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Composers Datebook®

with host John Birge

Villa-lobos premieres

For over five decades, Nicolas Slonimsky, the Russian-born American composer, conductor, and witty musical lexicographer, compiled a thick reference work titled "Music Since 1900." It's a year-by-year, month-by-month, day-by-day chronicle of musical events that Slonimsky deemed significant,...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.

Ingram Marshall's "Dark Waters"

A famous commercial for magnetic recording tape once asked the question: "Is it live—or Memorex"—suggesting it was impossible to tell the difference. These days, at concerts of some contemporary composers' works, the correct answer would be "It's live AND Memorex"—as there is a growing body of...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.

Mendelssohn sees double

On today's date in 1829, the German composer Felix Mendelssohn was in London, participating in a gala concert to raise funds for the victims of a flood in Silesia. "Everyone who has attracted the slightest attention during the season will take part," wrote Mendelssohn. "Many offers of good...Episode details...

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Rouse's Violin Concerto

On today’s date in 1992, a new violin concerto by the American composer Christopher Rouse had its premiere performance in Colorado with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin and violin soloist Cho-Liang Lin, to whom the new work was dedicated. A sense of past masters of the...Episode details...

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MacDowell goes "modern"

These days, when "Modern Music" is on the program, a sizeable chunk of the concert hall audience might start nervously looking for the nearest exit—but that wasn't always the case. On today's date in 1882, a 21-year old American composer and pianist named Edward MacDowell took the stage in...Episode details...

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Elgar lights up?

On today’s date in 1919, the British composer Edward Elgar finished a work he labeled jokingly as his “Opus 1001” – a 50 second “Smoking Cantata,” intended, according to the manuscript score, as "an edifying, allegorical, improving, expostulatory, educational, persuasive, hortatory, instructive,...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.

Wendy Carlos and "Tron"

On today’s date in 1982, a sci-fi movie titled “Tron” opened in theaters across the country, targeting an audience fascinated by the then still-new craze for computer gaming. In the movie, a programmer–played by Jeff Bridges–is transported from the real world into a fantastic digital universe...Episode details...

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John Williams, musical tree-hugger?

On today's date in the year 2000, amid the greenery of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, violinist Gil Shaham gave the outdoor, open-air premiere of this new concerto at the Tanglewood Festival. The concerto is entitled—appropriately enough—"TreeSong." Accompanying Shaham was the Boston...Episode details...

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