Over the past weeks, my essays have focused on our new songbook (Hurrah and Hallelujah), the sessions we did for streaming performances from the Metropolitan Opera, and opera boot camp. I was happy to write those, and equally happy at the enthusiastic comments and emails … Read more
Last Monday night, Professor Carol presented another edition of her notorious Opera Boot Camp. I say notorious because she has offered Opera Boot Camp for several years to a variety of audiences: school kids of various ages, opera administrators, and cruise ship passengers to name … Read more
Piazzolla, Tango-Étude No. 3 The powers that be are extending many of the closings and social distance rules, so I am extending my series of performance picks for solo instruments. As a practical matter, a tuba requires a certain amount of social distancing just because … Read more
Take the challenge! Find out what really goes on in this cutting-edge entertainment. Our lively introduction will give you the background and basic tools for entering the magical world of opera, from Mozart to Les Miz. We’ll sweep through opera’s 420-year history, look at the ingredients that make up every opera, and have fun. … Read more
Puccini, Nessun dorma A snazzy style of television “talent” contests gained popularity some years back. Either the audience or a panel of judges I didn’t know would vote thumbs up or down on a steady stream of musical acts trying to achieve instant stardom. I … Read more
Have you ever found old songbooks in your attic or at the bottom of a closet? Hank and I have plenty of them, including quite a few from his father, a pastor and great lover of music. Others came from used book stores or from … Read more
Donaldson, You’re Driving Me Crazy Tin Pan Alley exerted a strong influence on American music for more than half a century beginning in the late 1880s. The name refers to a specific block in Manhattan, 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Music publishing houses … Read more
This week, a monumental, and monumentally important English opera called Peter Grimes will be featured Thursday, May 14, in the offerings coming to us during this period of live-streamed works from the Met. I want to encourage you to take advantage of this marvelous (and … Read more
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Stradella, Sinfonia in D Minor, No. 22 Alessandro Stradella (1643-1682) gives us one of the more colorful composer biographies. A couple of years ago we said a few words about Gesualdo’s colorful history—the fact that he murdered his wife and her lover. Stradella found himself … Read more
Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music. —Sergei Rakhmaninov I first saw these words beaming from a wall at the Meyerson Symphony Center, home of the Dallas Symphony. Despite my lifetime spent studying Russian music, they were new … Read more