Marga Richter's 'Fragments'
Synopsis American composer Marga Richter was born on today’s date in 1926, in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. She began piano lessons by 4, started co...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsHealth
Composers Datebook
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes sign...
Episodes
20 of 214 episodesAncerl and the Czech Philharmonic
Synopsis On today’s date in 1950, Karel Ančerl was named the artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic, a position he would hold for the n...
Honegger plays rough
Synopsis Rugby is a style of football that originated in England at Rugby School and was played at British public boy’s schools during the 1...
Premiere of Brahms' 'Schicksalslied'
Synopsis On today’s date in 1871, Hermann Levi conducted the premiere of a new choral work by Johannes Brahms: Schicksalslied , or Song of D...
Boulez and Jarre
Synopsis Today’s date in 1946 marks an important moment in Parisian theatrical history with the debut performance of a legendary acting comp...
A domestic postscript from Richard Strauss
Synopsis Of all the works of Richard Strauss, the one that premiered in Dresden on today’s date in 1925 ranks amount the least-known. For st...
Missa Salisburgensis
Synopsis The hills surrounding the Austrian town of Salzburg, according to Rogers and Hammerstein, are “alive with the sound of music.” Well...
Dvorak's Violin Concerto
Synopsis On today’s date in 1883, the premiere of Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto was given in Prague by Czech violinist František Ondrícek...
Zwilich celebrates
Synopsis As far as housewarming gifts go, a nice bottle of champagne is common, or maybe a bouquet of flowers. But if you’re a composer, and...
Prokofiev's Sixth and Seventh
Synopsis By a coincidence, the last two symphonies of Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev premiered on today’s date: his Symphony No. 6 premier...
The school of Monk
Synopsis American jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on today’s date in 1917. Largely self-taught, he began playing p...
Vivaldi’s 'Juditha Triumphans'
Synopsis On today’s date in 2001, the release of a CD of Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha Triumphans launched an ambitious project to record nearl...
Ligeti's 'out there' Violin Concerto
Synopsis On today’s date in 1992, one of the strangest — and some would say most strikingly original — violin concertos of the late 20th cen...
Jake Heggie's opera 'Dead Man Walking'
Synopsis As the 20th century drew to its close, some who followed the development of opera were struck by the number of new American operas...
Music for the movies
Synopsis On today’s date in 1927, the landmark film The Jazz Singer received its premiere showing at the Warner Theater in New York. The Jaz...
Grove and Sullivan 'discover' Schubert
Synopsis On today’s date in 1867, two eminent British Victorians arrived in Vienna in search of Franz Schubert. Now, Schubert had been dead...
Copland's 'Appalachian Spring' Suite
Synopsis On today’s date in 1945, Artur Rodzinski conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere performance of an orchestral suite arr...
The Dream of Gerontius
Synopsis Despite a disastrous premiere in Birmingham on today’s date in 1900, Edward Elgar’s oratorio The Dream of Gerontius has become one...
Steve Heitzeg's 'Nobel Symphony'
Synopsis In 2001, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, commissioned A...
Gabriela Lena Frank's 'Hilos'
Synopsis On today’s date in 2010, at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in Nashville, the ALIAS ensemble gave the premiere perfor...