Let The Party Begin – 200th Birthday Celebrations for Verdi and Wagner
May
22nd,
2013
Let the party begin! We are about to embark on the greatest one-two birthday punch in the history of opera. Tomorrow – May 22 – marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Richard Wagner. 151 days later – on October 10 – we will celebrate the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi,…
How to Get and Keep Kids Interested in Concert Music – Progress Report
May
15th,
2013
A progress report on my daughter Lillian Patricia (LilyPat), who began piano lessons 9 weeks ago, on March 5. (The post that started it all) Readers of this blog will recall that at 6½ years of age, I was concerned that she might be a bit young to happily deal with the discipline required of…
Wishing My Father a Happy Birthday and A Little Greenberg Family History
May
6th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_566" align="alignright" width="300"] My father and I struttin’ some four-hand action circa 1980[/caption]A birthday greeting and appreciation to my father – Alvin R. Greenberg - who turned 88 today. More than anyone else, it is my dad who is responsible for my career in music, a fact that at one time might have given…
Greenberg Recommends – Vocal Sampling
May
1st,
2013
When I was a graduate student I had the opportunity to study with a wonderful composer (and teacher) named Olly Wilson. A piece of advice Olly gave his students (myself included) was to listen to and thus immerse yourself in whatever instrumental combination you were composing for in order to get (and keep) the “sound”…
Rarefied Air
April
25th,
2013
On November 13, 2012, a piece of mine entitled Rarefied Air was performed at Old First Church in San Francisco under the auspices of Composers, Inc. That performance – which featured Rob Bailis on clarinet, Michael Nicholas on violin, and Hadley McCarroll on piano - is now up on YouTube and thus available for your…
Be Careful Who You Give Things To: A Cautionary Tale
April
24th,
2013
A composer’s most prized possessions are his/her autograph manuscripts: complete scores notated in pencil or ink. (We pause to rue the passing of such hand-written manuscripts. As a new generation of composers notates music using computer programs, the art of music calligraphy will go the way of the hand-copied illuminated manuscript, and technology will claim…
The Ring in Berlin – Part Three
April
18th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_549" align="alignright" width="300"] Andreas Schager receives a hero’s ovation after the first act, accompanied by the poor assistant director, still looking shell-shocked.[/caption]The third installment of our Berlin Ring cycle – Siegfried – took place on Sunday, April 7 (by total coincidence, “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”). The curtain was particularly early that day – 4…
The Ring in Berlin – Part Two
April
17th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_546" align="alignright" width="300"] René Pape and Iréne Theorin singing the composure-busting/heart-breaking/weep-inducing father-daughter duet between Wotan and Brünnhilde that concludes Die Walküre.[/caption]The permanent home of the Berlin State Theater (the “Staatsoper”) is a magnificent, traditionally arrayed 1300-seat theater on the Unter den Linden, Berlin’s equivalent to Paris’ Champs Elysées and New York’s Fifth Avenue. The…
The Ring in Berlin Part One
April
16th,
2013
Safely (and warmly) ensconced back in northern California, I will offer over the next few days a report of what was, by any measure, an extraordinary Ring cycle in Berlin. I would begin with the bad news. The supertitles were all in German! Arghh!!! Of all the nerve! Granted, I’ll be the first to admit…
Revisiting “The Music of Richard Wagner” – The Ring – Part Two and Three
April
1st,
2013
I’m off to Berlin tomorrow to escort a group and attend Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle at the Staatsoper, to be conducted by the ageless Daniel Barenboim. In the spirit of “spreading the informational joy” for all who might be interested, I’ve posted two more excerpts from my The Great Courses survey “The Music of Richard…