Todays Birthdays

Paul Paray (1886-1979)
Joan Hammond (1912-1986)
Hans‑Martin Linde (1930)
Maurice André (1933-2012)
Harold Budd (1936-2020)
Bob Dylan (1941)
Konrad Boehmer (1941-2014)
Fiona Kimm (1952)
Paul McCreesh (1960)

and

William Trevor (1928-2016)
Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996)
Declan Kiberd (1951)
Michael Chabon (1963)

Today's Birthdays

Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801)
Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870)
Louis Glass (1864-1936)
Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)
Robert Moog (1934-2005)
Joel Feigin (1951)

and

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)
Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952)
Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

Today's Birthdays

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Johann Schrammel (1850-1893)
Minna Keal (1909-1999)
Sun Ra (1914-1993)
George Tintner (1917-1999
Humphrey Lyttelton (1921-2008)
Claude Ballif (1924-2004)
John Browning (1933-2003)
Peter Nero (1934-2023)

and

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)
Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 21, 1893, in an lengthy article published in the New York Herald titled "Real Value of Negro Melodies," Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak, during his three-year sojourn in the United States, prognosticated that the future of American music should be based on "negro melodies" and announced that the National Conservatory of Music, where he was serving as Director at the time, would be "thrown open free of charge to the negro race." It was to be the first of a total of seven articles in the Herald in which Dvorak expounded these ideas which provoked comments ranging from incredulity to denunciation by composers and performers around the world, including Anton Bruckner, Anton Rubinstein and John Knowles.

Review of Oregon Symphony concert with Pintscher and Bax in CVNA

My review of last weekend's Oregon Symphony concert with guest conductor Matthais Pintscher and pianist Alessio Bax has been published in Classical Voice North America here.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Parry (1841-1903)
Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904-1943)
Gina Bachauer (1913-1976)
Maurice André (1933-2012)
Heinz Holliger (1939)
Rosalind Plowright (1949)
Linda Bouchard (1957)

and

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
Robert Creeley (1926-2005)

Article about the Dane Lam and Hawai'i Symphony and Asian instruments in concertos

A few weeks ago, I was in Hawaii to review a Hawai'i Symphony concert. I had time to interview Dane Lam about concertos that featured Asian instruments. My conversation with Lam is now in The Strad online here.

Today's Birthdays

Hephzibah Menuhin (1920-1981)
George Hurst (1926-2012)
Karl Anton Rikenbacher (1940-2014)
Tison Street (1943)
Joe Cocker (1944-2014)
Cher - Cherilyn Sarkisian (1946)
Sue Knussen (1949-2003)
Jane Parker-Smith (1950-2020)
Emma Johnson (1966)

and

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667)
Nellie Melba (1859-1931)
Kerstin Thorborg (1896-1970)
Sandy Wilson (1924-2014)
Pete Townshend (1945)
Stephen Varcoe (1949)

and

Malcom X (1925-1965)
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
Nora Ephron (1941-2012)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1886, the American premiere of J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (11 selections) was given during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas. The next documented performance (12 sections) was given in Boston on February 27, 1887, by the Handel and Haydn Society, with Carl Zerrahn conducting a chorus of 432 and an orchestra of 50. In both the 1886 Cincinnati and 1887 Boston performances, the famous 19-century German soprano Lilli Lehmann appeared as one of the soprano soloists. The first complete performance of the work was apparently given either at the Moravian Church in Bethlehem on Mar 17, 1900, by the Bach Choir under J. Fred Wolf, or at Carnegie Hall in new York on April 5, 1900, by the Oratorio Society, Frank Damrosch conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)
Francesco Maria Piave (1810-1876)
Karl Goldmark (1830-1915)
Ezio Pinza (1892-1947)
Henri Sauguet (1901-1989)
Meredith Willson (1902-1984)
Sir Clifford Curzon (1907-1982)
Perry Como (1912-2001)
Boris Christoff (1914-1993)
Mikko Heiniö (1948)

and

Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
Frank Capra (1897-1991)
Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)
Tina Fey (1970)

Today's Birthdays

Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Werner Egk (1901-1983)
Sandor Vegh (1905-1997)
Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005)
Dennis Brain (1921-1957)
Peter Mennin (1932-1983)
Taj Mahal (Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr.) (1942)
Paul Crossley (1944)
Brian Rayner Cook (1945)
Bill Bruford (1949)
Ivor Bolton (1958)

and

Dorothy Richardson (1873-1957)
Alfonso Reyes (1889-1959)
Gary Paulsen (1939-2021)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 17, 1846, Belgian-born instrument builder and clarinetist Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone, an instrument that would have a profound impact on American jazz. Over a century later, on May 17, 1957, a computer was used to make music for the first time.

Today's Birthdays

Richard Tauber (1891-1948)
Ivan Vishnegradsy (1893-1979)
Jan Kiepura (1902-1966)
Woody Herman (1913-1987)
Liberace (1919-1987)
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000)
Betty Carter (1930-1998)
Donald Martino (1931-2005)
Robert Fripp (1946)
Monica Huggett (1953)
Andrew Litton (1959)

and

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799)
Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)
Louis "Studs" Terkel (1912-2008)
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 16, 1907, Miller Reese Hutchison filed an application at the U.S. Patent Office for his invention, the motor-driven Diaphragm Actuated Horn and Resonator, for use in automobiles. The patent was granted on May 3, 1910. The carhorn would later be used as a musical instrument by numerous composers ranging from George Gershwin in An American in Paris (1928) to Wendy Mae Chambers who developed a Car Horn Organ in 1983.

Today's Birthdays

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Michael William Balfe (1808-1870)
Sigurd Raschèr (1907-2001)
Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-1986)
Arthur Berger (1912-2003)
John Lanchbery (1923-2003)
Ted Perry (1931-2003)
Richard Wilson (1941)
Brian Eno (1948)

and

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931)
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980
Peter Shaffer (1926-2016)
Jasper Johns (1930)
Laura Hillenbrand (1967)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 15, 1972, the Concord Quartet premiered George Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Rochberg, an established serialist composer, shocked the compositional scene by returning to tonality in this composition. Many cite this premiere as the birth of neo-romanticism.

Composer Elaina Stupper talks about her music - plus a mini review of PYP Camerata concert

My conversation with Stuppler along with a mini review of a concert that featured two of her pieces is now up and available on Oregon Arts Watch here.

Today's Birthdays

Otto Klemperer (1885-1973)
Sidney Bechet (1897-1959)
Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
Aloys Kontarsky (1931-2017)
Peter Skellern (1947-2017)
Maria de La Pau (1950)
Helen Field (1951)
David Byrne (1952)

and

Hal Borland (1900-1978)
Mary Morris (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
Constantin Silverstri (1913-1969)
William Schwann (1913-1998)
Gareth Morris (1920-2007)
Ritchie Valens (1941-1959)
Jane Glover (1949)
Stevie Wonder (1950)
David Hill (1957)
Tasmin Little (1965)

and

Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989)
Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989)
Kathleen Jamie (1962)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1875, the American premiere of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat" took place during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas. The Cincinnati Commercial review of May 14 was not favorable: "The work is difficult in the extreme and most of the chorus abounds with rambling sub-divisions. We considering the ‘Magnifcat' the weakest thing the chorus has undertaken . . . possessing no dramatic character and incapable of conveying the magnitude of the labor that has been expended upon its inconsequential intricacies. If mediocrity is a mistake, the ‘Magnifcat' is the one error of the Festival". Thomas also conducted the next documented performance in Boston on Mar. 1, 1876 (for which composer John Knowles Paine performed as organ accompanist to a chorus of 300).

Today's Birthdays

Johann Baptist Wanha (Vanhal) (1739-1813)
Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812)
Giovanni Viotti (1755-1824)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
Burt Bacharach (1928-2023)
Lajos Balogh (1931)
Anthony Newman (1941)
Dalmacio Gonzalez (1945)
Doris Soffel (1948)
Jory Vinikour (1963)

and

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Rosellen Brown (1939)

Today's Birthdays

Jan Václav (1791-1825)
Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914)
Alma Gluck (1884-1938)
Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Ross Pople (1945)
Judith Weir (1954)
Cecile Licad (1961)

and

Martha Graham (1894-1991)
Mari Sandoz (1896-1966)
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Francisco "Paco" Umbral (1932-2007)

Today's Birthdays

Jean‑Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
Max Steiner (1888-1971)
Dmitri Tiomkin (1894-1979)
Maybelle Carter (1909-1978)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Richard Lewis (1914-1990)
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
Maxim Shostakovich (1938)
Lori Dobbins (1958)

and

Karl Barth (1886-1968)
Fred Astaire (1899-1987)
Barbara Taylor Bradford (1933)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 10, 1987, David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe produced the first-ever Bang on a Can Marathon, a twelve-hour concert at the SoHo gallery Exit Art combining music by Milton Babbitt, Steve Reich, John Cage, George Crumb, Lois V Vierk, Lee Hyla, Aaron Kernis, Phill Niblock and others.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
Adolph von Henselt (1814-1889)
Jacques Singer (1910-1980)
Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005)
Nigel Douglas (1929-2023)
Billy Joel (1949)
Michel Beroff (1950)
Joy Harjo (1951)
Linda Finnie (1952)
Anne Sofie von Otter (1955)
Alison Hagley (1961)

and

James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)
Alan Bennett (1934)
Charles Simic (1938-2023)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Philipp Stamitz (1745-1801)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981)
Heather Harper (1930-2019)
Carlo Cossutta (1932-2000)
Keith Jarrett (1945)
Felicity Lott (1947)

and

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
Edmund Wilson (1895-1972)
Gary Snyder (1930)
Thomas Pynchon (1937)
Roddy Doyle (1958)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Anton Seidl (1850-1898)
Edmond Appia (1894-1961)
Elisabeth Soderstrom (1927-2009)
Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981)
Philip Lane (1950)
Robert Spano (1961)

and

Olympe de Gouge (1748-1793)
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1962)
Angela Carter (1940-1992)
Peter Carey (1943)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 7, 1946, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering is founded with about 20 employees. The company, later renamed Sony, would eventually invent the home video tape recorder, the Walkman and the Discman, as well as take-over Columbia Records, later CBS Records, which under the leadership of composer Goodard Lieberson (1956-1973) released numerous recordings of music by American composers.
and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1824, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") was premiered at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna, with the deaf composer on stage beating time, but with the performers instructed to follow the cues of Beethoven's assistant conductor, Michael Umlauf.

Today's Birthdays

William Walker (1809-1875)
Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973)
George Perle (1915-2009)
Godfrey Ridout (1918-1984)
Murry Sidlin (1940)
Ghena Dimitrova (1941-2005)
Nathalie Stutzmann (1965)
Teddy Abrams (1987)

and

Robert Peary (1856-1920)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Gaston Leroux (1868-1927)
Randall Jarrell (1914-1965)
Orson Wells (1915-1985)

Today's Birthdays

Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872)
Hans Pfizner (1869-1947)
Maria Caniglia (1905-1979)
Louis Kaufman (1905-1994)
Kurt Böhme (1908-1989)
Charles Rosen (1927-2012)
Mark Ermler (1932-2002)
Tammy Wynette (1942-1998)
Bunita Marcus (1952)
Cédric Tiberghien (1975)

and

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Nellie Bly (1864-1922)
Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
James Beard (1903-1985)
Kaye Gibbons (1960)

From the New Music Box:

On May 5, 1891, Walter Damrosch led the New York Philharmonic in the very first concert in the large auditorium at Carnegie Hall, now called Stern Auditorium. The program consisted entirely of European repertoire: Beethoven’s "Leonore Overture No. 3," Berlioz’s "Te Deum," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky "Festival Coronation March" (with the composer making a guest appearance on the podium), the hymn "The Old One Hundred" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (then America's unofficial national anthem although the tune is that of the British anthem "God Save The Queen").

This was not actually the first concert in the building, however. On April 1, Liszt-pupil Franz Rummel had already given an all-European solo piano recital in the space that now holds Zankel Hall. The oldest known program for the third of Carnegie's stages, what is now called Weill Recital Hall, a chamber music concert produced by the Society for Ethical Culture, dates back to October 31, 1891 and included the song "At Twilight" by the American composer Ethelbert Nevin.

Today's Birthdays

Marianne (Anna Katharina) von Martínez (1744-1812)
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731)
Emil Nikolaus Von Reznicek (1860-1945)
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960)
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993)
Roberta Peters (1930-2017)
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (1931-2018)
Marisa Robles (1937)
Enrique Batiz (1942)
Peter Ware (1951)

and

Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Frederick Church (1826-1900)
Graham Swift (1949)
David Guterson (1956)

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682)
Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901)
Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
Bing Crosby (1903-1977)
Sir William Glock (1908-2000)
Léopold Simoneau (1916-2006)
Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
John Lewis (1920-2001)
James Brown (1933-2006)
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012)

and

Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Jacob Riis (1849-1914)
May Sarton (1912-1995)
William Inge (1913-1973)
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

From the New Music Box:

On May 3, 1943, William Schumann received the very first Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Secular Cantata No. 2 - A Free Song, a work published by G. Schirmer and premiered by the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky on March 26, 1943.

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1971, debut broadcast of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" was made with an electronic theme by composer Don Voegeli of the University of Wisconsin (In 1974, Voegeli composed a new electronic ATC theme, the now-familiar signature tune of the program).

Review of Eugene Symphony concert published in Oregon Arts Watch

I drove to Eugene to hear the Eugene Symphony. My review of the concert has been posted in Oregon Arts Watch here.

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Jean‑Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747)
Ludwig August Lebrun (1752-1790)
Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874)
Carl Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922)
Lorenz Hart (1894-1943)
Alan Rawstorne (1905-1971)
Jean‑Marie Auberson (1920-2004)
Arnold Black (1923-2000)
Horst Stein (1928-2008)
Philippe Herreweghe (1947)
Valery Gergiev (1953)
Elliot Goldenthal (1954)

and

Jerome K Jerome (1859-1927)
Dr. Benjamin Spock (1904-1998)

Review: Lazarova and Oregon Symphony thrill with Lutosławski and Beethoven

Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarova has been a hot ticket in the musical world for the past few years, nabbing a couple of choice principal guest conducting positions with the Utah Symphony and the BBC Scottish Symphony. I have read some enthusiastic reviews of her work with other orchestras, and I looked at her schedule. Shes is travelling all over the place with conducting gigs in Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, England (BBC Proms), Brazil, and the U.S. (Aspen Festival) over the summer. So I was eager to witness her on the podium with the Oregon Symphony. That wish was fulfilled on April 25 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall when she led the local band in works by Lutosławski, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, and I am happy to say that Lazarova is the real deal.

It was the opening number, Lutosławski’s “Little Suite for Orchestra,” that stole the show. This relatively short (eleven minutes), four-movement piece received a magically fun performance from the orchestra. Zachariah Galatis’s piccolo sounded a delightfully carefree against a lovely harp-like underlayment from the strings. The orchestra wonderfully shifted to an unrelenting propulsive gear that was joyful. Karen Wagner’s oboe elicited a folk song quality, and Lazarova got the ensemble to build tension before releasing it. Overall, the piece sparkled like a polished gem.

Next came Simone Porter, the orchestra’s artist-in-residence, replacing saxophonist Steven Banks, who withdrew from the concert had been scheduled to play Billy Childs “Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra.” Banks’ cancellation occurred a few days after the pianist Daniel Trifonov cancelled his performance with the orchestra. A friend of mine wrote to me to ask if something weird was going on. I replied that I didn’t think anything unusual was happening, but it was truly odd. Over the many years that I have reviewed the orchestra, I have not seen two cancellations in a row until now.

Simone Porter took Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at an extremely fast pace. She didn’t linger anywhere in the piece. She executed all of the quicksilver runs flawlessly, but it seemed that she would have been given a speeding ticket – especially for her quicksilver fingerwork in the last movement. It was amazing to behold, yet her lightening-fast agiltiy didn’t allow the music to breathe, and it all became somewhat dry and somewhat devoid of emotion.

Nevertheless, the audience gave Porter a standing ovation, and she responded with the third movement (“Sarabanda”) from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor. This time her playing had more gracefulness and a calming effect.

In the second half of the program, Lazarova and the orchestra delivered a thrilling interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. It offered scintillating sforzandos, true pianissimos, and gentle flowing themes. In the fast-moving final movement, the strings created the effect of a flock of birds flying by and Principal Bassoonist Carin Miller equaled that by giving an effervescent and dance-like kick to a devilishly tricky passage.

Lazarova is an electrifying conductor who has a great future ahead of her. It would be wonderful to see her back on the podium at the Schnitz again in the near future.

P.S. One of the cool things about this concert was the introduction that reminds the audience to turn off their cell phones. This is usually a recording in English with Fred Child’s voice followed by violinist Inés Voglar Belgique giving the reminder in Spanish (she is a native of Venezuela). But this time around, we heard the voice of double-bassist Mariya-Andoniya Andonova, who is from Bulgaria. She spoke in Bulgarian, and there were audible gasps from a large contingent of Bulgarian visitors who were very surprised to hear their own language. That really helped to set the tone for the evening, and at the end of the concert, the Bulgarian contingent gave Lazarova a bouquet of flowers – something that you rarely see in Portland.

Today's Birthdays

Marco da Gagliano (1582-1643)
William Lawes (1602-1645)
Sophia Dussek (1775-1831)
Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
Jón Leifs (1899-1968)
Walter Susskind (1913-1980)
Gary Bertini (1927-2005)
Judy Collins (1939)

and

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
Joseph Heller (1923-1999)
Bobbie Ann Mason (1940)

Today's Birthdays

Franz Lehár (1870-1948)
Louise Homer (1871-1947)
Frank Merrick (1886-1981)
Robert Shaw (1916-1999)
Günter Raphael (1903-1960)
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939)
Garcia Navarro (1940-2002)
Vladimir Tarnopolsky (1955)

and

Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967)
John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974)
Winfield Townley Scott (1910-1968)
Annie Dillard (1945)
Josip Novakovich (1955)

And from the New Music Box:

On April 30, 1932, the very first Yaddo Festival of Contemporary Music began in Saratoga Springs, NY. Works programmed that year included Aaron Copland's Piano Variations as well as piano works by Roger Sessions, Henry Brant, Vivian Fine and Roy Harris, songs by Charles Ives and Paul Bowles, string quartets by Marc Blitzstein and Louis Gruenberg, and a suite for unaccompanied flute by Wallingford Riegger.

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Beecham (1879-1961)
Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961)
Sir Malcom Sargent (1895-1967)
Edward "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974
Harold Shapero (1920-2013)
Peter Sculthorpe (1929-2014)
Willie Nelson (1933)
Zubin Mehta (1936)
Klaus Voormann (1938)
Leslie Howard (1948)
Eero Hämeenniemi (1951)
Gino Quilico (1955)

and

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933)
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023)
Yusef Komunyakaa (1947)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1906, Victor Herbert conducts a benefit concert at the Hippodrome in New York City for victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Today's Birthdays

John Jacob Niles (1892-1980)
Paul Sacher (1906-1999)
Margaret Vardell Sandresky (1921)
Jeffrey Tate (1943)
Nicola LeFanu (1947)
Elise Ross (1947)
Michael Daugherty (1954)

and

James Monroe (1758-1831)
Karl Kraus (1874-1936)
Erich Salomon (1886-1944)
Robert Anderson (1917-2009)
Harper Lee (1926-2016)
Carolyn Forché (1950)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Adam Reinken (1623-1722)
Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883)
Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995)
Guido Cantelli (1920-1956)
Igor Oistrakh (1931-2021)
Hamish Milne (1939-2020)
Jon Deak (1943)
Calvin Simmons (1950-1982)
Christian Zacharias (1950)

and

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)
Ludwig Bemelmans(1898-1962)
C(ecil) Day Lewis (1904-1972)
Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)
August Wilson (1945-2005)

And from the former Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1667, the poet John Milton sold the copyright for his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, for 10 pounds. Milton had championed the cause of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament over the king during the English Civil War, and published a series of radical pamphlets in support of such things as Puritanism, freedom of the press, divorce on the basis of incompatibility, and the execution of King Charles I. With the overthrow of the monarchy and the creation of the Commonwealth, Milton was named Secretary of Foreign Tongues, and though he eventually lost his eyesight, he was able to carry out his duties with the help of aides like fellow poet Andrew Marvell.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Milton was imprisoned as a traitor and stripped of his property. He was soon released, but was now impoverished as well as completely blind, and he spent the rest of his life secluded in a cottage in Buckinghamshire. This is where he dictated Paradise Lost — an epic poem about the Fall of Man, with Satan as a kind of antihero — and its sequel, Paradise Regained, about the temptation of Christ.

Today's Birthdays

Erland von Koch (1910-2009)
Pierre Pierlot (1921-2007)
Teddy Edwards (1924-2003)
Wilma Lipp (1925-2019)
Ewa Podleś (1952-2024)
Patrizia Kwella (1953)

and

David Hume (1711-1776)
John James Audubon (1785-1851)
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Anita Loos (1889-1981
Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)
I. M. Pei (1917-2019)

Reference Recordings and Oregon Symphony to release new album with Andy Akiho works

Andy Akiho: Beneath Lighted Coffers; Concerto for Steel Pans & Orchestra

FR-764 SACD Release Date: June 5, 2026

Oregon Symphony

David Danzmayr, conductor

From the press release:

Reference Recordings® proudly presents our first collaboration with the Oregon Symphony, in a spectacular live recording featuring composer and steel pannist Andy Akiho. His works on this album are Beneath Lighted Coffers, recorded on April 29, 30 & May 1, 2023, and Concerto for Steel Pans & Orchestra, recorded on October 5, 6 & 7, 2024. This album was engineered by Mark Donahue and produced by Blanton Alspaugh, both multi-GRAMMY® winners from Soundmirror, Inc.

Andy Akiho, born in 1979 in Columbia, South Carolina, is a “trailblazing”(Los Angeles Times) Pulitzer Prize finalist and seven-time GRAMMY®-nominated composer whose bold works unravel intricate and unexpected patterns while surpassing preconceived boundaries of classical music. Called “increasingly in-demand” by The New York Times, Akiho has earned international acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance. He is the only composer to be nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

The multi- GRAMMY® Award nominated Oregon Symphony, led by Jean Vollum Music Director David Danzmayr, serves hundreds of thousands of people annually through concerts, education initiatives, and community programs. With a 129-year legacy, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States. Its home venue is the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland’s Cultural District, where this album was recorded.

Today's Birthdays

Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1998)
Astrid Varnay (1918-2006)
Siegfried Palm (1927-2005)
Digby Fairweather (1946)
Truls Mørk (1961)
Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770)

and

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)
Howard R. Garis (1873-1962)
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937)
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965)
David Shepherd (1931-2017)
Ted Kooser (1939)
Padgett Powell (1952)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1841, at a fund-raising concert in Paris for the Beethoven monument to be erected in Bonn, Franz Liszt performs Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with Berlioz conducting. Richard Wagner reviews the concert for the Dresden Abendzeitung. The following day, Chopin gives one of his rare recitals at the Salle Pleyel, and Liszt writes a long and glowing review for the Parisian Gazette Musicale.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Martini (1706-1784)
Charles O'Connell (1900-1962)
Violet Archer (1913-2000)
John Williams (1941) - guitarist
Barbara Streisand (1942)
Norma Burrowes (1944)
Ole Edvard Antonsen (1962)
Augusta Read Thomas (1964)
Zuill Bailey (1972)
Catrin Finch (1980)

and

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
Willem De Kooning (1904-1997)
Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)
Stanley Kauffmann (1916-2013)
Sue Grafton (1940-2017)
Clare Boylan (1948-2006)
Eric Bogosian (1953)
Judy Budnitz (1973)

From the former Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1800, the Library of Congress was established. In a bill that provided for the transfer of the nation's capital from Philadelphia to Washington, Congress included a provision for a reference library containing "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress — and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein ..." The library was housed in the Capitol building, until British troops burned and pillaged it in 1814. Thomas Jefferson offered as a replacement his own personal library: nearly 6,500 books, the result of 50 years' worth of "putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science."

First opened to the public in 1897, the Library of Congress is now the largest library in the world. It houses more than 144 million items, including 33 million catalogued books in 460 languages; more than 63 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of films, legal materials, maps, sheet music, and sound recordings.

Review of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley concert in Oregon Arts Watch

Last Friday I attended a concert by Project Chamber Music on the topic of love. The trio of soprano Katharine Dain, violist Caitlin Lynch, and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute created and exceptional performance. You can read all about it in OAW here.

Today's Birthdays

Robert Fayrfax (1464-1521)
Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801)
Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)
Arthur Farwell (1872-1952)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)
Robert Moog (1934-2005)
Roy Orbison (1936-1988)
Joel Feigin (1951)

and

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
James Patrick (J. P.) Donleavy (1926-2017)
Coleman Barks (1937-2026)
Barry Hannah (1942-2010)
Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)
Andrey Kurkov (1961)

From the former Writer's Almanac:

Today is the birthday of Roy Orbison (1936), born in Vernon, Texas. One day, during a songwriting session with his partner Bill Dees, Orbison asked his wife, Claudette Frady Orbison, if she needed any money for her upcoming trip to Nashville. Dees remarked, “Pretty woman never needs any money.” Forty minutes later, Orbison’s most famous hit, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” had been written. And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1993, Morten Lauridsen's "Les Chanson des Roses"(five French poems by Rilke) for mixed chorus and piano was premiered by the Choral Cross-Ties ensemble of Portland, Oregon, Bruce Browne conducting.

Review: Marvelous organ concert given by James O'Donnell at Holy Rosary Church

An exceptional concert of organ music was given by James O’Donnell at Holy Rosary Church on January 26th. O’Donnell’s performance celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the dedication of the organ, which was built by Bond Organ Builders in order to replace a previous organ that was destroyed because of a fire at the church. The program featured works by J. S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, William Byrd, Maurice Druflé, Cesar Franck, and Olivier Messiaen – all of which received superb interpretations by O’Donnell.

O’Donnell has an impeccable resume which includes a 23-year tenure as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey and numerous appearances and recordings with eminent ensembles, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He now is Professor in the Practice of Organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut.

Boasting 34 stops and 37 ranks, the Bond Organ at Holy Rosary was an ideal instrument for O’Donnell. He conveyed the full panoply of sound with his skill and artistry at the keyboard. The first three pieces had a Germanic flair - based on Bach. Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata 29 (“Wir danken dir, Gott”) – arranged by Marcel Dupré launched the performance with gusto. Bach’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor (BWV 593) followed with an equal amount of elan. Next came Bach’s Prelude and Fuge in C (BWV 547), which danced delightfully in the first section and built to a power climax in the second.

The English repertoire was represented by Byrd, whose “Ut re mi fa sol la” offerred an eloquent reflection that was built around a six-note scale pattern (hexachord).

The French had the final three numbers. I didn’t get the hang of Duruflé’s “Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d’ Alain,” which he wrote in tribute of Jehan Alain, an organist and composer who died in WWII. Duruflé used a five-note motif ADAAF and quotations from Alain’s work in the piece. I will have to hear it again some day. Easier to grasp was Franck’s “Prélude, fugue et variation” with its overarching lyrical melody. The concert ended grandly with “Dieu parmi nous” (from “La Nativite due Seigneur) by Messiaen in which three inspired themes are interwoven into a marevlous finale.

The audience gave O’Donnell at thunderous standing ovation, and Cliff Fairley, who retired from Bond Organ Builders a few years ago and is a veteran attendee of many organ concerts, felt that O’Donnell’s performance was the best he had ever heard.

P.S. Apologies for the lateness of this review - life got in the way!

Today's Birthdays

Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709)
Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
Eric Fenby (1906-1997)
Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953)
Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999)
Charles Mingus 1922-1979)
Michael Colgrass (1932-2019)
Jaroslav Krcek (1939)
Joshua Rifkin (1944)
Peter Frampton (1950)
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1956)

and

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Louise Glück (1943-2023)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this date in 2001, the Philharmonic Hungarica gives its final concert in Düsseldorf. The orchestra was founded by Hungarian musicians who fled to West Germany after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. For London/Decca Records the Philharmonic Hungarica made the first complete set of all of Haydn's symphonies under the baton of its honorary president, the Hungarian-American conductor Antal Dorati.

Today's Birthdays

Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
Leonard Warren (1911-1960)
Bruno Maderna (1920-1973)
Locksley Wellington 'Slide' Hampton (1932-2021)
Easley Blackwood (1933-2023)
Lionel Rogg (1936)
John McCabe (1939-2015)
Iggy Pop (1947)
Richard Bernas (1950)
Melissa Hui (1966)

and

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
John Muir (1838-1914)
Sanora Babb (1907-2005)
Elaine May (1932)
Nell Freudenberger (1975)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1937, Copland's play-opera for high school "The Second Hurricane," was premiered at the Grand Street Playhouse in New York City, with soloists from the Professional Children's School, members of the Henry Street Settlement adult chorus, and the Seward High School student chorus, with Lehman Engle conducting and Orson Welles directing the staged production. One professional adult actor, Joseph Cotten, also participated (He was paid $10).

Today's Birthdays

Nikolai Miaskovsky (1881-1950)
Lionel Hampton (1908-2002)
Christopher Robinson (1936)
John Eliot Gardiner (1943)
Robert Kyr (1952)

and

Pietro Aretino (1492-1556)
Harold Lloyd (1893-1971)
Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Sebastian Faulks (1953)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1928, in Paris, the first public demonstration of an electronic instrument invented by Maurice Martenot called the "Ondes musicales" took place. The instrument later came to be called the "Ondes Martenot," and was included in scores by Milhaud, Messiaen, Jolivet, Ibert, Honegger, Florent Schmitt and other 20th century composers.

Today's Birthdays

Alexandre Pierre François Boëly (1785-1858)
Max von Schillings (1868-1933)
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
Ruben Gonzalez (1919-2003)
Dudley Moore (1935-2002)
Bernhard Klee (1936-2025)
Kenneth Riegel (1938-2023)
Jonathan Tunick (1938)
David Fanshawe (1942-2010)
Murray Perahia (1947)
Yan-Pascal Tortelier (1947)
Natalie Dessay (1965)

and

Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727)
Etheridge Knight (1931-1991)
Sharon Pollock (1936-2021)
Stanley Fish (1938)

and from the New Music Box:

On April 19, 1775, William Billings and Supply Belcher, two of the earliest American composers who at the time were serving as Minutemen (militia members in the American Revolutionary War who had undertaken to turn out for service at a minute's notice), marched to Cambridge immediately after receiving an alarm from Lexington about an impending armed engagement with the British.

Preview of summer festivals in Chamber Music magazine

My article about three summertime chamber music festivals has been published in the spring edition of Chamber Music magazine.  You can read about summer offerings at the Music Academy of the West, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. 
 

Today's Birthdays

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Franz von Suppé (1819-1895)
Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977)
Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995)
Sylvia Fisher (1910-1996)
Penelope Thwaites (1944)
Catherine Maltfitano (1948)

and

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)
Bob Kaufman (1925-1986)
Susan Faludi (1959)

Also this historical tidbit from (the former) Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1906 an earthquake struck San Francisco. The earthquake began at 5:12 a.m. and lasted for a little over a minute. The world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso had performed at San Francisco's Grand Opera House the night before, and he woke up in his bed as the Palace Hotel was falling down around him. He stumbled out into the street, and because he was terrified that that shock might have ruined his voice, he began singing. Nearly 3,000 people died.

Review: Vancouver Symphony and McDermott deliver scintillating Beethoven First Piano Concerto

A nearly full-house greeted the Vancouver Symphony on Sunday, April 12, at Skyview Concert Hall, continuing a very positive trend for the orchestra, which is seeing large and enthusiastic audiences throughout the season. But even better news came at the beginning of the concert, when the orchestra’s Director of Development, Hal Abrams, announced a one-million-dollar commitment from one of its patrons, Martin Wolf. That almost took concertgoers breath away – as they realized that the local band is on an upswing. What a terrific way to begin a concert!

Well, such an announcement might be a tough act to follow, but the Vancouver Symphony went local again – this time with “Légendaire” by Nicole Buetti, who is orchestra’s contrabassoonist. The University of Portland Chamber Orchestra had played an earlier version of this piece, but the VSO and Music Director Salvador Brotons gave a the first ever performance of Buetti’s revised version for full orchestra. She introduced the piece by asking the audience to imagine a cinematic action sequence in which a hot air balloon chases a train, and then told listeners to “enjoy the ride.”

The one-movement piece shifted between a gentle melodic theme and a motoric theme that conveyed the sense of moving forward at a rapid rate. An extended solo for viola changed things up a bit before the pace picked up again, and the entire enterprise came to a sharp and solid ending, perhaps suggesting a violent finale for the train and the hot air balloon.

Next came of the nation’s foremost pianists, Anne-Marie McDermott, who teamed up with the VSO for a scintillating performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The long opening statement from the orchestra set things up perfectly for the soloist with crisp strings and well-balanced brass. McDermott took over expertly, delivering passages with outstanding articulation and dynamics and her extended cadenza sparkled and glowed.

McDermott and the orchestra also excelled with the stately and noble theme of the second movement – although it was interrupted by a squeaky reed at one point. Excellent exchanges between the McDermott and the principal clarinetist Igor Shakhman created the feeling of lightness and elegance.

The mood changed with McDermott leading the way into the final movement with artistry that was simultaneously fiery and witty. Her cleanly articulated playing created a lively dance with the orchestra, and the piece finished with a spirited joy de vivre.

Thunderous applause and an immediate standing ovation brought McDermott back to center stage several times. She graciously responded with an outstanding encore – the Bourres 1 and 2 from Bach’s “English Suite 2 in A minor.” She generated a stunningly delicious blitz of notes that left the audience awestruck, and it was followed by another standing ovation.

After intermission, Brotons and the orchestra gave a solid performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. I may have been sitting too close to the stage in order to get a full sense of the dynamic volume, but it seemed that most of the sonic output was in the medium to loud range. Overall, the sound of the strings continues to improve. The duet between concertmaster Aromi Park and principal hornist Daniel Partridge highlighted the second movement. The horn section played with gusto, and the woodwinds expressed their passages with elan. Some entrances seemed a bit tentative and there’s still a need to crisp things up a bit more, but Brotons and forces got across the finish line in a way that resonated well with the audience, which gave the performance a standing ovation

Today's Birthdays

Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729)
Jan Václav Tomášek (1774-1850)
Artur Schnabel (1882-1951)
Maggie Teyte (1888-1976)
Harald Saeverud (1897-1992)
Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976)
Pamela Bowden (1925-2003)
James Last (1929-2015)
Anja Silja (1940)
Siegfried Jerusalem (1940)
Cristina Ortiz (1950)

and

Karen Blixen aka Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975)
Brendan Kennelly (1936-2021)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1906 - on tour in San Francisco with the Metropolitan Opera touring company, the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso sings a performance of Bizet's "Carmen" the day before the Great San Francisco Earthquake.

Review: Oregon Symphony shows French flair with Fliter and Markl

In an evening that sparkled like champagne, the Oregon Symphony transported concertgoers into the French musical realm on April 11th at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with a program that featured works by Camille Saint-Saëns and Maurice Ravel. Guest artist Ingrid Fliter superbly delivered Ravel’s "Piano Concerto in G major" and principal guest conductor Jun Märkl channeled into an awesome innate understanding of Saint-Saëns and Ravel – well, Märkl received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012. The result was a exceptional concert that was life-enhancing from beginning to end.

Ravel’s "Piano Concerto" sparkled and glowed with Argentine pianist Fliter at the keyboard. The propulsive drive of the first movement flowed with energy and with a gemlike articulation that connected so well with the audience that it burst into applause right after the movement concluded. For the slow second movement, Fliter shifted gears and created a continuous stream of lovely and relaxed passages that were imbued with elegance and a wistful quality. Her playing offered a sense of intimacy that was extraordinary, and again listeners responded with heartfelt applause. In the third movement, Fliter upped the tempo, generated shimmering moments, and drove the piece to its joyful conclusion.

Märkl and his forces were totally in sync with Fliter the entire way. The soloist and orchestra maintained a terrific sonic balance so that piano could always be heard – with the melodic line more dominant but never in your face. A highlight of the first movement occurred when the orchestra fashioned a passage that had a blurry, mysterious atmosphere – while Fliter executed numerous runs.

The effusive acclamation for Fliter brought her back to center stage a couple of times, and she responded to the audience’s enthusiasm with a lovely rendition of Scriabin’s Prelude Op. 13, No. 3, which she dedicated to the memory of her parents.

After intermission, Märkl and the orchestra topped things off with a spectacular performance of Ravel’s “Daphnis et Choé.” That was a feast of sonic opulence, even without the optional part for wordless chorus. The huge orchestra included an alto flute in the woodwind section, two harps, a celeste, and a percussion battery stocked up with all sorts of instruments like the wind machine – lined up along the back wall. So the stage at The Schnitz was fairly crowded with musicians.

Conducting the 50-minute-piece from memory, it was remarkable how spry and graceful Märkl’s style is. He gave spot-on cues to individuals and sections throughout the work. His understanding of the music enhanced the story-telling aspect. It was easy to visualize the Greek pastoral romance of the shepherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé, the violence of the pirates abducting Chloé, the ensuing rescue, dawn breaking, and the wild celebration at the end.

Märkl and company sculpted superb dynamics, and a continuous wash of orchestral colors that ebbed and flowed effortlessly. Among the numerous highlights was the silky sound of the strings, the rough dance created by the bassoons and brass, the explosive sforzandos, and sonic glow, creating glorious sunshine that broke through the clouds. Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, principal hornist Jeff Garza, principal flutist Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, and the entire percussion section executed their exposed passages superbly.

To open the concert, the orchestra played Saint-Saëns’ “Le route d’Omphale” (The Spinning Wheel of Omphale), a real gem of that depicts the thread-making of Omphale, legendary queen of ancient Lydia. The strings generated a continuous stream of light and airy sound – but that changed to a slightly dark and menacing tone – hinting at the mythological story of Hercules and some violent goings on. A bubbly exchange between principal clarinetist Mark Dubac and DiDonato Paulsen suggested Hercules and Omphale. The gentle spinning sound near the end of the piece conveyed the idea that things settled down and returned to normal.

I don’t think of Portlanders as particularly in tune with a Francophone sound, but Märkl and company just swept up the audience, which embraced the all-French program wholeheartedly. Among the many excellent concerts this season, this concert had to rank up at – or near – the top.

Today's Birthdays

Federico Mompou (1893-1987)
Mischa Mischakov (1895-1981)
Henry Mancini (1924-1994)
Herbie Mann (1930-2003)
Dusty Springfield (1939-1999)
Stephen Pruslin (1940)
Leo Nucci (1942)
Richard Bradshaw (1944-2007)
Dennis Russell Davis (1944)
Peteris Vasks (1946)

and

John Millington Synge (1871-1909)
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
Merce Cunningham (1919-2009)
Sir Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)
Carol Bly (1930-2007)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758)
Karl Alwin (1891-1945)
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
Sir Neville Marriner (1924-2016)
John Wilbraham (1944-1998)
Michael Kamen (1948-2003)
Lara St. John (1971)

and

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Henry James (1843-1916)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1931, Copland's "A Dance Symphony," was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. This work incorporates material from Copland's 1923 ballet "Grohg," which had not been produced. The symphony was one the winners of the 1929 Victor Talking Machine Company Competition Prize. The judges of the competition decided that none of the submitted works deserved the full $25,000 prize, so they awarded $5000 each to four composers, including Copland, Ernest Bloch, and Louis Gruenberg, and gave $10,000 to Robert Russell Bennett (who had submitted two works).

Today's Birthdays

Jean Fournet (1913-2008)
Paavo Berglund (1929-2012)
Morton Subotnick (1933)
Loretta Lynn (1935-2022)
Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
John Wallace (1949)
Julian Lloyd Webber (1951)
Barbara Bonney (1956)
Mikhail Pletnev (1957)
Jason Lai (1974)

and

Christian Huygens (1629-1695)
Arnold Toynbee (1853-1882)
Anton Wildgans (1881-1932)
Tina Rosenberg (1960)

From the former Writer's Almanac:

It's the legal birthday of the modern printing press, which William Bullock patented on this day in 1863 in Baltimore. His invention was the first rotary printing press to self-feed the paper, print on both sides, and count its own progress — meaning that newspapers, which had until then relied on an operator manually feeding individual sheets of paper into a press, could suddenly increase their publication exponentially.

The Cincinnati Times was likely the very first to use a Bullock press, with the New York Sun installing one soon after. Bullock was installing a press for The Philadelphia Press when he kicked at a mechanism; his foot got caught, his leg was crushed, and he died a few days later during surgery to amputate. His press went on to revolutionize the newspaper business.

Today's Birthdays

Felicien David (1810-1876)
William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875)
Milos Sadlo (1912-2003)
George Barati (1913-1996)
Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021)
Margaret Price (1941-2011)
Della Jones (1946)
Al Green (1946)
Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
Mary Ellen Childs (1959)

and

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1958, American pianist Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the first American to do so.

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Nardini (1722-1793)
Joseph Lanner (1801-1843)
Johnny Dodds (1892-1940)
Lily Pons (1898-1976)
Imogen Holst (1907-1984)
Thomas Hemsley (1927-2013)
Herbert Khaury (aka Tiny Tim) (1932-1996)
Henri Lazarof (1932-2013)
Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018)
Stefan Minde (1936-2015)
Herbie Hancock (1940)
Ernst Kovacic (1943)
Christophe Rousset (1961)

and

Beverly Cleary (1916-2021)
Alan Ayckbourn (1939)
Tom Clancy (1947-2013)
Gary Soto (1952)
Jon Krakauer (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)
Charles Hallé (1819-1895)
Karel Ančerl (1908-1973)
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
Gervase de Peyer (1926-2017)
Kurt Moll (1938-2017)
Arthur Davies (1941)

and

Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549)
Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
Mark Strand (1934-2014)
Ellen Goodman (1941)
Dorothy Allison (1949)

From the New Music Box:

On April 11, 1941, Austrian-born composer Arnold Schönberg became an American citizen and officially changed the spelling of his last name to Schoenberg. He would remain in the United States until his death in 1951. Some of his most important compositions, including the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, and the Fourth String Quartet, were composed during his American years.

Today's Birthdays

Michel Corrette (1707-1795)
Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932)
Victor de Sabata (1892-1967)
Fiddlin' Arthur Smith (1891-1971)
Harry Mortimer (1902-1992)
Luigi Alva (1927-2025)
Claude Bolling (1930-2020)
Jorge Mester (1935)
Sarah Leonard (1953)
Lesley Garrett (1955)
Yefim Bronfman (1958)

and

William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911)
Francis Perkins (1880-1965)
David Halberstam (1934-2007)
Paul Theroux (1941)
Norman Dubie (1945)
Anne Lamott (1954)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1868, Brahms's "A German Requiem," was premiered at a Good Friday concert at Bremen Cathedral conducted by the composer.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627-1693)
Georg Matthias Monn (1717-1750)
François Giroust (1737-1799)
Supply Belcher (1751-1836)
Theodor Boehm (1794-1881)
Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)
Florence Price (1888-1953)
Sol Hurok (1888-1974)
Efrem Zimbalist Sr. (1889-1985)
Julius Patzak (1898-1974)
Paul Robeson (1898-1976)
Antal Doráti (1906-1988)
Tom Lehrer (1928-2025)
Aulis Sallinen (1935)
Jerzy Maksymiuk (1936)
Neil Jenkins (1945)

and

Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903-1967)
J. William Fullbright (1905-1995)
Jørn Utzon (1918-2008)

From the former Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1860, the oldest known recording of the human voice was made — someone was singing Au Clair de la Lune. French inventor Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville captured sound waves on glass plates using a funnel, two membranes, and a stylus. He made the recording 17 years before Edison made his, but he didn't invent anything to play the recording back.

When researchers discovered these recordings three years ago, they assumed the voice singing was a woman's, so they played it at that speed. But then they re-checked the inventor's notes, and they realized that the inventor himself had sung the song, very slowly, carefully enunciating, as if to capture the beautiful totality of the human voice.

You can hear the astonishing recording at both speeds at firstsounds.org.

Preview: Upcoming Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley concert

In its 10th Anniversary Season, Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley turns toward intimacy, depth, and human connection with an uplifting spring residency and concert that brings together three artists of international stature: soprano Katharine Dain, violist Caitlin Lynch, and pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute.

This spring residency is part of PCM’s expanded anniversary season, doubling its programming for the first time with a second residency. The April 17 concert, This Love Between Us, explores love not as sentiment, but as a sustaining force that is inherited, tested, remembered, and renewed across generations.

Soprano Katharine Dain brings a searching musical intelligence shaped by a global career spanning the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th Century, BBC Symphony Orchestras, and major opera houses and festivals throughout Europe and the U.S. Her acclaimed debut album Regards sur l’Infini received the Edison Klassiek Award and international praise for its emotional clarity and depth. She is joined by GRAMMY Award winner Caitlin Lynch, violist and founding Artistic Director of Project Chamber Music, whose work centers collaboration and mentorship, and Ieva Jokubaviciute, a pianist “riveting in every way” (The Washington Post) and celebrated worldwide for her insight, range, and adventurous musical partnerships. (Full artist biographies are available at pcmwv.org/artists.)

The concert takes its title and guiding philosophy from composer Reena Esmail, who shares: 

“Our love, our human connection, goes back so far in time. It is our very foundation. To recognize ourselves in one another is truly to remember that connection.... I wrote This Love Between Us through some of the darkest times in our country and in our world. But my mind always returns to the last line of this piece, the words of Rumi, which are repeated like a mantra over affirming phrases from each religion, as they wash over one another: ‘Concentrate on the Essence. Concentrate on the Light.’” 

Her work anchors an evening that moves fluidly between centuries, weaving together music by Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann, Schubert, Frank Bridge, and Leilehua Lanzilotti, alongside Esmail’s own luminous meditation on connection. The program traces different forms of love and connection, offering a sonic portrait of the beauty and essentiality of our shared humanity: motherly tenderness in Brahms’ Sacred Lullaby; longing and loss in Bridge’s Three Songs; the intricate emotional world shared by Clara and Robert Schumann; and the ache of separation in Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock. Shaped by texts from the ancient saint-poet Kabir, Friedrich Rückert, Heinrich Heine, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Wilhelm Müller, these pieces offer an intimate and hopeful meditation on connection, listening, and what binds us together. As Lanzilotti writes, “these moments can reveal love: joyful, enduring, always.”

SPRING MAINSTAGE CONCERT: This Love Between Us

Friday, April 17, 2026 | 7:30 PM  —  LaJoie Theatre, Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg

Program:

Johannes Brahms, Two Songs for Alto, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91

Reena Esmail, This Love Between Us

Clara Schumann, Six Lieder, Op. 13

Robert Schumann, Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70

Leilehua Lanzilotti, of moments

Frank Bridge, Three Songs for Voice, Viola, and Piano, H. 76

Franz Schubert, The Shepherd on the Rock, Op. 129, D. 965

Meet the artists at a complimentary reception immediately following the concert! 

TICKETS: available at pcmwv.org

All ticket proceeds directly benefit need-based scholarships to provide music instruction to local kids; this particular concert supports the financial aid fund of Young Musicians & Artists, a local summer camp with a 60-year legacy. 

EDUCATION

The residency includes educational engagement at Willamette University, showcasing PCM’s long- standing belief in meaningful musical experiences through mentorship. These events are open to the public.

• April 17  | 9:30 - 11am: Piano Masterclass with Ieva Jokubaviciute

• April 18  | 10am - 12pm: Vocal Masterclass with Katharine Dain

 

Today's Birthdays

Claudio Merulo (1533-1604)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983)
E. Y. (Yip) Harburg (1896-1981)
Josef Krips (1902-1974)
Franco Corelli (1921-2003)
Walter Berry (1929-2000)
Lawrence Leighton Smith (1936-2013)
Meriel Dickinson (1940)
Dame Felicity Lott (1947)
Diana Montague (1953)
Anthony Michaels-Moore (1957)

and

Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857)
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
Harvey Cushing (1869-1939)
Robert Giroux (1914-2008)
Seymour Hersh (1937)
Barbara Kingsolver (1955)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1865, American premiere of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertate in Eb, K. 364(320d) for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra took place in New York, with violinist Theodore Thomas and violist Georg Matzka (A review of this concert in the New York Times said: "On the whole we would prefer death to a repetition of this production. The wearisome scale passages on the little fiddle repeated ad nausea on the bigger one were simply maddening.”).

Today's Birthdays

Charles Burney (1726-1814)
Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846)
Robert Casadesus (1899-1972)
Billie Holiday (1915-1959)
Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)
Ikuma Dan (1924-2001)

and

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)
Donald Barthelme (1931-1989)
Daniel Ellsberg (1931-2023)
Francis Ford Coppola (1939)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1918, the German conductor of the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck, is arrested and interned as an enemy alien after American enters World War I.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Kuhnau (1660-1772)
André‑Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749)
Friedrich Robert Volkman (1815-1883)
Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961)
Andrew Imbrie (1921-2007)
Edison Denisov (1929-1996)
André Previn (1929-2019)
Merle Haggard (1937-2016)
Felicity Palmer (1944)
Pascal Rogé (1951)
Pascal Devoyon (1953)
Julian Anderson (1967)

and

Raphael (Rafaello Sanzio da Urbino) (1483-1520)
Joseph Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936)

From the New Music Box:

On April 6, 1897, the U.S. government granted Thaddeus Cahill a patent for his Telharmonium, or Dynamophone, the earliest electronic musical instrument. Cahill built a total of three such instruments, which utilized a 36-tone scale and used telephone receivers as amplifiers. The first one, completed in 1906 in Holyoke, Massachusetts was 60 feet long and weighed 200 tons. It was housed in "Telharmonic Hall" on 39th Street and Broadway New York City for 20 years.