John Adams is an incredibly awesome San Francisco Bay Area-based composer. You also may have noticed that many of my posts on Twitter are labeled with the #JohnAdamsFanClub hash tag.  I may be biased, but either way, his music is fantastic. b. Feb. 15, 1947 in Worcester, MA John Adams graduated from Concord High School [...]

b. November 14, 1900, Brooklyn, NY d. December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, NY Aaron Copland was a famed American composer and an accomplished pianist. He was known as the “Dean of American Composers.” His composition style was a unique hybrid of American folk idioms and modern classical music and is identified by his iconic use [...]

b. 1874   Danbury, Connecticut d. 1954   New York, NY Charles Ives was a super-cool, trail-blazing composer who also had a successful career as an insurance salesman. He’s our composer of the week! Charles Ives grew up in Danbury, Connecticut, where his father, George Ives, worked as a music teacher and band leader. George Ives had [...]

Yes! Today is the kickoff of Salon97′s American Composers Month. Our classical trivia text message today (sign up for free in the red box on the right-hand sidebar!) highlighted John Philip Sousa, so we thought it only appropriate to include a video of one of his marches. “The Washington Post” was written as a tribute [...]