Today's Birthdays

François Devienne (1759-1803)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Caroline Miolan‑Carvalho (1827-1895)
Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)
Nathan Milstein (1904-1992)
Alan Lomax (1915-2002)
Jaap Schröder (1925)
Odetta (1930-2008)
Philip Glass (1937)
Stephen Cleobury (1948)
Donna Summer (1948)
Jennifer Higdon (1962)

and

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Zane Grey (1872-1939)
John O'Hara (1905-1970)
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Norman Mailer (1923-2007)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Walter Damrosch (1862-1950)
Lynn Harrell (1944)
Silvia Marcovici (1952)
Gerald Finley (1960)

and

Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989)
Shirley Hazzard (1931)
Richard Brautigan (1935-1984)

Today's Birthdays

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777)
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
Havergal Brian (1876-1972)
Blanche Selva (1884-1942
Luigi Nono (1924-1990)
Myer Fredman (1932)
Malcolm Binns (1936)
Cho-Liang Lin (1960)

and

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Edward Abbey (1927-1989)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni (1757-1821)
Ferdinand Herold (1791-1833)
Alexander Mackenzie (1822-1892)
Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
Michael Head (1900-1976)
Ronnie Scott (1927-1996)
Acker Bilk (1929)
Sir John Tavener (1944)
Richard Danielpour (1956)

and

Colette (1873-1954)
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Claes Oldenburg (1929)
Susan Sontag (1933-2004)
David Lodge (1935)

Today's Birthdays

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Jerome Kern (1885-1945)
Jack Brymer (1915-2003)
Skitch Henderson (1918-2005)
Helmut Zacharias (1920-2002)
Fritz Spiegl (1926-2003)
John Ogdon (1937-1989)
Jean-Philippe Collard (1948)
Emanuel Pahud (1970)
James Ehnes (1976)

and

Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948)
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795)
Maria Augusta von Trapp (1905-1987)
Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990)
Warren Benson (1924-2005)
Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987)
Frédéric Lodéon (1952)
Mikel Rouse (1957)
Gustavo Dudamel (1981)

Today's Birthdays

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
Etta James (1938)
Russell Peck (1945-2009)

and

Robert Burns (1759-1796)
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Today's Birthdays

Farinelli (Carlo Maria Broschi) (1705-1782)
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822)
Evelyn Barbirolli (1911-2008)
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
Gottfried von Einem (1918-1996)
Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)
Neil Diamond (1941)
Yuri Bashmet (1953)
Warren Zevon (1947-2003)

and

William Congreve (1670-1729)
Edith Wharton (1862–1937)

Today's Birthdays

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)
Django Reinhardt (1910-1953)
Milton Adolphus (1913-1988)
Eli Goren (1923-2000)
Cécile Ousset (1936)
Teresa Zylis-Gara (1936)
John Luther Adams (1953)
Mason Bates (1977)

and

Stendhal (1783-1842)
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Derek Walcott (1930)

Lang Lang gives Portland a close-up glimpse at recital

At long last, I got a chance to see Lang Lang, perhaps the world's most celebrated classical music mega-star, play live at the Schnitz on Thursday night. My review can be seen here at Oregon Music News.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)
Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981)
Henri Dutilleux (1916)
William Warfield (1920-2002)
Aurèle Nicolet (1926)
Uto Ughi (1944)
Myung-whun Chung (1953)

and

Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
August Strindberg (1849-1912)

Today's Birthdays

Henri Duparc (1848-1933)
Huddie 'Leadbelly' Ledbetter (1885-1949)
Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977)
Webster Booth (1902-1984)
Placido Domingo (1941)
Richie Havens (1941)
Edwin Starr (1942-2003)
Suzanne Mentzer (1957)
Frank Ticheli (1958)

and

Louis Menand (1952)

Today's Birthdays

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Józef Hofmann (1876-1957)
Walter Piston (1894-1976)
Eva Jessye(1895-1992)
Yvonne Loriod (1924)
David Tudor (1926-1996)
Antonio de Almeida (1928-1997)
Iván Fischer (1951)

and

Alexandra Danilova (1903-1997)
Edward Hirsch (1950)

Today's Birthdays

Fritz Reiner (1885-1963)
Erwin Nyíregyházi (1903-1987)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dalton Baldwin (1931)
Elliott Schwartz (1936)
Phil Ochs (1940-1976)
William Christie (1944)
Marianne Faithfull (1946)
Olaf Bär (1957)

and

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Italo Svevo (1861-1928)
Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943)
Julian Barnes (1946)
Edwidge Danticat (1969)

Today's Birthdays

César Cui (1835-1918)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
John Laurence Seymour (1893-1986)
Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996)
Anthony Galla-Rini (1904-2006)
John O'Conor (1947)
Anthony Pople (1955-2003)
Christoph Prégardien (1956)

and

Rubén Darío (1867-1916)
A. A. Milne (1882-1956)

Preview of Vancouver Symphony concert in today's Columbian

This coming weekend, the Vancouver Symphony will do an all-Russian concert. My preview is in today's Columbian newspaper with a terrific photo of Brotons in action.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788)
François‑Joseph Gossec (1734-1829)
Oscar Morawetz (1917-2007)
Annie Delorie (1925)
Jean Barraqué (1928-1973)
Dame Gillian Weir (1941)
Anne Queffélec (1948)
Augustin Dumay (1949)
Nancy Argenta (1957)
Gérard Pesson (1958)

and

William Stafford (1914-1993)
Benjamin Franklin (1906-1790)

Today's Birthdays

Daisy Kennedy (1893-1981)
Roger Wagner (1914-1992)
Ernesto Bonino (1922-2008)
Pilar Lorengar (1928-1996)
Marilyn Horne (1934)
Richard Wernick (1934)
Gavin Bryars (1943)
Brian Ferneyhough (1943)
Katia Ricciarelli (1946)

and

Anthony Hecht (1923-2004)
William Kennedy (1928)
Susan Sontag (1933-2004)

Today's Birthdays

Ivor Novello (1883-1951)
Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991)
Malcolm Frager (1935-1991)
Don "Captain Beefheart" Van Vliet (1941-2010)
Aaron Jay Kernis (1960)

and

Molière (1622-1673)
Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872)
Andreas William Heinesen (1900-1991)
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Today's Birthdays

Ludwig von Köchel (1800-1877)
Jean de Reszke (1850-1925)
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Louis Quilico (1925-2000)
Zuzana Ruzickova (1927)
Siegmund Nimsgern (1940)
Mariss Jansons (1943)
Kees Bakels (1945)
Nicholas McGegan (1950)
Ben Heppner (1956)
Andrew Manze (1965)

and

John Dos Passos (1896-1970
Mary Robison (1949)
Maureen Dowd (1952)

Details on Lauridsen at PSU in February

Here's the essential information. More to come...

PSU Chamber and University Choirs, Women’s Chorus, and Symphony Orchestra
February 25, 8:00 pm
Dr. Ethan Sperry, Conductor. Hosted by Morten Lauridsen
The Morten Lauridsen Experience

Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs for choir and orchestra, Madrigali and Chansons des Roses for choir a cappella, and additional solo and chamber works.
First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson at Goose Hollow
Tickets available at the door and from PSU Box Office, 503-725-3307, M – F, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

February 27, 3:00 pm
Dr. Ethan Sperry, Debbie Glaze, and Mark Slegers, Conductors. Hosted by Morten Lauridsen
The Lauridsen Experience Continues!
Choirs from First United Methodist Church, First Unitarian Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Orchestra will perform Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna for choir and orchestra, Nocturnes and O Magnum Mysterium for choir a cappella, and additional solo and chamber works.
First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson at Goose Hollow
Tickets available at the door and from PSU Box Office, 503-725-3307, M – F, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Today's Birthdays

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
Vassili Kalinnikov (1866-1901)
Richard Addinsell (1904-1977)
Daniil Shafran (1923-1997)
Renato Bruson (1936)
Paavo Heininen (1938)
William Duckworth (1943)
Richard Blackford (1954)
Wayne Marshall (1961)
Juan Diego Flórez (1973)

and

Horatio Alger (1832-1899)

Today's Birthdays

Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739)
Jacques Duphly (1715-1789)
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
Pierre Bernac (1899-1979)
William Pleeth (1916-1999)
Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995)
Anne Howells (1941)
Viktoria Postnikova (1944)
Lori Laitman (1955)

and

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Jack London (1876-1916)
Haruki Murakami (1949)

Today's Birthdays

Christian Sinding (1856-1941)
Reihold Glière (1875-1956)
Maurice Duruflé(1902-1986)
Mark DeVoto (1940)
York Höller (1944)
Drew Minter (1955)
Alex Shapiro (1962)

and

William James (1842-1910)
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
Alan Paton (1903-1988)

Oregon Bach Festival and Quasthoff

A month or so ago, I heard that Thomas Quasthoff will be coming to the Oregon Bach Festival in 2012.

Today's Birthdays

Jean Martinon (1910-1976)
Sidney Griller (1911-1993)
Dean Dixon (1915-1976)
Max Roach (1924-2007)
Sherrill Milnes (1935)
Rod Stewart (1945)
James Morris (1947)
Mischa Maisky (1948)
Rockwell Blake (1951)
Charles Norman Mason (1955)

and


Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)
Philip Levine (1928)
Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002)

Morten Lauridsen coming to PSU

I recently heard that composer Morten Lauridsen is coming to Portland State soon to do some choral workshops. More details will be forthcoming.

File this under 'I could've told you that...'

A new study suggests that dopamine, the chemical in our brains that's responsible for the pleasure we feel from food, alcohol and sex is also responsible for the pleasure we get from listening to music of any and all kinds. So sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll are more intimately connected than we ever realized...

Today's Birthdays

Rudolf Bing (1902-1997)
Herva Nelli (1909-1994)
Henriette Puig‑Roget (1910-1992)
Pierre Pierlot (1921-2007)
Joan Baez (1941)
Scott Walker (1944)
Jimmy Page (1944)
Waltraud Meier (1956)
Hillevi Martinpelto (1958)
Nicholas Daniel (1962)
Svitlana Azarova (1976)

and

Karel Čapek (1890-1938)
Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935)
Brian Friel (1929)

Today's Birthdays

Jean Gilles (1668-1705)
Hans von Bülow (1830-1894)
Jaromir Weinberger (1896-1967)
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
Giorgio Tozzi (1923)
Robert Starer (1924-2001)
Benjamin Lees (1924-2010)
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
Zdeněk Mácal (1936)
Evgeny Nesterenko (1938)
Elijah Moshinsky (1946)
Paul Dresher (1951)
Vladimir Feltsman (1952)

and

Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972)
Stephen Hawking (1942)

Today's Birthdays

Clara Haskil (1895-1960)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
John Brownlee (1900-1969)
Nicanor Zabaleta (1907-1993)
Günter Wand (1912-2002)
Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)
John Lanigan (1921-1996)
Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922-2000)
Tommy Johnson (1935-2006)
Iona Brown (1941-2004)
Richard Armstrong (1943)

and

Hugh Kenner (1923-2003)
Nicholson Baker (1957)

Today's Birthdays

Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Georges Martin Witkowski (1867-1943)
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Karl Straube (1873-1950)
Earl Kim (1920-1998)
Alexander Baillie (1956)

and

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)
E.L. Doctorow (1931)

Today's Birthdays

Constanza Mozart (1762-1842)
Frederick Converse (1871-1940)
Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951)
Reginald Smith-Brindle (1917-2003)
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)
Laszlo Heltay (1930)
Alfred Brendel (1931)
Maurizio Pollini (1942)

and

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990)
W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009)
Umberto Eco (1932)
Charlie Rose (1942)


From the New Music Box:

On January 5, 1939, the voder (later called the vocoder), a machine that synthesizes the human voice, was demonstrated publicly for the first time at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia by Homer Dudley. On that same day, the Philadelphia La Scala Opera mounted a production of Horus, an opera in 4 acts by Hungarian-American composer Gabriel Von Wayditch (1888-1969), who composed a total of 14 operas including one that is 8 1/2 hours-long and is cited as the longest opera ever composed in the Guiness Book of World Records. The performance of Horus, conducted by Gustav Mahler's nephew Fritz, turned out to be the only one ever of one of Wayditch's operas performed in his lifetime. Umberto Eco (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736)
Josef Suk (1874-1935)
Frank Wess (1922)
Grace Bumbry (1937)
Joseph Turrin (1947)
Margaret Marshall (1949)
Ronald Corp (1951)
Peter Seiffert (1954)
Boris Berezovsky (1969)

and

Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727)
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Augustus John (1878-1961)
Doris Kearns Goodwin (1943)

Today's Birthdays

Victor Borge (1909-2000)
Ronald Smith (1922-2004)
Sir George Martin (1926)
HK Gruber (1943)
David Atherton (1944)

and

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
Barbara Pentland (1912-2000)
Alberto Zedda (1928)
Peter Eötvös (1944)
Janet Hilton (1945)
Vladimir Ovchinnikov (1958)
Tzimon Barto (1963)
Robert Fertitta (1970)
Eric Whitacre (1970)

and

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
Christopher Durang (1949)

Happy New Year!

We hope that you have a healthy and enjoyable 2011. We will continue to post some observations about the music scene in Northwest Reverb, although you will find much more of our writings in the classical section of Oregon Music News.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Racquet (1598 - 1664)
Frederick William Gaisberg (1873-1951)
Artur Rodzinski (1892-1958)
Erich Schmid (1907-2001)
Trude Rittmann (1908-2005)
Richard Verreau (1926-2005)
Maurice Béjart (1927 - 2007)
Bernard Greenhouse (1916)
Alberto Portugheis (1941)

and

E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
J. D. Salinger (1919-2010)
Maurice Béjart (1927-2007)