Yes, it’s true. This group of musicians made instruments out of fresh vegetables! So awesome.

DYK? The band Phoenix wrote Lisztomania in honor of composer Franz Liszt’s studly awesomeness.
That was yesterday’s weekly classical trivia text message. I thought it only apropos to follow up and post the video on our site!
Here’s Lisztomania by Phoenix (yes, it was featured on Gossip Girl, too):

And that isn’t where “Lisztomania” ends, either! In [...]

Previously heard at Salon97’s “Living Composers in the Dead of Winter” and “Terrible Twos” events, Arvo Pärt is a truly one of a kind and amazing composer, and he’s our Composer of the Week!
b. September 11, 1935 in Paide, Estonia
Arvo Pärt began studying music at an early age and had already worked as [...]

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 “The Five” nationalist [...]

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 music came naturally [...]

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 20th Century Modernism. [...]

Jean Sibelius rocks!! And that, my friends, is why he is our composer of the week.
b. December 8, 1865
d. September 20, 1957
A national hero in Finland, Jean Sibelius (click here for pronunciation) was a late Romantic Era composer. He was most known for his seven symphonies, each one marking a new stage in his compositional [...]

Late last week a member of the Salon97 community sent me a link to:
http://wwww.inbflat.net/
This site is so cool that I wish I could embed the whole thing into this post. Basically, it’s a page constructed of several YouTube videos. Each is a video of someone playing a tune in B flat. They all go together, [...]

Because composers rule, we’re starting a new tradition of publishing a post honoring a different composer each week. First up is William Grant Still, an African-American composer and Salon97 fan favorite!
b. May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi
d. December 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California
The first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the U.S. [...]