Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

Faulkner’s Light in August on WPRB

“. . . [I]n August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. It might have fauns and satyrs and the gods and – from Greece, from Olympus in it somewhere. It lasts just for a day or two, then it’s gone. . . [T]he title reminded me of that time, of a luminosity older than our Christian civilization.”

We take a page from William Faulkner, this Thursday morning on WPRB, as we salute the light in August. The airwaves will be awash with music about light, color, rainbows and kaleidoscopes, with the possible inclusion of works by Sir Edward Elgar, Andrei Eshpai, Edward German, Jennifer Higdon, Uuno Klami, Morten Lauridsen, Roger Quilter, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Miklós Rózsa, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Theofanidis, Michael Torke, and more.

In addition, I will be joined around 10:00 by Sandra Milstein-Pucciatti, cofounder and managing director of Boheme Opera NJ, who will tell us what to expect from a free concert of arias and duets scheduled to take place tomorrow evening at 7, in Joseph Lawrence Park in Bordentown. The program will include selections from opera and musical theater. For more about Boheme Opera, visit bohemeopera.com.

I hope you’ll join me, your resident Faulknerian idiot man-child, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, as we bask in the light in August, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. Keep it coruscating with Classic Ross Amico.

August 12, 2015
Fairy Tale Music with Ross Amico

Did you ever have one of those mornings? You dream of being awakened by a kiss, but instead you get a four-legged friend panting (or worse) for his or her breakfast.

This morning, we turn our backs on reality to immerse ourselves in the fantasy worlds of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, Aesop and others.

Okay, so maybe sometimes things turn out even worse in fairy tales. But the subjects invariably offer a blank canvas for the imaginative flights of some of the world’s great composers.

I hope you’ll join me this morning for music by Havergal Brian, Daniel Dorff, Paul Hindemith, Gustav Holst, William Hurlstone, Nikolai Medtner, Robert McBride, Robert Moran, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ernst Toch, Siegfried Wagner, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alexander Zemlinsky, and others of their ilk.

Musical subjects will include Pinocchio, Snow White, Old King Cole, The Little Mermaid, Three Blind Mice, and Beauty and the Beast.

It all takes place from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wrpb.com. Keep the ogres at bay – and the earbuds in – with Classic Ross Amico.

August 6, 2015
Fairy Tale Music on WPRB This Week

Once upon a time (yesterday), I decided it might be fun to do a show of fairy tale music and music inspired by nursery rhymes. This is the kind of thing I often did for Mother’s Day, back when I had my regular weekend air shifts. But a lazy August morning seems as good a time as any to spend with the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault and others.

To this end, we’ll hear music by Havergal Brian, Daniel Dorff, Paul Hindemith, Gustav Holst, William Hurlstone, Nikolai Medtner, Robert McBride, Robert Moran, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ernst Toch, Siegfried Wagner, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Alexander Zemlinsky (or variations thereof).

Musical subjects will include Pinocchio, Snow White, Old King Cole, The Little Mermaid, Three Blind Mice, and Beauty and the Beast.

Fall under the enchantment tomorrow from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. Awake to a musical kiss from Classic Ross Amico.

August 5, 2015
Ross Amico’s Summer Music Escape & So Percussion

Nocturnes, gardens, getaways and plenty of water – that’s Classic Ross Amico’s prescription for summer survival this week.

Perhaps you are fond of summer. Or perhaps, like me, you live in a third-floor walk-up in the middle of a paved-over hell-hole, in which case you probably harbor more ambivalent feelings. To be fair, yesterday was actually quite lovely.

Either way, I hope you’ll join me this morning for music related in some way to summer and summery diversions. We’ll have vacation music, works about leisurely pursuits, water music, and aural evocations of perfumed breezes wafting through gently swaying greenery.

Members of So Percussion will drop by in the 8:00 hour to talk a bit about their own positive contribution to the season, the So Percussion Summer Institute (SoSI), now in progress at locations in and around Princeton University. The two week program for college-age percussionists and composers is chock-full of free concerts, some of them in very public places, such as Princeton Record Exchange, Small World Coffee, and Albert Hinds Plaza. If you haven’t looked into it, you can find more information and the complete schedule here:

http://sopercussion.com/sosiconcerts

SoSI runs through August 1.

It’s only two months until autumn. Think cool thoughts and stay hydrated with Classic Ross Amico. I’ll be poring over the Farmer’s Almanac from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

PHOTO: No one captures the creepy agonies and ecstasies of summer quite like Edvard Munch

July 23, 2015
Summer Music on WPRB with So Percussion

I suppose there’s no point in denying it after this week, so I’m going to jump right in. This Thursday morning on WPRB, it’s all music related in some way to summer and summery diversions. There will be music inspired by this, my most-hated season, as well as works about water, gardens and getaways.

Members of So Percussion will drop by in the 8:00 hour to knock some sense into me and to talk a bit about the So Percussion Summer Institute (SoSI), now in progress at locations in and around Princeton University. The two week program for college-age percussionists and composers is chock-full of free concerts, some of them in very public places, such as Princeton Record Exchange, Small World Coffee, and Albert Hinds Plaza. If you haven’t looked into it, you can find more information and a complete schedule here:

http://sopercussion.com/sosiconcerts

SoSI runs through August 1.

I hope you’ll slather yourself with lotion, put on some shades, and join me in my air conditioned, subterranean bunker this week, as we celebrate summer, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com.

Keep it cool with Classic Ross Amico.

July 22, 2015

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