This summer, I’ve decided to add a new feature to piano lessons. I know that many families travel during the summer months and it’s sometimes difficult to practice. These daily assignments, June through August will help you and your students learn a bit more about the pieces they’re learning during the year – or maybe […]
He’s the master of harmony and counterpoint, he could effortlessly compose an amazing concerto or cantata, but what if Johann Sebastian Bach was on social media? To celebrate the 333rd anniversary of the great composer’s birth (it’s either today or March 31, depending on Old Style and New Style dates), we’ve imagined what his Facebook […]
1685 ~ Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer birthday (Old Style) Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor was featured in the Walt Disney movie Fantasia and the new Fantasia 2000 Read quotes by and about Bach More information about Bach Grammy winner
The Gershwin family donated the Steinway to the University as part of the George and Ira Gershwin initiative that is focused on research and study of the brothers’ music. According to Marc Gershwin, George and Ira’s nephew, “I wanted the instrument to be accessible to the students and faculty who would be preserving the legacy […]
Pi Symphony: The Ruse Performance Movement I. Pi Symphony orchestral performance in Ruse, Bulgaria, Nov. 19th, 2010 The melodies and rhythms are based on the numbers of π (3.14159…etc), which describes the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. To read more about how this came to be written, see http://www.pisymphony.com/gpage.html There is also another work based […]
Today would probably have been a better day for the Music Man post since it’s about marching forth on March Fourth. In honor of dedicated musicians and performers of many diverse styles and backgrounds, Marching Music Day celebrates all varieties of the art forms bringing us “music on the move.” For centuries, the […]
1791 ~ Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer whose vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works. His books of studies for the piano are still widely used in piano teaching. More information on Czerny At the age of fifteen, Czerny began a very successful teaching career. Basing his method on the […]
Presidents’ Day (celebrated on the third Monday in February), was originally established in 1885 in recognition of George Washington. The holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. Presidents’ Day is […]
Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an influential American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. He wrote the Valentine Stomp above in 1929.
Since I’ve done the Nicholas Brothers and Busby Berkeley, it’s time for Cab Calloway, another old movie favorite of mine. I think the first time I ever came across anything related to Calloway was in the late 1960s when I was watching That Girl on TV – Ann’s father (Lew Parker) sang Minnie the Moocher […]
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