11 POSTS.
Feature image: Concert. October 2014. Chicago.
HEINO ELLER (1887-1970) and LEPO SUMERA (1950-2000): influential 20th-Century Estonian composers whose contemporary classical music spanned from World War I to the 1990s’ “Singing Revolution.”
FEATURE image: Heino Eller with his students from The Tartu Higher Music School in the 1930’s. Heino Eller (1887-1970) and Lepo Sumera (1950–2000) were both influential Estonian composers and music composition teachers. Following his graduation in 1920 from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Heino Eller taught music theory and composition in Estonia for the next 50…
Six Famous Ballets – GISELLE (1841), PAQUITA (1846), COPPÉLIA (1870), THE DREAM (1964), ONEGIN (1965), and MAYERLING (1978).
FEATURE image: “Ballet en la Gala Lírica” by GonzalezNovo is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0. Ballet Society, New York, 1948. Photo by Irving Penn is here: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/144790/ballet-society-new-york Six Famous Modern & Classic Ballets. # 1 The Dream (1964). Choreographer: Frederick Ashton. Music: Felix Mendelssohn. Story: W. Shakespeare. Adapted from William Shakespeare (English, 1564-1616) The Dream is a one-act ballet…
Christmas Choral Concert: BEL CANTO CHORUS, Basilica of St. Josaphat, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
FEATURE image: Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus in public performance. Fair Use. INDEPENDENT CHORUS FOUNDED IN 1931 Founded in 1931, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s independent 100-voice Bel Canto Chorus performs carols and hymns in the historic Basilica of St. Josaphat, a Polish-style church in Milwaukee completed in 1901 and boasting one of the largest copper domes in the…
Christmas Choral Concert: THE TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN VOICES CHOIR, University Chapel, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
FEATURE image: In each academic year the Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir performs extensively throughout the state of Alabama, as well as nationally and internationally , including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Canada in 2018. Fair Use. Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir The Christmas Concert is held each December in the University Chapel under the direction…
Christmas Choral Concert: John Rutter’s “Gloria” performed by the ANGELES CHORALE in Pasadena, California, at First United Methodist Church.
FEATURE image: The Angeles Chorale is based in greater Los Angeles, California, and has been active as an all-volunteer choral group for more than 40 years. Fair Use. WHO IS JOHN RUTTER AND WHAT IS HIS GLORIA ABOUT? Gloria by English composer John Rutter (b. 1945) is a musical setting of parts of the Latin…
Christmas Choral Concert: ST. BAVO CATHEDRAL CHOIR, Haarlem, Netherlands.
FEATURE image: The St. Bavo Cathedral Choir performs Christmas carols and other seasonal music for voice, many in modern settings. Fair Use. The Advent program (2012) includes well-known carols along with Anton Diabelli’s Pastoral Mass In F Major For Solos, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 147. The concert also includes excerpts from Benjamin Britten’s 11-part choral…
5 African-American Classical Composers: WILLIAM GRANT STILL, FLORENCE B. PRICE, HARRY T. BURLEIGH, WILLIAM LEVI DAWSON, and MARY LOU WILLIAMS.
FEATURE image: Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), African-American poet, standing, at right, in a photograph of the Howard University Class of 1900. William Grant Still extensively used Dunbar’s poetry in his Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, “Afro-American” in 1930. African American pianist, composer and arranger, and vocalist Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981). She demonstrated remarkable musical talent in…
FRITZ REINER, JEAN MARTINON, & GEORG SOLTI: A Critical Look at the Modern Music Directors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Part 1.
FEATURE image: Sir Georg Solti conducting the CSO in Orchestra Hall in November 1971. By John P. Walsh PART I: Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, & Georg Solti. In 2013 just ahead of Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals the principal conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra dressed up in a Chicago Blackhawk’s sweater…
GUIDO MORINI ( b. 1959, Italian), co-founder of the Baroque Ensemble Accordone, writes his 21st century opera Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis (Revive the Life Force Spirit) inspired by music of the 6th and 16th centuries.
FEATURE image: Lion, Lodi Cathedral, Italy. The cathedral commissioned the opera. “Leone stiloforo di pietra. Lodi, cattedrale” by claudiobertolesi is marked with CC PDM 1.0. Public Domain. By John P. Walsh The Italian early Baroque ensemble “Ensemble Accordone” was founded in 1984 by two musicologists—composer Guido Morini (b. 1959) and tenor Marco Beasley (Italian-English, b. 1957). In the last…
At Versailles: Messe et Motets Pour La Vierge (1702) by MARC-ANTONE CHARPENTIER (1643-1704, French).
FEATURE image: “Jordi Savall à l’Arsenal.” by iJuliAn is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Le Concert des Nations is an orchestra created in 1989 that performs orchestral, choral, and symphonic music with period instruments. Founded by Catalan maestro and viola de gamba virtuoso, Jordi Savall (b. 1941), Le Concert de Nations performs a wide ranging repertoire from the Baroque…
Music Revolution of 1800: “new” music of 30-year-old LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827, German).
FEATURE image: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1804/05, Joseph Willibrord Mähler (German, 1778-1860), Wien (Vienna) Museum. Beethoven as a young man, c. 1800. Nineteenth century painting after an engraving by Karl Traugott Riedel (1769–c.1832). December 16 is the birthday of Classical-Romantic German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Throughout the 1790’s young Beethoven composed in the drawing-room tradition.…
