The Municipality of Princeton has used eminent domain to take over the Westminster Choir College campus. Seems like a positive development, though I don’t pretend to know the finer points. The damage to the institution itself is done. However, if these nonprofit arts organizations can continue to operate on the campus, I suppose it’s something. Hopefully we won’t see any more apartment buildings cropping up like the abominations around Princeton Shopping Center (among other locations).
Tag: Princeton
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Einstein Martinů & Princeton in Print
I’ve been pretty low-key about it (as in, I haven’t said anything about it at all), but then, I’ve never exactly been a genius at self-promotion. However, my article on Princeton’s most beloved brainiac, Albert Einstein, and his relationship to music, is one of the features in this month’s Princeton Echo. I believe the print edition was issued on March 1. So keep a lookout for my byline in Princeton vending machines and at area businesses.
An amateur violinist who adored Mozart, Einstein knew and even played with a number of notable musicians and scientists, both in Princeton and abroad. He was even honored at Carnegie Hall by Leopold Godowsky and Arnold Schoenberg.
While he wasn’t exactly at home with music of the 20th century, Einstein liked and respected Bohuslav Martinů, who taught composition at Princeton University from 1948 to 1951. The two shared much in common, and Martinů wound up writing a piece of music for him.
It just so happens that the composer, who is not exactly a household name, but perhaps should be, will be the subject of his own music festival, “Martinů and His World,” at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, August 8-17.
You can access the article at one of the links below. I’ll also include a link to the Bard Music Festival.
The article is slated to be reprinted in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1 in advance of Pi Day, 3/14 (by coincidence, also Einstein’s birthday), always a big deal in these parts. So you’ll have a choice between the two newspapers in the next week or so.
For your convenience, I’ll also include a link to the schedule of this year’s Pi Day events (to be held in Princeton on Friday and Saturday, 3/14 & 3/15).
My article, “Relatively Musical: Albert Einstein and Bohuslav Martinů”
The Bard Music Festival, “Martinů and His World”
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/
Princeton Pi Day events
https://princetontourcompany.com/tours/pi-day/
Better get cracking on your pi memorization!
Fisher Center at Bard
PHOTO: Einstein with Gaby Casadesus at Princeton’s Present Day Club
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Princeton Concerts & Laptop Woes
I had a good friend down to Princeton for the weekend so that we could enjoy a couple of concerts at Richardson Auditorium – the New Jersey Symphony in Ravel (with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet) and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, on Friday, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky (with violinist Leila Josefowicz) and Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred Symphony,” on Saturday – and so that he could get to the bottom of my sustained computer woes. (As you may know, my laptop died over the holidays.) So there was a lot of toil (for him), a lot of fun (for me), and very little sleep (for either of us).
The end result is that he somewhat tamed Windows 11 and Microsoft Outlook, so that at the very least I again have email capability. Also, it’s helpful to me to have a rudimentary understanding of how the enraging new system works.
But alas, we had to throw in the towel, finally, and send the old drive out to a “clean room” for high-end data retrieval. The owner of the walk-in service we had to resort to, once my friend reached the extreme of his rather considerable knowledge, seemed very capable. Moreover, he was laudably transparent in explaining everything he attempted, including taking the computer around to some of his geek friends to have a look at it. But in the end, he too was flummoxed. The files are still detectable (thankfully), but no one can seem to access them (unfortunately).
I don’t feel the same sense of freedom and exuberance I once did when working on my old laptop – I don’t know why the Silicon Valley bastards always have to mess with everything – but perhaps with time I will become inured to the pain of the new. For the present, it is going a long way to reining in my internet addiction, as being on the computer now is such a negative experience. I’m also not very fond of the new laptop (going from HP to Lenovo). I recommend nothing about it.
I apologize for such an uninspired, utilitarian post, but I am wasted from the weekend. I’m wading into a second cup of coffee now, but I suspect, when it comes to any kind of skill in euphoniously stringing together words, today is going to be a wash.
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Princeton Snow & Christmas Carols on KWAX
Snow in Princeton for the first day of winter!
I don’t know what conditions are like where you are, but I expect, if you celebrate, your adrenaline is already up, as you prepare for a last-minute dash to the stores, a little surreptitious gift-wrapping, some early baking, or perhaps already receiving family.
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll stick to the basics, with an hour of music inspired by familiar Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs.
In the former category, we’ll hear works by Philip Lane, Benjamin Britten, and Rick Sowash. Then we’ll enjoy selections from a favorite Christmas album of mine, “Old Christmas Return’d,” from 1992, featuring early music performances by the York Waits. Some of these Christmas melodies have been around for an awfully long time!
In between, we’ll hear an original carol by John Rutter – now SIR John Rutter – unbelievably, composed all the way back in 1972. I remember when it was a fairly new piece!
None of us are getting any younger. Recollect the holidays of your misspent youth with an hour of traditional carols for Christmas, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, now in syndication on KWAX the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
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Kile Smith Composer Music and Coffee in Princeton
In Princeton this morning, out for coffee with my former WRTI colleague, composer Kile Smith, always interesting, a great voice, super-talented, and a person of real substance. I must say, he’s not usually so squinty. But he’s also a much better photographer than I am. (Like he probably knows not to have his subjects face the sun.) Don’t believe me? Check out his website. Then follow his Facebook page. And definitely, do yourself a favor and listen to his music. Having coffee with Kile is a great way to start a day.
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