Daily Archives: November 18, 2015

If Only I lived in San Diego!

Posted by MaryO on

Piano 6

 

Come January, thanks to the San Diego Symphony, it’s going to be all pianos, all the time in San Diego. The orchestra is collaborating with a host of community partners in an ambitious, month-long Upright & Grand Festival.

With the assistance of its collaborators, the orchestra aims to show as many aspects of the piano as possible during the course of festival, which includes more than a dozen concerts plus community events.

“Pianos can be found in concert halls, night clubs, homes, schools, libraries and department stores,” said symphony CEO Martha Gilmer in a statement. “A pianist can play entire symphonies or a solo sonata. The piano can play the role of the orchestra in rehearsals of great opera and ballet scores, and it is a partner to instrumentalists and singers. The piano is both a solitary and partner instrument.”

Among the orchestra’s partners are the La Jolla Music Society, the Poway Center for the Performing Arts and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

The Music Society will bring Garrick Ohlsson (Jan. 14) to Sherwood Auditorium and Emanuel Ax (Jan. 20) to the Jacobs Music Center. The Poway Center will showcase the orchestra and pianist Jeremy Denk on Jan. 15 (he’ll also perform with the orchestra on Jan. 16-17 and with orchestra musicians in a chamber music concert on Jan. 19 at Jacobs Music Center). The California Center for the Arts, Escondido, will host a performance by Ben Folds and the orchestra on Feb. 5 (Folds will also perform in Jacobs Music Center Feb. 6).

In addition, Combat Arts; PATH — Connections Housing; Urban Discovery Academy; the New Children’s Museum and ARTS: A Reason to Survive will participate in a piano painting endeavor; as will artists Anna Stoa, Grace Gray Adams and Grace Matthews, Christie Beniston, and Sheena Dowling.

Once painted, the pianos will be placed in at least 10 public spaces including Horton Plaza, Liberty Station, the Courtyard at East Village, the New Children’s Museum and the California Center for the Arts as part of the “Play Me: Pianos in Public Spaces” element of the festival.

“Upright & Grand offers the public the opportunity to get involved by performing outdoors at any number of the ‘Play Me’ pianos in public spaces throughout San Diego,” said Tommy Phillips, the orchestra’s director of artistic planning, in a statement. “This collaborative component of Upright & Grand has both a celebratory and accessibility element as we bring the piano festival to the people via the Jacobs Music Center, Poway Center for the Performing Arts and California Center for the Arts, Escondido.”

In addition to nine programs at Jacobs Music Center, ranging from Marc-Andre Hamelin performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the orchestra (Jan. 8-10) to a Jazz Piano Masters: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum and Bud Powell concert (Jan. 23) to Ben Folds performing his own piano concerto with the orchestra (Feb. 6), the symphony is offering a community day on Jan. 16 from noon to 5 p.m..

The Jan. 16 “Hands On: Play a Little, Learn a Lot” event will will present a range of keyboard-centric activities including free piano lessons, demonstrations (including a music app session with Apple Store representatives) and the chance to play a short piece on stage.

The community day ends with a “Monster Piano” performance on the Jacobs Music Center stage: 10 pianists will play on five pianos.

More information and tickets: sandiegosymphony.org or (619) 235-0804.

From http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/17/san-diego-symphony-piano-festival/

November 18 ~ Today in Music

Posted by MaryO on

today

 

• 1307 ~ The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young son’s head is said to have taken place on this day. Gioachino Rossini made this story into an opera.

• 1680 ~ Birth of French-Belgian composer and flutist Jean Baptiste Loeillet in Gent. d-London, 19 JUL 1730.

• 1736 ~ Birth of German composer Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch in Zerbst. d-Berlin, 3 AUG 1800.

• 1741  ~ George Frideric Handel arrived in Dublin at the invitation of the country of Ireland to attend current concert season. Presented numerous concerts in the Irish capital, including the first performance of his oratorio Messiah early in 1742.

• 1763 ~ Leopold Mozart and his two children, Wolfgang and Maria, arrive in Paris on their European concert tour.

• 1786 ~ Carl Maria von Weber, German composer, conductor and pianist, began the era of German romantic music
More information about von Weber

• 1838 ~ Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, British playright and librettist, best known for his comic operettas with Arthur Sullivan

• 1859 ~ Birth of Russian composer and pianist Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, in Yaroslavl. d-Paris, 1924.

• 1888 ~ First Performance of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony, in St. Petersburg.

• 1889 ~ Amelita Galli-Curci, Opera soprano, “If not the greatest coloratura soprano of all time, she must surely be recognized as among the world’s finest examples of true operatic artistry.”

• 1891 ~ First Performance of Tchaikovsky‘s symphonic work The Voyevode in Moscow.

• 1892 ~ First concert at Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic.

• 1899 ~ Eugene Ormandy (Jeno Blau), Hungarian-born American conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra
More information about Ormandy

• 1909 ~ Johnny (John Herndon) Mercer, Academy Award-winning composer, lyricist, wrote or co-wrote over a thousand songs

• 1926 ~ Dorothy Collins (Marjorie Chandler), Singer on Your Hit Parade, sang with Benny Goodman band

• 1936 ~ Hank Ballard, Singer, songwriter with The Midniters, wrote and recorded The Twist
More about Hank Ballard

• 1950 ~ Graham Parker, Singer with Graham Parker and The Rumour

• 1953 ~ Herman Rarebell, Drummer with Scorpions

• 1960 ~ Kim Wilde, Singer

• 1967 ~ Lulu’s To Sir with Love, from the movie of the same name, started its fifth and final week at number one.

• 1974 ~ Frank Sinatra emerged from retirement to do a TV special with dancer Gene Kelly. The show was a smash hit and revived Sinatra’s career.

• 1975 ~ John Denver received a gold record for I’m Sorry.

• 1986 ~ The Roseland Ballroom reopened in New York City. The 67-year-old home for those wanting to dance cheek to cheek featured America’s dean of society music, Lester Lanin. He played for patrons who wanted to cut a rug on the 112-by-55-foot, maple wood dance floor.

• 1999 ~ Doug Sahm passed away

• 2003 ~ First Performance of John Corigliano‘s Snapshot: Circa 1909. Elements String Quartet at Merkin Concert Hall, NYC.

• 2003 ~ Oscar-nominated composer, conductor and arranger Michael Kamen, one of Hollywood’s most sought-after musicians, died at age 55 after suffering from multiple sclerosis for several years. The native New Yorker and Juilliard School of Music Graduate was one of Hollywood’s most successful composers who worked on music for the “Lethal Weapon” series and scored “Die Hard” among many other films. In the late 1960s, he helped found the New York Rock ‘n’ Roll Ensemble, a critically acclaimed group that fused classical with pop and recorded five albums before dissolving. In the 1970s, Kamen scored ballets, served as musical director for David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” tour and began writing scores for film. Although he began in Hollywood working on offbeat films like “Polyester” and “Brazil,” he turned more mainstream in the 1980s, working on the “Lethal Weapon” series, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus” and “X-Men,” plus the HBO series “Band of Brothers.” In 1991, Kamen earned his first Academy Award nomination for “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” the Bryan Adams pop hit from the movie, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” Co-written with Adams and Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the song received two Grammys. The three united in 1993 for “All for Love.” In 1999, Kamen conducted the orchestra which backed Metallica on their S&M project.
Adapted from http://www.oconnormusic.org/month-nov.htm