Today's Birthdays

William Bradbury (1816-1868)
Jenny Lind (1820-1887)
Julia Culp (1880-1970)
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Maria Jeritza (1887-1982)
Edwin Fischer (1886-1960)
Paul Badura-Skoda (1927-2019)
Dennis Wicks (1928-2003)
Udo Zimmermann (1943)
Keith Lewis (1950)

and

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)
Caroline Gordon (1895-1981)

From the Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1600 that the opera Euridice was first performed, at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. It is the oldest surviving opera.

Euridice was performed for the wedding celebrations of Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici. It was written by Jacopo Peri, a beloved composer and singer. He had already written Dafne a few years earlier, which is considered to be the first opera, but that music has been lost.

Euridice is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the gifted musician Orpheus falls in love with the beautiful Eurydice, but just after their wedding she is bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus is heartbroken, and he journeys to the underworld, to Hades, to try to bring her back. He charms the king of the underworld, also named Hades, and his wife, Persephone, and they agree to return Eurydice to Orpheus on one condition: that he get all the way back to the upper world without looking back to see if Eurydice is following. He almost makes it, but right as he is walking out into the sunlight he turns back, and Eurydice is still in the underworld, so he loses her forever. Peri not only wrote the opera, but he sang the role of Orpheus. The climax of the opera came during "Funeste piagge," or "Funeral shores," when Orpheus begs Hades and Persephone to release his beloved.

Peri wrote a long preface to Euridice, in which he explained the new musical form he was working in, which we now call opera. He said that he was trying to write the way he imagined the Greeks would have, combing music and speech into the ultimate form of drama. One of the people who came to Florence to see Euridice was Vincenzo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua. And he probably brought his servant, Claudio Monteverdi. A few years later, in 1607, Monteverdi premiered his first opera, L'Orfeo, which was also a retelling of the legend of Orpheus. Monteverdi elevated the opera form to new heights, and L'Orfeo is considered the first truly great opera, with all of the dramatic orchestration and lyrics that are so central to the drama.

Today's Birthdays

Cyril Bradley Rootham (1875-1938)
Jürgen Jürgens (1925-1994)
John Downey (1927-2004)
Iwan Edwards (1937)
Ken Noda (1962)

and

Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Helen Churchill Candee (1858-1949)
Flann O’Brien (1911-1966)
Václav Havel (1936-2011)
Edward P. Jones (1950)
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958)
Maya Ying Lin (1959)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1930, The New York Philharmonic begins its famous series of weekly Sunday afternoon national broadcasts with a program from Carnegie Hall conducted by Erich Kleiber. The first-ever radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic had occurred on August 12, 1922, when a summer-time concert from Lewisohn Stadium conducted by Willem van Hoogstraten was relayed locally over WJZ in New York.

My note: Willem van Hoogstraten was the conductor of the Portland Symphony (former name of the Oregon Symphony) from 1925 to 1938.

Today's Birthdays

Fanny Tacchinardi‑Persiani (1812-1867)
Alain Daniélou (1907-1994)
Alain Lombard (1940)
Richard Wilson (1941)
John Aler (1949)
Fransico Araiza (1950)
Marc Minkowski (1962)
David Dzubay (1964)

and

Frederic Remington (1861-1909)
Damon Runyan (1880-1946)
Buster Keaton (1895-1966)
Brenden Gill (1914-1997)
Jackie Collins (1937-2015)
Roy Blount Jr. (1941)
Anne Rice (1941)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1921, the American Academy in Rome awards American composer Leo Sowerby its first two-year composition fellowship. American composer Howard Hanson was awarded the second two-year composition fellowship on November 9, 1921. The third fellowship was awarded to Randall Thompson on June 6, 1922. The fellowship awards continue to this day.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Dauvergne (1713-1797)
Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1923-2017)
Steve Reich (1936)

and

Emily Post (1873-1960)
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)
Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993)
Gore Vidal (1925-2012)

Today's Birthdays

Frantisek Tuma (1704-1774)
Henry Février (1875-1957)
Leroy Shield (1893-1962)
Francis Jackson (1917)
Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (1927-2014)
Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
Michel Plasson (1933)
Phill Niblock (1933)
Peter Frankl (1935)
Ton Koopman (1944)
Jonathan Summers (1946)

and

Mahatma Gandhi, (1869-1948)
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
Graham Greene (1904-1991)
Jan Morris (1926)

Second volume of piano pieces by Gary Noland published

Portland composer Gary Noland's COLLECTED PIANO WORKS: Volume 2 (also 286 pages) is now available to pre-order from Amazon at: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1732302391?pf_rd_r=G3ZEXK8X8GVQ02JP3WEG&pf_rd_p=8fe9b1d0-f378-4356-8bb8-cada7525eadd&pd_rd_r=a37cb04d-6b20-4bc6-8a73-a2339bdf4e01&pd_rd_w=7FivQ&pd_rd_wg=z0oyP&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Here is a recording of his GRANDE RAG BRILLANTE Op. 15, which is included in that collection:

https://soundcloud.com/gary-noland/grande-rag-brillante-for-piano-op-15

And here (for those who missed it) is a link to his COLLECTED PIANO WORKS Volume 1 (also 286 pages), which was released earlier this month:

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Piano-Works-Lloyd-Noland/dp/1732302383/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=collected+piano+works&qid=1632589125&s=books&sr=1-1

BTW: Noland is preparing for the release of his chamber works in the near future.

Today's Birthdays

J. Friedrich Eduard Sobolewski (1808-1872)
Henry Clay Work (1832-1884)
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
Vladimir Horowitz (1904-1989)
Sylvano Bussotti (1931)

and

Jimmy Carter (1924)
Tim O'Brien (1946)

and from the Composers Datebook:

This day in 1924 marked the opening of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, funded by a gift of $12.5 million from the American patroness Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who had inherited her fortune from the Curtis Publishing Company. The faculty, providing instruction for 203 students, included Leopold Stokowski and Josef Hofmann heading conducting and piano departments, respectively. Polish-born coloratura Marcella Sembrich. Hungarian violinist Carl Flesch. French-born harpist/composer Carlos Salzedo. and Italian composer Rosario Scalero.

Portland Opera announces Damien Geter as its interim music director

BTW: I interviewed Geter just a few months ago for this article in Classical Voice North America. Take a look at the last sentence in the article!

From Portland Opera's press release:

Portland Opera is delighted to announce that Damien Geter has been named interim Music Director as the company plans for the launch of the 21/22 season. “I think Damien is a genius,” says Sue Dixon, General Director of Portland Opera. “This moment represents the connection of two perfect opportunities: next steps and growth for the company, and next steps and growth for the brilliant work Damien is already doing as an artist and leader in our community and field. In this role, his contributions will shine at Portland Opera in a new way—one that directly impacts our artistic goals for continued excellence as an ensemble.” 

Geter is an acclaimed composer based in Portland, OR, whose growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. As a composer, Geter infuses classical music with various styles from the black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice. Recently, his compositions have been commissioned for Resonance Ensemble (An African American Requiem), The Washington Chorus (Cantata for a Hopeful Tomorrow), Washington National Opera, Opera Theater Oregon (Invisible), the University of Michigan (The Justice Symphony), and All Classical Portland (Neo-Soul). We Cannot Walk Alone for Imani Winds, co-commissioned by Anima Mundi Productions, Chamber Music Northwest, and The Oregon Bach Festival, will premiere in 2022. Future commissions include world premieres in 2022, 2024, and 2025. 

 

Geter is also an acclaimed bass-baritone and actor, with performance credits ranging from the operatic stage (appearing with Portland Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, and other companies across the U.S.) to the television screen.  He is the Artistic Advisor for the social justice-focused award-winning vocal ensemble Resonance Ensemble and is a scholarly author (Music in Context: An Examination of Western European Music Through a Sociopolitical Lens published by Kendall Hunt), and educator. This past season, he curated Portland Opera’s production of Journeys to Justice, in tandem with the launch of Portland Opera Onscreen. Since July of 2020, Geter has acted as co-Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera—where his diverse artistic background, mentorship, and vision continues to impact artistic and company planning.  

 

A native of Chesterfield County, VA, Damien is an alumnus of the Austrian American Mozart Festival and the Aspen Opera Center. In addition to his artistic activities as a composer and performer, Geter has a history with the conductor’s baton. After studying voice and trumpet in his undergraduate work, Damien received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Old Dominion University, and continued on to earn a master’s degree in conducting at Indiana State University.

“I am so humbled to be a part of an esteemed group of colleagues who are shepherding this art form into the 21st century,” says Damien Geter. “As Portland Opera’s interim Music Director, I hope to help shape musical experiences that will be deeply impactful for our audiences to internalize and enjoy!” 

 

Maestro Geter will pick up the baton as interim Music Director for Portland Opera beginning October 1, 2021; joining newly appointed Artistic Director Priti Gandhi as the newest members of the executive team, led by General Director Sue Dixon.  Portland Opera’s 21/22 season is set to commence with Tosca on October 29, 2021, at the Keller Auditorium, directed by Linda Brovsky, and conducted by Tiffany Chang—who makes her Portland Opera debut. Tickets and information can be found at portlandopera.org.  

Today's Birthdays

Johann Svendsen (1840-1911)
Sir Charles V. Stanford (1852-1924)
Václav Smetáček (1906-1986)
David Oistrakh (1908-1974)
Dame Julie Andrews (1935)
Johnny Mathis (1935)
Alan Hacker (1938-2012)
Jonathan Lloyd (1948)
Andrew Rindfleisch (1963)
David Danzmayr (1980)

and

W.S. Merwin (1927-2019)
Truman Capote (1924-1984)
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016)

Violin virtuoso Fullana provides mesmerizing Saint-Saëns to open Vancouver Symphony season

Guest artist Francisco Fullana delivered an outstanding performance of Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor in the Newmark Theatre on Saturday evening (September 25) to mark the reopening of the Vancouver Symphony’s live-in-person performances. His amazing technical prowess and artistry were unfortunately heard by only a sparse audience of perhaps 150 people in the hall, although hopefully the online audience was much larger. Yet even though the number of in-house listeners was small, they enthusiastically rewarded Spanish violinist with a standing ovation.

The light turn-out at the Newmark was due to the fact that the orchestra, notified just a couple of weeks before its season opener, could not use its usual venue, Skyview Concert Hall. This came about because of a last-minute ruling by the Vancouver School District, which has prohibited outside organization from renting any facility under its jurisdiction. Hence, the orchestra scrambled to find an alternate venue and fortunately landed in downtown Portland at the Newmark.

But enough lamenting about circumstances caused by COVID-19. The Vancouver Symphony, which performed a complete season of online concerts last year, was elated to be in front of a live audience again for the first time in almost 19 months. With microphone in hand, music director Salvador Brotons practically gushed about being on stage again. The string members of the orchestra wore masks the entire time on the stage while woodwinds and brass slipped their masks on and off according to when they would play. That all went absolutely smoothly.

Fullana showed complete command of the Saint-Saëns, playing with great sensitivity. Whenever he went to a full-bodied tone, it was rich and gorgeous. With fleet fingers, he executed immaculate runs that were absolutely thrilling. The ending of the first movement gained speed and finished with a flourish that was electrifying. Fullana created a genuinely sweet sound for the beautiful melody of the second movement, and he kept it from being overly sentimental. He also made whispery-clean high notes that perfectly matched the subtle sound from principal clarinetist Igor Shakhman. Fullana performed all of the technically tricky parts of the third movement with flair and gusto and still made the music sing. It was just fantastic.

The applause and cheering from the audience brought Fullana back to the stage several times, and he responded with an encore, a transcription of “Asturias (Leyenda)” by Isaac Albenez. Again, Fullana played the piece impeccably and with terrific artistic understanding. He had everyone in thrall.

The main orchestral work on the program was Schubert’s Symphony No 4, which is known as the “Tragic” symphony even though its sentiment is mostly playful and uplifting. In introducing the piece, Brotons pointed out that he selected this work, because it requires fewer musicians than other pieces from the Romantic era and, as a result, fits well with pandemic limitations.

Urged on by Brotons, the orchestra expertly delved into the dynamics of the symphony with crescendos and decrescendos that kept the music fresh. Briefly accented phrases and excellent, unified strings made the first movement very satisfying. The orchestra gently conveyed the beautiful melodic lines of the second movement with a choir of woodwinds and strings wrapping it all up in a pillowy soft ending. The third movement danced along in a playful way, and the fourth movement, which had a couple of ragged moments in the violins, motored through at a swift pace and concluded the symphony on a triumphant note.

The concert opened with Beethoven’s Overture to “Coriolan,” a highly dramatic piece that Brotons and forces captured very well. It might have sounded better in a warmer hall. The Newmark was built for theater performances and, consequently, the sounds produced in there do not get the benefit of reverberation. Still, the musicians caught the spirit of the piece and expressed its drama with verve.

Today's Birthdays

Jacques-Martin Hottetere (1674-1763)
Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska (1829/1834–1861)
Joaquin Nin (y Castellanos) (1879-1949)
Gene Autry (1907-1998)
Richard Bonynge (1930)
Jerry Lee Lewis (1935)
Jean-Luc Ponty (1942)

and

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936)
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

Article about the new acoustical solution in The Schnitz published in The Oregonian

The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall has undergone an significant acoustical upgrade that is quite impressive. The Oregonian just published the story I wrote about this amazing transition. Here is the link to the article.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Mattheson (1681-1764)
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)
Vivian Fine (1913-2000)
Rudolf Barshai (1924-2010)
Edward Applebaum (1937)
Catherine Robbin (1950)
Michaela Comberti (1952-2003)

and

Confusius (551 BCE - 479 BCE)
Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923)
Edith Pargeter (1913-1995)
Simon Winchester (1944)

and

from the Composers Datebook

On this day in 1951, the Sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" opens in theaters across America, featuring memorable score by Bernard Herrmann that included eerie, other-worldly sounds imitating the electronic instrument known as a "Theremin" (after its Russian-born inventor, Leon Theremin). In the movie, actress Patricia Neal's rendition of the space alien command "Gort: Klaatu barada nikto" prevents Earth's destruction by a death-ray robot from outer space

Today's Birthdays

Cyril Scott (1879-1970)
Vincent Youmans (1898-1946)
Jean Berger (1909-2002)
Igor Kipnis (1930-2002)
Dame Josephine Barstow (1940)
Misha Dichter (1945)
Chris Merritt (1952)
Dimitry Sitkovetsky (1954)
Peter Sellers (1957)

and

Sir William Empson (1906-1984)
Joyce Johnson (1935)
Kay Ryan (1945)

Today's Birthdays

Alfred Cortot (1877-1962)
Charles Munch (1891-1968)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Yvonne Levering (1905-2006)
Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966)
Salvatore Accardo (1941)
Dale Duesing (1947)

and

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Jane Smiley (1949)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1957, 20 years after George Gershwin died, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. It was not immediately successful. It only became famous when it was turned into a film in 1961 and won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It’s based on the story of Romeo and Juliet, but it is set in the gang-ridden streets of New York.

During the weeks leading up to the opening of West Side Story, the news was full of stories of gang violence and racial confrontations. At the end of August, Strom Thurmond filibustered for more than 24 hours to try to prevent passage of the Voting Rights Act. The day before the show’s opening, federal troops forcibly integrated Little Rock High School.

In general, critics responded favorably to West Side Story, but all the major Tony Awards went instead to The Music Man, a bubbly, nostalgic musical about a small town in Iowa.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Nikolaus Hanff (1663-1711)
Jean-Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)
Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Sir Colin Davis (1927-2013)
Glenn Gould (1932-1982)
Stella Sung (1959)

and

William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)

Preview of Vancouver Symphony opener in The Columbian newspaper

My preview of the Vancouver Symphony's first concert of the season was published in The Columbian newspaper today. The online version was posted Thursday evening. The orchestra's home venue at Skyview High School has been closed to organizations that are not part of the Vancouver School District;; so the orchestra will play its opening concert at the Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland. Click here to link to the preview.

Today's Birthdays

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929)
Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)
Vaclav Nelhybel (1919-1996)
Cornell MacNeil (1922-2011)
Alfredo Kraus (1927-1999)
John Rutter (1945)
Marc Neikrug (1946)

and

Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Eavan Boland (1944)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1947, German-born composer Hanns Eisler is questioned about his former membership in the Communist Party by the House Committee on Un-American activities. Eisler had been a member of the Party in the 1920s, left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933, and had been working in Hollywood on film scores and as the musical assistant to Charlie Chaplin. He left the U.S. in 1948 and settled in East Germany - where he composed that country's national anthem.

Today's Birthdays

Jacques Féréol Mazas (1782-1849)
William Levi Dawson (1899-1990)
Jarmila Novotná (1907-1994)
Soulima Stravinsky (1910-1994)
Alexander Arutiunian (1920-2012)
Ray Charles (1930-2004)
John Coltrane (1926-1967)
Robert Helps (1928-2001)
Bruce Springsteen (1949)
William Shimell (1952)

and

Euripides (ca 480 BC - 406 BC) - today is the traditional day for Greeks to celebrate his birthday.
Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)
Baroness Emmuska Orczy (1865-1947)
Walter Lippmann (1899-1974)
Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986)

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Pryor (1870-1942)
Mikolajus Ciurlionis (1875-1911)
Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988)
William O. Smith (1926-2020)
Hugh Bean (1929-2003)
Leonardo Balada (1933)
Anna Tomowa-Sintow (1941)
John Tomlinson (1946)
Vladmir Ghernov (1953)
Michael Torke (1961)

and

Fay Weldon (1931)