The American composer Elliott Carter has a reputation for writing some of the thorniest, most abstract and most technically difficult orchestral scores of the 20th century.
But for a few moments at least, during the opening of Carter’s “Symphony of Three Orchestras,” which had its premiere...Episode details...
Today’s date marks the birthday in 1938 of the American composer John Corigliano, and also, in 2005, of the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 3, a work scored for large wind ensemble. The premiere performance was given in Austin, Texas, by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble led by Jerry...Episode details...
Between 1908 and 1950, the Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky composed 27 symphonies. One of them his Symphony No. 19 for military wind band, premiered on today’s date in 1939 at the Cominterm Radio Station in Moscow, and was dedicated to the Red Army.
The Red Army’s bandmaster had asked...Episode details...
Carlos Castaneda was a South America-born author who settled in the United States and wrote 12 books chronicling his experiences with a pre-Columbian shaman who helped Castaneda access “non-ordinary reality” and develop his personal creativity, something the shaman called his...Episode details...
On today’s date in 1990, the Czech-born composer Karel Husa returned to his home town of Prague to conduct a concert of his own music after more than forty years in exile. Husa had left Prague in 1948 after the post-War communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, and in 1954 accepted a teaching post at...Episode details...
Today’s date marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. It is also celebrated as the birthday of the famous American symphonist Roy Harris, who stated he was born in Lincoln County near Chandler, Oklahoma, on February 12th in 1898. Some have challenged the...Episode details...
During the 1906-1907 season of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, America’s premiere opera company staged a mini-festival of operas by a living composer—the Italian Giacomo Puccini.
The Met’s star tenor, Enrico Caruso, could be heard in revival productions of Puccini’s “La Boheme” and...Episode details...
On today’s date in 1927, at the Neues Theater in Leipzig, a new opera had its premiere performance. It was entitled “Jonny spielt auf” or “Johnny Strikes Up the Band,” and was the work of a Viennese composer named Ernst Krenek. Ostensibly, it tells the story of a Negro jazz band leader named...Episode details...
Rhode Island natives of a certain age wax nostalgia about Rocky Point, a popular family vacation spot on the Narragansett Bay side of Warwick, which operated from the late 1840s until its close in 1995. There was an amusement park with rides like “The Russian Toboggan,” “The Wildcat” and...Episode details...
