Monday, February 28, 2005
What's New Today?
Can you believe the insipid crap nominated for musical Oscars this year? The songs were wretched and the snippets of all of the "original" scores sounded as if they were written by lawyers. Where is Bernard Herrmann when you need him? Dead, unfortunately, but Australian playwright David Knijnenburg is staging in Brisbane (just a bit off Broadway) a new play called Hitchcock and Herrmann, which explores the volatile relationship between the certifiably rotund director Alfred Hitchcock and the certifiably nuts composer, Bernard Herrmann...John Adams wrapped up a weeklong residency at Northwestern University's School of Music with a concert of two of his own pieces, "Gnarly Buttons'' and "Grand Pianola Music,'' at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on NU's Evanston campus. Adams worked with NU students in classes and rehearsals all week as part of his commitment as the inaugural winner of the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize, established in 2003, which has a cash award of $100,000, one of the country's most lucrative arts awards. He will return to NU for three more weeks, in October, and January and May 2006...Chorale conductor Harry Simeon died last week at age 94. He was responsible for "The Little Drummer Boy." No word on who gets the reward money.
Here at the ranch, the Composers Forum is hot, hot, hot. Elodie Lauten has a new post on "Underground Nostalgia" and Lawrence Dillon talks about "the first time." Just below, Robert Jordahl takes a stroll down memory lane. And all our composers and performers need your comments. The big bucks are just not enough.
posted by Jerry Bowles
2/28/2005
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