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17 May: National Mushroom Hunting Day
Did you know that there are over 50,000 species of mushrooms? Some are hallucinogenic, a small percentage poisonous, and a few are used for their medical properties. Although the majority of mushrooms are edible, very few varieties are actually flavorful.
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Alistair McGowan’s Ludlow Piano Festival
Celebrity impressionist, comedian, and actor turned pianist Alistair McGowan has launched the inaugural Ludlow Piano Festival, which takes place between 24 and 28 May in the beautiful, historic town of Ludlow, Shropshire, England. Alistair McGowan: The Piano Show This new
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On This Day
17 May: Erik Satie Was Born
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was born at nine in the morning of 17 May 1866 in the coastal town of Honfleur. He was the son of a Scottish mother, née Jane Leslie
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In Praise of the Classical Music Nerd
A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, [or] introverted…. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical, [or] abstract….to the exclusion of more
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On This Day
15 May: Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Was Premiered
In 1917, Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso made an excursion to Naples, with the composer commenting on its “half Spanish character, on the pleasure he found in the aquarium, and in the Neapolitan watercolors.” They also attended a commedia dell’arte
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Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance
“Regal Pageantry”
Like countless people around the world, I recently settled in to watch at least part of the coronation of Charles III and Queen Camilla. This ceremony has great tradition and theatricality, from the arrival of the golden carriage to the
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On This Day
14 May: Otto Klemperer was Born
When famed conductor Otto Klemperer was roughly nine years of age, he encountered “the man who was to be the central inspiration of his entire life as a musician.” He remembers “seeing Mahler on the street when I was quite
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5 Composers Who Died in the Holocaust Who You Need to Know
The impact of the loss of life under the Nazi regime was incalculable. One of the only ways we can begin to comprehend the scale of the destruction is by looking at the impact that the Holocaust had on individual
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