Tag Archives: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

January 7 ~ On This Day in Music

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. 1762 ~ The first public concert by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 6 and his sister Nannerl, age 12 was on this day.

. 1857  ~ First performance of Franz Liszt‘s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A, in Weimar. Liszt conducted and the soloist was his pupil, Hans von Bronsart.

. 1876 ~ William Yeates Hurlstone, composer

. 1899 ~ Francis Poulenc, French composer
More information about Poulenc

. 1922 ~ Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist
More information about Rampal

. 1924 ~ George Gershwin completed the incomparable score of Rhapsody in Blue. Incidentally, George was only 26 years old at the time. George didn’t even have an interest in music until his family got him a piano when he was twelve. Nine years later he had his first hit, Swanee, with lyrics written by Irving Caesar. Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned in 1924 by Paul Whiteman and then orchestrated by Ferde Grofe of Grand Canyon Suite fame. This first orchestration of Gershwin’s score was never quite right. Grofe’s style didn’t gel with Gershwin’s. Several other artists attempted to do justice to Rhapsody in Blue, never quite making the grade. Some thirty years later, orchestra leader Hugo Winterhalter with Byron Janis at the piano did a jazzed up version; pretty close to the way Gershwin had described his piece. However, it wasn’t until Gershwin’s original solo piano was accompanied by a jazz band led by Michael Tilson Thomas, that the true arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue was heard. No matter how you hear it, Rhapsody in Blue will remain the signature of one of the most influential of composers, songwriters and pianists in American music history.

. 1926 ~ A famous marriage that endured for many years is remembered this day. It’s the wedding anniversary of George Burns and Gracie Allen who were married by a Justice of the Peace in Cleveland, Ohio.

. 1930 ~ Jack Greene, The Green Giant, CMA Male Vocalist, Album, Single and Song of the Year

. 1940 ~ The gate to Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch opened. The ‘singing cowboy’ would entertain on CBS radio for the next 16 years.

. 1941 ~ Good-for-Nothin’-Joe was recorded by the sultry Lena Horne. She sang the classic song with Charlie Barnet and his orchestra on Bluebird Records.

. 1942 ~ Paul Revere, Singer, keyboards with Paul Revere and The Raiders

. 1946 ~ Jann Wenner, Publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine

. 1947 ~ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts

. 1948 ~ Kenny Loggins, American pop-rock singer, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and guitarist

. 1950 ~ Ernest Tubb made his first appearance at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. Ernest also did a 15-minute radio program each day that became very popular in West Texas. So popular, in fact, that he bought the radio station that had aired the program for years and years: KGKL in San Angelo, Texas.

. 1955 ~ The first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera was Marian Anderson, who appeared as Ulrica in Verdi’s “The Masked Ball”.

. 1958 ~ The Flying V guitar, which is a favorite of rock musicians, was patented this day by the Gibson Guitar Company.

. 1985 ~ Yul Brynner returned to the Broadway stage this night as “The King and I” returned to where Yul first began his reign, 33 years before. Through his career to that date, Brynner appeared in 4,434 shows without missing a single performance.

. 2002 ~ Jon Lee, drummer for the Welsh rock band Feeder, died at the age of 33. The trio’s biggest hit single was the 2001 single Buck Rogers, which reached No. 5 on the British charts. Feeder released its first full-length album, “Polythene,” in England in 1997; it was released in the United States in early 1998. The band released its third album, “Echo Park,” last year, which debuted at No. 5 in Britain and swiftly sold more than 100,000 copies.

. 2002 ~ Nauman Steele Scott III, co-owner of Black Top Records which gained an international reputation for its blues, rhythm-and-blues and zydeco recordings, died. Scott suffered from heart disease. He was 56. Scott owned Black Top Records with his brother, Hammond. The label featured such artists as Earl King, Snooks Eaglin and the Neville Brothers. Black Top releases picked up two Grammy nominations and have won more than 30 W.C. Handy Blues Awards.

Put Mozart on the Map

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Show your support for revitalizing music education!
Join the 1st worldwide virtual recital celebrating Mozart’s birthday on January 27th.

“Putting Mozart on the Map” marks the 1st event in a new global campaign to inspire and engage music students by coupling classical music with today’s technology, and honoring Mozart in a way that’s never been done before.

Every musician – concert pianist or 2nd-grader – playing a score on the Wolfie app on January 27th will automatically appear on an interactive world map at, www.wolfiepiano.com. Invite your friends, teachers, and music students!

1. Click “Join” at the top of this page.
2. Download the Wolfie app for free (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wolfie-for-piano/id868060859?mt=8).
3. On January 27th play any score on the Wolfie app and automatically appear on the map atwww.wolfiepiano.com. See musicians worldwide playing with you!
5. Share your piece and invite friends and students to join the celebration!

What’s Wolfie?
Wolfie is the premier music education platform for teachers and students worldwide. The Wolfie for piano app is powered by a magic cursor that listens as you play, keeping track of your tempo, time, errors and more, and turns the pages at exactly the right moment. With its catalog of thousands of songs, Wolfie allows teachers and students to easily share annotations, record and review performances, and hear scores at different paces – with no need for carrying around sheet music.

Alfred Brendel’s Birthday!

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Alfred Brendel was born in 1931 in Wiesenberg, Czech Republic.

After World War II, Brendel composed music, as well as continuing to play the piano, to write and to paint. However, he never had more formal piano lessons and, although he attended master classes with Edwin Fischer and Eduard Steuermann, he was largely self-taught after the age of six.

He made his debut in Graz (1948), and has since performed widely throughout Austria, where he lives.

He is known for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Schoenberg. He tours internationally, and has written many essays on music.

A short insight from Alfred Brendel on his recording career:

Happy Birthday, Victor Borge!

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Victor Borge was born in 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an entertainer and pianist – a deliciously funny performer. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, and in Vienna and Berlin.

He made his debut as a pianist in 1926, and as a revue actor in 1933. From 1940 until his death in 2000 he worked in the USA for radio, television, and theatre, and has performed with leading symphony orchestras on worldwide tours since 1956.

He was best known for his comedy sketches combining music and narrative. He used his classical training to skew serious music and performers.

From his obituary:

Pianist Victor Borge, died in his sleep Dec 23, 2000 at his Greenwich, Connecticut home, was known as the unmelancholy Dane of international show business. He would have turned 92 on Jan. 3, 2001.

“The cause of death was heart failure,” his daughter, Sanna Feirstein, told Reuters.

“He had just returned from a wonderfully successful trip to Copenhagen … and it was really heartwarming to see the love he experienced in his home country,” she said.

Borge was one of five performers selected for the Kennedy Center Honors in 1999.

“He went to sleep, and they went to wake him up this morning, and he was gone,” said his agent, Bernard Gurtman.

“He had so much on the table, and to the day he died he was creative, and practicing piano several hours a day,” Gurtman told Reuters. “He was just a great inspiration.”

Funeral services will be private, his daughter said.

Borge made a career of falling off piano stools, missing the keys with his hands and getting tangled up in the sheet music.

One of his inspirations was a pianist who played the first notes of the Grieg A Minor Concerto and then fell on the keys dead.

He said that the only time he got nervous on stage was when he had to play seriously and adds that if it had not been for Adolf Hitler he probably would never have pursued a career as a concert-hall comedian.

Until he was forced to flee Denmark in 1940 he was a stage and screen idol in his native country.

Lampooned Hitler

But as a Jew who had lampooned Hitler, Borge — his real name was Boerge Rosenbaum — was in danger and fled first to Sweden and then to the United States, where he arrived penniless and unknown and by a fluke got booked on the Bing Crosby radio show. He was an instant success.

He became an American citizen in 1948, but thought of himself as Danish. It was obvious from the numerous affectionate tributes and standing ovations at his 80th birthday concert in Copenhagen in 1989 that Danes felt the same way.

In the concert at Copenhagen’s Tivoli gardens, Borge played variations on the theme of “Happy Birthday to You” in the styles of Mozart, Brahms, Wagner and Beethoven — all executed with such wit that the orchestra was convulsed with laughter that a woman performing a piccolo solo was unable to draw breath to play.

“Playing music and making jokes are as natural to me as breathing,” Borge told Reuters in an interview after that concert.

“That’s why I’ve never thought of retiring because I do it all the time whether on the stage or off. I found that in a precarious situation, a smile is the shortest distance between people. When one needs to reach out for sympathy or a link with people, what better way is there?

“If I have to play something straight, without deviation in any respect, I still get very nervous. It’s the fact that you want to do your best, but you are not at your best because you are nervous and knowing that makes you even more nervous.”

His varied career included acting, composing for films and plays and writing but he was best known for his comic sketches based on musical quirks and oddities.

Unpredictable Routine

His routines were unpredictable, often improvised on stage as his quick wit responded to an unplanned event — a noise, a latecomer in the audience — or fixed on an unlikely prop — a fly, a shaky piano stool.

Borge was born in Denmark on January 3, 1909, son of a violinist in the Danish Royal Orchestra.

His parents encouraged him to become a concert pianist, arranging his first public recital when he was 10. In 1927 he made his official debut at the Tivoli Gardens.

Borge’s mischievous sense of humor was manifest from an early age. Asked as a child to play for his parent’s friends he would announce “a piece by the 85-year-old Mozart” and improvise something himself.

When his mother was dying in Denmark during the occupation, Borge visited her, disguised as a sailor.

“Churchill and I were the only ones who saw what was happening,” he said in later years. “He saved Europe and I saved myself.”

From 1953 to 1956, he appeared in New York in his own production “Comedy in Music,” a prelude to world tours that often took him to his native Scandinavia.

On radio and television, Borge developed the comedy techniques of the bungling pianist that won him worldwide fame.

Many of his skits were based on real-life events. One of his classics evolved from seeing a pianist playing a Tchaikovsky concerto fall off his seat.

Borge’s dog joined the show after it wandered on stage while he was at the keyboard — an entrance nobody would believe had been unplanned.

One incident could not be repeated. A large fly flew on to Borge’s nose while he was playing. “How did you get that fly to come on at the right time?” people asked. “Well, we train them,” Borge explained.

Borge’s book, “My Favorite Intervals”, published in 1974, detailed little-known facts of the private lives of composers describing Wagner’s pink underwear and the time Borodin left home in full military regalia but forgot his trousers.

In 1975, Borge was honored in recognition of the 35th anniversary of his arrival in the United States and his work as unofficial goodwill ambassador from Denmark to the United States. He celebrated his 75th birthday in 1984 with a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall and in Copenhagen.

Borge received a host of honors from all four Scandinavian countries for his contributions to music, humor and worthy causes.

Borge, who had lived in Greenwich since 1964, is survived by five children, nine grandchildren, and one great grandchild. His wife of many years, Sanna, died earlier that year.

Borge’s birthday

Anniversary of Borge’s death

January 1 ~ On This Day in Music

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Happy New Year!

• 1652 ~ Johann Krieger, German composer and organist

• 1701 ~ Johann Joachim Agrell, Composer
More information about Agrell

• 1735 ~ Paul Revere, American patriot and music engraver

• 1764 ~ In a stunning demonstration of prodigious talent, the Royal Family at Versailles in France was treated to a brilliant recital by an eight-year-old musician. His name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

• 1782 ~ Johann Christian Bach (“English Bach”), German composer, 11th son of Johann Sebastian Bach, died at the age of 46.

• 1878 ~ Edwin Franko Goldman, Composer

1900 ~ Xavier Cugat (Francisco de Asís Javier Cugat Mingall de Brue y Deulofeo). Spanish violinist, composer and bandleader, married to Abbe Lane and Charo
More information about Cugat

• 1916 ~ Earl Wrightson, Actor, singer

• 1923 ~ Milt Jackson, Vibes with The Modern Jazz Quartet

• 1925 ~ Lucrezia Bori and John McCormack of the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York City made their singing debuts on radio this day. The broadcast over what was WEAF Radio (now WABC) encouraged others to sing on radio. Some of those were Hootie and the Blowfish, and Barry Manilow.

• 1928 ~ Frank Pourcel, Composer, violinist

• 1942 ~ Country Joe McDonald, Singer with Country Joe & the Fish

• 1953 ~ A sad day in country music, as the legendary Hank Williams died at the young age of 29. Undisputedly, the biggest star in the history of country music, Hank Williams’ legacy is being carried on by his son, Hank Williams, Jr.

• 1955 ~ Elvis Presley appeared at The Eagles Hall in Houston Texas. Presley went on to play over 250 shows in 1955.

• 1958 ~ Johnny Cash played his first-ever prison concert —a concert that helped set Merle Haggard, then a 20-year-old San Quentin inmate, on the path toward becoming a country music legend.

• 1962 ~ The Beatles went an audition with Decca Records and are turned down in favor of the Tremeloes.

• 1968 ~ A group known as The Blue Velvets decided to change its name this day and it’s a good thing they did. The new name soon became a national pop music favorite as Creedence Clearwater Revival climbed to stardom.

• 1972 ~ Maurice Chevalier passed away. Chevalier was a French actor, Cabaret singer and entertainer.

• 1981 ~ Hephzibah Menuhin, American-Australian concert pianist, writer, and human rights campaigner died at the age of 61. She was sister to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin.

• 1984 ~ Alexis Korner passed away. Korner was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as “a founding father of British blues”.

• 2000 ~ Ray Walston, who found commercial success playing a comical devil in the play “Damn Yankees” and an extraterrestrial on the sitcom “My Favorite Martian,” of natural causes at the age of 86. Walston caught the biggest break of his career when he won a Tony in 1955 for his performance in Broadway’s “Damn Yankees.” The smash musical told the story of a frustrated baseball fan who sells his soul. His screen debut came in the 1957 movie “Kiss Them For Me” with Cary Grant, and the next year he played the devil again in the film version of “Damn Yankees.” Walston snagged the role that would stick with him for a lifetime – that of a lovable alien on the TV show “My Favorite Martian” in 1963. The show was immensely popular, but Walston felt so typecast that he tried to highlight his dramatic abilities by returning to the stage when the TV comedy went off the air in 1966. He stayed in theater for several years before re-emerging with a succession of solid supporting roles in movies and television. Nearly 30 years after the end of the lighthearted “My Favorite Martian,” Walston’s role on “Picket Fences” as acerbic Judge Henry Bone earned Walston successive Emmys in 1995-96.

• 2016 ~ Chart-topping R&B singer Natalie Cole, who followed her famous father in the music business with hits like “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) and “Unforgettable,” died at age 65.

• 2018 ~ Robert Mann, American composer and violinist (the founding Violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet), died at the age of 97

maryorhhappynewyear

December 11 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: Ding Dong! Merrily On High

• 1803 ~ Louis-Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor, music critic and major force in the development of musical form during the Romantic Era
More information about Berlioz

• 1876 ~ Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Polish composer and conductor

• 1882 ~ The Bijou Theatre in Boston, MA became the first theatre to be lighted by electricity.

• 1908 ~ Elliot Cook Carter, Jr., American composer

• 1916 ~ (Damaso) Perez Prado, Piano, organ

• 1926 ~ Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton, Blues singer

• 1931 ~ Rita Moreno (Rosita Alverio), Dancer, Academy and Emmy Award-winning actress

• 1934 ~ Curtis Williams, Singer with The Penguins

• 1935 ~ Tom Brumley, Steel guitar with Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Stone Canyon Band

• 1939 ~ Marlene Dietrich recorded Falling In Love Again on the Decca label.

• 1940 ~ David Gates, Guitarist, keyboard, singer with Bread

• 1944 ~ Brenda Lee (Tarpley), American singer of popular music

• 1944 ~ “The Chesterfield Supper Club” debuted on NBC radio. Perry Como, Jo Stafford and many other stars of the day shared the spotlight on the 15-minute show that aired five nights a week. The show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes.

• 1952 ~ An audience of 70,000 people watched from 31 theatres as Richard Tucker starred in Carmen. The event was the first pay-TV production of an opera. Ticket prices ranged from $1.20 to $7.20.

• 1954 ~ Jermaine Jackson, Singer with The Jackson Five, brother of Michael, Janet, La Toya, Tito, Randy, Marlon and Jackie

• 1973 ~ Karen and Richard Carpenter received a gold record for their single, Top of the World.

• 1982 ~ Toni Basil reached the #1 one position on the pop music charts for the first time, with her single, Mickey.

• 2000 ~ Ruth Martin, a writer whose translations of both popular and obscure operas were widely used in American opera houses, died at the age of 86. Martin collaborated with her husband Thomas Martin in translating the librettos of some of the world’s most famous operas, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, as well as Puccini’s Boheme, and Bizet’s Carmen. Martin and her husband also translated some of the rarest operas, such as Offenbach’s Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, and Dvorák’s Rusalka. The Martins’ translations were marked by their clarity and singability, and despite the increasing use of closed-captioning systems in major opera houses, their translations are still used widely. Martin contributed articles on opera for Opera News, Aria, and Theater Arts. She also served on the boards of the New York Federation of Music Clubs, the Liederkranz Foundation and the National Opera Foundation.

• 2001 ~ Erik Johns, who wrote the libretto for Aaron Copland’s only full-length opera, The Tender Land, died in a fire at his home in Fishkill, N.Y. He was 74. Born Horace Eugene Johnston in Los Angeles, Johns began his career in music as a dancer. He met Copland when he was 19 at a New Year’s Eve party in New York. In 1952 the two began collaborating on an opera based on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book by writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans that describes the lives of several Southern sharecropper families during the Depression. Copland composed the music and Johns wrote the libretto, or the words. The work was originally commissioned as a television opera by NBC but was subsequently rejected by the network. The New York City Opera performed it at its premiere at City Center in April 1954 in a short two-act version. The two later added a third act.

• 2001 ~ Jose Fajardo, a Cuban flutist who was one of the most influential bandleaders in Latin music, died an aneurysm. He was 82. The Cuban native had emigrated from Cuba in 1961, when he refused a request from the Cuban government to continue a musical tour to other communist countries. During his lengthy career, Fajardo recorded more than 40 albums and performed around the world. He was credited with expanding the audience for charanga, a Cuban musical style that backs a singer with flute, violins, piano, bass and percussion. Fajardo started his first group, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, in the 1940s. He later led three bands by the same name. After moving to the United States, he founded bands in New York and Miami and began performing in new style called pachanga, featuring a slightly more assertive rhythm. Fajardo was featured on “Cuban Masters: Los Originales,” an album of performances by leading Cuban musicians that was released November 2001.

• 2002 ~ Kay Rose, the first woman to win an Academy Award for sound editing, died. She was 80. Rose won the statuette for her work on the 1984 film The River. A native of New York, Rose was recognized in March with a career achievement award from the Cinema Audio Society. The Motion Picture Sound Editors gave her a similar lifetime achievement award in 1993. In October 2002, directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg endowed the Kay Rose Chair in the Art of Sound and Dialogue Editing at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television. The chair is the first of its kind in the country. After studying film at Hunter College, she became a civilian film apprentice for the Army Signal Corps during World War II. There, she helped create such training films as How to Erect a Double Apron Barbed Wire Fence and the John Huston documentary Report from the Aleutians. She moved to Hollywood in 1944 and found a job as an assistant to an editor at Universal studios. In 1951, she married film editor Sherman Rose. Together, they produced the 1954 sci-fi cult classic, Target Earth. They later divorced. During her five-decade career, Rose received sound editing credits on such films as The Rose, Ordinary People, On Golden Pond, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Prince of Tides, For the Boys and Speed.

. 2021 ~ Russian opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya died at the age of eighty-six. Vishnevskaya had a forty year career and had performed many soprano roles in classic operas.

December 5 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: Carol of the Bells

• 1687 ~ Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, Italian violinist, writer and composer

• 1791 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, died in Vienna, Austria at the age of 35. Mozart, the precocious child prodigy, composed several pieces that are deemed central to the classical era. Though he ranked as one of the greatest musical genius, he did not live a life of affluence as none of his compositions earned him a decent commission.

• 1870 ~ Vitezslav Novak, Czech composer and pedagogue

• 1901 ~ Walt Disney, Man behind many much-loved animated musicals

• 1922 ~ Don Robertson, Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Famer, whistler

• 1930 ~ Larry Kert, Actor, singer, dancer in the West Side Story original cast, 1957

• 1932 ~ Little Richard (Pennimann), US rock ‘n roll artist, preacher, songwriter and pianist who had a string of hits in the fifties including “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly”. He had a great stage presence which made him an idol of girls and boys alike. Rolling Stone magazine chose him as the eighth greatest artist of all time.

• 1936 ~ Chad Mitchell, Singer with Chad Mitchell trio

• 1936 ~ Bing Crosby took over as host of The Kraft Music Hall. Jimmy Dorsey (who would later be host, himself) led the Kraft Orchestra.

• 1945 ~ José Carreras, Spanish tenor with the New York Metropolitan Opera.  Best known as a member of the highly successful “Three Tenors”.   Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti played in some of the largest stadiums around the world helping to make opera music popular with a wider public. They combined some of the best of opera with popular and broadway musical hits with their signature tune Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot.

• 1947 ~ Jim Messina, American rock guitarist and singer, duo of Loggins and Messina and groups: Buffalo Springfield and Poco

• 1960 ~ Les Nemes, Bass with Haircut 100

• 1960 ~ Jack Russell, Singer with Great White

• 1973 ~ Paul McCartney released Band On The Run, his fifth album since his departure from The Beatles. Two hit singles from the album – ‘Jet’ and ‘Band on the Run’ made it McCartney’s most successful album.

• 2003 ~ Avie Parton, mother of country music singer, songwriter and actress Dolly Parton, died after a long illness. She was 80. Parton was responsible for stitching the patchwork rag coat for young Dolly that the singer later recounted in the song, Coat of Many Colors. The song helped propel Dolly Parton to stardom and came to symbolize her climb from rags to riches. She also was the witness at Dolly’s secret marriage to Carl Dean in 1966 in Ringgold, Ga.

• 2012 ~ Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer died from heart failure at the age of 91
More information about Brubeck

November 18 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 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.

More about William Tell Day

• 1680 ~ Birth of French-Belgian composer and flutist Jean Baptiste Loeillet in Gent.

• 1736 ~ Birth of German composer Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch in Zerbst

• 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

• 1887 ~ Eduard Marxsen, German pianist and composer, died at the age of 81

• 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

• 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.

• 1994 ~ Cab[ell] Calloway, US band leader/actor (Missourians), died at the age of 86

• 1999 ~ Doug Sahm, American country singer, 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.

• 2004 ~ Cy Coleman, American composer, songwriter and pianist, died

November 17 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1726 ~ The first performance of J. S. Bach‘s Sacred Cantata No. 55 Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht on the 22nd Sunday following Trinity. Was part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig 1725-27

• 1848 ~ Frederic Chopin played his final piano concert at a Polish benefit ball at Guildhall in London.

• 1850 ~ Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera Stifellio was first performed at the Teatro Grande in Trieste despite difficulties with the censors which resulted in cuts and changes.

• 1861 ~ First Performance of Johannes Brahms‘ Piano Quintet No. 1 in g, Op. 25, at a rehearsal in Hamburg, with pianist Clara Schumann.

• 1862 ~ The work noted above received its official premiere with members of the Hellmesberger Quartet; Brahms at the piano, in Vienna.

• 1870 ~ Alfred Hill, Australian composer

• 1876~ The first performance of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s March Slav in Moscow.

• 1877 ~ The first production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, The Sorcerer, was presented, in London.

• 1888~ The first production of Tchaikovsky‘s Fifth Symphony in St. Petersburg.

• 1891 ~ Poland’s premier and premier ivory tickler, Ignace Jan Paderewski, made his American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In later years, Paderewski, who suffered from arthritis, settled in Paso Robles, CA. The hot mineral baths located there eased his pain. He played only Steinway grand pianos custom-built to his specifications. In fact, five were made just for his use.

• 1919 ~ Hershy Kay, composer/arranger (Olympic Hymn)

• 1925 ~ Sir Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor

• 1930 ~ David Amram, American composer and French-horn player

• 1938 ~ Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer, songwriter and guitarist

• 1938 ~ Orchestra leader Kay Kyser, speaking to an audience at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) told of the “inner workings and artistic features of swing music.” It marked the first of a series of lectures on swing music presented by Kyser, who went on to present The Kollege of Musical Knowledge on radio.

• 1941 ~ Gene Clark, Singer, guitar with The Byrds

• 1942 ~ Bob Gaudio, Singer with The Royal Teens; The Four Seasons

• 1946 ~ Martin Barre, Guitarist with Jethro Tull

• 1950 ~ Roberta Peters filled in for the lead in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She would become one of the Met’s most famous stars.

• 1959 ~ Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer/pianist/conductor, died at the age of 72

• 1962 ~ The 4 Seasons, with Frankie Valli as lead singer, began a five-week run at the top of the tunedex with Big Girls Don’t Cry.

• 1967 ~ Ronald DeVoe, Singer with New Edition

• 1970 ~ Elton John recorded an album live, on what was WABC-FM in New York City. It marked the first time that a concert was aired live and recorded for release as aired. The LP was titled, 11/17/70.

• 1981 ~ Bob Eberly died

https://youtu.be/pbAlu3krd4w

• 2001 ~ Jerry Jerome, a tenor sax player who was a featured soloist with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, died of leukemia. He was 89. One of the big names in the Big Band era, Jerome was a featured soloist with the Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Red Norvo and Artie Shaw orchestras. He then became a successful musical director and conductor on radio and television. Jerome also established a music business, scoring and arranging commercial jingles. Three years ago, Arbors Records released Jerome’s “Something Old, Something New.” The sequel recording, “Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” will be released in December. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jerome started playing the sax while in high school. He attended the University of Alabama and went on the medical school, playing gigs at jazz clubs to earn tuition money. He joined Goodman’s orchestra at the height of its popularity in 1938. When Goodman broke up his band in 1940, Jerome joined Shaw. While with Shaw, he appeared in the film “Second Chorus,” with Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith.

• 2003 ~ Arthur Conley, a 1960s soul singer and protege of Otis Redding’s, died at his home in the town of Ruurlo, in the eastern Netherlands. He was 57. Conley was born in Atlanta and started his recording career in 1959 as leader of the group Arthur and the Corvets. He was best known for his 1967 hit, Sweet Soul Music, which he co-wrote with Redding based on a number by Sam Cooke. Conley had several minor hits in the following two years. He moved to Europe in the early 1970s after several tours of the continent, deciding that he was “fed up with the pressure” in the United States, said Giesen. In the Netherlands, Conley appeared on television and radio, and ran an independent record label. In the last five years he was an adviser to The Original Sixties R&B and Soul Show, which sought to reproduce the sound and look of the heyday of soul.

• 2018 ~ Cyril Pahinui, a nationally recognized Hawaiian guitarist and singer who preserved and extended the tradition of slack-key guitar, died at the age of 68

Today is World Pianist Day!

Posted by MaryO on
World Pianist Day, celebrated on November 8, is a symphony of joy for pianists and music lovers alike. It’s a day dedicated to tickling the ivories, embracing the melodies, and having a grand ol’ time celebrating the magic of the piano and the talented souls who make it sing.
In the world of piano, we’re transported on a musical journey, where the notes and chords create a tapestry of emotions that tug at our heartstrings. Pianists, those maestros of the keys, have the power to move us to the rhythm of ultimate joy. And how do we revel in this melodious merriment? Well, we throw a piano party, of course! From dazzling classical compositions to the jazzy, bluesy tunes, pianists have a treasure trove of styles to choose from, and they’re ready to share their musical gifts with the world. And guess what? You don’t have to be a seasoned pianist to join in the fun – it’s the perfect day to tinkle those ivories if you’ve never tried before!
Now, let’s take a little trip down the history of World Pianist Day. Picture the greats like Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. They’re like the rockstars of classical piano, setting stages ablaze with their virtuosity. These ivory-ticklers aren’t just known for their compositions; they were the original piano showstoppers, dazzling audiences far and wide.
And then there’s the fabulous world of jazz pianists, where spontaneity reigns supreme. It’s like a jam session where they dance to the rhythm of their own tune, improvising and weaving musical stories on the spot. Names like Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, and Baden Powell are the jazz legends who’ve made the keys sing with swing.
So, how can you join the grand celebration of World Pianist Day? Here are some jazzy suggestions:
1. **Concert Time:** Hit up a piano concert and let the melodies sweep you off your feet. It’s like a musical rollercoaster that you won’t want to end.
2. **Movie Magic:** Watch “The Pianist” movie, a deep dive into the intricate and fulfilling life of a pianist and composer. You’ll be mesmerized by the world of music.
3. **Tickle the Ivories:** If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at piano, seize the moment on World Pianist Day. Grab an instrument, play your favorite tune, and let the music flow through your fingertips.
So, here’s to a day of musical wonder, where the piano takes center stage, and joyous melodies fill the air. Whether you’re a seasoned pianist or a newbie, let the piano keys be your guide to an enchanting musical journey.