Music
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The Life You Give: Nikolai Medtner *1880
Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (or Metner) was born January 4 1880 in Moscow, to parents of German descent who had lived in Russia for several generations. The family background was musical; his mother’s brother was Fedor Gedike (Theodore Goedicke), a minor Romantic composer and professional pianist. He received early piano lessons from his mother…
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The Life You Give: Earle Brown *1926
Earle Brown, born Earle Appleton Brown on December 26, 1926, Lunenburg, Massachusetts, was one of the leading American composers of avant-garde music, best known for his development of graphic notation and the open-form system of composition. Brown had been trained in engineering and mathematics before he began to study music theory and composition. In 1952…
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Mauricio Kagel *1931
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Kagel proved to be one of the most versatile, creative, and witty composers to come of age in the second half of the twentieth century. He studied piano, theory, violoncello, organ, singing, and conducting, and was self-taught as a composer. Kagel also studied philosophy and literature extensively during his college…
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The Life You Give: Teresa Carreño *1853
Teresa Carreño, born María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García on December 22, 1853 in Caracas, is the celebrated Venezuelan pianist of great power and spirit, who was known to her public as the “Valkyrie of the piano.” She was given her first piano lessons by her father, Manuel Antonio Carreño, a politician and talented…
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“The Idol of My Youth” (Zappa on Varèse)
Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My YouthBy Frank ZappaStereo Review, June, 1971 I have been asked to write about Edgard Varèse. I am in no way qualified to. I can’t even pronounce his name right. The only reason I have agreed to is because I love his music very much, and if by some chance…
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Happy Birthday, Willie Mae Thornton! *1926
Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton, born December 11, 1926, in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American blues musician. Her introduction to music, as with most fellow blues legends, started in the Baptist church. The daughter of a minister, she and her six siblings began to sing at a very early age. While still a child, Willie…
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Weekly Woman: Gloria Coates *1938
An American composer who has made her career for the most part in Germany, Gloria Coates was born in Wisconsin in 1938. As a child, she sang on local radio and in her early teens, she took top honors at a National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Contest. This girl from rural Wisconsin headed over…
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The Life You Give: Sammy Davis, Jr. *1925
Sammy Davis, Jr., born December 8, 1925 in New York, New York, was a singer, dancer, and entertainer. At age three Davis began performing in vaudeville with his father and uncle, Will Mastin, in the Will Mastin Trio. Davis studied tap dancing under Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson but never received a formal education. After serving in…
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Happy Birthday, Ray Shulman *1949 (Gentle Giant)
Ray Shulman was born on December 8 1949, as the younger of three boys to a family of Scottish-Jewish descent in Portsmouth, England. With his brothers, Derek, and Phil, the progressive rock group Gentle Giant was active from 1970 to 1980. Ray was Gentle Giant’s bassist, while also playing trumpet, violin, viola, cello, vocals, drums,…
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The Life You Give: Tom Waits *1949
Tom Waits, born December 7, 1949, in Pomona, California, is a singer-songwriter and actor whose gritty, sometimes romantic depictions of the lives of the urban underclass won him a loyal if limited following and the admiration of critics and prominent musicians who performed and recorded his songs. Born into a middle-class California family but enamoured…
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La Damnation de Faust (Berlioz) premiered today in 1846
“La Damnation de Faust” Opus 24Dramatic Legend for four soloists, children’s chorus, seven-part choir, and orchestra Composer: Hector Berlioz Librettists: Hector Berlioz, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, & Almire GandonnièrePremiere: December 6 1846 On this recording: Kenneth Riegel —- Tenor [Faust]José van Dam —- Bass [Méphistophélès]Frederica von Stade —- Mezzo-soprano [Marguerite] Malcolm King —- Bass [Brander]…
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The Life You Give: Ozzy Osbourne *1948
Ozzy Osbourne, born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, Birmingham, England, is the musician who gained a loyal following as the vocalist for the heavy metal group Black Sabbath before embarking on a successful solo career. Raised in a working-class family, Osbourne dropped out of school at age 15 and held several low-paying jobs.…
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“Samson and Delilah” by Camille Saint-Saëns (premiered 12.2.1877)
Opera, Blood, and Tears presents Samson and Delilah (by Camille Saint-Saëns)December w at 11:55pm ESTon Clubhouse Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns Librettist: Ferdinand Lemaire ACT I Gaza, 1150 B.C. In a square in Gaza, a group of Hebrews beg Jehovah for relief from their bondage to the Philistines; Samson, their leader, rebukes them for their lack of…
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The Life You Give: Maria Callas *1923
Maria Callas, original name Maria Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulos, born December 2, 1923, New York, New York, was an American-born Greek operatic soprano who revived classical coloratura roles in the mid-20th century with her lyrical and dramatic versatility. Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants and early developed an interest in singing. Accompanied by her…
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Betthupferl / Gaetano Donizetti— String Quartetts
String Quartet No. 5 in E Minor String Quartet No. 4 in D Major String Quartet No. 6 in G Minor Listening at 12 Midnight EST in the Aristipposian Poet Clubon Clubhouse
Sila Blume 