at that… I [tell people] am available for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs." Pinkham died in 2006, and Christie and Sylvan performed his "Three Latin Motets" once again in January of 2007—this time at Pinkham's memorial service.
On today's date in 1998 at King's Chapel in Boston, a new work by the American composer Daniel Pinkham received its premiere performance. The work was titled "Three Latin Motets" for baritone and organ, and Pinkham intended it as a birthday offering to his fellow composer and colleague Ned Rorem. And so the work's dedication read, "For Ned Rorem and a half century of friendship." But the premiere occurred on the 75th anniversary of Pinkham's birth, as a surprise for the composer at a concert in HIS honor. Organist James David Christie and baritone Sanford Sylvan had sneakily persuaded Pinkham to write the motets for Rorem, who was born in the same year as Pinkham, namely 1923, but intended all along to premiere the music as a surprise at a 75th birthday concert in Pinkham's honor. Pinkham was especially noted for this church music, and once quipped, "I just like to hear my pieces more than once, and when you write music for the church you have a better chance at that… I [tell people] am available for weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs." Pinkham died in 2006, and Christie and Sylvan performed his "Three Latin Motets" once again in January of 2007—this time at Pinkham's memorial service.
From Erie Philharmonic Second Violinist Lou Nicolia In 2007, Keita Fukushima, violin, and myself formed a duo called Strada. We had the good fortune, through Keita's connections, to get a concert at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City. We came up with an eclectic program of violin duos with some special guests. At the time I had a friend who worked for composer Ned Rorem and I asked him if he would write a lullaby for our duo. He agreed since he had never written one before! Thankfully, I was able to get funds from several generous donors within the Erie community. We also commissioned Iranian-American composer Reza Vali who wrote a beautiful piece for violin and struck glasses. We also spent a week in Japan performing this show - I was very grateful to be involved in this project! The polka Old Country Oberek was accordionist Joe Matzcak's idea. I arranged a twin fiddle part and we recorded it at Peppermint Studio in Youngstown, Ohio for the album Diamond Anniversary Edition by the Penn-Ohio Polka Pals. You can listen to both of these pieces by click below! Discover our 2020-21 season From Home series
Pianist Jerome Lowenthal's active solo and teaching career has shaped the pianistic landscape of today! It is such a pleasure to welcome this legendary musician to the show! Through his incredible story, Jerome talks to us about how the varied sources of influence he was exposed to as a young musician lead him to search within himself and find his own artistic voice, how he helps students do the same today, and he gives out wonderful wisdom and advice for young musicians. There's so much to learn and so much inspiration to be found through his story and I hope you love this conversation with Jerome Lowenthal! NEW ON THE WEBSITE: A Resources page! You can find my favorite websites, cds, as well as the other podcasts I like to listen to and the amazing books recommended by my podcast guests! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com/resources! Sign up for my newsletter to get your free guide to a super productive practice using the metronome! This guide is the perfect entry point to help you bring more mindfulness and efficiency into your practice and it's filled with tips and tricks on how to use that wonderful tool to take your practicing and your playing to new heights! TURN THE METRONOME ON AND START PRACTICING BETTER AND LEARNING FASTER RIGHT NOW! GET YOUR FREE METRONOME GUIDE TODAY! Click HERE or visit www.mindoverfinger.com! MORE ABOUT JEROME: Websites: https://www.juilliard.edu/music/faculty/lowenthal-jerome https://www.musicacademy.org/profile/jerome-lowenthal/ YouTube videos: CLICK HERE Jerome Lowenthal is an American classical pianist. He is chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York. Additionally, Lowenthal is on the faculty at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Lowenthal was born in Philadelphia. He made his debut as a solo pianist at the age of 13 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Returning to the United States from Jerusalem in 1963, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic, playing Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2. Since then, he has performed with famous conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yuri Temirkanov, Leonard Slatkin, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Pierre Monteux, Josef Krips,[3] and Leopold Stokowski. He has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman, piano duos with Ronit Amir, and with Ursula Oppens,[4] as well as quintets with the Lark Quartet, Avalon Quartet, and Shanghai Quartet. His studies included lessons with Olga Samaroff in Philadelphia, William Kapell and Eduard Steuermann at the Juilliard School in New York, and Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in Paris, France. A prizewinner at Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels (1960) and Busoni Competition, he is a frequent judge in international piano competitions. He is recognized as a specialist of Franz Liszt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Béla Bartók, and more generally of virtuoso and late romantic music. His recordings include piano concertos by Liszt with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the complete Tchaikovsky concerto cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has an extensive repertoire, including 59 performed piano concerti. He is the dedicatee of many new works, such as Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto (No. 3) in Six Movements, and has unearthed some rare romantic piano works, such as the Liszt Third Piano Concerto edited by his former student Jay Rosenblatt. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes! I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice. Join the Mind Over Finger Tribe here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfingertribe/ THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme! Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly! MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/
durée : 01:58:50 - Portraits de famille - par : Philippe Cassard - Inoubliable interprète de Brahms et Beethoven, Julius Katchen révèle sa personnalité fonceuse et un jeu puissant dans Ravel, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ned Rorem...[Rediffusion] - réalisé par : Pierre Willer
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13C) Bon Voyage Compline Service ORISON: Bring us, O Lord God – Peter R. Hallock (1924-2014) PSALMS 119:17-24 – Ned Rorem (b. 1923) HYMN: Ye that know the Lord is gracious (Tune: Hyfrydol) – Rowland Huw Prichard (1811-1887) NUNC DIMITTIS from Magdalen Service – Grayston Ives (b. 1948) ANTHEM: Their sound is gone out – Arthur Wills (b. […]
con Luca Damiani
En La señorita Julia, Strindberg presenta un perfil negativo sobre el mundo femenino, y especialmente sobre la denominada nueva mujer, ambiciosa y literaria, que se ve reflejada en el texto en la crudeza con que los hechos se presentan y en la intensidad con que el autor desciende al fondo de las almas, extrayendo los impulsos del instinto y dejando a un lado cualquier justificación de origen pseudocientífico sobre las leyes hereditarias y la educación. Esta pieza fue llevada al cine en 1951 por el director sueco Alf Sjöberg y sobre ella se escribió un ballet, coreografiado por la sueca Birgit Cullberg en 1950, además de una ópera creada por el compositor norteamericano Ned Rorem en 1965.
In honor of American composer Ned Rorem's upcoming 94th birthday on October 23, spend seven minutes with the very opinionated Mr. R. This piece was originally made for Studio 360 as part of a Fishko Files-curated series on living composers' connections to music history. (Produced in 2006) To explore further, listen to "An Hour with Ned Rorem" featuring Rorem and Fishko in conversation in 2002. Fishko Files with Sara Fishko Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann
Composer Ned Rorem turned 93 on October 23rd. In honor of Rorem and his amazing career, composer Daron Hagen, Rorem’s friend and former student, teaches a crash course in the music and life of Ned Rorem. Hear how his music has evolved over time, and about the life events that have precipitated creative growth and change. The amount of ground-breaking that Rorem has done in his life, both socially and creatively, is frankly more than one podcast can contain. But we give it our best shot anyway. Music in this episode (all by Ned Rorem): “Early in the Morning” “Air Music” “String Symphony” Audio production by Todd “Todd-ry” Hulslander with eyebrow-raising from Dacia Clay and help from Mark DiClaudio. PS, If you enjoyed this episode with Daron Hagen, you can also hear him in an episode of Classical Classroom about Benjamin Britten and his opera Billy Budd!
After Berklee and The Boston Conservatory begun discussing plans to merge last year, it quickly became clear that synergies between the two institutions had been building for many years. Students, faculty, and alumni have often collaborated, and several faculty members can say that they have worked for both Berklee and the Conservatory. One such example is Jonathan Bailey Holland, who is currently a professor of composition at both institutions. Holland studied composition with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music and later received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. His works have been commissioned and performed by the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minnesota, National, Philadelphia, San Antonio, St. Louis, and South Bend symphony orchestras, as well as several other ensembles. He has received honors from the Fromm Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, and more. He has served as composer-in-residence for several major orchestras and ensembles. He is also a founding faculty member in the low-residency MFA in Music Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Recent highlights include the premiere of Equality for narrator and orchestra for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, using the poetry of Maya Angelou. Listen below to this week's featured podcast selection, Dark Flowers, a two-movement piece written by Holland for the CD, Four Prayers, featuring Christopher Chaffee on alto and bass flutes, and Josh Nemith on piano. Learn about the Berklee-Boston Conservatory merger: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-boston-conservatory
Works for voice and piano by Marc Blitzstein and Ned Rorem performed by New York Festival of Song on November 3, 2013. Work for string orchestra by Schoenberg performed by A Far Cry on March 6, 2011.Blitzstein: Emily, from The Airborne SymphonyRorem: A specimen case, from War ScenesSchoenberg: Verklarte Nacht, Op. 4The 20th century was an eclectic one for classical music. Today’s podcast traces just a few of the many strands.The piece written first is actually the final one we’ll hear: Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht. Many of us closely associate Schoenberg with serialism, the formalized system of atonal music composition that he developed with his protégés Berg and Webern. But Verklaerte Nacht embraces dissonance and extended harmonies, and it is luscious and rich music, overtly late-Romantic in language, inspired by a poem about the profound depths of love.The podcast begins with a piece that comes several decades later, by the American composer Marc Blitzstein. A Philadelphia native, Blitzstein studied locally at the Curtis Institute of Music and then set off for Europe, where he worked briefly with Schoenberg himself. The brief and touching song depicts a young soldier’s note home to his sweetheart, Emily.After the Blitzstein, we have a piece from the next generation of 20th century American composers: Ned Rorem, who just celebrated his 90th birthday in 2013. Rorem also takes up war as his subject in this, a movement from his cycle War Scenes, based on Whitman poems.
Visiting director Stephen Medcalf talks about Our Town, a chamber opera by Ned Rorem based on the play by Thornton Wilder. The School gives the European premiere of the work 29 May - 6 June, and Stephen tells us how the opera reflects the novel, the challenges and delights of working with Rorem's music, and why he enjoys coming back to Guildhall to work with the Opera course. First published 17 May 2012.
he Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill preaches a sermon entitled "Christmas Presence". Soloist Margot Rood sings "A Christmas Carol" by Ned Rorem and "Rejoice greatly (from Messiah)" by G.F. Handel along with service music and hymns
he Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill preaches a sermon entitled "Christmas Presence". Soloist Margot Rood sings "A Christmas Carol" by Ned Rorem and "Rejoice greatly (from Messiah)" by G.F. Handel along with service music and hymns
Professor Carol considers the question "What is Music of the American Spirit?" by considering themes across two centuries of American choral repertoire. She discusses the history, customs, and geography of America that inspire our diverse choral music, from Colonial times to the present, emphasizing texts of John Stirling Walker and Eric Johns, tunebooks and hymnals, liturgy, folk song, and spirituals. Works Discussed: Leonard Bernstein: Mass; Aaron Copland: The Tender Land; Randall Thompson: "Alleluia"; choral works by David Conte, Hubert Bird, Ned Rorem, William Billings, and Stephen Paulus.
In this inaugural episode, composer Daron Hagen chats with filmmaker H. Paul Moon at the Wintergreen Music Festival in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Daron has just premiered his feature-length score The Passion of Jekyll & Hyde for chamber orchestra (watch the complete film fused with his original music in concert at zenviolence.com/jekyll). He also recently released his memoir entitled Duet With the Past, and in this hour of conversation, we talk about that book, his insights as a composer, and his memories of peers like Gian Carlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, David Diamond, Leonard Bernstein, and Samuel Barber.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/capricorn/donations