Would you like to learn interesting tidbits about composers and the events surrounding their compositions? What if that info could be delivered to your e-mail inbox everyday and you could spend one minute of your time expanding your knowledge of composers and their works? If that sounds appealing, here is the perfect solution! A daily e-mail from Composers Datebook. Just sign up here.
I’ve been receiving these daily e-mails for close to a year now and thoroughly enjoy them. Just to give you an idea of what you’ll be receiving, here’s what came in today’s e-mail:
An important date for Copland and Bernstein
If ever there was a red-letter day in American music, November 14th must surely be it. For starters, it’s the birthday of Aaron Copland, who was born in New York City on today’s date in 1900 — and then there’s all that happened on November 14th in the life of Leonard Bernstein . . .
Here’s how Bernstein himself explained it: “I never forget a Copland birthday: two of the most important events of my life happened on November 14 — the first in 1937 when Aaron and I met for the first time . . . Now, I worried and complained terrifically back then and always took my troubles to Aaron, who would tell me to ‘stop whining.’ He seemed to have such complete confidence in me that he didn’t show a bit of surprise when on Sunday, November 14, 1943, I made a dramatic success by filling in for the ailing Bruno Walter and conducting the New York Philharmonic. All Aaron’s predications came true — And on his birthday!”
As if that weren’t enough, in 1954, again on Copland’s birthday, Leonard Bernstein appeared on a live “Omnibus” television broadcast, presenting Beethoven’s draft sketches for the opening of his Fifth Symphony.
Bernstein’s TV debut was a smash success — and led directly to his subsequent series of televised “Young Person’s Concerts” that brought classical music to millions of Americans coast to coast.
A quick, easy read – check it out and see what you think!
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