Today is the 150th birthday of pioneering American composer Amy Beach. Here is the first movement of her Symphony in E minor, “Gaelic,” written in 1896. Neeme Jarvi conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Amy Beach, a Pioneering American Composer, Turns
Van Cliburn gold medalist brings Rachmaninoff for his debut with Pacific Symphony
By TIMOTHY MANGAN Yekwon Sunwoo showed up on Skype at the appointed time recently, or rather his voice did. He initially preferred not to appear on screen — 24 hours of travel from Poland to Aspen the day before had
Lesson Eight: Motivation and nerves
My last piano lesson in the series. Recording coming soon. Lesson Eight: Motivation and nerves. OC Music and Dance blog, Aug. 31, 2017.
Pacific Symphony: September concerts
Septembers are always an eventful time at Pacific Symphony, this year especially so. The summer season comes to an end, the winter season gets underway, a superstar soloist returns. Here’s a quick run down of the concerts, with clickable access
Listen to this: Minuet
We sometimes make listening to classical music seem like a more complicated thing than it really needs to be. True, you can always know more about such a rich subject as classical music; but some simple listening tips can go
Chopin meets Liszt
A scene from “A Song to Remember” (1944), with Cornel Wilde as Chopin, Stephen Bekassy as Liszt, and Paul Muni as Chopin’s teacher, Prof. Joseph Elsner. I laughed out loud the first time I saw this, many years ago. When
Leonard Bernstein: 99
https://youtu.be/CcYA_nGY9To Today is Leonard Bernstein’s 99th birthday. We remember him as a composer and conductor, of course, but we sometimes forget he was an exceptional pianist too. Here he is with the New York Philharmonic, playing and conducting Gershwin’s “Rhapsody
Costco find
Spotted this pile of books at Costco yesterday and snapped a shot with my phone. Has music theory gone mainstream? Has the world gone mad?
Lesson Seven: Eclipse and flow
My penultimate piano lesson … Lesson Seven: Eclipse and flow. OC Music & Dance blog, Aug. 24, 2017.
Classical cover: Schubert’s ‘Erlkonig’
I love a good cover song. The term usually applies to a pop or rock song — some of my favorites in that category include DEVO’s “Satisfaction,” Cake’s “I Will Survive” and The Clash’s “Brand New Cadillac.” But broadly speaking,