Classical Music

Hannah Shapero has mailed the following notice: ‘My father, composer Harold Shapero, passed away today (May 17) at around 5:15, of old age, 93 years. He had been struggling with health problems for many years. His ordeal is over and he is now finally at peace.’ A friend of Aaron Copland’s, Shapero made his breakthrough [...]

Michal Kaznowski send this report from the memorial concert for Frances Andrade: The sombre beauty and the matching acoustic quality of Wren’s beautiful Church, St James,s Piccadily, was the setting this evening for what became a celebration of music to the memory of Fran Andrade by her friends. The concert, a ‘Fanfare for Fran’, was [...]

Scott Joplin (c. 1867-1917) was an African-American composer and pianist of ragtime and classical music. He is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which relies extensively on an authoritative biography, Dancing to a Black Man's Tune: A Life of Scott Joplin, written by Susan Curtis and published in 2004 by the University of Missouri Press. Susan Curtis is Professor of History and American Studies at Purdue University. Sedalia DemocratSedalia, Missouri Original artist gives Joplin mural a facelift Posted: Friday, May 17, 2013 by Dennis Rich Stan Herd raised the scissor lift he was working from on Thursday and dabbed paint onto his brush, then took a step back and examined his work before leaning in and adding a few brush strokes of contour to Scott Joplin’s suit jacket. Herd, an internationally known artist based out of Lawrence, Kan., has been working like this off and on for the last month as the Scott Joplin mural at West Second Street and South Ohio Avenue has undergone something of a facelift. Though it has been nearly 20 years since he first created the mural — perhaps the most recognizable piece of public art in the city — he told the Democrat he was glad to have the opportunity to reconnect with the piece and hopefully extend its life for another 20 years.

Sergio A. Mims writes: Here's a new video sent to me from Sujari's mother. It was produced by THNKR which is a educational YouTube channel created by Radical Media "to tell really inspiring stories, to get people thinking and provoke conversation" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18SJYcWCmWo Sergio Published on May 17, 2013 Sujari Britt has been playing music since she was 2-years-old and has been playing cello since she was 4. When she was 8, she performed for President Obama at the White House. In this episode of PRODIGIES, watch as she tackles a piece of music even her instructors say is far beyond her years. PRODIGIES is a bi-weekly series showcasing the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights and the stories behind them. Created and produced by @radical.media, THNKR gives you extraordinary access to the people, stories, places and thinking that will change your mind. Follow THNKR on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thnkr Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thnkrtv Check out our Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/thnkr/ SUBSCRIBE! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...

“Don’t ask me how, I just somehow got an idea in my head about what you’d look like as an anime character.” -Io Kusanagi Very close. Here’s a front shot of what I look like:

I’m in a rock band with a 94 year old Oboe Player!!!

Wagner's two-hundredth birthday arrives on Wednesday, and most of the world's major music cities will mark the occasion in some way. In Leipzig, Wagner's birthplace, there will be a celebratory concert and a staging of Götterdämmerung, among other events; in Venice, where he died, La Fenice has a day of concerts and lectures; in London, as part of Wagner 200, there's a special concert at Royal Festival Hall, with Andrew Davis conducting the Philharmonia and Susan Bullock singing; in Berlin, you can see The Flying Dutchman, in Milan and Vienna, Götterdämmerung, in Copenhagen, Tannhäuser, in Santiago, Parsifal; in Barcelona, a great Wagner city, there's a concert at L'Auditori; Dresden will have a flurry of commemorations next week, including a Thielemann / Jonas Kaufmann concert on May 21; in Paris, you can see Götterdämmerung on the same night, and sing happy birthday at midnight; and Thielemann will conduct at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth on the birthday itself, with a street party to follow. Curiously, though, almost nothing is happening here in New York. Igor Stravinsky, a professed Wagner-hater, would have been delighted to know that Lincoln Center will be presenting, on the day of Wagner's birthday, a Bard College concert entitled Stravinsky and His World (though the Shostakovich would have irritated him). The only live Wagner event I can find is a vocal recital at the German Consulate, sponsored by the Wagner Society of New York; it is sold out. WKCR, the Columbia radio station, will, however, be hosting a Wagner marathon, beginning at midnight on the 22nd; a rich line-up of classic recordings is planned. I will be spending most of the day on Amtrak — so it goes.

The Times has a puff piece on the dismantling of The Machine, that nasty unit set used for the Met's current Ring production, which is going into storage for the nonce. Ho hum, except for the quotations from Peter Gelb, who inserts his foot farther into his digestive system with every comment:Mr. Gelb suggested that the machine had become a scapegoat. “One of the reasons the ‘Ring’ has been criticized so much is people disagree with his approach, not the machine,” he said, referring to Mr. Lepage. “The machine is a victim, not entirely innocent because of its creakiness, but, you know, every production at the Met makes some noise.” He said he had not lost his enthusiasm for the machine. “It worked far more times than it didn’t work, and when it didn’t work sometimes, the machine was blamed when it wasn’t its fault.” He mentioned a moment in “Das Rheingold” last month when a jam on a separate “track-and-trolley” device prevented acrobats from zooming over the stage. Still, that problem forced the crew to stop the machine. He added that while it had delayed that 2011 “Die Walküre,” it had never interrupted a performance. “I’ve been to Broadway shows where the performance was stopped and the audience sat with the house lights on because things weren’t working,” he said. “That never happened to us.”Yeah, that 45-minute delay to reboot the thing for Die Walkuere, who cares?Nobody believes a word Peter Gelb says about the production at this point; actually, people disagree with the approach (brainless) and The Machine (worthless, dull). I'd suggest that he cut his losses by keeping his mouth shut.

James Levine's return to the podium is tomorrow, and the concert will be broadcast on the web. Details from the Met press release:The Sirius XM Radio broadcast of this Sunday afternoon’s MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall concert—Met Music Director James Levine’s first public performance in more than two years—will be simulcast on the Met’s Web site. The broadcast can be heard live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74 and streamed live at www.metopera.org/stream.aspx beginning at 2:55 p.m. on Sunday. The concert begins at 3 p.m. this Sunday, May 19. The program will include the prelude to Wagner’s Lohengrin; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with soloist Evgeny Kissin; and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “Great.”A pretty tame program for Levine: no Carter, Webern, etc.Note: 3 p.m. eastern time. That's noon for us here on the west coast. Good luck, Jimmy, and don't fall off the scooter.

Dr. Hansonia Caldwell writes: Greetings Dr. Zick -- Hope all is well with you. So much for retirement! Our Jester Hairston project is going well. Please share this with fans and friends of the Spiritual! Every donation will help. HELP KEEP AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSICAL HISTORY ALIVE! It is our pleasure to invite you to become a supporter of the Jester Hairston Documentary Project - a wonderful film about an incredibly talented composer, arranger, conductor, actor and teacher that I have been working on for three years with my co-producer, Lillian Benson. We have launched an IndieGogo campaign to raise money to pay for the stock footage and music rights needed to tell the story of this magnificent man who lived a rich and long life: igg.me/at/hairston-doc Jester Hairston was a man of many talents, and is probably best-known for his arrangement of the Spiritual “Amen” which is featured in Sidney Poitier’s Academy Award-winning film, Lilies of the Fields. (It is actually Jester Hairston's voice you hear in the film.) Many of us know Hairston from his work conducting the Spiritual in churches all over the country. But Hairston was also active in the early decades of Hollywood, teaming up with film composer Dimitri Tiomkin as a choral arranger and later as an actor on television. It has been fun doing this, and we are getting some great interviews from musicians, scholars and educators who knew Jester. We are producing a documentary that will inspire students, singers, teachers, and composers of today and tomorrow, and we need your help. We need to raise funds to pay for the film rights for the excerpts we are including. Give as little as $10 and as much as $5,000. Your tax-deductible donation will make a difference! Please visit our IndieGogo Site -- igg.me/at/hairston-doc and share it with your friends! Don't forget to “like” us on Facebook as well. Thank you very, very much. Sincerely, Hansonia Caldwell Lillian Benson The Jester Hairston Film Project The African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians Program of California State University Dominguez Hills and its Georgia and Nolan Payton Archive is undertaking the development of a 60-minute film, Amen - the Life and Work of Jester Hairston. Please visit our website to learn more: http://www.jesterhairston.org