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Composers Datebook®

with host John Birge

Melinda Wagner's Pulitzer premiere

On today's date in 1998, in Purchase, New York, the Westchester Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of a new flute concerto by a 41-year old composer named Melinda Wagner. The soloist was Paul Lustig Dunkel, who had asked Wagner to write the concerto. Wagner's concerto won the Pulitzer...Episode details...

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John Birge takes over as host of 'Composers Datebook'

John Birge is the new host of 'Composers Datebook,' the award-winning program about this day in classical music history. A well-known name at Classical Minnesota Public Radio, he will take over from retiring and longtime host John Zech on May 1.

Bach arrives (literally)

On today's date in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach began his formal duties as the new Cantor of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig, a city that would remain his home for the next 27 years. A newspaper item datelined "Leipzig" had appeared the previous day, noting: "This past Saturday at noon, four...Episode details...

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Stravinsky's "Riot"of Spring?

Today's date marks the anniversary of one of the most famous—and notorious—premieres in the history of classical music, that of Stravinsky's "Le sacre du printemps" (The Rite of Spring), in Paris on May 29, 1913. From its first note—sounded by the bassoon at the extreme end of its highest...Episode details...

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"The Hindemith Case"

On today's date in 1938, "Mathis the Painter," an opera by the German composer Paul Hindemith, had its premiere performance in Zurich, Switzerland. This work had been scheduled to be premiered in Berlin four years earlier. In 1934, the great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler had scheduled it...Episode details...

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David Wilde's "The Cellist of Sarajevo"

On today's date in 1992, during the bloody civil wars that shattered the former Yugoslavia, a hand grenade was thrown into the midst of a bread line in Sarajevo. Twenty-two people died. To most around the world it appeared to be just one more cruel and senseless act of violence amidst the...Episode details...

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John Rutter at Carnegie Hall

For many years now MidAmerica Productions has been organizing concerts in New York City and enlisting choral ensembles from the U.S. and abroad to come to the "big apple" to perform at prestigious Manhattan venues. On today's date in 1990, choirs from Arkansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas*...Episode details...

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Before you go...

Who’s who and what’s what is our specialty at Composers Datebook. Take 2 minutes to make a gift today, to help us continue to share this musical education experience.

A belated Webern premiere

This lush, late-Romantic score, composed in 1904, had to wait until 1962 for its premiere performance, when, on today's date that year, the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Eugene Ormandy performed it in Seattle during an international festival devoted to its composer, Anton Webern. For most music...Episode details...

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Beethoven's "Bridgetower" Sonata?

On today's date in 1803, violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower, age 33, and pianist and composer Ludwig van Beethoven, age 32, gave the first performance in Vienna of a new Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, a chamber work now regarded as one of Beethoven's greatest. The performance was to...Episode details...

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