The New York Philharmonic recently presented an innovative production of Ligeti‘s Le Grand Macabre. To accompany this brilliant show, the NY Phil’s marketing department put together a series of behind-the-scenes flip cam videos. So many times we wonder what it takes to put together the wonderful concerts we attend, and thankfully, the New York Phil [...]

Modest Mussorgsky wrote some wonderfully iconic additions to the classical repertoire, and that is why he is our Composer of the Week! b. March 21, 1839 in Karevo, Russia d. March 28, 1881 in St. Petersburg, Russia Modest Mussorgsky began studying piano with his mother at age six and went on to become one of [...]

It’s high time we get a female composer represented up in here! Amy Beach is super awesome, so she’s the first. b. Henniker, New Hampshire, September 5, 1867 d. New York, New York, December 27, 1944 From an early age it was obvious that Amy Cheney Beach was a musical prodigy, and though her mother [...]

We had a new guest at our “Terrible Twos” celebration on Saturday, Chloe Veltman, a musician and freelance culture correspondent for the New York Times. A few days later, Chloe wrote me to ask if we’d submit a guest post for her blog, Lies Like Truth, with the ArtsJournal network of cultural blogs. We are [...]

It’s this Saturday! On Saturday, May 15 at 3:00 p.m., we’ll gather in San Francisco to commemorate two years of community-based classical music-loving shenanigans with a playlist of audience favorites, birthday cake, fabulous people, and super fun times. We hope you’ll join us! For location details, please email cariwyl@salon97.org.

He wrote the groundbreaking scores for King Kong and A Summer Place, which means Max Steiner is more than awesome enough to be a Composer of the Week! b. May 10, 1888 in Vienna d. December 28, 1971 in Beverley Hills When he composed his first song at age 11, it was immediately apparent that [...]

Claude Debussy, a composer at the forefront of French Impressionism, wrote some awesome preludes and many other great Composer of the Week-worthy pieces! b. August 22, 1862 d. March 25, 1918 A prominent and very talented French composer at the turn of the 20th century, Claude Debussy’s iconic compositions bridged Late Romantic Era music with [...]