Michael Daugherty: Fire and Blood In 1933, a set of 27 fresco panels by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera was unveiled at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Rivera (1886–1957) brought the idea of murals to life. His enormous works,

In his 1990 work …as others see us…, Scottish composer James MacMillan chose paintings in the National Portrait Gallery to depict in music. He started with a line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who wished for the gift ‘to

American composer John Harbison (b. 1938) was commissioned to write a piece for radio station WGUC (Cincinnati) for their general manager, Ann Santos, for the Cincinnati Symphony’s principal flautist, Randall Bowman. The premiere of the work with Bowman was in

Carlos Simon: The Block In 1971, American artist Romare Bearden looked out the window of his friend Albert Murray’s Lenox Avenue apartment and was inspired to create an epic narrative out of something that was very familiar and ordinary: a

In his 2009 recording, American composer B.R. Pearson presents us with a journey around in his Paintings in the Hall. In his view, both art and music work together to divide space and time. Paintings are space and music is

Inspiration Behind Robert Saxton’s The Resurrection of the Soldiers For England, WWI was a devastation—it’s agreed that the country lost its best and brightest, and life after the war has never regained the power and glory the country held. English

Famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings, Edgar Degas, born on 19 July 1834 in Paris, held a lifelong fascination and passion for music. And while he was not a musician, he did come from a family with a

The life of Rembrandt van Rijn, born on 15 July 1606 in Leyden, is still shrouded in historical uncertainty. He did not write his memoirs, he kept no daily diaries, and the few surviving letters are pleas for patronage. Contemporary