Top of page
Posted by: Pat Padua
Gershwin Prize Honoree Billy Joel met Beethoven this week thanks to the Music Division, who showed the six-time Grammy-winning composer manuscripts and artifacts from one of his favorite composers, including a lock of Beethoven’s hair. Joel was an engaged audience, humming along to Gershwin’s “Summertime” when he was showed a holograph from Porgy and Bess, …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
Anne McLean, Senior Concert Producer, contributed to this post. In addition to host and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers President Paul Williams, last night’s annual ASCAP concert featured, as always, an intriguing variety of composers: Jon Batiste, Alan Bergman, Josh Kear, Randy Newman, Carly Simon, Narada Michael Walden with Shelea Frazier, Jimmy Webb, and …
Posted in: Composers, Podcasts, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
A member of the audience at Tuesday’s Copyright Matters event in the Coolidge Auditorium asked songwriter Jimmy Webb about Donna Summer’s version of his song, “MacArthur Park.” Webb explained that it was his first number one record as well as Summer’s first number one record. “I’m not a fan of disco, but I was crazy …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
It is a long cultural journey from President Teddy Roosevelt to pop singer Anne Murray to art house film director Peter Greenaway. But this is just one of the paths you can take using the new web presentation The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America as a starting point. At the turn of …
Posted in: Composers, Digital Collections, Sheet Music, Sound recordings, Special Collections