It’s almost time to “spring forward.” As a reminder to turn your clocks ahead, here’s a selection from Maurice Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les sortilèges” – the “Five o’Clock Foxtrot” – further evidence of Ravel’s fascination with mechanical objects. Play it loudly and proudly as you make the rounds tonight at 2 a.m.
Category: Daily Dispatch
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Caroline Shaw: Pulitzer Winner to Solo Violinist
Is there nothing Caroline Shaw can’t do? A founding member of the Grammy Award-winning vocal octet Roomful of Teeth, Shaw is enrolled in the PhD program in composition at Princeton University. In 2013, at the age of 30, she became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition “Partita for 8 Voices,” which she also recorded.
Now Shaw makes her debut as a solo violinist in her most recent work, which receives its first performances in a series of concerts, the next of which will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m.
“Lo,” for violin and orchestra, is a co-commission of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina and Indianapolis Symphonies, in support of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW Festival.
PSO Music Director Rossen Milanov will conduct the concert, which will also feature the tone poem “Pohjola’s Daughter,” by Jean Sibelius, and the Symphony No. 1, by Johannes Brahms. Shaw will join Milanov for the pre-concert talk at 3.
On Saturday at 12 p.m., Shaw will also take part in a Pi Day celebration at Nassau Inn, 10 Palmer Square, where a pop-up masterclass will be held for violinists ages 3-6. At 4 p.m., she will discuss her creative process with Milanov, as part of a PSO “Behind the Music” event, at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon St.
Registration for the masterclass and tickets for “Behind the Music” – both free and open to the public – are available through the PSO website, princetonsymphony.org.
Learn more about Caroline Shaw and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in my article in today’s Trenton Times:
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/03/caroline_shaw_pso_performing_i.html
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WWFM: St Patrick’s & Silver Screen Soundtracks
Trying to figure out your plans for Friday night? Why not grab some Sno-Caps and a large popcorn and join me for a double feature?
First, on “Picture Perfect,” we look ahead to St. Patrick’s Day, with music from “The Luck of the Irish” (by Cyril J. Mockridge), “Angela’s Ashes” (by John Williams), “Circle of Friends” (by Michael Kamen), and “The Quiet Man” (by Victor Young).
Then we’ll have an hour to hit the concession stand before the start of a special concert with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Vocalist Jessica Hendy will join guest conductor Lucas Richman for “A Silver Screen Salute,” featuring selections from “Ben-Hur,” “Psycho,” “Star Wars,” and more.
Richman has worked in Hollywood for 25 years, recording the actual scores onto the soundtracks of films like “The Village,” “As Good as It Gets,” and “Se7en.”
As always, “Picture Perfect” can be heard at 6:00 ET, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6. If you miss it, you can enjoy it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra concert will be broadcast tonight at 8. There will be no webcast of the PSO, so you had better be there or be square.
WWFM – The Classical Network can be heard locally, in the Trenton-Princeton area, at 89.1 FM. Internet streaming is available through the website. For a complete list of frequencies, look here:
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Quiet Man & Irish Film Scores for St. Patrick’s Day
“He’s a nice, quiet, peace-lovin’ man come home to Ireland to forget his troubles.”
John Wayne gives Victor McLaglen a lathering in the epic climax of “The Quiet Man,” and composer Victor Young’s palette is all green. Join me for this alternately romantic and boisterous, folk-inflected score, alongside music for “The Luck of the Irish” by Cyril J. Mockridge, “Angela’s Ashes” by John Williams, and “Circle of Friends” by Michael Kamen,” featuring the talents of The Chieftains.
We set the tone for St. Patrick’s Day this week on “Picture Perfect,” tonight at 6:00 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.
Then stick around, if you’re so inclined: there’s more film music at 8, as the Princeton Symphony Orchestra presents “A Silver Screen Salute.” I’ll be your host for this special concert, featuring guest conductor Lucas Richman and Broadway vocalist Jessica Hendy. The program is a mix of classic scores and more contemporary favorites, all of them tied in one way or another to the big screen.
I echo Barry Fitzgerald in stating, “Homeric!”
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Forgotten Female Composers on WPRB
The “fair sex” wasn’t always treated so fairly. Join me this morning on WPRB, as we listen to neglected works by female composers, who labored at a time when the act of composition was still very much a man’s game.
We’ll hear a symphony by the only female professor at the Paris Conservatory during the whole of the 19th century; a sizeable piece for piano and orchestra by a composer generally regarded as a miniaturist; music by a woman who tied with Ernest Bloch in a composition contest but finally gave up her creative aspirations due to general indifference to her work; and an assured “serenade” for orchestra by a suffragette who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It’s our musical salute to Women’s History Month, this morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. A woman’s place is in the concert hall, on Classic Ross Amico.
PORTRAIT: Louis Farrenc was a professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory for 30 years, beginning in 1842. Of course she was only allowed to teach women…
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