Blogs

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Musicians’ Responses to the Coronavirus Woes
Some Smiles and Suggestions
You can always count on musicians for a much-needed smile and some solutions, even during this global pandemic. The Coronavirus Etude—For Piano and Disinfecting Wipe is a must for all piano teachers. To be played Molto RUB-ato, and Molto Detergere.
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Women Conductors Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
JoAnn Falletta
Celebrating her 20th season at the helm of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra this year, JoAnn Falletta is the first woman conductor to be appointed music director of a major American orchestra. At a time when women conductors had to overcome
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The Psychology in Film Music III
Musical gestures in some films are all about mirroring or inferring movement. But, as we see in certain movies like Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the music suggests the mental condition of the lead character, Jimmy Stewart, who suffers from vertigo. This spinning
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Cats and Dogs in Concerts—Oh My!
When I was a student at The Aspen Music Festival and School, the conductor and music director at the time, Jorge Mester, brought his fluffy English Sheepdog to rehearsals. The enormous dog loved to stretch out on the podium while
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The Psychology in Film Music II
In part I of this series, we heard several examples of how film music is designed to affect us psychologically. In this part, we look closer at why movie makers need to include music that pulls our psychological strings. In
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Cyril Scott: the English Debussy
For many pianists, our first encounter with the music of Cyril Scott is through his exotic, languorous piece Lotus Land. This was also Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze’s first introduction to Scott’s piano music, through one of her teachers at Tbilisi
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Women Conductors Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
Tania León
Cuban conductor, pianist, composer, and educator, Tania León, is another woman who deserves the honorific ‘Grande Dame’ for her outstanding talents and remarkable career. You may not know she became the New York Philharmonic’s new-music advisor in the 1990s. This
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The Psychology in Film Music I
After finishing my three-part series on the philosophy in music, the inquiry into the psychology in music was something I thought that needed to be further fleshed out, also as a three-part series. What I’ve always known is that if
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