Category: music

Christine Walevska got her one-eighth-size 1834 Bernardel cello when she was eight years old, and even as she went on to study with Gregor Piatigorsky, win a first prize at the Paris Conservatoire and pursue an international career, she remained attached to her childhood instrument. In 1976, it was stolen. Reporter Stacy Perman tells the story of how the little cello ultimately found its way back to Walevska — and a gifted young protégée came along with it. – Los Angeles Times

His name is Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. “Presumably intended as a compliment, this erasure of Boulogne’s name not only subjugates him to an arbitrary white standard, but also diminishes his truly unique place in Western classical music history.” – The New York Times

Over the last few months, over 270,000 choirs nationwide have been trying to figure out how to move forward. While making a high quality musical product is the common call for any music ensemble, the pandemic has made it clear that it is just as much the MEANS rather as it is the ENDS that is the raison d’être for many choirs that makes the choral experience so widely popular. The question becomes not only, ‘how do we make a quality musical product?’ But, ‘how can we continue to have meaningful musical and social experiences?’. For music educators, there are existential questions about what the intended learning outcomes are for the choral classroom and if they can be achieved without singing in the same room at all. – NewMusicBox

Shirley Graham Du Bois notched up plenty of achievements in her own right beyond the activism she shared with her husband: she was a novelist, playwright, biographer (of Paul Robeson, Booker T. Washington, and Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser), and radical who (in)famously joined the American Communist Party. But when she studied at the Sorbonne, her subject was music. The premiere run of her 1932 opera Tom-Tom was an enormous spectacle that drew audiences of 25,000 (the planned transfer to Madison Square Garden was derailed by the Depression), and David Patrick Stearns says a revival would be very worthwhile. – WQXR (New York City)

“They parked all too easily; slung their fold-up camp chairs over their shoulders; and waited obediently in a socially distanced line to enter the grounds, cracking jokes behind their masks. The lawn — a special mix of Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and a variety called fine fescue, designed to withstand the footsteps of up to 18,000 music fans a night — was as supernaturally green as ever. The vista, still magnificent. The sound? No tuning. Mostly birds chirping. Save for a robin dashing from the shadow of one red maple to another, it was very still.” – The New York Times

Howard Reich: “Should the organization succeed in presenting live events, it will deliver us from the current deluge of online performances by every musician who happens to own a smart phone. These musical snippets are better than nothing, of course, but bear scant relation to what happens when listeners hear music in a concert hall in real time.” – Chicago Tribune

As COVID-19 rages on, the star jazz pianist was more than a little nervous about performing indoors in a small venue, even one as out of the way as the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, Pa. He went ahead and did it because his first-ever performance at this unlikely jazz spot, more than 25 years ago, is arguably what made his career. Journalist John Marchese reports on how Charlap’s return went. – The New York Times

It all played out over the weekend on Julia Bullock’s Facebook page, where David Tucker began a spat with a couple of hostile comments about the protesters detained by Federal agents in Portland. When tenor Russell Thomas observed that the Tucker Foundation has given its top award to only one Black singer in more than 40 years, David Tucker replied that “pulling the race card is another convenient excuse to modify excellent standards of vocal artistry.” Among the many people calling for Tucker’s removal from the Foundation’s board by Monday were former Tucker Award winners Stephanie Blythe, Lisette Oropesa, and Joyce DiDonato, who said she’d quit the board herself if Tucker remained. – The New York Times

Although I spent college and most of my NBA career in Los Angeles, it wasn’t until I retired from basketball and began my second career as a writer specializing in African American history and the nuances of popular culture that I learned how one area — Central Avenue — played a vital role in shaping both African American history and American popular culture. It was a revelation — and an inspiration. – Los Angeles Times