Blogs

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1 November
World Ballet Day
While the Catholic Church celebrates “All Saints’ Day” on November 1, the arts community has decided to declare that very day the “World Ballet Day.” As such, we thought it might be fun to explore some of the origins of
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At Valhalla
NYC’s Last Home of Composers and Artists
Up the Hudson River from New York City lies the ‘hamlet’ of Valhalla, and there, in Westchester County, lies Valhalla Cemetery, created in 1889 as the cemeteries in New York City were reaching capacity. The design of the cemetery followed
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The Most Expensive Violin in the World: The Locked-Up Messiah Stradivarius
The history of classical music is brimming with storied musical instruments. Chief among them is the Messiah Stradivarius, believed to be the most expensive violin in the world, celebrated for its pristine condition and astronomical value. Today we’re delving into
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Mauro and Emilia Giuliani
The Important Father and Daughter in the History of Guitar Music
The Giuliani family produced two influential figures in the history of guitar music. Mauro Giuliani and his daughter Emilia Giuliani-Guglielmi were both Italian composers and guitarists. Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) played a crucial role in transforming the guitar from a mere
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Do You Know Daisy Bell?
Daisy Bell is a song that lives in popular culture. Don’t recognize the title? You might know it better by the final line of the chorus: ‘….a bicycle built for two.’ English composer Frank Dean (1857–1922) immortalized the tandem bicycle,
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When a New Music Director is a Call for Celebration
Thomas Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra
Music directors of the major orchestras in the world do not typically come and go. A case in point, Eugene Ormandy was principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1938-1980 a total of 42 years. Not to be outdone, Zubin
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Rachmaninoff’s Last Student: 98-Year-Old Pianist Ruth Slenczynska
Ruth Slenczysnka must be one of the most interesting pianists alive today. She certainly has a story unlike any other: she studied piano with Rachmaninoff as a little girl – became an international musical sensation – abandoned her performing career
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Musical Instruments on the Title Pages of 16th- and 17th-Century Music
We were looking at some music title pages from a collection in the Bibliothèque Nationale and found some interesting representations of music as part of the title page designs. In this title page for a book of keyboard music from
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