Today's Birthdays

Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
George Antheil (1900-1959)
Billy Eckstine (1914-1993)
Susan Chilcott (1963-2003)
Raffi Cavoukian (1948)
Zhou Long (1953)

and

Philip Johnson (1906-2005)
J. F. Powers (1917-1999)

Stephen Marc Beaudoin new interim director of PHAME Academy

Congratulations are in order for multi-talented Stephen Marc Beaudoin, who is the new interim managing director of PHAME Academy. SMB has a posting about this on his blog here.

Kent Nagano to leave Bayerishe Staatsoper

Musical America cites reports from the German press that Kent Nagano is resigning early from the Bayerishe Staatsoper. Here's the jist from MA:

German press is reporting that Kent Nagano will step down as music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper. His contract expires in 2013. He has been in the job since 2006 and last extended his contract in April of 2009.

According to the South German newspaper Süddeutschen Zeitung, Nagano will leave because of "cultural and political developments in Munich over the last month."

The move has left the media baffled. One report claims that Nagano is leaving because of clashes with Intendant Nikolaus Bachler. Another claims that the conductor doesn’t like the Strauss-Mozart-Wagner repertoire and therefore the Staastsintendant Wolfgang Heubisch had to make a decision to fire him in order to begin his summer "Politpause" (legislative/administrative break) with a clear head, ready for the fall.

All seem to be questioning the Bavarian government's competence in the move, since Nagano has such a strong track record and has been doing well in the job.

Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev accused of child molestation

The Guardian has filed this report: Mikhail Pletnev charged with child molestation in Thailand.

Today's Birthdays

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
Cor de Groot (1914-1993)
Doc Severinson (1927)
Joe Zawinul (1932-2007)
Ringo Starr (1940)
Michaela Petri (1958)

and

Lion Feuchtwanger (1884-1958)
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
David McCullough (1933)

Today's Birthdays

Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920)
Hans Eisler (1898-1962)
Dorothy Kirsten (1910-1992)
Ernst Haefliger (1919-2007)
Bill Haley (1925-1981)
Maurice Hasson (1934)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (1937)
Stephen Hartke (1952)


and

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)

Today's Birthdays

Wanda Landowska (1879-1958)
Jan Kubelík (1880-1940)
Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)
George Rochberg (1918-2005)
János Starker (1924)
Matthias Bamert (1942)
Alexander Lazarev (1945)
Paul Daniel (1958)
Isabelle Poulenard (1961)

and

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
Barbara Frischmuth (1941)
Craig Nova (1945)

Today's Birthdays

Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
Roy Henderson (1899-2000)
Louis Armstrong (1900-1971)
Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
Mitch Miller (1911)
Tibor Varga (1921-2003)
Cathy Berberian (1925-1983)

and

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Lionel Trilling (1905-1975)

Clarification

Readers of this blog should know that I'm not the author of pdxclassical, the twitter feed. I write for this blog and for Oregon Music News and some print publications, and I own up to my reviews.

PS: I have received emails asking about this matter.

Today's Birthdays

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004)
Brigitte Fassbaender (1939)

adn

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Sir Tom Stoppard (1937)
Dave Berry (1947)

McGegan to replace ailing Jeffrey Kahane at Oregon Bach Festival

Conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane has withdrawn from the Oregon Bach Festival because of illness. He was replaced by Robert Levin for last evening's recital with Thomas Quasthoff (review to come on Oregon Music News). For tomorrow night's gala, the Festival will engage Nicholas McGegan He will conduct the Poulenc two piano concerto, Mozart Sinfonia, and the two Quasthoff show tunes. More later on Oregon Music News.

Today's Birthdays

Christoph W. Gluck (1714-1787)
Earl Hawley Robinson (1910-1991)
Frederick Fennell (1914-2004)

and

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803)
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
Tyrone Guthrie (1900-1971)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Andrew Dorsey (1899-1993)
Hans Werner Henze (1926)
Andrae Crouch (1942)
Philip Brunelle (1943)
Sioned Williams (1953)
Nikolai Demidenko (1955)
Paul Daniel (1958)

and

George Sand (1804-1876)
William Strunk Jr. (1969-1946)
Twyla Tharp (1941)

Today's Birthdays

Georg Anton Benda (1722-1795)
John Duke (1899-1984)
Lena Horne (1917)
James Loughran (1931)
Giles Swayne (1946)
Stephen Barlow (1954)
Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958)

and

John Gay (1685-1732)
Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)

Today's Birthdays

Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958)
Nelson Eddy (1901-1967)
Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)
Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
Bernard Hermann (1911-1975)
Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996)
James Dick (1940)
Joelle Wallach (1946)
"Little Eva" Boyd 1945-2003)
Anne-Sophie Mutter (1963)

and

Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944)
James K. Baxter (1926-1972)
Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1888 that a snippet of George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Israel in Egypt" was recorded on a wax cylinder. It is one of the earliest surviving recordings of music.

In December of 1877, Thomas Edison (books by this author) filed for a patent for his phonograph, a device to record and play back sound. It all started with a little toy he made — when you spoke into a funnel, the vibrations it made on a diaphragm engaged a ratchet wheel and made a little figure of a man saw wood. He wrote later: "I reached the conclusion that if I could record the movements of the diaphragm properly, I could cause such record to reproduce the original movements imparted to the diaphragm by the voice, and thus succeed in recording and reproducing the human voice." And he did just that.

In 1888, the Handel Festival was held at the Crystal Palace in London, a royal tradition that was celebrated regularly since 1784. The performance of his oratorio "Israel in Egypt" took place on Friday at 2 p.m., with doors opening at 11 and a cost between 7 and 25 shillings. Almost 24,000 people attended the show.

Thomas Edison had an agent named Colonel George Gouraud who sold phonographs to the European market and lived in South London. For the "Israel in Egypt" concert, Gouraud got permission to put the phonograph in the theater's press gallery. There was an orchestra of about 500, and a choir of at least 3,000 people. The recording is scratchy and the music is indistinct not only because the technology was so new, but also because there were so many voices and the phonograph was too far away. But it is still recognizable as choral music, and it is the earliest live concert that survives.

A year later, the Columbia Phonograph Company started up and sold gramophones for peoples' homes. In 1890, they produced the first record catalog, which was a one-page list of wax cylinders; two years later Emile Berliner offered discs in place of cylinders. Over the next few years, the recording industry took off, and many homes had some sort of phonograph in them.

Today's Birthdays

Napoléon Coste (1805-1883)
Joseph Joachim (1831-1907)
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
Arnold Shaw (1909-1989)
Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996)
George Lloyd (1913-1998)
Giselher Klebe (1925)
Philip Fowke (1950)
Thomas Hampson (1955)

and

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
John Wesley (1703-1791)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)
Mark Helprin (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich Silcher (1789-1860)
Toti Dal Monte (1893-1975)
Karel Reiner (1910-1979)
George Theophilus Walker (1922)
Ruth Schönthal (1924-2006)
Anno Moffo (1932-2006)
Hugh Wood (1932)
Daniel Asia (1953)
Nancy Gustafson (1956)
Magnus Lindberg (1958)
Robert King (1960)

and

James Smithson (1765-1829)
Frank O'Hara (1926-1966)
Lucille Clifton (1936)
Alice McDermott (1953)

Today's Birthdays

Hugues Cuénod (1902)
Wolfgang Windgassen (1914-1974)
Giuseppe Taddei (1916)
Syd Lawrence (1923-1998)
Jacob Druckman (1928-1996)
Claudio Abbado (1933)

and

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)

Today's Birthdays

Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956)
Arthur Tracy (1899-1997)
Bill Russo (1928-2003)
Kurt Schwertsik (1935)
Carly Simon (1945)

and

Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926)
George Abbott (1887-1995)
George Orwell (1903-1950)

Today's Birthdays

Harry Partch (1901-1974)
Pierre Fournier (1906-1986)
Milton Katims (1909-2006)
Denis Dowling (1910-1984)
Terry Riley (1935)

and

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
John Ciardi (1916 - 1986)

Oregon Symphony's president inks another 4 years

Charles Noble reports on his blog that Elaine Calder has signed an agreement to be the Oregon Symphony's president for another four years. This is terrific news for the orchestra because Calder has done a tremendous job of keeping the budget in line, growing the orchestra's audience, carefully managing the endowment, and maintaining a harmonious relationship with orchestra members and staff and donors. Not a mean feat! Three cheers for Calder and the orchestra. This bodes well for the future.

Today's Birthdays

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993)
George Russell (1923)
Adam Faith (1940-2003)
James Levine (1943)
Nigel Osborne (1948)
Nicholas Cleobury (1950)
Sylvia McNair (1956)

and

Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762)
Étienne Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817)
Frank Heino Damrosch (1859-1937)
Jennie Tourel (1900-1973)
Walter Leigh (1905-1942)
Sir Peter Pears (1910-1986)
Hans-Hubert Schönzeler (1925-1997)
Pierre Thibaud (1929-2004)
Libor Pešek (1933)
Pierre Amoyal (1949)
Christopher Norton (1953)

and

Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970)
Joseph Papp (1921-1991)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795)
Harry Newstone (1921-2006)
Lalo Schifrin (1932)
Diego Masson (1935)
Philippe Hersant (1948)
Judith Bingham (1952)
Jennifer Larmore (1958)

and

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1972)
Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)
Ian McEwan (1942)

Today's Birthdays

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Wilfred Pelletier (1896-1982)
Chet Atkins (1924-2001)
Ingrid Haebler (1926)
Eric Dolphy (1928-1964)
Arne Nordheim (1931)
Mickie Most (1938-2003)
Brian Wilson (1942)
Anne Murray (1945)
André Watts (1946)
Lionel Richie (1949)

and

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984)
Vikram Seth (1952)

Today's Birthdays

François Rebel (1701-1775)
Johann Wenzel Stamitz (1717-1757)
Carl Zeller (1842-1898)
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915)
Guy Lombardo (1902-1977)
Edwin Gerschefski (1909-1988)
Anneliese Rothenberger (1926)
Elmar Oliveira (1950)
Philippe Manoury 1952)

and

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Tobias Wolff (1945)
Sir Salman Rushdie (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831)
Sir George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
Edward Steuermann (1892-1964)
Manuel Rosenthal (1904-2003)
Sir Paul McCartney (1942)
Hans Vonk (1942-2004)
Anthony Halstead (1945)
Diana Ambache (1948)
Eva Marton (1948)
Peter Donohoe (1953)

and

Richard Powers (1957)

Today's Birthdays

Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Hermann Reutter (1900-1985)
Einar Englund (1916-1999)
Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006)
Sir Edward Downes (1924)
Christian Ferras (1933-1982)
Gérard Grisey (1946-1998)
Derek Lee Ragin (1958)

and

M. C. Escher (1898-1972)
John Hersey (1914–1993)
Ron Padgett (1942)

Opera Theater Oregon holding auditions for upcoming project

Know any great singers with a penchant for drama, or are you one yourself? Read on then; the following message is from Katie Taylor, artistic director of Opera Theater Oregon.


Dear Friends of OTO,

General auditions for upcoming OTO projects are Sunday, June 27, 4:00 - 8:00 pm.

Auditions are by appointment only, so please drop a line if you'd like to sign up. No phone calls, please! - - I'm really terrible about returning them - - but text messages fine, as long as you include your full name, voice type and email address.

We'll send instructions regarding location and audition format when we assign your time slot.

Auditions are open to singers (chorus and principal) and instrumentalists. Since OTO's goal is to bring opera back into pop culture, here are some of the qualities we look for in performers:

Great voice/musicianship

Acting chops

Charisma

Ability to pick up music from sheet music or by ear (not required, but very helpful)

Ability to sing/play other types of music stylistically.

Flexibility (our shows place unusual demands on the performer ((don't worry - nothing immoral or dangerous)), and singing in a bar or movie theater for a noisy, enthusiastic crowd that has had a few beers is quite different from what many opera singers are used to)

A few specific roles we are looking to fill this time around:

ALL ROLES, OTO 'Werther' (Massenet), 6 performances in February 2011; 3-day film shoot in early- to mid-September. As usual, we're cutting the show to 90 minutes and rescripting it in English. This production updates the story to a small New England town at the end of the Korean War. The production will be done in the style of the lavish '50s melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minnelli. The live production will incorporate closeups and flashbacks projected directly onto the set. Roles include:

Werther (tenor) - 20s/30s - a drifter, pensive and dreamy; intensely lonely; orphaned in childhood, served overseas in the medical corps. Back stateside after the war ends, he drifts to the idyllic New England hometown described to him by a dying officer (Albert), and meets and falls in love with the officer's fiancee (Charlotte).

Charlotte (mezzo soprano or soprano with good low register) - mid- to late 20s - responsible for taking care of her father and her younger sisters from an early age, Charlotte has never been allowed to be young. Before she died, Charlotte's mother made Charlotte promise to marry Albert, knowing he would be solid and dependable. Werther ignites Charlotte's hunger for reckless passion and, as time goes on, also engages her eternal, guilt-ridden sense of duty.

Albert (baritone) - 20s/30s - Charlotte's fiance - declared MIA early in the war and believed dead. The telegram announcing his discovery in a liberated POW camp goes missing, and he arrives home to an empty house. Albert's experiences in the war have changed him from an uncomplicated, sweet young man to a traumatized mess, still desperately pretending to be an uncomplicated, sweet young man. Albert believes that marrying Charlotte and resuming his former life will restore his untroubled peace of mind and make him well again.

Sophie (soprano) - early 20s, late teens - the eldest of Charlotte's little sisters, exuberant Sophie actually is what Albert once was - untroubled contentment, joy in life, ignorance of pain and suffering, an energetic, uncomplicated fondness for festivals and holidays. Unequipped to understand the tragedy unfolding in her peaceful home, the only thing she knows how to do is to try to restore cheer.

Officer O'Mara (Le Bailli) (baritone) - 50s - Father of Charlotte - career police officer; proud member of the fraternal order of the Moose (Lodge No. 79).

Officer Schmidt (Schmidt) - 50s - crony and lodge brother of Officer O'Mara.

Officer Riley (Johann) - 50s - crony and lodge brother of Officer O'Mara.
Charlotte's sisters - four girls, Adele, Jeanette, Yvette and Collette, ages 10-18
CHORUS (townspeople, soldiers, students)

Most of the roles in Werther will be cast locally. We do, however, expect the principal roles for this production to be difficult to cast, and are willing to consider bringing in an out-of-town performer. Written and directed by Katie Taylor, arrangements and musical direction by Erica Melton; film direction by Jen Wechsler; technical direction by Robin Greenwood.

If none of these roles suit you, we'd still love to hear you! Sometimes we choose projects based on who we've heard that we'd like to work with.

All the best,
--
Katie Taylor
Artistic Director
Opera Theater Oregon
www.operatheateroregon.com
Tel: 503 234 4515

Today's Birthdays

Niccolò Vito Piccinni (1728-1800)
Helen Traubel (1899-1972)
Willi Boskovsky (1909-1990)
Sergiu Comissiona (1928-2005)
Lucia Dlugoszewski (1931-2000)
Jerry Hadley (1952-2007)
David Owen Norris (1953)

and

Joyce Carol Oates (1938)

Today's Birthdays

Franz Danzi (1763-1826)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Ernestine Schumann‑Heink (1861-1936)
Guy Ropartz (1864-1955)
Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981)
Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898-1994)
Otto Luening (1900-1996)
Geoffrey Parsons (1929-1995)
Waylon Jennings(1937-2002)
Harry Nilsson (1941-1994)
Paul Patterson (1947)
Rafael Wallfisch (1953)
Robert Cohen (1959)

and

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)

Nicholas McGegan awarded an Order of the British Empire

This tidbit of news from Schwalbe and Partners, Nicholas McGegan's agents:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NICHOLAS MCGEGAN, OBE

Nicholas McGegan, one of the world’s leading conductors of baroque and classical repertoire, has been made an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) ‘for services to music overseas’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list published on June 12th 2010.

British honours are awarded on merit, for exceptional achievement or service; Orders of the British Empire are awarded mainly to civilians and service personnel for public service or other distinctions.

His other awards include the Halle Handel Prize, and an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Gottingen.

Today's Birthdays

Simon Mayr (1763-1845)
John McCormack (1884-1945)
Heddle Nash (1894-1961)
Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976)
Stanley Black (1913-2002)
Natalia Gutman (1942)
Lang Lang (1982)

and

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
John Bartlett (1820-1905)

Today's Birthdays (June 13)

Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952)
Carlos Chavez (1899-1978)
Alan Civil (1929-1989)
Gwynne Howell (1938)
Sarah Connolly (1963)
Alain Trudel (1966)

and

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Bellevue, Washington gets $25 million for new concert hall

According to this article in the Seattle Times, the Tateuchi Foundation is giving $25 million toward the creation of a 2,000-seat performance center in downtown Bellevue.

Today's Birthdays

Vanni Marcoux (1877-1962)
Leon Goossens (1897-1988)
Maurice Ohana (1913-1992)
Ian Partridge (1938)
Chick Corea (1941)
Oliver Knussen (1952)

and

Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Shelly Manne (1920-1984)
Carlisle Floyd (1926)
Antony Rooley (1944)
Douglas Bostock (1955)
Conrad Tao (1994)

and

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
William Styron (1925-2006)
Athol Fugard (1932)

Interact with Cathedral

From the New Music Box:

On June 10, 1997, Cathedral, an on-going interactive work of music and art designed specifically for the internet by media artist Nora Farrell and composer William Duckworth, made its debut on the web. Its primary components are: the PitchWeb, a virtual musical instrument designed to allow site visitors to perform with each other online; the Cathedral Band, a group of improvising musicians who gives periodic live performances from venues around the world, during which global PitchWeb players frequently sit in; and the Website, which features a variety of interactive musical, artistic, and text-based experiences, all focused on 5 mystical moments in time (the building of the Pyramids and Chartres Cathedral, the Ghost Dance Movement among the Plains Indians of North America, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, and the birth of the World Wide Web

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900)
Frederick Loewe (1904-1988)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911-1984)
Bruno Bartoletti (1925)
Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960)

and

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
Maurice Sendak (1928)

Today's Birthday

Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979)
Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970)
Les Paul (1915-2009)
Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
Charles Wuorinen (1938)
Ileana Cotrubas (1939)

Michael Kaiser tells arts world to mix it up

According to this report in the Huffington Post, Michael Kaiser has seen too much of the same arts programming during his national tour of all 50 states. Kaiser, the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is on the verge of completing his tour with a presentation in Boise, Idaho and admits to seeing a lot of fine artistic events, yet he concludes: "But I was depressed to see how many venues I visited presented performances that were entirely interchangeable with performances at other venues."

It would be interesting to know more details on this. Hopefully, he will file a more a thorough report (for the public) sometime in the near future.

Today's Birthdays

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750)
Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Reginald Kell (1906-1981)
Emanuel Ax (1949)

and

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

Today's Birthdays

Leopold Auer (1845-1930)
George Szell (1897-1970)
Ilse Wolf (1921-1999)
Philippe Entremont (1934)
Neeme Järvi 1937)
Sir Tom Jones (1940)
Jaime Laredo (1941)
Prince (1958)
Roberto Alagna (1963)
Olli Mustonen (1967)

and

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Nikki Giovanni (1943)
Orham Pamuk (1952)
Louise Erdrich (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)
Iain Hamilton (1922-2000)
Serge Nigg (1924)
Klaus Tennstedt (1926-1998)
Louis Andriessen (1939)

and

Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
Maxine Kumin (1925)

On meeting John Wooden

Although this blog is dedicated to classical music, I have to tell about meeting the great basketball coach John Wooden, who died yesterday at the age of 99. During my first two years at Pacific Lutheran University, I played on the chess club and in my sophomore year went to a state regional chess tournament at Washington State University in Pullman. The UCLA mens basketball team happened to be in town, so my college roommate, Dick Harris (who was also on the chess team), and I went to the game in which we saw the Bruins thrash the Cougars. The next morning, Dick and I and another member of the chess club (I have forgotten his name) went to a breakfast spot that was attached to a motel. As we stepped into the restaurant, I immediately saw Bill Walton and other members of the UCLA team. They were standing around near a bar (that was closed) in separate part of the restaurant. My chess colleagues and I took a booth in the main eating area, and noticed that Wooden was talking to the WSU basketball coach George Raveling in a booth about ten feet from us. The chess friend (whose name I can't recall) said that his younger brother had an autograph collection of famous people, and he wanted Wooden's signature. But the fellow was too chicken to ask Wooden for it, because he would have to interrupt Wooden and Raveling's conversation. Dick didn't want to do it either. So, after some deliberation, I took it upon myself to get the autograph. One of us had a pen and I took a paper napkin with me. I quietly stood at the table where Wooden and Raveling were talking and, after a few seconds, they acknowledged my presence. I mumbled something about getting their autographs and placed the napkin and pen in front of them. They signed it without saying much of anything, but also without looking annoyed. I said thank you and returned to the booth and gave the napkin to my friend. He was ecstatic. We ate our breakfast, and watched as Wooden and Raveling departed. The rest of the day seemed brighter...

Today's Birthdays

Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937)
Sir Robert Mayer (1879-1985)
Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)
Peter Schat (1935-2003)
Anna Reynolds (1936)
Martha Argerich (1941)
Bill Hopkins (1943-1981)

and

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
Alfred Kazin (1915–1998)
Sir David Hare (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Evgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988)
Alan Shulman (1915-2002)
Robert Merrill (1917-2004)
Irwin Bazelon (1922-1995)
Anthony Braxton (1945)
Cecilia Bartoli (1966)

and

Josef Sittard (1846-1903)
Karl Valentin (1882-1948)
Robert Anderson (1917-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Jan Peerce (1904-1984)
Valerie Masterson (1937)
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999)
Greg Sandow (1943)
Lynne Dawson (1956)

and

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
Larry McMurtry (1936)

Today's Birthdays

James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916)
Felix Weingartner (1863-1942)
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Jozef Cleber (1916-1999)
Marvin Hamlisch (1944)
Mark Elder (1947)
Neil Shicoff (1949)
Michel Dalberto (1955)

and

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

The influence of Ernest Bloch

From the New Music Box:

On June 1, 1925, Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch conducted the premiere of his Concerto Grosso No. 1 for strings and piano in Cleveland. That work was a pivotal composition of neo-classicism and foreshadowed subsequent concertos for orchestra written and premiered in the United States by his student Roger Sessions (Pulitzer Prize 1982) as well as Béla Bartók (1943), Elliott Carter (1970), and Steven Stucky (#1 - Pulitzer Prize Finalist 1989, and #2 - Pulitzer Prize Winner 2005).

Today's Birthdays

Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Werner Janssen (1899-1990)
Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)
Nelson Riddle (1921-1985)
Edo de Waart (1941)
Richard Goode (1943)
Frederica von Stade (1945)
Arlene Sierra (1970)

and

Naguib Surur (1932-1978)

Today's Birthdays

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)
Billy Mayerl (1902-1959)
Alfred Deller (1912-1979)
Akira Ifukube (1914-2006)
Shirley Verrett (1931)
Peter Yarrow (1938)
Bruce Adolphe (1955)
Marty Ehrlich (1955)

and

Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Today's Birthdays

Benny Goodman (1909-1986)
George London (1920-1985)
Gustav Leonhardt (1928)
Pauline Oliveros (1932)
Zoltan Kocsis (1952)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Fanciulli (1853-1915)
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
Hellmuth Rilling (1933)
Michael Berkeley (1948)
Linda Esther Gray (1948)
Melissa Etheridge (1961)

Preview of Vancouver Symphony concert with young artists in Columbian

Today's Columbian newspaper has my preview of this weekend's Vancouver Symphony concert, which features the winners of its young artist competition (held in March).

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Arne (1710-1788)
T-Bone Walker (1910-1975)
Nicola Rescigno (1916-2008)
György Ligeti (1923-2006)
John Culshaw (1924-1980)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925)
Richard Van Allan (1935)
Maki Ishii (1936-2003)
Elena Souliotis (1943-2004)
Levon Chilingirian (1948)

and

Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Oswald Spengler (1880-1936)
May Swenson (1913-1989)

Third Angle travelogue

Members of Third Angle New Music ensemble have been in China to perform at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and other events. You can read daily postings from Ron Blessinger, 3A's head honcho and lead violinist, about the ensemble's blog site.

David Stabler, in today's issue of The Oregonian, wrote about 3A and its trip to the Orient. The end of the article states that the City of Portland kicked in $5,000 to help make this trip a reality. Another $4,500 came from the Oregon Arts Commision, and the Governor's office tossed in $2,500. Plus $14,000 came from private donors. That makes me wonder what kind of funds might come to the Oregon Symphony to assist them on its trip to Carnegie Hall next May. The orchestra has already raised $175,000, but still has a ways to go.

Today's Birthdays

Jacques Halévy (1799-1862)
Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882)
Claude Champagne (1891-1965)
Ernst Wallfisch (1920-1979)
Thea Musgrave (1928)
Donald Keats (1929)
Elizabeth Harwood (1938-1990)
James Wood (1953)

and

Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876)
Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
John Cheever (1912-1982)
John Barth (1930)
Linda Pastan (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Al Jolson (1886-1950)
Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962)
Vlado Perlemuter (1904-2002)
François‑Louis Deschamps (1919-2004)
Peggy Lee (1920-2002)
Joseph Horovitz (1926)
Teresa Stratas (1938)
William Bolcom (1938)
Howard Goodall (1958)
Armando Bayolo (1973)

and

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
Alan Hollinghurst (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas "Blind Tom" Bethune (1849 - 1908)
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Beverly Sills (1929-2007)
Franco Bonisolli (1937-2003)

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
Raymond Carver (1938-1988)

Notes on being a critic

Sometimes, like last Friday, there are too many good concerts to attend. With a choice of performances by 45th Parallel, Fear No Music, and Opera Theater Oregon's Hercules vs. Vampires, you can't go wrong. But I didn't make it to any of these shows, because I had some extra writing to do, and I'm trying to stop my habit of writing every evening until 1 or 2 in the morning (which is really getting old). So, the only concert that I attended over the weekend was the exceptional performance by the Oregon Symphony, and my review is in Oregon Music News.

Portland has so many fine musicians (including singers!) that it's hard to keep up with everyone. I plan to do as well as I can and that will include interviews for Oregon Music News.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

William Trevor (1928)
Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996)
Declan Kiberd (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801)
Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
Alicia de Larrocha (1923)
Robert Moog (1934-2005)
Joel Feigin (1951)

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Peter Matthiessen (1927)

Articles for Oregon Arts Commission finally posted

Last year, I got a contract to write several articles for the Oregon Arts Commission and finished them last summer, but in the meantime the OAC decided to redo its entire website. Well, now the new OAC web site is up, and almost all of my writings for the OAC are finally posted. Here are the links:

Historic and Contemporary Ceremonial Regalia of Native Oregon on Tour

Profile of poet Crystal Williams

OAC fellowship recipient George Taylor talks about playwriting

Oregon! Oregon! 2009 celebrates our state's 150th birthday

Deaf student wins poetry recitation contest sponsored by the OAC

The Henna Project gives thoughts a visual presence in Smith Hall

Robin Goodrin Nordli takes Shakespeare on the road big time

Ellen Waterston -- that rare breed of writer

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Hephzibah Menuhin (1920-1981)
George Hurst (1926)
Karl Anton Rikenbacher (1940)
Joe Cocker (1944)
Sue Knussen (1949-2003)
Jane Parker-Smith (1950)
Emma Johnson (1966)

and

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

Reviews so far...

I posted my review of the Portland Baroque concert that featured Gonzalo X. Ruiz in on Oregon Music News here.

My review of Seattle Opera's "Amelia" in on Oregon Music News here.

Review of the Oregon Symphony concert with Arnaldo Cohen is now posted here.

Today's Birthdays

Dame Nellie Melba (1859-1931)
Kerstin Thorborg (1896-1970)
Sandy Wilson (1924)
Pete Townshend (1945)
Stephen Varcoe (1949)

and

Nora Ephron (1941)

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)
Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)

Hercules vs. Vampires review up at The Gathering Note

I've reviewed Filmusik and Opera Theater Oregon productions a number of times for NW Reverb and at my blog MusicalOozings, so for their latest endeavor I posted an exclusive review at the Gathering Note, a great classical music blog based in Seattle. You can read it here.

More reviews to come

While Lorin covered the first of three Beethoven concerts, I went to Seattle on Saturday to attend Seattle Opera's "Amelia" (a outstanding production btw), I also went to Portland Baroque's exceptional concert on Friday evening, and attended the Oregon Symphony's incredible concert last night. I'll be at the Oregon Symphony concert tonight as well. I have been too busy in the meantime to get my reviews done for Oregon Music News, but I plan to have the PBO review done today, for sure.

Today's Birthdays

Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Sandor Vegh (1905-1997)
Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005)
Dennis Brain (1921-1957)
Taj Mahal (1942)
Paul Crossley (1944)
Brian Rayner Cook (1945)
Bill Bruford (1949)
Ivor Bolton (1958)

and

Alfonso Reyes (1889-1959)

Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Oregon Symphony, Arnaldo Cohen

I reviewed last night's concert of pianist Arnaldo Cohen playing the second Beethoven piano concerto with the Oregon Symphony, as well as Cohen with Jun Iwasaki and Quirine Viersen in the Beethoven 'Triple' concerto. The review appears here at Oregon Music News.

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

Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)
Louis "Studs" Terkel (1912-2008)
Adrienne Rich (1929)

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Notes on music critics

Last weekend I spent a few days in Dallas, Texas with about 30 other music critics. All of us are members of the Music Critics Association of North America, and we try to gather once a year to tune up our ears and compare notes. I find it very interesting to listen to orchestras, chamber ensembles, choirs, and opera companies that are not in Portland or do not come through Portland on tour. Through the MCANA's annual meetings I have heard the following:

- Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen (in Disney Hall) (2005)
- Los Angeles Opera Company with Kent Nagano conducting Falstaff (featuring Byrn Terffel) (2005)
- Canadian Opera in a complete Ring Cycle with Richard Bradshaw conducting in Toronto's new opera house (2006)
- Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra with conductor Emmanuel Villaume (2007)
- Spoleto Festival USA Opera's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with Emmanuel Villaume conducting (2007)
- Spoleto Festival USA chamber music (including St. Lawrence String Quartet) (2007)
- Colorado Symphony Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane conducting (2008)
- Colorado Opera with Marin Alsop conducting Nixon in China (2008)
- Central City Opera with Damian Iorio conducting The Rape of Lucretia (2008)
- Mostly Mozart Festival Opera with John Adams conducting A Flowering Tree (2009)
- Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä conducting (2009)
- Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Robin Ticciati (MM Fest 2009)
- Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden conducting (2010)
- Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra with Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting (2010)
- The Dallas Opera's production of Moby Dick (featuring Ben Heppner)(2010)

At the annual meetings, my colleagues and I get tours of halls (Disney Hall, Four Seasons Centre (Toronto), Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Meyerson Hall, Winspear Opera House, meet orchestra composers like John Adams, conductors like Jaap van Zweden and Graeme Jenkins, and administrators like Deborah Borda and Keith Cerny. This is really a terrific way to get a more in-depth and behind the scenes look at what it takes to create music. We usually get a number of recordings and sometimes books (eg., John Adams's Hallelujah Junction).

The MCANA also offers some opportunities (including travel, hotel, and meals) to cover festivals and competitions. I was selected to write about the Van Cliburn Competition last year. The critic's organization has also provided some excellent leads to written work for magazines, including a current opportunity to write a few things for the Grove Dictionary. The MCANA is also developing a new online magazine that will offer a lot of national exposure for its members.

All in all, MCANA is an organization that offers a lot to classical music writers. Next year, we are going to meet in June in San Francisco during San Francisco Opera's production of the Ring Cycle.

---
PS: For my reviews of this year's music in Dallas and Fort Worth, go to Oregon Music News.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Mary Morris (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
Constantin Silverstri (1913-1969)
Gareth Morris (1920)
Jane Glover (1949)
Stevie Wonder (1950)
David Hill (1957)
Tasmin Little (1965)

and

Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989)
Kathleen Jamie (1962)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Viotti (1755-1824)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
Burt Bacharach (1928)
Anthony Newman (1941)
Dalmacio Gonzalez (1945)
Doris Soffel (1948)

and

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Dvorak Cello Concerto Review up at OMN

My first piece for Oregon Music News posted today; it's a review of last weekend's Oregon Symphony concert featuring Quirine Viersen in the Dvorak Cello Concerto. You can read it by clicking the link.

Today's Birthdays

Alma Gluck (1884-1938)
Irving Berlin (1888-1939)
William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Ross Pople (1945)
Judith Weir (1954)
Cecile Licad (1961)

and

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Francisco "Paco" Umbral (1932-2007)

Profile of OTO's Erica Melton in the Star

I've published an article about Erica Melton, the music director of Opera Theater Oregon, in the May issue of The Hollywood Star newspaper. The profile tells of Erica's involvement in OTO's current production, Hercules vs. Vampires and about her background in music. BTW: Hercules vs. Vampires opens at the Hollywood Theatre on May 14th and will run on the May 18, 20, and 21st.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005)
Nigel Douglas (1929)
Billy Joel (1949)
Michel Beroff (1950)
Linda Finnie (1952)
Anne Sofie von Otter (1955)
Alison Hagley (1961)

and

James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)
Charles Simic (1938)
Joy Harjo (1951)

Avast and a-hoy - Moby Dick at the Dallas Opera tonight

Tonight the music critics will hear Dallas Opera's production of Moby Dick, a new opera by Jake Heggie with the libretto by Gene Scheer. Ben Heppner is the one-legged Captain Ahab. Others in the cast are baritone Morgan Smith as Starbuck; tenor Stephen Costello as Greenhorn; bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu as Queequeg; soprano Talise Trevigne as Pip; tenor Matthew O'Neill as Flask and baritone Robert Orth as Stubb. The cast will be conducted by Patrick Summers and staged by Leonard Foglia. This new co-production will be designed by two-time Tony Award-nominee Robert Brill and award-winning Broadway veterans Jane Greenwood and Donald Holder. More later.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Forth Worth Symphony is on tap this evening

This evening, the critics will hear the Forth Worth Symphony under its conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya. The program features Sarah Chang in Brahms Violin Concerto and Mussorgsky/Ravel's Pricutres at an Exhibition.

Yestday we got a tour DSO's hall (Meyerson Hall), including a view of the adjustable acoutical panels and draps on the top-most floor. This is an IM Pei-designed hall (they completed it in 1989 at a cost of $89 million), but the acoustic were done by Russell Johnson and the sound at the concert I heard last night was warm and had a slight reverb.

We have a meeting this morning at the new Winspear Opera House and then lunch at the Dallas Museum of Art with Jaap van Zweden as our special guest.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1962)

Will get an ear on the Dallas Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, and Dallas Opera

I've just arrived in Dallas, Texas to participate in the annual meeting of of the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA). Yes, it's time to compare notes and swap stories with my fellow scribblers in the field of classical music. We will hear the Dallas Symphony conducted by its MD Jaap van Zweden this evening. Here's the program:

- Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence
- Mozart: Concerto No. 10 for two pianos - ArthurJussen, Lucas Jussen
- Ravel: Mother Goose

I've heard and read a lot of good things about van Zweden and will meet him tomorrow, because he's the special guest at the MCANA lunch.

Over the next couple of days I'll also hear the Fort Worth Symphony and see the new Moby Dick opera that Dallas Opera has mounted.

Today's Birthdays

Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973)
Godfrey Ridout (1918-1984)
Murry Sidlin (1940)
Ghena Dimitrova (1941-2005)
Nathalie Stutzmann (1965)

and

Robert Peary (1856-1920)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Randall Jarrell (1914-1965)

David Stabler switches desks - is new arts writer at the Oregonian

David Stabler, the Oregonian's classical music critic, has announced that he will becine one of the paper's arts writers. James McQuillen will take over the classical music criticism. We are going to miss Stabler's reviews and wish him the best in his new beat. McQuillen is a fine writer, and we are looking forward to his critiques.

Today's Birthdays

Hans Pfizner (1869-1947)
Maria Caniglia (1905-1979)
Kurt Böhme (1908-1989)
Charles Rosen (1927)
Mark Ermler (1932)
Tammy Wynette (1942-1998)
Bunita Marcus (1952)
Cédric Tiberghien (1975)

and

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

David Buck wins LA Phil audtition - Dudamel-land is in the future

Congratualtions are in order for Oregon Symphony's David Buck, who has just won the audition for the position of principal flutist with the LA Philharmonic. Buck has been a terrific principal flutist here for the last few years. Now he will be playing for Mr. Dudamel in the near future! Way to go! The news about this is on the Oregon Symphony's facebook page and in the Oregonian web site.

Today's Birthdays

Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731)
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960)
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993)
Roberta Peters (1930)
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (1931)
Marisa Robles (1937)
Enrique Batiz (1942)
Peter Ware (1951)

and

Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Frederick Church (1826-1900)
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)
James Brown (1933-2006)
Jonathan Harvey (1939)

and

Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527)
May Sarton (1912-1995)

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Jean‑Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747)
Alan Rawstorned (1905-1971)
Jean‑Marie Auberson (1920-2004)
Arnold Black (1923-2000)
Philippe Herreweghe (1947)
Valery Gergiev (1953)
Elliot Goldenthal (1954)

and

Jerome K Jerome (1859-1927)

Broken window at Columbia Symphony concert

I forgot to mention (in my posting yesterday) that one of the window panes on the east side of the First United Methodist broke during the first movement of the Brahms 2nd Symphony at last night's Columbia Symphony concert. I talked to a fellow who was sweeping up the glass after the concert, and he said that he didn't find a rock anywhere. He guessed that the glass broke after someone (outside the building) put his/her elbow against the glass. I saw that @pdxclassical mentioned that glass incident.

Today's Birthdays

Sophia Dussek (1775-1831)
Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
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)

Overflow audience at Columbia Symphony concert

Tonight's concert by the Columbia Symphony was a real tribute to Portland's music community, because the nave of First United Methodist Church was so packed that even extra seating, brought in at the last moment, could not accommodate the crowd, and at least 20 people had to stand through an outstanding performance of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, which featured violinist Inés Voglar and violist Joël Belgique. Among the musical cognoscenti in the audience were many members of the Oregon Symphony such as Jun Iwasaki, Nancy Ives, Stephen Price, Karen Wagner, Greg Ewer, Fumino Ando, and Jennifer Arnold. Others notables that I saw were conductor Keith Clark, pianist Cary Lewis, and violinist Tatiana Kolchanova.

I'll write a review of the concert (which included Brahms Second Symphony) for Oregon Music News tomorrow.

Today's Birthdays

Franz Lehár (1870-1948)
Louise Homer (1871-1947)
Frank Merrick (1886-1981)
Robert Shaw (1916-1999)
Günter Raphael (1903-1960)
Willie Nelson (1933)
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)