You won’t need a pick or a shovel when you join me this afternoon on The Classical Network. The streets are paved with gold! Prepare yourself for a mother lode of birthdays.
Former Princeton resident Earl Kim was born on this date 100 years ago. Kim was born in California to Korean immigrant parents in 1920. He began piano studies at the age of 10. As his focus shifted to composition, he received instruction from Arnold Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch and Roger Sessions.
Following service in WWII, Kim taught at Princeton University from 1952 to 1967. In 1967, he left for Harvard, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. Kim died of lung cancer in 1998.
His music has frequently been described as romantic in disposition, but make no mistake, his Violin Concerto, written for Itzhak Perlman in 1979, sports a modernist veneer. If you’re unfamiliar with it, fear not – just go with it. I think you’ll find it rewarding.
We’ll also celebrate the anniversaries of the births of Baroque oboist and composer Giuseppe Sammartini; pianist-composers Henri Herz, Franz Xaver Scharwenka and Alexander Scriabin; German Romantic master Max Bruch; Respighi teacher Giuseppe Martucci; one-hit wonder Vittorio Monti (of “Csárdás” fame); and conductor Maurice Abravanel. That’s a lot of cake!
We’ll put a great big candle on it in the form of a recording made by the Bach Aria Group, founded by another Princeton resident, born 106 years ago today, William H. Scheide.
There’s gold in them thar hills! Gallop on over to the Ponderosa, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, for a Birthday Bonanza, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.