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Category: Composers

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New Webcast: Tchaikovsky & Taneyev: Mentor and Protégé

Posted by: Pat Padua

The Music Division is happy to announce a new webcast from our spring lecture series, featuring Senior Reference Specialist and occasional guest blogger Kevin Lavine. Set within the artistic milieu of the last decades of Imperial Russia, Tchaikovsky & Taneyev: Mentor and Protégé traces the lives and careers of two of that country’s most influential …

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Pic of the Week: What the World Needs Now is the Recipient of the 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

The Music Division has been busy this week. The Performing Arts Encyclopedia has just presented online collections both new (Franz Liszt, in honor of his bicentennial) and updated (fifteen composers and their works have been added to the American Choral Music presentation). But today we have a special announcement to make. The recipient of the 2012 …

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Congratulations to Dafnis Prieto, 2011 MacArthur Fellow

Posted by: Pat Padua

This week the MacArthur Foundation announced their list of  this year’s Fellows,  selected for ” their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.”   Winners came from a variety of fields: clinical psychology, architecture, radio production, and poetry. Among the honored musicans is percussionist/composer Dafnis Prieto, who was a memorable part of …

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Pic of the Week: Belated Birthdays Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

September 19th was the birthday of two old friends of the Music Division. Jazz pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams was born September 19, 1930 in Chicago. He worked as a sideman behind such luminaries as Dexter Gordon and Max Roach, and was part of the 1970s jazz loft scene in New York,  so  named because of …

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The Bad Boy of Music

Posted by: Cait Miller

The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Chris Hartten. George Antheil radicalized musical composition in ways that few before him had ever attempted. Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Trenton, New Jersey, Antheil traveled to Europe in 1922 to pursue “ultra-modernist” composition with financial support from arts patroness and Curtis …

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Pic of the Week: from Almeida to Zorn Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

September 2 marks the birthdays of two very different musician/ composers whose works grace the Music Division’s storied vaults. Classical guitarist Laurindo Almeida was born on this day in 1917.  His career ran the gamut from Sao Paulo radio to Hollywood session man, and he worked with a range of artists from Villa-Lobos and Carmen …

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In Memoriam: Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber

Posted by: Pat Padua

In the Muse was sad to learn of the passing of two great songwriters. Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber were both part of songwriting teams that helped define American popular music for different generations. The songs of Leiber and partner  Mike Stoller have been performed by a full spectrum of artists, from Elvis Presley to …

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Petermännchen: Poltergeist or Weeverfish?

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Rachel Weiss, an intern whom we interviewed on Monday. Just after the turn of the twentieth century, the Music Division was still a fledgling organization.  In 1902, Oscar Sonneck was named its first Chief, and he laid the groundwork for the development of many of the division’s wonderful …

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And One for Mahler

Posted by: Cait Miller

It’s July 7 – Gustav Mahler’s 151st birthday! Instead of highlighting manuscripts or correspondence by Mahler, I’d like instead to point out another composer/conductor’s commentary on Mahler, as provided in one of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concert scripts, Who is Gustav Mahler? The script, along with all other scripts for the Young People’s Concert broadcasts, …