| Today in Music History A Daily Look at Music History For Violin Students A Look at What Happened on Today's Date Long, Long Ago . . . Or Maybe Just Last Year |
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| TODAY IS August 5 |
| Can You Guess? We read about J.S. Bach being appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold below. The problem was that he was still an employee of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. Can You Guess how Duke Wilhelm kept Bach from leaving, at least for a while? Look at the Bottom of the Page for the Answer. |
| What Else Happened Today? |
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| 1717 - J.S. Bach was appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold at Coethen. 1945 - Stoika Milanova, Bulgarian violinist, was born. 1956 - Premiere of Ned Rorem's Symphony No. 2, at La Jolla, CA. 1957 - American Bandstand made its network debut on ABC-TV. Great sound samples at the link. 1978 - The citizens of Patowan, Utah, decided to name a local mountain Mt. Messiaen, in honor of the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, who spent a month in Utah in 1973 an composed a symphonic work, Des canyons aux etoiles (From the canyons to the stars), extolling the beauty of the area. 1999 - Music written by Johann Sebastian Bach was found in the Ukraine. The music was thought to have been destroyed over 50 years ago during World War II. The material was found in the musical estate of Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach, who was on of J.S. Bach's children. |
| Richard Danielpour's Violin Concerto A Fool's Paradise premiered August 5, 2000 at the Saratoga Center for the Performing Arts, in Saratoga, NY. The Philadelphia Orchestra was conducted by Charles Dutoit, with soloist Chantal Juillet. The piece was commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversaries of Yaddo and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Richard Danielpour was born in New York City January 28, 1956. |
| Richard Danielpour 1956- |
| He studied at the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin. He also trained as a pianist under Lorin Hollander, Veronica Jochum, and Gabriel Chodos. Danielpour has received more than 30 commissions from organizations as diverse as the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Absolut Vodka. His cello concerto was recorded by Yo-Yo Ma and The Philadelphia Orchestra with David Zinman. The resulting CD, "Premieres," won Best Classical Album and two other awards at the 1998 Grammys. He has also composed two major ballet scores for the New York City Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Danielpour is an active educator. He is on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He also gives master classes throughout the country. He has also been co-director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's Composition and Conducting Institute. Among Danielpour's awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, the Bearns Prize (from Columbia University), The Charles Ives Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award (both from the American Academy of Arts and Letters), two Barlow Foundation grants, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the American Academy in Rome. In 2002 Danielpour was commissioned by the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis for the piece As Night Falls on Barjeantane. It was performed by every semi-finalist. The violinist Midori took up the work and included it in her touring repertoire. In May 2003, the New Jersey Symphony premiered his Apparitions, which was a re-working of his String Quartet No. 4 for orchestra. In The Fools Paradise, Danielpour said he was fascinated with the idea of the court jester. The court jester was the only person who could speak the truth to a king (even if the truth was not favorable) without being punished for it. Danielpour says that the court jesters of today are the artists and anyone who has the gift for seeing clearly. |
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| Emerson String Quartet Plays Ned Rorem |
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| Violinists Rule! Even at the Computer! |
| Did You Guess? Duke Wilhelm put Bach in prison so that he could not leave! (I guess he really liked Bach's music!) |
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| Play Music You Like! From Sheet Music Plus! |