Podcasts about Seiji Ozawa

Asians and Asian Americans are numerous within the classical music industry, but their identities are often politicized and racialized in this Eurocentric musical genre. For the third episode of Obbligato on APEX Express, Isabel Li discusses this intersection with Mari Yoshihara, Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Professor at the Center for Global Education at the University of Tokyo, Japan; author of many books, including Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music (2007) and Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro (2019). Tonight's episode features music by Chinese American composer Zhou Tian. To learn more about Mari and her work, please visit her website: https://www.mariyoshihara.com/index.html  Musicians from a Different Shore: https://tupress.temple.edu/books/musicians-from-a-different-shore-2 Dearest Lenny: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dearest-lenny-9780190465780?cc=jp&lang=en&  Transcript  Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.    00:00:53 Isabel Li  Good evening. You're listening to KPFA 94.1 FM. My name is Isabel Li and I'm delighted to be hosting a new edition of Obbligato on Apex Express, which is a semimonthly segment specifically about AAPI identities in classical music. Tonight's guest is someone I have been incredibly excited to speak to because her writings have actually very much informed my studies and research. In fact, her books are exactly about the subject matter of Obbligato. I am honored to be speaking to Mario Yoshihara, Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Professor at the Center for Global Education at the University of Tokyo, Japan; author of many books, including Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music, published in 2007, and Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, which was published in 2019. Welcome to Obbligato on Apex Express. Mari, how are you doing?  00:01:55 Mari Yoshihara  I'm doing fine. Thank you for having me.  00:01:58 Isabel Li  Of course, my first question for you is how do you identify and what communities are you a part of?  00:02:06 Mari Yoshihara  Oh well, that's actually a little bit complicated I am. I am a Japanese woman who have spent a little bit over well, maybe not more than a little more than half of my life in the United States. Born in New York but raised in Tokyo, educated mostly in Japan, but also earned my graduate degrees in the United States and most of my academic career has been in Hawaii, so I've been in American academia for almost 30 years now, but I also have a dual appointment with the University of Tokyo in Japan. So I split my time between Japan and Hawaii now.  00:02:54 Isabel Li  Can you tell us a little bit about your work and your books? I had a chance to read Musicians from a Different Shore, but how would you summarize your research to someone who might not have read your book?  00:03:04 Mari Yoshihara  So I am a scholar of American studies, which is an interdisciplinary field that has anything to do with America broadly defined. And within that, my area of expertise is about, well, I would say I'm a scholar of US cultural history. US Asian relations, mostly US, East Asian relations, especially in the cultural dimension, cultural studies, gender studies, Asian American studies, etc. And so I have written a number of books, both in English and Japanese, but the one that you're referring to, Musicians from a Different Shore, is a book that I did research for more than 20 years ago and was published in 2007. It's a study of Asians and Asian Americans and classical music. So it was partly historical in that I examined the ways. which Western music, so-called western classical music, was introduced to East Asia and how also East Asians became have become so successful and prominent in this field that is generally considered a white European elite art form, so it was partly historical, but then the rest of the book was based on my ethnographic field work and interviews among Asians and Asian Americans in classical music looking at how well who these people are in the first place and then also how musicians, Asian and Asian musicians themselves, understand the relationship between their racial and cultural identity on the one hand, and their practice of Western classical music on the other, so that was my study.   And then I also wrote another book called Dearest Lenny. It's about—the subtitle is Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro. It's about Leonard Bernstein's relationship with two very special individuals in Japan. And through that story, I interweave an account of various things. For one thing, how Leonard Bernstein became a world maestro and also the relationship between politics and arts, gender, sexuality, art and commerce, etcetera, etcetera. So that was my most recent book published in English and then, I'm sure we'll talk more about this, but I'm currently doing a follow up research on the on Musicians from a Different Shore, taking into account all the changes that have been taking place in the classical music industry in the United States in the past, I would say five years or so especially so that's my that's the abbreviated version of my research.  00:05:55 Isabel Li  That's really cool, and I also want to ask you about these changes, if you can talk a little bit about the classical music world. I feel like classical music is one of those genres that seems to be unchanging on the outside. But as a scholar of classical music, what types of changes have you observed that has influenced how AAPI identities play into this world?  00:06:18 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah, I think especially in the last, I would say, yeah, 5 to 10 years, especially in the last five years, classical music industry in the United, I mean I say specifically in the United States because I don't see the similar kind of changes taking place in Japan where I'm currently located. And I also don't really know the situation in Europe. But the field of classical music in the US is changing. I think most significantly because of movements like the Black Lives Matter movement and also with the onset of COVID and the rise of anti Asian hate, there's been a lot more heightened awareness about how issues of race and also class shapes classical music. So there's a lot more vibrant conversations and debates about these topics in the industry and also in terms of AAPI community, are the biggest changes, the biggest change I'm seeing is that Asian and Asian American musicians themselves are being a lot more vocal and active in issues of race and racism in the field and there I've encountered many Asian and Asian American musicians who have, for instance, you know organized events or organizations, or taken up various forms of advocacy and activism on these issues. So compared to, say, 20 years ago, 20, 25 years ago, when I was doing the original research, I see a lot more kind of, you know, explicit awareness and awareness and articulation of these issues by Asian and Asian American musicians themselves.  00:08:12 Isabel Li  That's really interesting. Just because classical music is also one of those genres, that doesn't seem like a genre that most people explicitly associate with politics or activism. What are some examples of these, like activist movements that you've observed within the Asian American community in classical music?  00:08:32 Mari Yoshihara  So for instance, some Asian and Asian American musicians are are becoming a lot more vocal about the actual like racism or sexism that they have themselves experienced, or that they witness in the industry, like in in schools, conservatories, orchestras, opera companies, etc. Either through the media or you know their own writing, and also like speaking up within the organizations that they work in. So that's one. There are other kinds of advocacy and activism in that they demand more diverse repertoire, and I think the repertoire is in terms of the industry industry changes. That's the area that's changing the most, the the kind of repertoire that many orchestras for instance perform have become a lot more– I mean overall it's still very white, European centered– but in terms of the actual numbers of pieces that are performed, works by living, composers and composers of color, women composers, etcetera. That is significantly increased in the last 10 years and that is, you know significantly to do with the advocacy and activism on the part of, you know, artists of color.  So yeah, so things like that and then, you know, many Asian, Asian American artists are doing their own programming, for instance, like event organizing programming. So yeah, those are the areas that I see changes. I see things happening that I didn't see 25 years ago.  00:10:20 Isabel Li  Definitely. I remember reading your book, and your book has been published since 2007, so a lot of changes have happened since then. But in general, when you did your research at first, what how would you summarize the dynamic of Asian identities, Asian American identities in this very Eurocentric field, it's a juxtaposition of two different cultures and identities that a lot of people also observe in orchestras. There's a large population of Asian and Asian American musicians, conductors just in general. It's a very large population, but yet this identity is still not quite represented in media. It's not quite seen, so talk to us a bit about this juxtaposition and how you observe these dynamics in your research.  00:11:10 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So. The thing is, Asians and Asian Americans are indeed numerically overrepresented in classical music, in the sense that compared to the general public, the the the proportion of Asians and Asian Americans in the overall US population, the number of Asian and Asian Americans in classical music indexed by things like the student body at major conservatories or membership roster of US orchestras, etcetera, Asians and Asian Americans percentage is higher than the general population, right. So in terms of the numbers, Asians and Asian Americans are, quote unquote overrepresented. But those numbers are not reflected in the actual like voice, power and influence that they have in the industry.   So that was my finding back 2025 years ago and I think that's still true today. Also, the thing about Asian, Asian American musicians is that it's a racialized category. They are seeing and treated as Asian. It's this racial category. But their identities and experiences as Asians is not at all uniform, right?   Some of these Asian musicians are Asian Americans, like multi generational Asian Americans whose parents or grandparents or great grandparents etcetera have come to the United States and they themselves are U.S. citizens. So that's one group.   Many Asian musicians working in the United States are people who were born and raised in Asia, places like China or South Korea, Japan, etcetera, and came to the United States as international students to study music, often at the college level, college conservatory level, so obviously these people have very different sense of identity and experience as Asians compared to say, you know 3rd, 4th generation Chinese Americans or 1.5 Korean Americans.   There are other people who live in the United States because they were very talented, very young musicians, and the whole whole family immigrated to the United States specifically for their music education. So Midori, the famous violinist, Midori is a case, example of this, but there are also a number of other, especially among Koreans and Chinese. There are families, the whole family immigrated to the United States when the child was a very promising musician at age 7 or something. So that's one group. They too have a different sense of identity and experience of Asians than the two former groups that I that I talked about.   There are other people who also came to the United States because not because of the music education, but because of their parents' profession, for instance. And they have transnational kind of family ties and you know, they move, they go back and forth between US and Asia, for instance. And then there are also mixed roots families where one parent is Asian and the other is non Asian.   And then there are also Asians who were born and raised in Europe for other parts of the globe and then came to the United States, for either personal or professional reasons.   So in other words, they're all Asians in terms of their racial identity. But what that means is really quite diverse and their experience as Asian and Asian American musicians is also quite diverse. So it's not as if you know, just because they're Asian, they share some kind of experience and identities around which they coalesce. So that's, you know, that was true 20, 25 years ago. And I think that's still true today.  More and more Asian musicians are coming to the United States to study, study or work in classical music, but especially because of this, like new influence, this Asian category is becoming even more diverse. However, because of the COVID, you know the rise of Anti Asian hate during the COVID pandemic, I think that heightened the awareness of, you know, these different kinds of Asians, the heightened awareness that they are Asians. First and foremost, you know, in, in that in the sense of being racialized in the United States. So I have talked with a number of musicians, Asians and Asian American musicians, who did not really, hadn't thought about their Asianness before. It wasn't at the forefront of their identity before, but during this rise of anti Asian hate it they became they basically became more politicized. You know, they had quite a politicized language and awareness to think about race and racism especially against Asians and Asian Americans.  00:16:31 Isabel Li  Yeah, that's a great point. It is a such a diverse group and there are so many different identities, even within just the Asian American framework AAPI, as a label is very, very diverse. And that applies to classical music as well. But I think there's also this social perception of Asian and Asian Americans as a group that also relates to the model minority stereotype that's historically been present and, for example, a lot of people might think of, like a young Asian or Asian American musician as being like a prodigy because they are technically skilled at their instrument, where like these social perceptions that exist both in media and in the culture around us, why do you think that is?  00:17:15 Mari Yoshihara  Well, that as you said, there is a model minority myth and there is a stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans as being very studious and diligent, but also quiet, right? I mean, they just quietly follow, like, obedient, obediently follow the instructions and that translates in the field of music as the stereotype that Asian musicians are technically very proficient but artistically non expressive. I mean, that's a very common stereotype that yeah, you know, practically any Asian, Asian Americans in classical music have been subjected to, you know, quite regularly and frequently. And I think that, yeah, that just comes with the overall kind of racial stereotype of Asians and Asians and Asian Americans in American society at large. And also the fact that, you know, classical music, especially in terms of instrumental performance, it is an area that is, it's something that is, indeed, technically very demanding, right? You need many, many years of disciplined training and a lot of practice. And there is a myth of merit– well, no, not entirely a myth– but there is this this very, you know, dearly held faith in meritocracy in classical music. The idea that if you have the chops you will be rewarded, you will be recognized and you know, no matter what kind of great artistic idea you might have, if you can't play the notes, you can't play the notes. That kind of ethos of meritocracy is particularly strong in classical music because of the technical demands of the genre, and that and that kind of, you know, goes hand in hand with the model minority methods for Asian Americans.  00:19:20 Isabel Li  Definitely. That's really interesting and another part of your book that was quite fascinating to me when I first read it was chapter 3. You talked about the intersection of gender as well as, you know, racial identity in classical music. The chapter is called Playing Gender and you talk about, I think at large don't necessarily associate classical music with a discipline that provides a stable job. It is an art form and there is kind of an uphill battle for artists in a sense like a starving artist myth there. We're not even a myth. Like if there's a starving artist image, whereas the image of a very successful classical musician there's this duality that you also mentioned in one of your other chapters about class. So what really interested me in for this chapter was that there was this intersection of power in classical music of who would go down the path that might not be traditionally as successful. How do you think gender dynamics play into this and how do you think they might have shifted within the last two decades or so?  00:20:20 Mari Yoshihara  Huh. I'm not sure if it has shifted all that much in the last two decades, but as you said, because music I mean, not just classical music, but music. Like, you know, arts in general is a field that is very like economically insecure in terms of career, right?   But at the same time. Classical music is associated with kind of, you know, bourgeois identity and just kind of overall cultivation and so, many Asian, Asian American parents are very eager to send their kids to, say, piano lessons, violin lessons, cello lessons, etcetera. To, you know, give them a well-rounded education and also because it is considered useful tool, you know, when you're going to college and stuff like, you know being, you know, being able to show that you're very talented violinist, for instance, is believed to help your college application.  So there's this, you know, both stereotype and reality that like, you know, places like Julliard Pre-College, very competitive, you know, school, like music education program for kids is filled with Asian, Asian American, you know, students and their parents who are waiting, waiting for them to come out of school.   So there's that. But how gender plays into this is that while both men and women are do study music at a young age. When it comes to, you know, choosing say, college, like what they would, what they would pursue at the college level, far fewer male students tend to choose music as their college major or go to conservatory and pursue it as a as a career. But I think it's both their own choice. And also especially for Asian and Asian Americans, like parental pressure to not pursue music professionally because of, you know, financial insecurity.   So there's that, and also how that plays into the actual experiences of Asian, Asian Americans musicians who do study music is that I have heard from a number of female Asian musicians that either their peers or especially their teachers are doubtful that they are actually serious about music. There is a stereotype that, you know, say for instance, Japanese or Korean female students at Juilliard School, Manhattan School or whatever, they are there because they, you know, they want to study music and then find a good husband and marry, you know, a lawyer or doctor or engineer or something. [laughs] And and not that that doesn't happen. But that's a stereotype of, you know, that's a racialized and gender stereotype that comes from these, you know, gender and class and racialized dynamics.  00:23:35 Isabel Li  And just for clarification, is the classical music world at large still a male dominated field?  00:23:41 Mari Yoshihara  Yes. Oh yes. Definitely. I mean, it depends on the segment of you know, I mean classical music is itself quite diverse. So if you look at, for instance, the string section, especially the violin section of the New York Philharmonic for instance, you will find that like, I think the majority of those violin players are Asian women, perhaps. But if you look at say for instance, the Faculty of Conservatories or music directors and major orchestras and said, I mean still very male dominated.  00:24:23 Isabel Li  Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I like how your book also has so many different layers for each chapter. So Chapter 3 was about the gender intersection with this, with this identity, and Chapter 4, was it Chapter 4, I believe it was about class, Class Notes, and you've already mentioned a little bit about how class plays into the perception of music, how class influences gender even. But there's a statement in there that you said that, “it's misleading to characterize Asian musicians as just coming from the upper middle class.” And it makes sense that people would think of musicians coming from this economic bracket, because classical music is an in and of itself a very kind of expensive undertaking. You need so many lessons, so many instruments. But tell us why this statement would be misleading.  00:25:15 Mari Yoshihara  Because I mean, first of all, most of the overwhelmed, I would say overwhelming majority of the Asian, Asian American musicians that I interviewed come from middle class backgrounds, many of them from so-called like professional executive class backgrounds in, meaning that their parents hold these professional executive positions, right. And that's why they were able to afford advanced musical studies from a fairly young age. They need, you know, sustained and disciplined and often costly, you know, lessons, you know, competitions, etcetera, auditions, travel, etcetera. So that's for sure, yeah.   At the same time, there are also Asian musicians who come from less privileged backgrounds, you know, immigrant families who have, because quite a few. I mean overall Asian American population, many immigrants experience downward social mobility upon immigrating to the United States because of, you know, oftentimes linguistic barriers or you know, or plain old racism. And so you're not Asian families that immigrate to the United States, like, for instance, if the parents have professional positions back in South Korea, oftentimes they become, you know, for instance, you know, small business owners and they experience downward social mobility. I mean, that's a very common scenario. Yeah, so now all Asian, Asian American musicians grow up in a privileged environment.  00:27:06 Isabel Li  Definitely a great point. Now before we move on to some discussions about Mari's research. First of all, thank you for tuning in to Obbligato on APEX Express, we'll be taking a short music break and as mentioned earlier, a great way to increase diversity within classical music is to uplift works by living composers. If you're listening to my first.  00:27:26 Isabel Li  Episode 2 months ago, you'll know that I featured music by Chinese American composer Zhou Tian. I'm happy to say that coming up next is one of Zhou's compositions inspired by a trip to Italy. This is a piece called Hidden Grace performed by the Formosa Trio.  27:45 – COMP MUSIC – Hidden Grace  00:35:34 Isabel Li  That was a piece called Hidden Grace, composed by Zhou Tian for a fascinating instrumentation of flute, Viola and heart coming up for our second piece. In this interview, break another movement by Zhou Tian, the third movement of his double concerto for violin and Viola, called Rendezvous.  35:58 – COMP MUSIC – Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, III. Rendezvous  00:41:09 Isabel Li  Noah Bendix-Balgley on violin, Shanshan Yao on viola, and the Hangzhou Philharmonic, playing the third and final movement of Zhou Tian's Double Concerto for violin and viola. So back to the conversation with Professor Mari Yoshihara.  00:41:25 Isabel Li  As you also mentioned before, you're working on an updated version of Musicians from a Different Shore. Can you talk–I don't know how much you can talk about your, like upcoming projects, but are you using similar research methods to what you've done before using ethnographic field work? You've mentioned the new changing dynamics of classical music in the United States with new waves of activism and awareness. What are some new topics of your chapters that you might focus on? So for your 2007 publication, you talked about your gender and class and how these intersect with identity. Are there any new things that you're drawing upon here?  00:42:02 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So I'm using basically the same research method. I'm interviewing actually some of the same people that appeared in Musicians from a Different Shore. Some people kept in touch with over the years, I've gone back to them and interviewed them to see the trajectories of their careers since the first time I interviewed them. But then I've also interviewed a bunch of other, you know, new musicians that I'm speaking with for the first time. So it's essentially an interview and ethnographic fieldwork-based research.  I told you earlier about I think one of the biggest changes is, as I said before, the activism and advocacy on the part of Asian, Asian American musicians themselves. So I have one chapter about that. Like, what? How? What kinds of advocacy and activism they're engaged in.   Another big change that I'm seeing is that compared to 20 years ago, there are a lot more Asian musicians in the field of opera.  00:43:01 Isabel Li  Ohh yeah.  00:43:02 Mari Yoshihara  Uh. Both as singers. Yeah, many of them singers, but also in other, you know, like for instance opera, you know, pianist for opera or be opera directors, et cetera. There are many more Asians in this particular field than what I saw 20 years ago. And I talked about this a little bit in my first book, but opera is a very particular kind of field within classical music.   How race plays into opera is very different from other areas of classical music because it's a theatrical art form. It's visually oriented, you know art form. And because singers have to be cast in order to, you know, sing on stage. So the racial politics in opera, you know, unfolds very differently from, say, for pianists or cellists or conductors or or composers.   So I now have a whole chapter about opera, especially Madame Butterfly, that this very fraught work, you know, opera that many Asian and Asian Americans have love hate relationships. A lot of pigeon-holing that happens in that through that opera. But also, production of new opera by Asian and Asian American artists, composers, directors, singers, etcetera. So I have a whole chapter about that.   And then I also will have another chapter about, you know, what it means to, you know, sit at the table, basically. Like stand on the podium and sit at the table, stand on the podium. Not only, I mean I will, I will have a whole discussion about Asian and Asian Americans conductors, but not only in that literal sense of, you know, standing at the podium, but like being at the table like in other words, not only, Asian and Asian American musicians playing music that are given to them and they are assigned to them that they're hired to play, but also having a real voice in the organizational and institutional dimensions of classical music industry. So the kinds of people, Asians, who are in these positions more executive positions with decision making power what their experiences are like. I'm going to have a chapter about that.   So those are some of my ideas. I'm still in the middle of the project, so I can't. I can't see the whole picture, but those are some of my current ideas.  00:45:48 Isabel Li  I see. And do you have an idea of when this book will be published or an updated version?  00:45:54 Mari Yoshihara  Well [laughs], my goal rather ambitious goal is to have it published in 2027, because that would be 20 years since Musicians from a Different Shore, so that would be ideal if I can make that.  00:46:08 Isabel Li  Well, yeah. Nice. That's really exciting, definitely. I will also kind of bridge, I guess my part of the research into this part of the interview, since I'd love to talk to you a little bit more about how classical music in general is portrayed in media.   So as I've introduced myself before, I had a back, I have a background in media studies as well as music history and theory. And what was really interesting to me in my senior thesis while I was doing research for that was I coined this term and it could just be loosely associated with the genre of film. But it's the “classical music film.” So think of any narrative fictional film you can think of with a classical musician in there. So it could be like Amadeus, where I think of like Tár. If you watch Tár like a lot of these depictions are quite understandably white and European, but they my senior thesis I've never really seen any depictions of Asian American or Asian classical musicians? I was wondering if you have ever watched a film like that, or could maybe talk a bit about maybe the lack of representation in media, how media plays into how people perceive classical music as a genre as a whole.  00:47:23 Mari Yoshihara  That is a very interesting question. I think you know, because of the stereotype of Asian and Asian American model minority and model minority stereotype often is associated with, you know, violin or piano-playing Asian American kids, I think. Asian, Asian American characters who are, you know, these kind of musical classical music geniuses appear here and there. But the ones that center on such a character as the main, you know, like the protagonist, come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've seen. I mean, I've seen several Korean dramas, you know, character, but those are Korean dramas, not Asian American, so more American works with Asian classical musicians…  00:48:21 Isabel Li  And I think also classical music as a genre is. It's interesting because classical music is also kind of underrepresented. It's not quite in the mainstream. And then one of my final questions for you is I do also want to take a second to acknowledge that your book was actually one of the only books that I could find about this topic. I think there are not that many other books about Asian and Asian Americans in classical music. I think there are a few other books and a few and definitely some papers that talk about this, but what got you interested in this field? And I don't know if you think there's a scarcity of information, but do you think there's relative scarcity of information about this topic?  00:49:01 Mari Yoshihara  Yeah. So how I got into it is. So I was a pretty serious student of piano when I was a child. That's like, yeah, that really kind of preoccupied my childhood and adolescence. But then I, for various reasons I ended up not going to a music Conservatory and became an academic.   And then once I entered academia and became a scholar of American studies, all I was studying was like race, gender, class. I mean, that's what  we do in American studies. And my first book, which was originally my doctoral dissertation, was a cultural history of orientalism and white women. So that was a study of the intersections of race and gender and to some extent class in American history.   So once I finished that book, I was thinking about what projects to work on next. And I happened to turn on the TV, and it just so happens that the Vienna Phil New Year's concert, conducted by Seiji Ozawa was playing on the TV and that was sort of my “aha” moment because I had always known or, you know, kind of generally aware that Asians and Asian Americans are, if not necessarily overrepresented, but, you know, they're quite numerous, you know. They're present. Their numerical presence is quite notable in classical music that is often associated with white, you know, European culture, elite culture.  So I was kind of curious about that phenomenon, but I hadn't really thought too much about it until I watched Seiji Ozawa were conducting the Vienna Phil. And that's when I thought, well, maybe I can kind of combine my classical music background and my academic training in studies of race, gender, class into this project. So that's when I decided to work on. You know, this topic of Asians and Asian Americans, classical music.  I think the reason that there hadn't been at least a book-length study on the topic until my book is that for one thing, classical music is considered to be kind of a very abstract absolute form of music. This ethos that it is kind of transcends– that it is a universal, transcendental kind of genre, that is sort of above things like politics or race or gender. Like it shouldn't matter that these, you know, individual identity, racialized gender identity shouldn't matter vis-à-vis the universalism of classical music. I mean that kind of ethos is very strong in this particular genre of music. I think that has a lot to do with it.   And also the study of classical music until rather recently, like musicological study of classical music, really tended to be focused on the study of composers and their works, right? It was the textual that, like it, was an analysis of Beethoven Symphony or, you know, Bach Fugues, etcetera. Yeah. It was really focused on the study of the score, the study of the composer's ideas, as reflected in the score, I mean that was the centerpiece of musicological approach to classical music.  And so sort of more sociological anthropological study of the musical practice is a relatively new approach in in the field of musicology. I'm not a musicologist. So that's not how I'm trained. But I think the academic approach to classical music was not very, kind of, open to the kinds of topics that I raised in Musicians from a Different Shore.  00:53:12 Isabel Li  Definitely. I see. And my very final fun question for you is can you name three of your favorite classical music pieces for any recommendations you have for the audience who might be listening, who might be wondering what they will listen to next?  00:53:27 Mari Yoshihara  Well, OK well. Pieces well, because I wrote a book about Leonard Bernstein. I mean, I ended up– I wrote a book about Leonard Bernstein. Not necessarily because I was an avid fan of Bernstein. It just kind of happened this this project. But nonetheless of while I was doing research and writing the book I did listen to a lot of Bernstein. I and I have come to really love Bernstein music and so. And you know, of course, everybody knows West Side Story, but he actually wrote many other pieces that may not be as well known.   Well among the pieces that I like, I like…which one should I choose? I will choose. Ohh well, I'll choose a piece that I learned myself as a pianist.  I learned the piece called “Touches” that he wrote. It was a commission piece for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and it's kind of yeah, it's a chorale and variation. So that's very interesting and very interesting and very Bernstein-esque so well.   I'll OK, as an American study scholar. I'll, I'll stick with American pieces. I like someone Barber a lot. I like Barber “Excursions,” which I also learned to play.  00:55:04 Isabel Li  Yeah.  00:55:09 Isabel Li  Tough question.  00:55:11 Mari Yoshihara  Umm, Mason Bates piece that I also learned, “White Lies For Lomax.” This one was also, I believe…was it commissioned by the Cliburn? But no, maybe it wasn't. Yeah, I think it was commissioned. But anyway, I played it at the Van Cliburn International– the amateur competition of the Cliburn competition.  I did all these. So like Bernstein, Bates, Amy Beach piece I also played. Yeah, I'll stop there. I I wish you had prepped me for that then [laughs]–  00:55:42 Isabel Li  Oh my gosh. Great responses.  00:55:46 Mari Yoshihara  Hard to think on the spot.  00:55:47 Isabel Li  Yeah, I totally get that. Whenever people ask me for my favorite composer, I never have an answer. No, so I totally get it.   Well, thank you so much for your time, Mari. And thank you for your wonderful insights. I'll put the link to your books so that people can learn about your works on APEX Express on kpfa.org. So thank you so much for your time, Mari.  00:56:07 Mari Yoshihara  Thank you.  00:56:09 Isabel Li  As mentioned, please check our website kpfa.org to find out more about Mari Yoshihara, her scholarship, and links to two of her books. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important.  00:56:31 Isabel Li  APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Swati Rayasam, and Cheryl Truong. Tonight's show was produced by Isabel Li. Thanks to the team at KPFA  for their support. Have a great night.  [OUTRO MUSIC]  The post APEX Express – 09.04.2025 – Obbligato with Mari Yoshihara appeared first on KPFA.

durée : 00:21:33 - Disques de légende du mardi 02 septembre 2025 - Exceptionnellement choisi par notre estimée collègue Aurélie Moreau, ce “Disque de légende” réunit deux grandes figures : le pianiste Krystian Zimerman et le chef Seiji Ozawa, dans une version magistrale des deux premiers Concertos de Rachmaninov, parue en 2004 chez Deutsche Grammophon. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

durée : 00:21:33 - Disques de légende du mardi 02 septembre 2025 - Exceptionnellement choisi par notre estimée collègue Aurélie Moreau, ce “Disque de légende” réunit deux grandes figures : le pianiste Krystian Zimerman et le chef Seiji Ozawa, dans une version magistrale des deux premiers Concertos de Rachmaninov, parue en 2004 chez Deutsche Grammophon. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

durée : 00:25:15 - Victor Julien-Laferrière, violoncelliste et chef d'orchestre (2/5) - par : Judith Chaine - Troisième épisode de ce grand entretien avec Victor Julien-Laferrière, dans lequel il se souvient de ses jeunes années, de son entrée au CNSM à 13 ans à ses rencontres marquantes avec de grands chefs comme Heiting, Gardiner et Ozawa. - réalisé par : Pierre Willer

微信公众号：「365读书」（dus365)，有不定期赠书福利；微博：365读书v。主播：潮羽，365天每天更新一期。 文字版已在微信公众号【365读书】发布 。QQ：647519872 背景音乐：1.Deuter - I Will Wait for You；2.Clifford Curzon,Vienna Octet,Wiener Oktett - Pno Qnt, Op.81：II. Dumka：Andante Con Moto；3.Antonín Dvořák,Seiji Ozawa,Boston Symphony Orchestra - Klid for Cello&Orchestra,Op.68,No.5；4.Wiener Philharmoniker - Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World'：II. Largo (Opening)。

durée : 00:09:53 - Disques de légende du lundi 24 février 2025 - L'opéra Saint François d'Assise représente un moment important dans la carrière d'Olivier Messiaen, reconnu à 75 ans comme le grand compositeur français, par son entrée à l'Opéra de Paris.

durée : 00:09:53 - Disques de légende du lundi 24 février 2025 - L'opéra Saint François d'Assise représente un moment important dans la carrière d'Olivier Messiaen, reconnu à 75 ans comme le grand compositeur français, par son entrée à l'Opéra de Paris.

In this interview with Tom Morris, a veteran of orchestra management whose career included leadership roles with the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, conductor Devin Patrick Hughes provides a comprehensive look at the inner workings of orchestral institutions, the evolution of their management, and the crucial role of music in their success. Morris's journey from a percussionist to a top-level administrator offers a unique perspective, and his reflections provide valuable lessons for anyone interested in the performing arts. One of the most compelling aspects of the interview is Morris's discussion of how his musical background shaped his management philosophy. He emphasizes his deep understanding of musicians' lives, having experienced firsthand the challenges and demands of performing in an orchestra. This empathy enabled him to build trust with musicians and approach labor negotiations with a unique perspective. Morris's belief that "ultimately these institutions are about the music" underscores the importance of passion and artistic integrity in organizational leadership. The episode also explores the historical evolution of orchestra management, particularly the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Morris recounts how, before the 1970s, the orchestra relied on simple postcards for subscription renewals. He explains that over the seventies and eighties, the percentage of the budget earned from ticket sales gradually fell. This shift necessitated the development of marketing and fundraising departments, leading to a significant increase in administrative staff.  Morris shares fascinating insights about the Boston Pops, emphasizing that it was founded in 1885, before Arthur Fiedler became its 17th conductor in 1929. The Boston Symphony created the Pops to provide more employment for musicians and to perform lighter music for a broader audience. He discusses how the Boston Symphony transformed Symphony Hall into a "beer hall" to accommodate a more informal setting for the Pops concerts. He explains that in the early days the Pops sold blocks of tickets to community groups and did not have to focus on individual ticket sales. He also recounts how the popularity of Arthur Fiedler was enhanced even further by the "Evening at Pops" television series. Morris details the process of selecting John Williams as Fiedler's successor, explaining that Williams was chosen for his musical integrity and knowledge of the symphony orchestra. Furthermore, the interview addresses the crucial dynamic between management, the music director, and the board of directors, which Morris refers to as the "Bermuda Triangle.” Morris suggests that this structure can function perfectly if the right people are in those roles and are bound by a common vision. He also emphasizes that having a collaborative culture is essential, but that collaborative decision-making should be avoided. Morris stresses the importance of clear lines of authority and not settling for "good enough" when hiring. He also shares that when hiring he uses Jim Collins' three C's: competence, character, and chemistry. These points underscore the need for strong leadership and a shared vision in any successful organization. Morris also touches on the importance of thoughtful programming. He humorously mentions his collection of "dumb programs" and emphasizes the importance of carefully considering the combination of pieces in a concert. He contrasts examples of bad programming with one of his favorites, a concert he organized with Christoph von Dohnányi, which combined pieces by Ligeti, Wagner, and Bruckner. This conversation highlights that thoughtful artistic direction is an essential element in the success of an orchestra. Thank you for joining us on One Symphony. Special thanks to Thomas Morris for sharing his life and leadership. You can pick up a copy of Always the Music: How a Lifelong Passion Framed a Future for Orchestras wherever you get your books. For a list of recordings played on today's episode, please check out our show notes. You can always find more info at OneSymphony.podbean.com or DevinPatrickHughes.com, including a virtual tip jar if you'd like to support the show. Please feel free to rate, review, or share the podcast! Until next time, thank you for being part of the music. https://www.alwaysthemusic.com Featured Music All music selections for this episode feature the Boston Pops.  Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48: Waltz. Conducted by Arthur Fiedler, from the album Fiedler: Greatest Hits.  L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2: Farandole. Composed by Georges Bizet. Conducted by Arthur Fielder, from the album Fiedler: Greatest Hits. “Manhattan Skyline.” From the album Disco Inferno / Manhattan Skyline. Conducted by Arthur Fiedler.  “I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You.” From the album Boston Pops Salutes Astaire, Kelly, Garland. Composed by George and Ira Gershwin. Conducted by John Williams.  “Flying Theme” from E. T. Composed by John Williams. Performed live by John Williams conducting the Boston Pops in 2002.  “America Medley: America.” From the album Salute to America. Composed by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Conducted by John Williams.  “None But The Lonely Heart.” From the album Pops a la Russe. Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Conducted by John Williams.  The Snow Maiden - Suite - Danse des Bouffons. Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. From the album Pops a la Russe. Conducted by John Williams.  Holst: The Planets, op.32: 3. Mercury, The Winged Messenger. From the album Boston Pops Orchestra: John Williams. Conducted by John Williams. Overture from The Merry Wives of Windsor. From the album Fiedler: Greatest Hits. Conducted by Arthur Fiedler.  “Pizzicato Polka.” From the album 100 Fiedler Favorites. Conducted by Arthur Fiedler.  “Funeral March of a Marionette.” From the album 100 Fiedler Favorites. Conducted by Arthur Fiedler.  

Edwin Barker is recognized as one of the most gifted bassists on the American concert scene. In this wide-ranging interview, you'll hear about how when he was still a student, he won a job with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and then at age 22, he was appointed to the position of Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he has now held for nearly 50 years. He shared memories of his mentors, and his valuable perspectives on learning and teaching the bass, playing in orchestra, conductors, auditions, acoustics and more. We're featuring his wonderful recent album of solo bass music, Basso Profundo, both J.S. Bach's Suite no. 5 and Weinberg's Sonata Op. 108. You can also watch this on my YouTube, and I've also linked the transcript, everything linked here to my website. It's a joy to bring these inspiring episodes to you every week, and I do all the many jobs of research, production and publicity. Please consider either buying me a coffee on my Ko-fi page, or ordering some of my merchandise. This weekly podcast is in Season 5 and I send out an email newsletter where you can get access to exclusive information about upcoming guests! Navona records link to album: https://edwinbarker.com Weinberg biography I think you may also enjoy these episodes: Mark Deutsch Thomas Cabaniss Jeeyoon Kim Rachel Mercer Hillary Simms Gail Archer Jessica Cottis and so many more ! photo of Edwin Barker: Sam Brewer Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:23) Ed's start on the bass in school music program, Angelo LaMariana (05:33) Henry Portnoi, Peter Mercurio (09:25) New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony (12:37) David Perlman, different schools of bass playing (17:28) Basso Profundo album, Bach suite adaptation for the bass (21:58) Courante from Bach Suite no. 5, from Basso Profundo (link in description) (24:14)bass history, Dragonetti (27:53) Ed's first week in Boston, Mahler 1 (30:28) Seiji Ozawa, orchestra conductors (34:26) composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, solo bass repertoire (37:34) 3rd movement of the Weinberg Sonata op. 108 (link in description) (40:13) connection between the Bach Suite and the Weinberg sonata (42:01) excerpt of the 5th movement, Lento, of Weinberg sonata (42:56) Weinberg's life (46:43) excerpt of the 6th movement Weinberg sonata (47:22) other episodes you will find interesting, ways to support this series (48:14) the joys and challenges of orchestral playing (56:59) the influence of the acoustics of the hall on an orchestras sound (01:03:13) orchestra auditions (01:10:32) teaching the bass, playing Principal

Astronauts feature powerful ONE EARTH MISSION - Unite with Music movie, with Maestro Seiji Ozawa, Saito Kinen Orchestra, and a dramatic Earth fly-over. In his last public performance (Nov 23, 2022) Maestro Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra (SKO) with Beethoven's Egmont Overture, as a historical first orchestra performance broadcast directly to the International Space Station (ISS). Maestro's subtle yet masterful conducting shows the depth and power of music in our souls. The dramatic Earth fly-over from Italy to the Red Sea was filmed by astronauts on the ISS. Maestro Ozawa passed away Feb 6, 2024. This movie is dedicated to his memory, with thanks for his deep commitment to Earth and music. A collaboration of Seiji Ozawa/SKOxJAXA ONE EARTH MISSION - Unite with Music Project and the Association of Space Explorers. UCTV is ASE's official partner for the release of this video on YouTube. Association of Space Explorers - Earth Music Theatre https://www.earthmusictheater.org/ ONE EARTH MISSION - Unite with Music https://www.seiji-ozawa-oneearthmission.com/ Series: "Arts Channel " [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 40230]

durée : 01:28:46 - Seiji Ozawa, une gestique remarquable, et une musicalité innée - par : Aurélie Moreau - Dans sa jeunesse, Seiji Ozawa s'est perfectionné avec Munch qui lui a appris à se libérer. Karajan lui a révélé l'importance des grandes lignes musicales et de la confiance dans l'orchestre. Il a aussi été l'assistant de Bernstein.

Last week on July 25th, the music world was saddened by the death of the Cornish baritone Benjamin Luxon at the age of 87. I began collecting recordings of this exceptional artist a few years ago with the intention of producing an episode in his honor at some point. Here is that episode, albeit a posthumous effort now. In an episode I produced in the first few months of Countermelody in 2019, I featured the French baritone Gérard Souzay and called him “a modern troubadour.” There are very few singers of recent years to whom one could accurately apply that appellation, but Ben Luxon is emphatically one of them. Music and words simply flowed out of him, and he sang with equal aplomb in an extraordinary number of different styles: opera, oratorio, art song, Broadway, crossover, and, perhaps most immediately and delectably, folk. In opera alone his range was exceptional, covering key roles in Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Berg, and Britten, who wrote the title role of his television opera Owen Wingrave expressly for Luxon. In song as well he covered a vast array of repertoires, including Russian, German, and British (including Victorian ballads), including, again, many contemporary composers. Luxon's career hit a snag in the late 1980s, when he first began experiencing hearing loss which eventually resulted in him putting a stop to his singing career. But he hardly retired: moving to the Berkshires, he became actively involved in the artistic life of the region, and founded a theatre troupe, the Sandisfield Players, while continuing to give poetry readings and spoken word performances. The program today attempts to recreate his profound versatility, and range from folk song to pop song; from orchestral song cycles to world premiere creations; art songs by Hugo Wolf, Mussorgsky, George Butterworth, Schubert, and John Ireland; to late career narration and poetry projects. Collaborators include artists such as Benjamin Britten, Bill Crofut, Galina Vishnevskaya, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Tear, Janet Baker, Seiji Ozawa, Ileana Cotrubaș, Jill Gomez, Klaus Tennstedt, Mstislav Rostropovich, and his most frequent recital collaborator, pianist David Willison. 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.

Tony Fogg is a dear friend to this program and has been with us since we first broadcast here some 2-decades. Tony was born in Australia and was trained as a pianist at the Brazilian Academy of Music and at the University of Sydney. In 1994 at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa, he came to the USA to take up the position of Artistic Administrator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now, as Vice-President of Artistic Planning, he assists BSO Music Director, Andris Nelsons, with the scheduling of all performances by the BSO, as well as overseeing the Pops and Tanglewood Music Festival.

durée : 01:00:08 - Denis Jeambar, journaliste et écrivain - par : Priscille Lafitte - Par sa carrière de patron de presse, du Point à L'Express en passant par les revues Musiques et Classica, puis au détour de sa vie d'écrivain, Denis Jeambar a pu approcher des monuments des univers classique et jazz : Mstislav Rostropovitch, Jessye Norman, Leonard Bernstein et Michel Petrucciani. - réalisé par : Claire Lagarde

Today I present to you the American lyric tenor Frank Lopardo, who from 1984 through 2014 appeared in all the major opera houses of the world, celebrated particularly for his Mozart and Rossini roles. Too often today these superb singers even from the recent past are forgotten by today's audiences, and my listeners know that it is always a mission of mine to celebrate great artists who, for whatever reason, are not in the forefront of the public's awareness. In Frank's case, I suggest it has absolutely nothing to do with his stellar voice and astounding technique. Some singers are content to do their job and live their lives and serve the music and the art form to the best of their considerable abilities without engaging in antics or self-destructive behavior. A quick glance at Frank's accomplishments and the musicians with whom he collaborated makes it immediately clear that his career unfolded naturally and organically at the highest levels. Today's episode explores the infinite variety of Lopardo's artistry and his impeccable musicianship and technique, which aided him in his pursuit of always discovering new aspects of the central roles in his career. Conductors with whom he collaborated (and as heard on the episode) include Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Ion Marin, Riccardo Muti, Robert Spano, and the late Seiji Ozawa. While Lopardo was never tempted to move outside the natural confines of his lyric voice, he did in the final years of his career, move into some of Verdi's larger lyric tenor parts, in operas like Un ballo in maschera and Simon Boccanegra, both of which are sampled here. We also hear Frank in duet with some of his favorite colleagues, including memorable Chilean sopranos Verónica Villarroel and Cristina Gallardo-Domâs. It was all I could do not to entitle this episode Lopardopalooza, ‘cause that's exactly what it is! 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.

durée : 00:24:00 - Disques de légende du mercredi 27 mars 2024 - Sous la baguette de Seiji Ozawa, trois solistes de premier ordre : Julia Hamari, Jean Dupuy et José Van Dam.

durée : 01:58:20 - Les 90 ans de l'Orchestre National II - les années 1950 et 1960 - par : Christian Merlin - Deuxième volet de notre histoire de l'Orchestre National, quand il s'appelait encore « de la RTF », puis « de l'ORTF ». La modernité défendue par Roger Désormière et le retour d'Amérique de Charles Munch, précèdent l'émergence d'une nouvelle génération avec les virtuoses Lorin Maazel et Seiji Ozawa. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

durée : 00:28:40 - Les 90 ans de l'Orchestre National II - les années 1950 et 1960 (4/4) : Nouvelle génération - par : Christian Merlin - Deuxième volet de notre histoire de l'Orchestre National, quand il s'appelait encore « de la RTF », puis « de l'ORTF ». La modernité défendue par Roger Désormière et le retour d'Amérique de Charles Munch, précèdent l'émergence d'une nouvelle génération avec les virtuoses Lorin Maazel et Seiji Ozawa. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

durée : 00:28:25 - Les 90 ans de l'Orchestre National II - les années 1950 et 1960 (3/4) : Invités étrangers - par : Christian Merlin - Deuxième volet de notre histoire de l'Orchestre National, quand il s'appelait encore « de la RTF », puis « de l'ORTF ». La modernité défendue par Roger Désormière et le retour d'Amérique de Charles Munch, précèdent l'émergence d'une nouvelle génération avec les virtuoses Lorin Maazel et Seiji Ozawa. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

durée : 00:22:56 - Disques de légende du mercredi 06 mars 2024 - Seiji Ozawa, avec l'Orchestre symphonique de Boston, a donné en 1974 une lecture vivante de l'œuvre.

durée : 00:28:33 - Les 90 ans de l'Orchestre National II - les années 1950 et 1960 (2/4) : Figures françaises - par : Christian Merlin - Deuxième volet de notre histoire de l'Orchestre National, quand il s'appelait encore « de la RTF », puis « de l'ORTF ». La modernité défendue par Roger Désormière et le retour d'Amérique de Charles Munch, précèdent l'émergence d'une nouvelle génération avec les virtuoses Lorin Maazel et Seiji Ozawa. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

durée : 00:28:16 - Les 90 ans de l'Orchestre National II - les années 1950 et 1960 (1/4) : Désormière et la création - par : Christian Merlin - 2e volet de notre histoire de l'Orchestre National, quand il s'appelait encore « de la RTF », puis « de l'ORTF ». La modernité défendue par Roger Désormière, et le retour d'Amérique de Charles Munch, précèdent l'émergence d'une nouvelle génération avec les virtuoses Lorin Maazel et Seiji Ozawa. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

A Maestro's Legacy in Classical Music - Unveiling the Maestro's Remarkable Journey.

DescriptionI would like to dedicate this episode to Seiji Ozawa, who passed away at the age of 88 on February 6th, 2024.Fun FactAfter graduating from the Seijo Junior High School in 1950, Ozawa broke two fingers in a rugby game. Hideo Saito, his teacher at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, brought him to a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, ultimately shifting his musical focus from piano performance to conducting. __________________________________________________________________About Steven, HostSteven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.__________________________________________________________________You can FOLLOW ME on Instagram.

durée : 00:59:51 - Hommage à Seiji Ozawa - par : Aurélie Moreau - L'illustre chef d'orchestre Seiji Ozawa nous a quittés le 6 février. Nous écoutons quelques-uns de ses disques qui sont autant d'éclatantes réussites. La vie jaillissait de chacune de ses intentions musicales, à travers une maîtrise sans faille.

19th-20th CenturiesA Tribute to Seiji Ozawa and Peter SchickeleThis week we hear works by Hector Berlioz, P.D.Q. Bach, and Peter Schickele.131 Minutes – Week of 2024 February 12

durée : 01:58:21 - Seiji Ozawa - par : Christian Merlin - Après notre portrait des solistes de Boston, hommage à celui qui a été leur chef charismatique pendant près de trente ans, Seiji Ozawa, personnalité aussi flamboyante qu'attachante et premier chef japonais à s'imposer au sommet. - réalisé par : Marie Grout

durée : 00:04:46 - Classic & Co - par : Anna Sigalevitch - Ce matin dans son Classic & Co, Anna Sigalevitch rend hommage à une légende de la musique classique, le chef d'orchestre Seiji Ozawa dont on a appris hier la mort le 6 février. Immense musicien qui disparaît, Anne Sigalevitch rend également hommage à un autre disparu, le mélomane Robert Badinter.

Evan Blackwell delivers the news on Israel's offensive in Rafah and the passing of renowned orchestra leader Seiji Ozawa in 2 minutes on 2/10/24.

During his two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson, Vladimir Putin reiterated his beliefs on Russia's claims to Ukraine. He also indicated the release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich might be possible as part of a prisoner exchange. And, record numbers of migrants are showing up at the US southern border, and many are requesting asylum. The system is now overwhelmed, with a backlog of about 3 million asylum applications pending in courts. Also, the premier of Quebec, François Legault, has proposed tuition hikes for students from outside Quebec, in English-speaking regions, who come for an education at venerable English universities like McGill, Concordia and Bishop's. McGill estimates that the plan will lead to a $94 million shortfall in the school's budget. Plus, famed Japanese American Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa dies at 88.

An interview with BSO VP Tony Fogg.

Anthony Fogg, vice-president of artistic planning for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, joined Paris and Jeremy to share his memories of his friend and colleague, longtime BSO conductor Seiji Ozawa, who passed away at his home in Tokyo on Tuesday.

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on Japan-Obit-Ozawa.

Im "Ö1 Mittagsjournal" gesendet am 09.02.2024

The unconventional maestro who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra longer than any other music director has died of heart failure at the age of 88.

Seiji Ozawa, who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for nearly three decades, died this week in his home country of Japan. The World speaks to Brian McCreath, who broadcasts the Boston Symphony Orchestra on WCRB in Boston, about Ozawa's life and legacy.

微信公众号：「365读书」（dus365)，有不定期赠书福利；微博：365读书v。主播：潮羽&云公子，365天每天更新一期。 文字版已在微信公众号【365读书】发布 。QQ：647519872 背景音乐：1.Seori - Without You；2.As／Hi Soundworks - Nocturne；3.Clifford Curzon,Vienna Octet,Wiener Oktett - Pno Qnt, Op.81：II. Dumka：Andante Con Moto；4.Antonín Dvořák,Seiji Ozawa,Boston Symphony Orchestra - Klid for Cello&Orchestra,Op.68,No.5；5.Roger St. Denis - Carried On a Breeze。

Cities are that miraculous technology that bring people together to make us all better, richer, happier. But bad planning, or even too much planning, can turn them into hellholes. Pritika Hingorani joins Amit Varma in episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights on how we should think about cities, how governments do policy, and what economics can bring to urban planning. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pritika Hingorani at Artha Global and Twitter. 2. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani). 3. Global Health Impacts for Economic Models of Climate Change -- Pritika Hingorani and Vaidehi Tandel. 4. Financing urban infrastructure for an evolving India -- Pritika Hingorani, Sharmadha Srinivasan & Harshita Agrawal. 5. Reforming Urban India -- Pritika Hingorani et al. (Page 14 of this report has the map Pritika mentions in the episode.) 6. India Infrastructure Report: Making Housing Affordable -- Various authors. 7. Bombay: The Cities Within -- Sharada Dwiwedi and Rahul Mehrotra. 8. Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities -- Alain Bertaud. 9. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 10. Norwegian Wood -- Haruki Murakami. 11. Absolutely on Music -- Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa. 12. Haruki Murakami and Ryu Murakami on Amazon. 13. Piercing -- Ryu Murakami. 14. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 16. Miniature early episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on FSI and Rent Control with Alex Tabarrok, and Slums with Pavan Srinath. 17. The Mystery of Capital —  Hernando De Soto. 18. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Power Broker -- Robert Caro. 20. Urban expansion: theory, evidence and practice -- Shlomo Angel. 21. Atlas of Urban Expansion. 22. Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization -- Justin Marozzi. 23. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 24. The Faltering Escalator of Urban Opportunity -- David Autor. 25. The Shane Parrish tweet on WFH. 26. Securing the Home Market -- Alice Amsden. 27. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William Easterly. 28. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 29. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 30. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 31. Parkinson's Law. 32. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma. 34. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36. The Skeptical Environmentalist — Bjorn Lomborg. 37. London 1870-1914: A City at Its Zenith -- Andrew Saint. 38. Modi's Lost Opportunity — ep 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 39. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 40. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 42. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 43. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 45. Living London History -- The blog Pritika mentions. 46. Good Bye, Lenin -- Wolfgang Becker. This episode is sponsored by the Pune Public Policy Festival 2024, which takes place on January 19 & 20, 2024. The theme this year is Trade-offs! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘These Are People' by Simahina.

It is hard to believe that it's already been 13 years since the death of Shirley Verrett on November 5, 2010. It has also already been four years since I did a pair of episodes on this extraordinary and beloved artist, and this anniversary gives me the perfect excuse to revisit the work of this mezzo-soprano turned soprano who more than any other singer in my experiences (even soon-to-be birthday girl Maria Callas) was capable of singing nearly anything. This type of singer is sometimes referred to as a soprano sfogato (or a falcon, after the 19th century French mezzo-cum-soprano Cornélie Falcon. Since Verrett, like Falcon, sang both mezzo and soprano, I instead coin the term falcon sfogatissima to describe her vocal magic. This episode is chock full of examples of Verrett's impassioned yet technically-grounded vocalism, from art songs by Brahms and Pasatieri to operatic roles by Handel, Gluck, Cherubini, Bellini, Puccini, and Verdi (including both soprano and mezzo roles in Aida and the Messa da Requiem and soprano roles in Ballo in Maschera, Macbeth, Don Carlo, and Otello). I close the episodes with Verrett's astonishing but limited forays into the German operatic repertoire. Her collaborators on this episode include conductors Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Eve Queler, Georges Prêtre, Sarah Caldwell, and the late Kenneth Montgomery; and fellow operatic greats Sherrill Milnes, Luciano Pavarotti, James McCracken, Robert Massard (last week's featured artist), and her frenemy the late Grace Bumbry. 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.  

Angel Subero is a Venezuelan trombonist who attended the Conservatorio Itinerante in Caracas, Venezuela, where he studied with the legendary Michel Becquet. After coming to the United States in 2001, he attended  Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Lawrence Isaacson, and New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Douglas Yeo. He also studied with John Rojak at the Aspen Music Festival. Subero has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, the Venezuela Symphony, Simon Bolivar Symphony, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, to name a few. He has worked with such conductors as John Williams, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Keith Lockhart, and Robert Spano, among many others. In the realms of jazz, Latin and commercial music, Subero has appeared with artists such as Bob Brookmeyer, Aretha Franklin, Slide Hampton, Jim McNeely, Claudio Roditi, Danilo Perez, Chris Botti, and many more.

Not every music student or even professional musician has explored classical music, much like not necessarily every classical musician will know something about jazz or any other genre.  However, each genre has certain pieces that one should know from each genre regardless of your preference.  These are 25 of many possible choices, not necessarily "the best", but some pieces you should recognize by title and composer upon hearing. Musical examples used in this episode: 06:53 P. Tchaikovsky: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit) 12:49 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Hannes Kästner, organ) 13:15 J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (Czech Philharmonic; Leopold Stokowski) 17:26 S Barber: Adagio for Strings (New York Philharmonic; Thomas Schipps) 19:48 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (Vienna Philharmonic; Carlos Klieber) mvt 1 and 4 24:03 Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Philharmonic; Von Karajan) mvt. 4 and 2 28:33 Brahms: Hungarian Dances 4, 5, 6 (Vienna Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado) 30:56 A Copland: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo (St. Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin) 32:33 F Chopin: Grand Valse Brillante op. 18 (Valentina Lisitsa) 34:22 Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Royal Concertgebouw; Bernard Haitink) 36:01 Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" mvt 2 (London Philharmonic; Charles MacKerras) 38:16 Grieg: Peer Gynt and Peer Gynt suite no.1 (San Francisco Symphony; Herbert Blomstedt) 40:13 Handel: The Messiah "Hallelujah" (London Symphony; Colin Davis) 40:43 Handel: Water Music selections (English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard) 41:30 Holst: The Planets "Mars" - (Montreal Symphony; Charles Dutoit) 42:13 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Marc-Andre Hamelin) 43:22 Mendelssohn: Overture and Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream (London Symphony, Andre Previn) 45:11 Mozart: Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner) 46:16 Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade and Great Gate of Kiev (Berlin Philharmonic; Claudio Abbado) 48:25 Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy; Moscow Symphony; Kirill Kondrashin) 49:38 Ravel: Bolero (Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa) 51:42 Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe (Rotterdam Philharmonic; Yannick Nézet-Séguin) 52:46 Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee (Berlin Philharmonic; Zubin Mehta) 53:08 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade mvt IV and III (London Symphony; Charles MacKerras) 55:06 Schubert: Ave Maria (Barbara Booney) 55:31 R Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Chicago Symphony; Fritz Reiner) 57:15 Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (from Part 1) (New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein) 58:21 Tchaikovsky: Russian Dance, Arabian Dance, Dance of the Reed Flutes from The Nutcracker (Montreal Symphony; Dutoit)   Do you have a different recording of these pieces that you'd recommend?  Let me know by telling me directly at https://www.speakpipe.com/MusicianToolkit or you can send me a written message at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/contact  The blog post that goes with this episode can be found here: https://www.davidlanemusic.com/post/25-essential-classical-pieces-to-know You can find this episode and links to this show on all podcast apps from https://musiciantoolkit.podbean.com/ . If you enjoyed this, please give it a rating and review on the podcast app of your choice.  You can also now find the podcast at https://www.davidlanemusic.com/toolkit You can follow David Lane AND the Musician Toolkit podcast on Facebook @DavidMLaneMusic, on Instagram and TikTok @DavidLaneMusic, and on YouTube @davidlanemusic1 This episode is sponsored by Fons, an online platform that helps private teachers of all types (music, yoga, martial arts, academic tutoring, coaches, etc) with smooth, automated assistance such as securing timely automatic payments and scheduling.  Click here for more information or to begin your free trial.

Synopsis The Boston Symphony premiered a new symphony on today's date in 1984—a commission for its Centenary Celebrations. It was the Symphony No. 1 by the then 45 year-old American composer, John Harbison. Like many composers who teach, Harbison does most of his composing in the summer months, usually spent on a farm in Token Creek, Wisconsin. The academic year is usually spent in Boston, teaching at MIT. In the case of his first symphony, Harbison worked on the piece both in Wisconsin (where he was also finishing up an Italian language song-cycle), and during a residency year at the American Academy in Rome. "Just as it felt very right to be working on Italian songs in the Midwest," commented Harbison, "it was natural to work on this American-accented symphony in Italy. I have always found the view from the distance to be clearest." Harbison's father, a Princeton history professor and amateur composer, also was a big influence on him. The younger Harbison, like his father, has an abiding passion for and fluency in American jazz as well as the modern classical idiom. Harbison dramatically fused both styles in one of his most ambitious ventures to date, the opera, The Great Gatsby, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1999. Music Played in Today's Program John Harbison (b. 1938) Symphony No. 1 Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, conductor. New World 80331

Synopsis OK, how's this for a movie scene worthy of “Doctor Zhivago” ... It's October 1917 and Lenin has overthrown the Tsarist government of Russia. A composer and virtuoso pianist can hear gunfire from his apartment as he works and decides that his family must flee their homeland. He receives an offer for recital appearances in Scandinavia and uses the offer as a pretext to escape Russia. But first the family must face a dangerous journey to Finland in trains crowded with terrified passengers. At the Finnish border, a music-loving Bolshevik guard recognizes the famous artist and allows the family safe passage. But wait – there are no more trains running, so they must travel to Helsinki in an open peasant sleigh during a raging blizzard. They arrive in Stockholm on Christmas Eve, and one year later the composer and his family are able to book passage from Oslo to New York. If that sounds perhaps a bit too melodramatic, consider that scenario is exactly what happened to Sergei Rachmaninoff, his wife, and two daughters. In America, Rachmaninoff became a star pianist, playing 92 concerts at Carnegie Hall between 1918 and 1943. He continued to compose, but lamented, “When I lost my homeland, I lost myself as well... I have no will to create without ... Russian soil under my feet.” He would complete only six more major works during his 25 years in America. Music Played in Today's Program Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Piano Concerto No. 1 in f#, Op. 1 Krystian Zimerman, piano; Boston Symphony Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa, conductor. DG 4796868

Synopsis On this day in 1952, thirty-one theaters nationwide offered the first pay-per view Met opera telecast. This was a regularly-scheduled performance of Bizet's Carmen broadcast live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, featuring Risë Stevens in the title role and Fritz Reiner conducting. The performance was relayed to the theaters by means of a closed TV circuit.* Beginning in 1948, the Metropolitan Opera had experimented with live telecasts of their opening night performances, but relatively few people in the U.S. owned TV sets at the time. By 1952, most American households had TVs, but the Met's manager, Rudolf Bing, was dead-set against any further FREE telecasts. The 1952 pay-per-view experiment was not successful, and it wasn't until 1976—after Bing had resigned—that live telecasts of Metropolitan Opera performances resumed on public television. The most successful of all commercial telecasts of a live opera performance occurred in 1951, when, on Christmas Eve that year, NBC-TV broadcast Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian-Carlo Menotti on Christmas. NBC's black and white kinescope recording of that premiere performance was broadcast annually for a number of years—until it was accidentally erased by a network employee.** Although Amahl is no longer an annual visitor to television, it is still staged this time of year by amateur and professional opera companies around the world. *Currently the Metropolitan Opera offers a series of live opera performances transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from Lincoln Center in New York City to select venues, primarily movie theaters, in the United States and other parts of the world. The first transmission was of a condensed English-language version of Mozart's The Magic Flute on December 30, 2006. **One surviving copy of the original kinescope did surface in a California archive, and was shown at broadcast museums on both coasts in 2001 to celebrate the work's 50th anniversary. Music Played in Today's Program Georges Bizet (1838-1875) Carmen Suite No. 1 Orchestre National de France; Seiji Ozawa, conductor. EMI 63898 Giancarlo Menotti (b. 1911) March, from Amahl and the Night Visitors New Zealand Symphony; Andrew Schenck, conductor. Koch 7005

Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me."I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Synopsis Today's date marks the original Columbus Day, honoring the Italian explorer who for decades was described as the man who “discovered America.” In recent years Native American leaders have pointed out that indigenous peoples had been living on the continent for thousands of years, and Columbus didn't “discover” anything — in fact, he didn't even know where he was, which is why he called the people he found here “Indians.” Some historians now think that Viking explorers from Scandinavia arrived in America long before Columbus – and others suggest the Chinese arrived before those Europeans. Even so, it's Columbus who has a national holiday (now always observed on the closest Monday in October), and concert music written to celebrate it. For example, there's a “Columbus Suite” by Victor Herbert, originally commissioned for the 1893 Chicago World Fair to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Columbus voyage, but not actually premiered until 1903. A much more recent “Columbus-inspired” work, and much more elegiac in tone, is by the Native American composer James DeMars. It's titled: “Premonitions of Christopher Columbus” and is scored for Native American flute, African drum, and chamber orchestra. In this work, DeMars blends sounds of the various ethnic traditions that would come to make up modern America. Music Played in Today's Program Victor Herbert (1859-1924) Columbus Suite Slovak Radio Symphony; Keith Brion, cond. Naxos 8.559027 James DeMars (b. 1952) Premonitions of Christopher Columbus Tos Ensemble with R. Carlos Nakai, Native American flute Canyon 7014 On This Day Births 1686 - German composer and lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss, in Breslau; 1713 - Baptismal date of German composer Johann Ludwig Krebs, in Butterstedt, Weimar; 1872 - English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire; 1880 - English-born Canadian composer and organist Healey Willan, in London; Deaths 1692 - Italian composer Giovanni Battista Vitali, in Bologna, age 60; Premieres 1910 - Vaughan Williams: "A Sea Symphony" (after Walt Whitman) at the Leeds Festival; 1924 - Mahler: Symphony No.10 (1st and 3rd movements only), arranged by Ernest Krenek (with additional retouching by Alexander von Zemlinksy and Franz Schalk), by Vienna Philharmonic, Franz Schalk conducting; The American premiere of these two movements was give on Dec. 6, 1949, by the Erie (Pa.) Philharmonic conducted by the composer's nephew, the Austro-American conductor Fritz Mahler (1901-1973); The English musicologist Deryck Cooke prepared the first performing edition of Mahler's entire Tenth Symphony which received its first performance on August 13, 1964, by the London Symphony conducted by Berthold Goldschmidt; Since then, Cooke has revised his arrangement, and several other musicologists have prepared their own rival performing editions of Mahler's surviving notation for this symphony; 1931 - Rachmaninoff: “Variations on a Theme of Corelli (La Folia)” for solo piano, in Montréal (Canada), by the composer; 1951 - Bizet: opera "Ivan le Terrible" (posthumously), in Bordeaux; 1951 - Dessau: opera "Die Verurteilung des Lukullus" (The Trial of Lucullus) (2nd version), in East Berlin at the Deutsche Staatsoper; 1961 - Douglas Moore: opera "The Wings of the Dove" (after the novel by Henry James), in New York; 1971 - Andrew Lloyd Webber: rock musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," in New York City; A choral version of this musical was performed in Kansas City, Kan. On May 15, 1971, and a touring company was launched to present the musical on July 12, 1971; Prior to any staged presentations, the work was first released as a double LP record album in October of 1970; 1984 - Olly Wilson: "Siinfonia," by the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting; 1984 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: "Celebration" for orchestra, by the Indianapolis Symphony, John Nelson conducting; 1997 - Sallinen: "Overture Solennel," in Monaco by the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, James DePreist conducting; 1998 - Philip Glass: opera "The Voyage," at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Bruce Ferden conducting; 2000 - Rautavaara: Harp Concerto, in Minneapolis with harpist Kathy Kienzle and the Minnesota Orchestra, Omso Vänskä conducting; Others 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in Bb, Op. 6, no. 7 (Gregorian date: Oct. 23). Links and Resources On Columbus Day On Victor Herbert On James DeMars

Synopsis On today's date in 1966, the 60th birthday of composer Dimitri Shostakovich was celebrated at the Moscow Conservatory with a gala orchestral concert of his music. Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich gave the premiere performance of Shostakovich's brand-new Second Cello Concerto, and the composer's son, Maxim, conducted his father's youthful Symphony No. 1 from 1926. On the morning of the concert, it was announced that, for his outstanding services in the development of Soviet musical culture, the Central Committee had awarded Shostakovich the title “Hero of Socialist Labor,” along with the Order of Lenin and the gold medal “Hammer and Sickle.” Ironically, earlier that year, Shostakovich had composed a self-deprecating parody piece for voice and piano titled “Preface to the Complete Edition of My Works and a Brief Reflection apropos of This Preface,” whose text included a deadpan recitation of just a small portion of the many honorific titles he had received and the imposing but meaningless official posts with which he had been honored — and now, he found, he had been awarded several more to boot! All that must have seemed grimly comic to Shostakovich, who, some 30th years earlier, had written an opera which had so offended Joseph Stalin that the composer had come perilously close to disappearing without a trace into the Soviet prison system. Music Played in Today's Program Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Symphony No. 1, Op. 10 –St. Petersburg Philharmonic; Yuri Temikanov, cond. (BMG 68844) Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Cello concerto No. 2. Op. 126 –Msistislav Rostropovich, cello; Boston Symphony; Seiji Ozawa, cond. (DG 437 952)

All of us are made with unique gifts—ultimately so we can bless the world. But how can we discover our gifts and lean into our calling? Join host Richard Dahlstrom as he talks with John Carrington, the Principal Harpist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Bellevue Philharmonic and the Auburn Symphony.  Seattle native John Carrington appears regularly with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera where he was Guest Principal Harpist for several seasons. He performs with the Fifth Avenue Theatre Orchestra and has worked as solo harpist on Cunard Line's "Queen Elizabeth 2" performing for its World Cruise on six continents John's classical background includes performances with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, Asher Fisch and John Rutter. His popular music experience is equally notable, as he has shared the stage with Tony Bennett, José Carreras, Josh Groban, Olivia Newton-John, Rita Moreno, Doc Severinsen, and James Taylor, to name a few. In addition, John is a sought-after recording artist, participating in over 200 motion picture soundtracks and including “Mr. Holland's Opus”, “The Wedding Planner,” and several Disney and Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. He's also performed on video game soundtracks including "Halo" and "World of Warcraft." He received his Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music after earning his Bachelor of Music from the University of Washington.