Musical Mélange Series
There were more than 300 piano makers in New England alone when German immigrant Heinrich EngelhardSteinway and five of his sons opened a piano company in New York in 1853. With a simple maxim propellingtheir enterprise, “build the best piano possible,” they emerged 10 years later as the largest and most successful piano manufacturer in North America.
Winning gold medals as quickly as they amassed patents (almost 130 and more than any other piano manufacturer), Steinway & Sons swiftly merited and continues to maintain the reputation as the premier builder of hand-made pianos.
This lecture/recital guides you through the compelling family saga with an historical and technical narrative, live performance, film footage of construction practices within the 130 year old Steinway factory in New York, a survey of William Steinway’s fascinating diaries of 1869 – 96, and rare archival recordings of Steinway Artist immortals including Rachmaninoff, Hofmann, Kapell and Paderewski.
On Sept. 9, 1956, more than 60 million people witnessed a young entertainer with gyrating hips and a honey-coated baritone voice croon his way into nationalconsciousness on The Ed Sullivan Show. His rubbery legs spread wide apart, head thrown carelessly back and mouth twitching, it was apparent that this man was different. With an onstage persona that magnified unbridled sensuality and a versatile musical style which drew from rock and roll, gospel, blues, country and pop, Elvis Aaron Presley exuded charms that would make him the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.
Enjoy an intimate portrait of “The King,” from his birth and childhood through the historic Sun Records sessions, meteoric rise to stardom, thirty-one feature films, dramatic comeback and tragic death at age 42. Remember the songs that peppered our earlier lives, songs like “Hound Dog,” “Are You Lonely Tonight?,” “Viva Las Vegas,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and many, many more. Enjoy clips from King Creole, Jailhouse Rock and Kid Galahad as well as rare archival footage and interviews which clarify the life experiences that shaped his career and influenced him outside of the limelight.
The five-piece British band stuttered professionally for three years, finally reducing their instrumentation to a quartet with thedeparture of bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and the replacement of drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr. And for eight years, from 1962 until their break-up in 1970, The Beatles created a rock phenomenon unequalled in modern musical history. Their story is riveting and as magical as their mystery tour.
This lecture takes you on a magical mystery tour using clips from old TV shows (remember the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964?) and documentary film footage, movies and recordings, follow the four young lads from Liverpool who transformed the cultural revolution of the 60s. Allow your memory bank to take you to first hearings of “I Saw Her Standing There,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Penny Lane,” and the Paul McCartney’s masterwork, “Yesterday,” the most-covered song of all time.
A new musical era inconspicuously began when Bartolomeo Cristofori's arpicimbalo
col piano e forte was listed in the 1700 inventory of the Medici court in
Florence, Italy. Although the steam engine, sextant, mercury thermometer and
cotton gin mill represent 18th-century ingenuity, the creation of the piano deserves
equal respect. The synergy among mechanical evolution, aural impact, compositional
creativity and epic performance is truly magical.
For three centuries, this phenomenal machine has inspired composers and
performers to create a plethora of compositions as magnificent as those written
for any other instrument. In addition, the piano has achieved an iconic status
quite apart from its function as a sound-generating machine. This seminar is
highlighted by fascinating biographical descriptions of the virtuosic super-stars,
explanations of the mechanical mechanisms of the instrument, as well as live
piano performance, archival recordings and documentary videos.
The
Great War was over, times were upbeat and a sense of prosperity, freedom
and excitement was evident across the country. In New York City, the
Harlem nightclubs were the happening places. From dusk to dawn their
rooms were filled with boisterous patrons, the aroma of cigarette smoke
and alcohol, and the sounds of a new music that tied it all together:
jazz. One ballroom, the Cotton Club, on the second story of a building
at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, was the crème de la crème of
Manhattan's nightspots. It was the favorite of the elite, the "Aristocrat of Harlem," and
its patrons included celebrities like George Gershwin, the Duke and Duchess
of Windsor, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Harold Arlen and Dorothy
Fields wrote and produced the stage shows, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway
conducted their snappy jazz bands, and the great black entertainers like
Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine Baker played
the room to the delight of the all-white audience. Live piano music from
the era will be performed coupled with archival music and newsreel footage
of Harlem during its glory days.
The
mechanical improvements to the fortepianos of the 18th and mid-19th centuries
extended range, dynamics, duration, tone quality and velocity while creating
a new breed of musician, the virtuoso composer. From the auspicious day
in 1768 when Johann Christian Bach gave the first piano solo performance
in London to today, when the promise of a piano concerto performed by
Murray Perahia magnetizes audiences, the marriage of piano and orchestra
has remained a favored art form. The seminar features a study of four
masterworks: Mozart Concerto in A Major, K. 488; Beethoven Concerto
No. 5 in E-flat Major ("the
Emperor"); Schumann Concerto in A Minor; Prokofiev Concerto No. 3
in C Major.
Porgy
and Bess, an “American folk opera,” opened in
New York City's Alvin Theatre on Oct. 10, 1935, and ran for
124 performances before closing in financial ruin. George Gershwin,
his brother Ira and co-librettist and lyricist DuBose Heyward,
had crafted an intense musical drama that ultimately spawned
a furious debate about authenticity, musical style and form,
racial prejudice and national identity. But the music and lyrics
have survived more than 70 years and the work's stature is
unsurpassed in the American operatic repertoire. Explore this
brilliant and pivotal work from its beginnings to its revivals,
featuring oral histories of its original stars, Todd Duncan
and Anne Brown, rare photographs, archival audio and video
recordings and live performance.
Select Contact for more information or
to book a performance.
