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Posted by: Pat Padua
The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s recording of saxophonist Paul Desmond’s signature tune “Take Five” is one of the best known jazz compositions – even if you don’t know the name of it, you’ve heard it, anywhere from your local coffee shop to The Sopranos. Brubeck was the recipient of a Living Legend Award in 2003. Wish a …
Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Aaron Copland, eminent composer of 20th-century American music, was born 110 years ago yesterday, on November 14, 1900. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Aaron studied piano as a child and later studied with American composer and pianist Rubin Goldmark. In 1920, Copland traveled to Paris to study with renowned French composer, conductor and teacher Nadia …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Many virtual servings of cake and ice cream are on hand this week in the Music Division, as we celebrate the birth dates of a veritable constellation of stars in the musical firmament. These October children grew to be the august personages who populate the Performing Arts Encyclopedia with dulcet tones – or, in some …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The thirteenth of October may fill the superstitious with dread, but today we celebrate the birthdays of three great musicians whose work fills the Music Division’s precious vaults. Celebrate gospel singer Shirley Caeasar (born October 13, 1938) with a medley including “You’re Next in Line,” an excerpt from Gospel: A Joyful Sound, a concert Caesar and her …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Concerts and Events, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s that time again – today another 100 photographs have been uploaded to the Gottlieb Jazz Photos Set on Flickr! The set is comprised of uncropped images from the William P. Gottlieb Collection, all of which depict the Jazz scene in New York City and Washington, DC between 1938 and 1948. We keep adding more …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The rejuvenative force of spring (or is it hunkering down for the winter?) leads to many an autumn baby. This week In the Muse would like to celebrate the birthdays of two alliteratively named figures whose work can be found in the Music Division’s diverse collections. Vaudeville, Broadway, and film dancer Harriet Hoctor was born September …
Posted in: Birthdays, Dance, Musicians, Special Collections, Women in Dance
Posted by: Cait Miller
One hundred twelve years ago on September 26th, Jacob Gershwine entered the world (the family name morphed around the turn of the century from “Gershovitz”, to “Gershvin”, to “Gershwin”; “Gershwine” was likely just an alternate spelling of “Gershvin”). This boy, raised in New York City with his three siblings by Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, would grow …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Composer Arnold Schoenberg was born on this date in 1874. The Music Division is home to the Arnold Schoenberg Collection. Highlights of this collection include a correspondence between Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern; a Wassily Kandinsky letter (Schoenberg exhibited his paintings with the Blue Rider group in 1912) that deals with …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
“You probably know the one about the two monks, but I’ll tell it anyway.” –John Cage, Indeterminacy. Sunday, September 5th marks the birthday of two legendary Americans: outlaw Jesse James and composer John Cage. The astonishing range of Cage’s works is just hinted at by the names of the diverse artists he worked with: choreographer Merce Cunningham; pianist David Tudor, …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections