Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, NJ, in 1898, the youngest of 8 children. His father, William, had been a slave in North Carolina, and as a teenager, had escaped through the Underground Railroad in 1860. William earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree and a Master of Arts degree at Lincoln University. His education there included the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and was modeled on the classical curriculum of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. William became the pastor of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, where he served for 19 years. When Paul was 2 years old, his father was fired from his position as pastor. After Paul’s brother, Bill, was refused acceptance into Princeton University, their father met with its president, Woodrow Wilson, to appeal the denial of his son’s admission. The future U.S. president angrily declared that “Princeton did not accept colored”. William had hosted a meeting in his church to discuss the recent violent race disturbances, particularly the lynching of African Americans in the South. The Witherspoon church had been built for its black congregation by the wealthy white supporters of its parent Presbyterian Church. They wanted a minister who “kept colored folk” in line, not someone who hosted meetings calling for racial justice. That, and William’s remonstration with Woodrow Wilson, resulted in him being fired. To earn money, William purchased a horse and wagon, and began collecting and disposing ashes from people’s homes. He also hired himself out as a coachman, chauffeuring the Princeton students around town and to the beach. Paul’s mother was a schoolteacher, and was of African, English-Quaker, and Native American heritage. During the revolutionary War, her great-grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, baked bread for George Washington’s army in Valley Forge. In 1787, he was one of the founders of the Free African Society. When Paul was just 5, his mother died in an accident at home, after some burning pieces of coal fell out of the oven and became lodged in her dress, setting her clothes and much of her body on fire. Before the fire could be contained, she was badly burned and died that evening. William, and 2 of his sons, Paul and Ben, moved into an attic above a store where William had found work. Soon, Ben left for college, and Paul and his father formed a very strong bond. “I loved my Pop like no one else(?) in all the world. I adored him, looked up to him, and would have given my life for him in a flash.” From his father, he learned to measure one’s self by one’s own potential, rather than by comparing one’s self to others. Paul also learned that modesty was crucial to his survival. He was taught that one must never appear to be brash or uppity and “to act right”, which meant obeying all the rules of racist society, including the unwritten rules. As one of his ancestors wrote in 1837: “In proportion as we become intellectual and respectable, so in proportion does their disgust and prejudice increase.” William taught Paul that all people must be respected and that the entire human race is a single, though diverse family of equals. He taught him to never appear to be challenging white superiority. And he made a distinction between showing humility but never servility. Paul and his father soon moved to Westfield, NJ, where William gathered several parishioners, and in 1 year, constructed with their own hands a new church and minister’s house from scratch – the St. Luke’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. His father trained Paul to recite classical poetry and prose, and supervised his son’s schoolwork every day. Paul attributed his own phenomenal powers of concentration to this intense training. His father was a severe critic when it came to his son’s grades. He expected the boy to bring home report cards with all A’s. Paul’s wife, Essie, in her biography of Paul wrote, “He never became conceited because he was always working toward perfection.” For example, even when audiences enthusiastically applauded him, Paul might think: “I wasn’t so good tonight. If I hadn’t taken that scene so fast, I could have gotten just the right feeling into it.” As an adolescent, Paul began to sing at home and with the church choir. He said: “I was brought up in a very vocal household. My father had the greatest speaking voice I have ever heard. My brothers were all fine, experienced public speakers. All through my childhood, we orated, recited, and debated. Paul wrote about his father’s “insistence on purity of diction.” The result can be clearly heard in the recordings and footage of Paul’s singing, where his enunciation is SO consistently clear. When Paul was 12, his father was transferred to the St. Thomas A.M.E. Zion Church in Somerville, NJ, where Paul continued to sing in the church choir and attend Sunday school. On occasion, he even substituted for his father as preacher. In high school in Somerville, Paul played on his school’s baseball, basketball, and football teams. In some of the intercity games, he was a target of verbal racist abuse and threats of physical violence. Paul was the sports editor of the school’s monthly magazine. He also sang with the glee club, was a member of the debate team, acted with the drama group, and even played the role of Shakespeare’s Othello for a class skit. He was unwelcome at his high school dances because interracial socializing was considered to be degrading by many white people. In fact, though he was the star of several sports teams in high school and college, he was never the team captain because it was unthinkable in those years for an African American to be captain over whites. Many white Americans believed that black citizens were inferior. The historian, Hubert Bancroft wrote in Retrospection: “[The negro] is by nature and habit a servant…because of his mental inferiority.” Paul wrote that from his father “we learned and never doubted it that the Negro was in every way the equal of the white man and we fiercely resolved to prove it.” During his senior year in high school, Paul won 3rd place in a statewide competition for high school orators. He chose the speech made during the Civil War by the white abolitionist, Wendell Phillips. It is a tribute to Toussaint L’Ouverture, the black slave who led the revolt that resulted in the liberation of Haiti from French colonial rule. The speech hails L’Ouverture as being superior to the greatest white heroes of all time. Paul also won a 4-year scholarship to the private all-male Rutgers College by entering an academic contest and scoring not only the highest in the state, but in the history of the contest. When Paul entered Rutgers, he was only the 3rd black student ever to be admitted since its founding in 1766. Most of the students stared at him condescendingly or with open contempt; he sat alone in the cafeteria. And he was forced to live alone on campus until another black student arrived in sophomore year. Many years later in discussing how, as an actor, Paul expressed rage in Shakespeare’s Othello, he recalled the anger he experienced when he tried out for the college’s football team. “The white boys didn’t want a Negro on their team. They just didn’t want me on it. One boy slugged me in the face and broke my nose, just smashed it… And when I was down, flat on my back, another boy got me with his knee, just came over and fell on me. He managed to dislocate my right shoulder. But my father – my father was born in slavery – had impressed  me that when I was out on the football field, or in a classroom, or just anywhere else, I wasn’t there just on my own. I was the representative of a lot of Negro boys who wanted to play football and wanted to go to college, and as their representative, I had to show that I could take whatever was handed out.” Paul stayed in bed for 10 days recuperating. His older brother, Bill, who had coached him not only in academic subjects, but also on how to play football, told him: “Kid, if you want to quit school, go ahead, but I wouldn’t like to think, and our father wouldn’t like to think that our family had a quitter in it.” Paul decided to stay. When he went back for his 2nd tryout for the team, things came to a head. “I made a tackle and was on the ground, my right palm down on the ground. Frank Kelly came over and stepped hard on my hand…His cleats took every single one of my fingernails off my right hand. That’s when I knew rage! The next play came around my end…the ball carrier was Kelly. I wanted to kill him, and I meant to kill him…I got Kelly in my two hands and I got him over my head. I was going to smash him so hard to the ground that I’d break him in two, and I could have done it. But just then the coach yelled: ‘Robey, you’re on the varsity!’ That brought me around. We laughed about it later. They all got to be my friends.” The coach, George Sanford became a mentor to Paul and defended him when he was racially persecuted. Paul’s father taught him that he had to be a clean player. “You can’t afford to break any rules. You must always play according to the rules. And I can honestly tell you that never, I mean never, not once while I was playing college football did I use my hands illegally. And as you know, most players always use their hands illegally if they can get away with it. I never, never did. But I’ll tell you what I did do: I practiced breaking orange crates with my forearm.” It was common for an opposing team to poke fun and sarcasm at Paul with racial insults during the early stages of a game. Those players invariably developed respect for Paul and would approach him at the end of the game to shake his hand and apologize. His white teammates gradually accepted him, nicknamed him Robey, and protected him from hostile opponents. When Rutgers played against Washington and Lee University, the Southerners refused to play the game unless Paul was benched because they didn’t want to experience the indignity of competing against a player they considered racially inferior. His forearms, elbows, knees and feet could lash out to punish an opponent who tried to injure him. No referee ever considered his retaliation to be deliberate. Paul’s natural acting abilities were put to use when, after being tackled, he could knock the wind out of a player and send him reeling. As the player sagged to the ground, Paul would catch him, lower him gently, and while cradling the dazed head in his arm, say with great feeling: “Oh! Oh! I am so sorry! My, my—I do hope I haven’t hurt you!” In his freshman year, the Rutgers football team won every game except one. Paul became the team’s most honored player. He was so great in football that he became nationally famous as “Robeson of Rutgers”. He was named All-American in 1917 and 1918, the first time a Rutgers student made All-American. His father taught him not to assume all white people were hostile, but to react to individuals. He realized that most whites resented competition from blacks. “From an early age I learned to always show that you are grateful…lest they take it all away. Above all, do nothing to give them cause to fear you.” Because the Glee Club’s activities included many social affairs, it was made clear to him that he couldn’t join the group because of his skin color. His locker was separated from the other lockers of the team members. Whenever there was a banquet for the football team, Paul always said he had somewhere else to go. Never making others feel uncomfortable in these situations was the type of conduct the black community called “acting right.” Many years later, Paul came to feel that by “acting right”, he had not been true to himself. Paul also played on the Rutgers baseball team and track team, where he competed in the shot put, javelin, and discus events, and ran the 100-yard dash in 11 seconds. And he was the lead scorer of the basketball team. He won 14 varsity letters: 4 in football, 4 in baseball, 3 in basketball, and 3 in track. Paul’s father taught him to measure himself only against his own potential and not see himself in competition with anyone else. The goal was always the highest development of one’s own potential. Paul was one of only 4 students selected to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the national honorary society of scholars. He won the class prize for oratory all 4 years. He was inducted into the Cap and Skull honor society as one of 4 men who best exemplified the ideals of Rutgers, and was chosen to be the valedictorian of his graduating class. Yet no fraternity on campus invited him to join. And it was understood that he wouldn’t attend social events on campus. In May of 1918, at the end of his 3rd year at Rutgers, his father died at the age of 73. His last request was for Paul to participate in the oratorical contest of the Junior Exhibition at Rutgers. Paul was devastated, but honored his dad’s request and won the contest for the 3rd year in a row. His speech’s title was Loyalty to Convictions. He explained, “That was the text of my father’s life—loyalty to one’s convictions.” Unbending. Despite anything. Coach Sanford became Paul’s surrogate father, keeping him focused on his studies, and reminding him of his responsibility to be a role model to his race. While still in college, Paul began earning money by creating opportunities to sing and orate as a solo performer. During the summer of 1919, white mobs across the country were lynching and violently attacking African Americans. That summer is known as the bloody “Red Summer of 1919” because whites were burning entire black communities, and killing hundreds in an attempt to drive away from the cities the recently migrated blacks from the South. The Ku Klux Klan membership exceeded 100,000 – with hundreds of thousands of sympathizers. Both political parties supported segregation. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to former slaves, guaranteeing all citizens “equal protection of the laws”. Paul’s senior thesis was written on the unrealized promise of the 14th Amendment. Paul was chosen to be the valedictorian of his class. His graduation speech was entitled The New Idealism. Before delivering the speech, he received a sustained standing ovation. In it, he referred to World War I, which had recently concluded. Here are excerpts from the speech: “Willingly have the sons of America sacrificed their lives upon the altar of a great and common cause…We must not betray their trust…In the words of Lincoln, These dead must not have died in vain.’ It is necessary that you of the favored race catch a new vision…We revere our honored ones as belonging to the martyrs who died, not for personal gain, but for adherence to moral principles…Each one of us will endeavor to catch their noble spirit. And may I not appeal to you who also revere their memory to join us in continuing to fight for the great principles for which they contended, until in all sections of this fair land there will be equal opportunities for all, and character shall be the standard of excellence…and until black and white shall clasp friendly hands in the consciousness of the fact that we are brethren and that God is the father of us all.” After his graduation, Paul stated that he hoped his life’s work would be a memorial to his father’s training, and that his work was not for his own self, but that he might help his race to a higher life. For the rest of his life, he frequently wondered: “How’m I doing Pop?” Paul next won a scholarship to New York University Law School. He began the 1919 fall semester there, but felt out of place and transferred to Columbia University’s Law School, but without a scholarship. Paul shared an apartment with a friend on W. 135th St. in Harlem. To help pay his expenses, Coach Sanford succeeded in obtaining financial support from some wealthy Rutgers alumni. And on weekends, Paul commuted to play professional football in the newly established NFL for the Akron Pros and the Milwaukee Badgers and worked part-time as assistant coach of Lincoln University’s football team. Paul was well known in Harlem as a sports star. He also tutored college students and organized small concerts and speaking engagements for himself. He was asked by educated, middle-class black audiences not to perform Negro Spirituals. They considered these songs to be crude music that evoked stereotypes they wished to do away with. From 1914 to 1925, Harlem’s population grew from 14,000 to 175,000, boosted by ‘The Great Migration’ from the South. Harlem became a cultural mecca. It was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, with all kinds of artists arriving daily. Paul befriended the writers Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Dubois, who was a particularly big influence on Paul’s philosophy, and who was an early member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the most prestigious study and advocacy society for black college-age men, into which Paul was inducted in 1919. Others included Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell, and Martin Luther King Jr. It was in Harlem that Paul met his wife, Eslanda Cardozo Goode, whose ancestors originally were slaves and wealthy Spanish Jews who had been expelled from Spain in the late 1600s. She studied chemistry at the University of Illinois and Columbia University, and became the head histological chemist in the Surgical Pathological Laboratory of New York Presbyterian Hospital, the first African-American* to hold such a high position there. She planned to become a doctor. However, she decided to postpone going to medical school in order to devote more time to her relationship with Paul. After dating for one year they quietly married in 1921, and moved into a large room on West 138th St. in Harlem. *If you’re hyphenating African-American here, do it throughout the piece! While attending Columbia Law School and playing professional football, Paul was invited to play the lead role in the one-act play, Simon the Cyrenian, which is about an African man who carried Jesus’s cross to the crucifixion site. It was performed for the dedication of the new Harlem YWCA. His next opportunity came when he sang as a member of the vocal quartet, The Harmony Kings, as part of a musical revue on Broadway called Shuffle Along. It was the first musical revue written and performed entirely by African-Americans. In 1922, he appeared in New York in the play Taboo by Dora Cole Norman, and soon sailed for his first trip to England where the play was produced, in its new title, Voodoo. During this time, Essie was hospitalized in New York for more than a month due to complications following an appendectomy surgery. After graduating from Columbia Law School, Coach Sanford helped Paul obtain a position at the law firm of a Rutgers alumnus and trustee. Early on in that assignment, Paul asked one of the female stenographers to take down some dictation. She refused, saying: “I never take dictation from a nigger.” The senior partner then offered Paul his own branch office in Harlem, which Paul turned down. He realized that the firm’s white clients wouldn’t agree to him being their trial lawyer, and judges would be similarly prejudiced against him. Therefore, he decided not to pursue a law career after all, and resigned from the firm. Paul then performed the role of a preacher in the play Roseanne in Harlem and Philadelphia with an all-Black company, the Lafayette Players. His next big opportunity came when the playwright, Eugene O’Neill, casted him in his play All God’s Chillun Got Wings. Because it is about an interracial marriage, the Ku Klux Klan threatened violence against Paul and O’Neill. Therefore, its opening was temporarily postponed while the company put on a production of O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, with Paul in the lead role. Both plays were enormous successes for Paul. In 1924 Paul made his 1st film, Body and Soul, a silent movie made by Oscar Micheaux, an independent filmmaker who created films with all-Black casts made for black audiences. Later that year Robeson, sang his first concert of spirituals in Boston. Billed as Songs of Sorrow of the African Diaspora, the songs were presented with the same dignity as European “art songs”. In 1925, Paul began giving concerts with the African-American pianist and composer, Lawrence Brown. Their 1st concert was at the home of Carl Van Vechten, a writer and patron of the Harlem Renaissance. The following month, they gave their first professional concert together, at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York. It was a huge success. Hundreds of people had to be turned away. It was so successful that they gave a second performance 2 weeks later. A singer had never before created a program exclusively comprised of spirituals and secular songs of contemporary black composers. Paul and Lawrence Brown continued concertizing exclusively with that repertoire for the next 5 years. The NY Times reviewer wrote: “The songs hold in them a world of religious experience; it is this cry from the depths, this universal humanism, that touches the heart.” In the 1870s, the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville, TN performed in concert tours to raise funds for Black education. They sang spirituals and folk songs of African-Americans. But after they disbanded, the only contact white audiences had with African-American music was as low class entertainment: blackface minstrel shows, speakeasy singers, and revues that played the black experience for laughs. Robeson said: “I feel that the music of my race is the happiest medium of expression for what dramatic and vocal skill I possess. In the first place, Negro music is more and more taking its place with the music of the world. It has its own distinctive message and philosophy. Many critics say it is the only folk music of America. Negro music portrays the hopes of our people who faced the hardships of slavery. They suffered. They fled to God through their songs. The spirituals represent the soul of my people.” Robeson said that singing spirituals “released a flood of deep feelings.” Rabbi Jacob Minkin wrote that Robeson had discovered the source of the Negro spirituals in the Old Testament.”  Robeson said: “You’ll notice that comparatively few of the Negro spirituals are based on the New Testament, most of the inspired songs have been drawn from the literature of the Hebrew Nation.” In the biography, No Way But This, In Search of Paul Robeson, Jeff Sparrow wrote: “In 1831, a slave called Nat Turner inspired his fellows to rise up in Virginia. Nat had understood that rebellion through scripture. Sparrow wrote about Paul performing the song, Go Down Moses: “When Israel was in Egypt’s land; Let my people go, Oppress’d so hard they could not stand, Let my people go.” Ostensibly, the words presented a pious reiteration of Scripture. But the lyrics could convey the spirit of Nat Turner, taking up arms against the pharaohs of America. The spirituals were like that: simultaneously meek and militant. Robeson wrote: “My song is my weapon.” He believed that spirituals strengthened the determination of the slaves to survive and raised the collective spirit of an oppressed people. When introducing Go Down Moses, he’d point out that it had helped the slaves prepare to escape to freedom in the North, and that Harriet Tubman was identical to Moses because she was an escaped slave and had returned to the South repeatedly to rescue others. In the spiritual Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child, the words express the separation from God and the heavenly land for which the slaves yearned. They sang of the separation of children from their parents and the breaking apart of families. It could be that when singing it, Paul thought of the loss of his own mother when he was just 5. It was Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who, upon hearing spirituals, declared that this was the true American music, upon whose foundation American composers ought to construct their compositions. When he was 28, Paul wrote about the great African-American tenor, Roland Hayes (1887-1977). Hayes had a most distinguished career as a concert singer. He sang “classical” white European music in the most prestigious concert halls of the world. Roland Hayes attended Paul’s sold-out concert in Paris in 1927. Paul wrote about Hayes: “Thousands of people hear him, see him, are moved by him, and are brought to a clearer understanding of human values. If I can do something of a like nature, I shall be happy. Roland Hayes was a greater racial asset than the people who talked about progress.” Soon after their 1st concert together, Larry and Paul began making recordings, which quickly became hits, selling $50,000 worth of records in a few months, and making Paul a famous recording artist, which led to invitations to sing on the radio. Paul and Essie moved into a larger apartment on W. 145th St. Also in 1925, Paul traveled to England with Essie, where he performed The Emperor Jones. There, Paul didn’t experience the discrimination that was common in the U.S. He didn’t have to live in a segregated district. In his home country, blacks had to sit in the balconies. He couldn’t get a good meal in any restaurant or hotel from 10th St. to 130th St. He couldn’t get hotel accommodations outside New York, nor could he buy a ticket for a good seat on a train. The difference between the two nations was so dramatic that the Robesons decided to live in London! And while visiting Paris, they befriended the writers Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway. Essie took control of their finances and gave Paul a weekly allowance. She acted as his manager, agent, treasurer, and accountant, with power of attorney. In 1925, Otto Kahn, a wealthy banker, Rutgers trustee, and patron of the arts gave Robeson a $5,000 interest-free loan, which was eventually repaid. In 1926, Paul appeared in the play Black Boy, inspired by the life of boxing champion Jack Johnson. Essie, Paul, and Larry then traveled to 13 cities on their 1st concert tour of the U.S. which was a financial failure. They made another U.S. tour in 1927, which was very successful, since Paul had become well known and popular through his records and radio broadcasts. For a few years in his late 20s Paul pursued vocal training, working on the technique of singing with 3 voice teachers. Paul said: “I set my own standards for myself, and I haven’t nearly reached what I want to reach. I always find flaws in my work.” In the fall of 1927, Paul returned to Europe. Essie was pregnant and remained home. She was due to give birth in 3 weeks. After the birth of their son, Paul Jr., she remained in the hospital with a series of infections, a severe case of phlebitis, and remained bedridden during a very slow recovery. The baby was placed in the care of Essie’s mother, who was his primary caregiver for most of his childhood. When he returned to New York, Paul appeared for 6 weeks in the role of Crown in the play version of Porgy and Bess. In the spring of 1928, Paul and Essie traveled to London, where Paul was cast in the musical Showboat, which was an incredible success! Queen Mary attended two performances, and the writers Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw all sought Paul’s company. He was even invited to lunch at the House of Commons, where he held a dialogue with the former prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Paul and Larry continued giving concerts abroad. It was 1928, and Paul was earning $3,500 per week! Paul and Essie then moved into a comfortable house in London at a very inexpensive rent that included a cook, maid, and gardener. In the spring of 1929, they performed in Vienna, Prague, and Budapest, followed by Paul’s debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall and a concert tour of England.

By Michael Laster George Harrison was born to Harold and Louise Harrison on February 25th, 1943, in Liverpool, England. Harold was a bus conductor, and Louise was a shop assistant. George was the youngest of four – he had two brothers and a sister. His early childhood and home life were ideal, with both parents offering unconditional love and support. According to his friends, George, as a child was curious, well–behaved, and had a full-spirited sense of humor, in spite of his shyness. He also had a mischievous side. After passing his exams, he entered the prestigious Liverpool Grammar School, which was known for its strictness. On one occasion, George was physically punished by a teacher and came home with welts on his wrist. His father then took matters into his own hands. He started developing a strong rebellious streak against authority around this time, manifesting in a hatred of school and the dogmas of Catholicism. Around 1956, rock-and-roll entered onto the world stage, and thirteen-year–old George turned all his energy and focus towards his new acoustic guitar. Not only did he learn the music of Elvis and Chuck Berry, but he also developed a love of country guitarists like Chet Atkins and Gypsy Jazz legend Django Reinhardt. That same year, he met Paul McCartney on the school bus, who was nine months older than him. They quickly formed a bond through their love of music, and soon ended up hitchhiking together to South Wales. In July of 1957, Paul met John Lennon, the leader of a band called The Quarrymen. Paul joined immediately and persuaded John to let George join in early 1958. When George left the Grammar School at age 16, he got an apprenticeship as an electrician’s assistant, but according to him, he “kept blowing things up, so I got dumped.” For the next two years, the Quarrymen performed various concerts around Liverpool, until one day, they got an offer from their manager Alan Williams to play in Hamburg’s red light district, the Reeperbahn. They recruited John’s friend Stu on bass and Pete Best on drums. George’s days of Liverpool innocence quickly came to an end, as he and the rest of the band gained experience with amphetamines, women, and playing on stage for up to eight–hour sets. But once the authorities found out that George was underage, he was deported, and the party soon came to an end. Stu Sutcliffe left the band in 1961, and Paul took over on bass. Over the next two years, they’d return to Hamburg, in addition to being the headliners of the Cavern Club back in Liverpool. Around this time, their new manager, Brian Epstein, got them an audition with Decca Records. After failing to get a contract with Decca, they auditioned for Parlophone, headed by producer George Martin. Martin didn’t like Pete Best’s drumming on Love Me Do, and it was Harrison who suggested they fire Pete and replace him with Ringo Starr, whom they were familiar with from their days in Hamburg. The firing of Pete caused one of his fans to give George a black eye, which can be seen in pictures from 1962 from The Beatles’ first recording session. In the very early days of the Beatles, George was more interested in developing his guitar skills than being a songwriter. On their debut album, Please Please Me, George sings lead on Do You Want to Know a Secret, written for him by John. His first attempt at songwriting showed up on their second album, With The Beatles, with his song, Don’t Bother Me. It’s a glimpse into a type of bitterness that would show up in his lyrics for the rest of his life. For the album, A Hard Days Night, George sang I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, written by John and Paul, and for the Beatles For Sale album, George sang the Carl Perkins hit, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby. On the album Help!, he contributed two new songs, You Like Me Too Much, and I Need You, the latter written for the model Patti Boyd who he met on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. They married in January of 1966. Like John, George was quick to grow weary of the cult of Beatlemania. A somewhat private person by nature, he didn’t like the lack of privacy, and the security concerns that came with fame. He preferred to be valued and respected as a guitarist than be worshipped as a pop star by screaming young women. One photo captures him throwing water at a photographer who snuck into a night club. In addition to his hangups about stardom, he was also growing weary of getting the cold shoulder by John and Paul whenever he showed them his songs. They were his closest friends, but there also existed a clear hierarchy within the band, with John and Paul on top. While they would help George with his songs when asked, they were in no rush to help him become an equal. As a guitarist, George wasn’t particularly virtuosic, but his solos were a perfect fit for the raw, yet melodic sound the Beatles were known for. His trademark was often a tastefully embellished version of the main melody, like the solo to John’s Nowhere Man. George was also the first guitarist to popularize the sound of the 12– string electric guitar, which was soon adopted by the Byrds for Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn Turn Turn. Two major events happened in 1965 that would shape the rest of George’s life. He and John and their wives were at a dinner party hosted by their dentist, John Riley, who spiked their drinks with LSD. For the first time, he felt like he was perceiving reality the proper way, feeling connected to everything around him without the layer of ego. The second time he and John did LSD was in Beverly Hills with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds. Crosby started talking about the music of Ravi Shankar, and George bought his albums shortly afterwards. When he listened to these records of Ravi Shankar, a lightbulb went off in his head. Shankar’s sitar playing connected music with the deep spiritual insights that George experienced on LSD. He quickly bought a cheap sitar from a music shop in London, which he used on the Beatles’ next album, Rubber Soul, and John asked George to play the instrument on his song Norwegian Wood. On the album, George contributed two songs – If I Needed Someone, a straightforward love song, and Think For Yourself, which showcases George’s growing sophistication as a musician and lyricist. This growing sophistication continued with the three songs he contributed to their next album, Revolver. These songs were Taxman, Love You, Too, and I Want To Tell You, which all express some aspect of disillusionment with a different subject: Taxman is about his frustration with the Labour government’s taxation policy, with various lyrical contributions by John, and musical contributions by Paul, such as the bass line and guitar solo.  I Want To Tell You is about George’s frustration in putting his thoughts and feelings into words.  Love You, Too is a love song that also disparages the “people standing ’round who’ll screw you in the ground, They’ll fill you in with all their sins.” It features Indian instruments like the sitar, tabla, and tambura. It is a matter of debate whether George or a session musician is playing sitar, though it is most likely George. Shortly after recording the song, George met Ravi Shankar, who agreed to take him on as a student, noticing George’s dedication and humility. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, with George’s safety concerns being one of the main reasons. He flew to India later that year to officially study with Shankar. He said “My hips were killing me from sitting on the floor, and so Ravi brought a yoga teacher to start showing me the physical yoga exercises. It was a fantastic time. I would go out and look at temples and go shopping. We travelled all over, and eventually went up to Kashmir and stayed on a houseboat in the middle of the Himalayas. It was incredible.” On their next album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, George only had one song, Within You, Without You. Not only are the lyrics some of his most philosophical, but the arrangement written by George Martin seamlessly combines Western and Indian classical traditions, making it one of the highlights of the album. Unlike other rock musicians, Harrison wasn’t dabbling in Indian music for an exotic effect. He was immersed in it, potentially making this track the peak of the 60’s counterculture’s fascination with Indian music. George became the main figure in pop culture responsible for introducing the sitar and Indian philosophy to Western audiences. He also wrote a tongue-in-cheek number for Sgt. Pepper called It’s Only A Northern Song that didn’t make the album, but ended up on the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine film. Later that year, his wife Pattie, who was also interested in Eastern spirituality, read about  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in a newspaper advertisement. She, George, John, and Paul attended a lecture he gave in London. Fascinated with the prospect of what Transcendental Meditation had to offer, they attended another conference by the Maharishi in Wales, where they got news that their manager Brian Epstein had died of what appeared to be an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. They meditated with the Maharishi a few days after Brian’s death, and several months later, they participated in his intensive retreat in India. George contributed two more songs that year, It’s All Too Much, and Blue Jay Way. At the start of 1968, George flew to India to record experimental music for the avant-garde film Wonderwall, and released an album of the music. He later returned to India with the other three Beatles and their partners for the Maharishi’s retreat in Rishikesh. On George’s 25th birthday, a celebration was held at the retreat. The Maharishi gifted Harrison an upside-down globe, exclaiming, “George, the globe I am giving you symbolizes the world today. I hope you will help us all in the task of putting it right.” George turned the globe over and said “I’ve done it!” Which received laughter and applause by the guests. He spent another two months in India until word got around that the Maharishi was making advances on some of the women there, namely Mia Farrow. It is unknown whether the allegations were true, but John and George left shortly after. John wrote a song called Maharishi about the experience, but Harrison urged him to change the four syllables to Sexy Sadie. George also appeared in the film Raga, a film that documents Ravi Shankar’s life and influence in the West. There’s also footage of Ravi with the classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Once all 4 Beatles were back in London, they got to work on The White Album, for which George contributed four new songs, none of them containing any Indian influence. They are: Piggies, Long, Long, Long, Savoy Truffle, and the masterpiece, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Because of the tensions stirring in the band, partially due to John’s insistence of having his newest partner – Yoko Ono – sitting in on sessions, George brought in his friend Eric Clapton to help keep the other three on their best behavior. In turn, George played rhythm guitar on Clapton’s song Badge, which Clapton wrote for his band Cream, appearing on the album Goodbye Cream. They struck up a friendship back in 1964 when Clapton was still with the Yardbirds, and it grew from there, especially after Clapton gifted George a Les Paul guitar, which Clapton ended up playing on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Clapton initially refused. According to George, “I said ‘Look, it’s my song and I’d like you to play on it.’ So he came in. I said, ‘Eric’s going to play on this one,’ and it was good because that then made everyone act better. Paul got on the piano and played a nice intro and they all took it more seriously.” George also produced the artist Jackie Lomax during this period, writing the song Sour Milk Sea for him. During the Let It Be sessions, George left the band. He casually wrote in the diary that day, “left the Beatles”, and John flippantly proposed getting in Eric Clapton to replace him. This seems a bit cold, but in a leaked conversation shortly after the incident, it’s clear that John does have empathy for George’s situation within the Beatles, and how he and Paul’s egos have contributed to him feeling sidelined. George returned five days later after the others agreed to change recording studios to a different location that he, George, preferred. Like he did with Eric Clapton, George brought in the keyboardist Billy Preston to help keep the band on their best behavior. The mood lightened up instantly, with Preston contributing significantly to the album. For the Let It Be sessions in 1969, George wrote I Me Mine, For You Blue, and Old Brown Shoe, the latter containing some of his best guitar work, in addition to his trademark use of what are called augmented and diminished chords. It was during these sessions that George became involved in the Hare Krishna movement. At first, members of the movement hung out inside the Beatles’ business headquarters, and their insistence on chanting praises for the deity Krishna proved to be just what George was looking for after his disillusionment with the Maharishi. He helped produce the Hare Krishna mantra that summer. For the Beatles’ next and final album, Abbey Road, George wrote two of his most famous contributions in his time with the Beatles: Here Comes The Sun, and Something. These were two songs that were not only his best within the Beatles, but were two of the strongest songs on the album, which is no small feat given that the album is often considered one of their best. Here Comes The Sun is notable for the use of odd time signatures, mixing up groups of threes and twos in the “sun, sun, sun – here it comes” section, most likely influenced by Indian rhythms. His song Something has one of his greatest guitar solos, which, when one listens closely, is actually a fantastic duet between bass and guitar. Frank Sinatra called it one of the greatest love songs written in 50 or 100 years. Even though most assume it was written for his wife, insiders allege that it was dedicated to his newfound love of Krishna. According to George in 1976, “all love is part of a universal love. When you love a woman, it’s the God in her that you see.” Shortly after finishing the album, John quit the Beatles. Paul announced his departure shortly afterwards, due to not wanting to be managed by Allen Klein, who continued managing the other three. George would shortly go on tour with the American husband-and-wife duo, Delaney and Bonnie, along with Eric Clapton. Eric played lead guitar, and George played rhythm guitar. It was still against his nature to be the center of attention on stage. In an interview several months later, the reality of the Beatles’ breakup still hadn’t fully set in. “I certainly don’t want to see the end of The Beatles. And I know I’ll do anything, you know. Whatever Paul, John, and Ringo would like to do, I’ll do it. As long as we can all be free to be individuals at the same time.” After the break-up, George and Pattie moved into Friar Park, a neo-Gothic mansion located between London and Oxford. For the rest of his life, it served as his sanctuary, and he worked on renovations for years, inviting friends and visitors to help out. During this period in early 1970, George helped Ringo write his hit, It Don’t Come Easy. George soon began work on his first post-Beatles album, All Things Must Pass. He hired Phil Spector as producer, and it consisted of 3 LPs, the first two consisting of 18 songs, many of them written during the Let It Be sessions in early 1969.  The third disc largely consisted of jams with Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Ringo, Ginger Baker of Cream, and other friends. The album is generally considered his best, the benchmark that all his future albums are compared to, and is also considered by many critics to be the best of the first post-Beatles solo albums, superior to John’s Plastic Ono band album, and Paul’s self–titled album, McCartney. George knew that Clapton was generally a superior lead guitar player, though George had recently reinvented himself as a guitarist, now playing with a slide. Slide guitar became his signature sound for guitar solos from this album forward. The opening track, I’d Have You Anytime, was co-written by Bob Dylan, who helped with the lyrics of the chorus. Eric Clapton plays lead guitar. The song Wah-Wah was written after an argument during the Let It Be sessions. The lyrics about renouncing negativity and embracing freedom aptly feature Eric Clapton using a wah-wah pedal. The song, Isn’t It A Pity, is a heartfelt lament about how we often overlook the feelings of others. George also included a top–notch cover of Bob Dylan’s, If Not For You. The song, Beware of Darkness, warns of various things that lead people in the wrong direction, and features some of his most interesting chord changes rarely heard in rock music. The song, My Sweet Lord, from the album remains George’s best-selling single of all time. It was also the subject of an infamous lawsuit, but we’ll examine that in part 2, in addition to some of his lesser-known work after the Beatles, his success with the all-star group, The Traveling Wilburys, the attack on his life in 1999, and his final album, Brainwashed.

Lili Boulanger was born in Paris in 1893, and died in 1918 at the tender young age of 24. She was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome composition prize. She sang and played piano, cello, violin, and harp. She and her sister, Nadia, organized efforts to support French soldiers during World War I. She suffered from a case of bronchial pneumonia at age 2 that weakened her immune system, leading to intestinal tuberculosis and possibly Crohn’s disease, which ended her life at age 24. Much of Boulanger’s music reveals her own struggles with depression and loneliness caused by her long-term illness. Her music influenced the composer Arthur Honegger. The asteroid 1181 Lilith was named in her honor. The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund was established to perpetuate the memory of her and her music, and to financially support talented musicians. Shirley Verrett was born in New Orleans in 1931. She trained as a mezzo-soprano at the Juilliard School, and made her debut at New York City Opera in 1958. She made her first recordings and her European debut in Cologne in 1959, and in 1961, she won The Met’s Laffont Competition—previously known as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1962, she made her debut with the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and appeared in the first televised concert from Lincoln Center. In 1963, she made her debut at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, and in 1964, began recording for RCA. She made her Covent Garden debut in 1966 at London’s Royal Opera House, and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1968 as Carmen. That year, Verrett was named “New Artist of the Month” by Musical America. The following year, she made her La Scala debut. In 1973, she made operatic history when she sang both roles of Cassandra and Didon in Berlioz’s epic, Les Troyens at the Met. In 1976, she achieved the rare accomplishment of adding soprano roles to her mezzo-soprano repertoire, such as Tosca and Norma, which was her favorite role. In 1996, Verrett joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 2003, her memoir written with Christopher Brooks, I Never Walked Alone, The Autobiography of an American Singer, was released, and became a national best seller. In it, she spoke frankly about the racism she encountered as a Black person in the American classical music world. For example, when Leopold Stokowski invited her to sing with the Houston Symphony in the early 1960s, he had to rescind the invitation because the orchestra board refused to accept a black soloist. Verrett died at age 79 in 2010 from heart failure. She was the recipient of several honorary doctorates and numerous awards, including Commander of The Order of Arts and Letters award by the French government. The Shirley Verrett award was established at the University of Michigan in 2011. Jacqueline du Pré was born in England in 1945 to English parents. Her mother was a pianist and piano teacher, and Jackie’s first accompanist. When Jackie was just 4 years old, she first heard the cello on a radio broadcast, and immediately said to her mom: “This is the sound I want to make.” At age 15, she won the Queen’s Prize competition where the violinist Yehudi Menuhin first heard her. He said: “To this day I can recall the elation she brought me with the excitement of her own joy and intoxication with the music.” Jackie also went to Paris where she took master classes with Paul Tortelier, and lived for six months in Moscow, where she studied with Mstislav Rostropovich. When she was 13, Jackie began studying Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and first performed it with at age 14 at London’s Albert Hall. She already possessed an astonishing understanding of Elgar’s music, and it was this concerto that became her specialty, and which she performed more than any other. It is a nostalgic work, looking back at the fading past, with exhaustion after the ‘war to end all wars’. Written in 1918 and 1919, Elgar saw 1918 as the end of a civilization. It is his last important composition, and expresses personal grief and bitterness. We can hear the composer trying to seek consolation in memories of a better past. When she was 22, Jackie met the Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor, Daniel Barenboim. They concertized and recorded both as a cello and piano team, and with the world’s leading orchestras as cellist and conductor. They fell in love and decided to marry. In June of 1967, on the eve of the Arab-Israeli Six–Day War, they traveled to Israel and played concerts for the troops. Right after the war, Jackie converted, and they were married. Jacqueline du Pré stopped playing the cello when she was 28 years old, a victim of multiple sclerosis. She died at the age of 42 after 14 years of unremitting illness. Fanny Mendelssohn, born in 1805, in Hamburg, Germany, was Felix Mendelssohn’s older sister, and a talented composer in her own right, though her work was often overshadowed by her brother’s fame. Unfortunately, her patriarchal father refused to permit her music to be published under her name. In fact, some of her music was actually published under her brother Felix’s name. Despite society’s constraints limiting women’s roles in music, she composed over 460 works, including piano pieces, songs, and chamber music. Fanny was closely involved in her brother’s career, providing support and critique, and her salon performances were influential in the musical circles of Berlin. Here’s the ending of her String Quartet arranged for string orchestra by Malin Broman,  performed by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Philippa Schuyler was born in Harlem in 1931. She was the only child of a prominent black journalist and a white Texan heiress. Schuyler knew the alphabet at 19 months, and was able to read and write at the age of 2. At age 4, she was playing the music of Mozart and Schumann, and began to compose. Schuyler won her first gold medal at age 4 from the National Guild of Piano Teachers. Her IQ at the age of 6 was 185. Schuyler won 8 consecutive prizes from the New York Philharmonic, and won gold medals from the Global Music Education League and from the City of New York. Schuyler’s radio concerts attracted significant press coverage and the admiration of New York’s mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who declared June 19, 1940 Philippa Duke Schuyler Day at the New York World’s Fair, where she performed two concerts. By the age of 14, she had composed 200 compositions. and was touring constantly in the United States and overseas. At age 15, she graduated from high school and performed with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium, and then continued her studies at Manhattanville College. She became a role model for many children in the United States. In later life, Schuyler grew disillusioned with the racial and gender prejudice she encountered in the United States, and chose a voluntary exile of performing only in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe. She played at the inauguration of three successive presidents of Haiti, and in Africa, she performed for several heads of state. As a writer, five of her non-fiction books were published, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles internationally. She spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Although Schuyler engaged in a number of affairs, she never married. In 1966, she traveled to Vietnam to perform for the troops and various Vietnamese groups. She returned to Vietnam in 1967 as a war correspondent, and served as a missionary when she was killed in an army helicopter crash during a mission to evacuate Vietnamese orphans. 2,000 mourners attended her funeral at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Schuyler’s mother was profoundly affected by her death, and committed suicide a few days before the second anniversary of her daughter’s death. Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887. She gave her first piano performance at the age of four, and had her first composition published at age 11. She graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price was the first African-American woman whose music was played by a major orchestra. She composed over 300 works, including 4 symphonies, 4 concertos, numerous choral works, art songs, chamber music, and music for solo instruments. Florence Price had many challenges. A single mom, at one point she and her 3 kids were nearly homeless. Outside of the reach of her immediate circle, her music was neglected for many decades, though she repeatedly tried to interest conductors in her music. In a letter to Serge Koussevitsky, then the conductor of the Boston Symphony, she wrote: ”I have two handicaps – those of sex and race.” More than half a century after her death, in 2009, a substantial collection of her compositions and papers was found in the attic of what had once been her summer home. The pianist Michelle Cann is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and has performed concertos with numerous orchestras throughout the world. As a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, she holds the distinguished Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in piano studies. She is a champion of the music of Florence Price, a great, but neglected African–American composer of the 20th century. Michelle Cann performed the New York City premiere of the Price’s Piano Concerto in 2016, and the Philadelphia premiere in 2021. Born in 1960, the Norwegian conductor Greta Pedersen is one of the most renowned conductors in the international choral scene. She is the founder of the Oslo Chamber Choir, and since 1990, has been Music Director of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, whose recordings have won several international awards. She is in great demand as a guest conductor, and has worked with choirs and orchestras in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, and Japan. In 2023, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California. A student of Norwegian folk music, she is a pioneer in bringing folk music to new settings, and she is also an advocate for new music. Grete Pedersen She completed her postgraduate studies in conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo, where she is now a professor of conducting. In 2019, she was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian St. Olavs Order, and received the distinguished Lindeman Prize to honor her significant contribution to the musical life of Norway. I have the utmost respect for her conducting, and when watching her conduct, her humility is quite unusual and moving. Maria Callas was born in New York City in 1923. Her teacher Elvira de Hidalgo said: “She put such force, such sentiment, such wonderful interpretation into all she sang. She would want to sing all the most difficult coloraturas, scales, and trills. Even as a child, her willpower was terrific. She had a phenomenal memory, and could learn the most difficult opera in eight days”. A friend remarked: “She practiced so hard and so intensively…that she would often spend more than ten hours a day practicing, which left her dead tired.” Her mother recalled: “She practiced day and night and sometimes forgot to eat. Maria would refuse to leave her piano for meals, and I would bring them to her in her room. She would put the plate in her lap and go on working.” Tulio Serafin, who had conducted her debut at the arena in Verona, hired her in Venice to sing Tristan und Isolde first, and then a year later, Die Walküre. In the midst of the series of performances of Die Walküre, the soprano who was to sing Bellini’s bel canto opera, I Puritani, became ill, and Serafin decided that Callas would replace her, despite the completely different kind of voice required for the role. Amazingly, Callas learned Puritani in just one week while she continued performing Die Walküre! This feat earned her a ton of publicity and people have been marveling at her accomplishment ever since. Callas married a successful Italian businessman, Giovanni Battista Meneghini in 1949. He was 28 yrs older than her. Meneghini gave up his interests in his family’s business to invest in and manage her budding career full time. Callas wanted to do dramatic justice to the roles she played, so she decided to lose weight. When Callas saw Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, she decided that that was her standard. She lost eighty pounds in less than a year. Suddenly she became glamorous! As her career became that of a super star, she attracted the attention of the billionaire, Aristotle Onasis. They fell in love, then she left her husband of ten years, and began a widely publicized affair with Onassis, who was also married. He was 23 years her senior. The Law of Cause and Effect is very strict, because nine years later, Onassis left her and married Jackie Kennedy. Eight years before her death, Callas said to a close friend: “I started dying when I met this man and gave up music.” Not long after this, Callas’s voice deteriorated to the point where she had to stop singing in public. Having stopped singing in public, and with no one to share her love, Callas became incredibly depressed. She became addicted to sleeping pills, and during her last years, she isolated herself, living with two servants in her Paris apartment. She could no longer sustain her interest in living. Her last public performance was in Tokyo, on the world tour with Giuseppe DiStefano. Three years later she died of a heart attack at the young age of 53. KYUNG WHA CHUNG, born in 1948, is a South Korean violinist. She is also among the first of the women violinists, born after WW II, who have reaped benefits from the efforts of the pioneering women we have already discussed. Chung began violin lessons at age 7, and within two years, became recognized as a prodigy after playing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic. As she and her talented siblings, who all (or also) played instruments, became well-known in Korea, Chung’s mother decided to move to the United States to further their musical education and careers. At age 13, Chung arrived in the United States, and was enrolled in the Juilliard School, where she studied with the eminent violin pedagogue, Ivan Galamian. In 1967, Chung and Pinchas Zuckerman were joint winners of the prestigious Leventritt Competition. This prize opened the door to several engagements with the Chicago Symphony and The New York Philharmonic, and a 1967 television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show one week before her appearance with the NY Philharmonic. In 1970, Chung substituted for Nathan Milstein at a White House performance, and later for Itzhak Perlman with the London Symphony Orchestra. These successes led to many other engagements and recording contracts. While in Europe, Chung continued music studies with the great Joseph Szigetti. In 2007, Chung joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in both the Music and Pre-College Divisions, where she continues to develop and train future violinists. Illness and injury halted her performing career in 2008, but she continued teaching. Her most recent live performance was in London at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2014. Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1941 to a Catalan father and a Jewish mother. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. She began kindergarten before she was three and began piano lessons at three. Argerich is an astounding virtuoso. She speaks Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, and Portuguese, has lived in Argentina, Belgium, Switzerland, and France, and holds citizenships in Switzerland and Argentina. Argerich is the recipient of several Grammy awards, was voted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center honors. Itzhak Perlman payed tribute to her at the Kennedy Center Honors. Dalia Stasevska is one of the most stratospherically ascendant musicians in classical music today. Born in Ukraine in 1984, she holds the post of the Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The 2025/26 season features concerts with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, as well as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, the Vienna Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Deutsches- Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Czech Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestra. Her recent orchestral engagements have spanned a distinguished array of ensembles, including performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresdner Philharmonie, and the Orchestre de Paris. She has also made notable debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestra, Choir, and Children’s Voices of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the New World Symphony, among others. Dalia was named the “European of the Year” in 2025 by the board of European Movement Finland. In April 2024, she was featured on the cover of the Gramophone magazine, and in December of 2023, Dalia was named one of The New York Times’ “Breakout Stars of 2023”. She was also granted BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Personality of the Year’ Award in 2023, the 2022 Alfred Kordelin Prize winner, the 2020 recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor Award, and had the honor of conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm 2018. Dalia was bestowed the Order of Princess Olga of the III degree by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in October 2021 for her significant personal contribution to the development of international cooperation, strengthening the prestige of Ukraine internationally, and popularization of its historical and cultural heritage. Since February 2022, Dalia has been outspoken in her support of Ukraine, speaking about it publicly, while also personally delivering aid to the front lines and conducting concerts in Ukraine. Barbra Streisand, singer, writer, producer, director, actress, composer, designer, photographer and activist. She was born to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York! In 1963, she recorded The Barbra Streisand Album, her 1st, which rose to the top 10 on the Billboard chart, and won 3 Grammy awards, resulting in her becoming the best-selling female vocalist in the country. Streisand has spoken of being proud to be Jewish, and described herself as “a Jewess through and through, although I’m not religious.” Her first four TV specials were televised between 1965 and 1968. Also in 1968, she won an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in the movie Funny Girl. In 1969, she starred in the movie Hello Dolly with Walter Matthau. In 1973 Streisand, co-starred in The Way We Were with Robert Redford. Its theme song, The Way We Were, won an Academy Award, became a million-selling gold single, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her 2nd academy award was in 1976 for best original song for her song Evergreen in the movie A Star is Born. Her 1st efforts as producer, director and star was in 1983 for the movie Yentl, which received 5 Academy Award nominations. Streisand has recorded 50 albums. By the 70s, she was named the most successful female singer in the U.S. She’s also the highest-paid singer in history. She is the only recording artist whose albums became #1 in each of the past 6 decades. In fact, she has recorded 52 gold albums and 31 platinum albums. Barbra Streisand is the recipient of the Israel Freedom Medal, the Scopus Award of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, honorary doctorate degrees from Brandeis University. and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, the 1st Annual Jewish Image Award, the Legion of Honor, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Billboard magazine ranked her as the top female Jewish musician of all time. The movie, Funny Girl, was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry, and the song, People, was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. She was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, and the National Museum of American Jewish History. She has been nominated for 43 Grammy awards, and has won 8 of them. She is also the recipient of 2 Academy Awards and 2 Oscars. She’s created 17 TV specials, and of the 19 movies she’s made, she directed 3 of them, which received 14 Oscar nominations. She is the recipient of the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 4 times. She is the honorary chairwoman of the board of directors of Hadassah’s International Research Institute on Women. MIDORI GOTO, a Japanese/American violinist known simply as Midori, was born in Osaka, Japan in 1971. Her lessons on violin began at age 3 with her mother who was a professional violinist. By the age of 6, Midori attracted attention by publicly performing one of Paganini’s Caprices. Shortly thereafter, Midori and her mother moved to New York City, and she was enrolled in the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School of Music and began studies with the noted teacher, Dorothy Delay, who taught Itzhak Perlman. In 1982, at age 11, Midori made a surprise debut at a New Year’s Eve Gala with the New York Philharmonic, and in 1986 came her legendary Tanglewood performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade – an event that made front page headlines in the New York Times. In 1987, after four years of study, Midori left Juilliard and embarked on a full-time career as a professional artist. As an adult, she is considered as one of the world’s preeminent violinists and has been honored as an educator for her community endeavors. When she was 21, she established her foundation  “Midori and Friends” to bring music education to young people in under-served communities in New York City and Japan, which has evolved into an organization with worldwide impact. In 2007, Midori was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace.  In that role, she performed in recitals and as soloist with major orchestras internationally. In 2018, Midori joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, and she also is holder of the Jascha Heifetz Chair as a professor at the University of Southern California. Midori has received many accolades and awards including: the John D. Rockefeller III Award by the Asian Cultural Council, the Avery Fischer Prize, the Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts, and she was an honoree at the Kennedy Center. For more than half a century, Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States. Ella was born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. When she was 17, Ella won the opportunity to compete in amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Ella was shy and reserved, self-conscious about her appearance, and for a while, even doubted her abilities. On stage, Ella felt at home and had no fear. She said: “Once up there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience. I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life.” She was only 18 when she made her very first recording: Love and Kisses. Ella always suffered from performance anxiety before going on stage, and no matter how famous and beloved she was, she always had self-doubt. Ella never turned to drugs nor alcohol to relieve stress; she turned to food. Ella gained a lot of weight, and it was a problem that she battled throughout her life, alternately dieting and going on eating binges. The most important thing to her was music and performing. Between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald recorded her incredibly popular songbook series, which included songs by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rogers and Hart. Her legendary album, The George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, includes 53 Gershwin songs. Even though it is a 5-record set, it sold more than 100,000 copies in its first 60 days. Ira Gershwin said: “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.” She was a favorite and frequent guest on many TV shows including the Bing Crosby Show, the Dinah Shore Show, the Frank Sinatra Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show, the Nat King Cole Show, the Andy Williams Show, and the Dean Martin Show. Two years before her death, another of her biographers, Geoffrey Fidelman, wrote: “She was a legend who is still nervous about being good enough. Ella never really accepted the fact that she was so popular, or that she was unconditionally loved from the moment she walked on stage. Humble as ever, when she received another Grammy award in 1991, she said to a friend: “They’re just giving it to me ‘cause I’m old and still around.” Ella Fitzgerald died in her home from a stroke in 1996. She was 79. The majority of her media and memorabilia is at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. She recorded well over 200 records, and during her lifetime sold over 40 million albums. The Cole Porter songbook and the two My Fair Lady albums became the largest-selling record albums in history. She was inducted into the DownBeat Magazine Hall of Fame, and is the recipient of 13 Grammy awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, honorary membership in the nation’s oldest and largest African-American sorority, Alpha, Kappa, Alpha, the first New York City Cultural Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, France’s Commander of Arts and Letters Award, the Peabody Medal, the UCLA Medal for Musical Achievements, the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, the first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award named the “Ella” in her honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, the University of Southern California Magnum Opus Award, and honorary doctorates from Talladega, Howard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale and Harvard universities. In 1947, Ella began helping orphaned and disadvantaged children, an act of compassion that continued for the rest of her life. In her later years, her main social concern was fighting against child-abuse, for which she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through annual benefits that featured many popular entertainers. She sang for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to benefit international refugees from various wars, plagues, and political struggles. She also performed to raise money for the Retina Foundation. In 1968 she accepted the honorary chairmanship of the Martin Luther King Foundation, and in 1974, she sang with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler to benefit the Retire Association. She supported the Dream Street Foundation, that provides camping experience for children with life-threatening diseases. In 1990 at Lincoln Center, a star studded show raised money for the American Heart Association to establish the Ella Fitzgerald Research Fellowship. She also supported the City of Hope organization, dedicated to cancer research, treatment and prevention. In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, and medical research of diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment. She always did her charity work very quietly, shunning publicity. Almost no one knew of her work with inner-city youth in Los Angeles, or of her help to children everywhere. Many of her hundreds of concerts per year were sung either gratis or at greatly reduced fees to benefit children. Ella defied the traditional expectations of a black person in a predominantly white society. She endured discrimination with dignity, and she was acknowledged as a legend in her own lifetime. She once said: “It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.”

By Michael Laster This is a tribute to my late father, Marty Laster. In addition to being a brilliant musician, he also had a gift for writing, which he chose to utilize in his unpublished memoir from 2005, written approximately 11 years before his passing in 2016. Instead of making the documentary about my relationship and memories with my father, I wanted to approach this project as an attempt to tell his fascinating life story through his own words. It’s a story of creative flourishing, followed by personal tragedy, and picking up the pieces through the reinvention of one’s sense of meaning. But more importantly, it’s a celebration of his music, and a chance for me to showcase his genius as a violinist and as a composer. I hope this tribute inspires others who might find identity with his struggles, and I know it will inspire joy in anyone who is a lover of great music, regardless of style. “Being from an insulated part of the South Bronx, I never thought of myself as a New York City resident. I was from The Bronx, period. We thought of Manhattan as “the city”, a place where wealthy, more educated people lived and worked. I grew up in the 1950s with my older brother Alan and parents in a two-level, brick house that was part of a row of connected homes on a short street called Harrod Ave. Our neighborhood was a mix of Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants, not unlike the Lower East Side of Manhattan at that time. My father was American-born, and my mother escaped Nazi Germany just before the holocaust. We were Jews who belonged to an Orthodox temple, but went to Chinese restaurants to have pork and shrimp. This was the conventional practice of Jews in the area. My father sold tokens for the transit authority at various train stops. Once a year, he would whip out his violin and play his medley of tunes with a joy that I otherwise never saw on his face. Playing snippets of “Stardust” into “Humoresque” and ‘’My Yiddische Mama”, he would end his “set” with a few measures of “Turkey in the Straw”. Whether that last excerpt planted a seed in me to play bluegrass fiddle 20 years later is food for thought. In my mind’s ear, I can hear his beautiful tone and perfect intonation, despite the lack of any practice during the year. Showing me a newspaper clipping where he, as a child, accompanied the then-famous cantor, Josef Rosenblatt, in Carnegie Hall seemed totally out of character with the blue-collar token clerk that he had become. I later learned that my grandmother ran off with the house boarder without a goodbye. This may have sent him over the edge, but I suspect there were problems brewing long before. We would worship Jascha Heifetz together, but my Dad’s perfectionism reared its ugly head with the implication that if you can’t play on the level of Heifetz, Menuhin or Oistrakh, you might as well pack it in. I began playing violin at the age of 10, late by conservatory standards, and played in the school orchestra at PS 77. It had a phenomenal music program where the older kids – the seniors – would coach the juniors. We performed at Gracie Mansion and City College, and I became concertmaster in the 6th grade. My Uncle Herman, who was my grandfather’s brother, was a somewhat mysterious, eccentric man who owned a deli around the corner from Carnegie Hall. Before attending a violin recital, it was tradition to visit him and have a juicy pastrami sandwich in the back of the store. He was friendly with the great violinist, David Oistrakh, who would stop by for a bite, or to exchange greetings before his recitals. Uncle Herman mentioned my violin beginnings to the master. Oistrakh gave him a postcard to give to me. It had a picture of himself on one side, and on the blank side, he wished me luck with my violin studies – and signed it. Encouragement like that to a Bronx boy like me may have had more significance than I ever thought. Over the years, the card got misplaced. I still, on occasion, go through my old boxes of memorabilia, hoping to rekindle that memory and frame the card. To this day, David Oistrakh, in my mind, was a giant among violinists. My experience at High School of Music & Art had lasting effects. It opened me up to the world outside the Bronx, one of sophistication and a political sensibility. Around that time, I made and wore beads, though my hair was still short. You may say I was a “hippy” in its amphibious stage. My eclectic musical roots were formed during the folk music boom of the early ‘60s. I played guitar, and worked out Peter, Paul and Mary arrangements with my brother in addition to the music of Phil Oaks, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, etc. I developed skill at finger-picking, and this led to many a campfire sing-alongs. My exposure to the bluegrass banjo at Washington Square Park in the mid ‘60s mesmerized me and also planted a deep seed. On Sundays in that park, every few steps would bring you to another group of folk musicians, ranging from blues to Dylan-type singer-songwriters to bluegrass musicians. I moved from violin to viola at Queens College. Soon came my hippy period. Wearing beads, long hair and a scraggly beard, I began to jam, playing Grateful Dead and other ‘60s music. This led to my first band, Lighthorse Harry, that played a combination of folk styles, 60’s rock, and the quirky swing style of Dan Hicks. Contrary to these events, I was a serious student of music in college, and embraced the classical world of composing, analysis and form. My later improvisational style was influenced by these elements, though I struggled not to let the cerebral nature of my classical training render my playing sterile and lacking in spontaneous energy. Over time, a reasonable balance was achieved. Baroque counterpoint – that is, having totally different melodies simultaneously conversing with one another – excited and fascinated me in the same way that I loved solving algebraic equations in Junior High School. According to my brother, as a young, withdrawn child, I had the ability to add and multiply complex numbers in my head. I was a kind of idiot-savant (now called savant syndrome), and my mind, devoid of emotional content was, in essence, a computer. Later, when I joined the human race, I lost that ability, but still loved and excelled at math. There is something that ties math to the intricacies and logic of Bach’s counterpoint. That represented the intellectual side of Bach. It was much later that I began to comprehend the spiritual and emotional depth of most of his music, including the counterpoint. I developed the skill of writing a fugue at Queens College, an ability that, like driving, never totally leaves you. Bach’s music, however, appeals on so many levels. There is an improvisational, even jazzy element to his writing. As complex as the counterpoint gets, a rhythmic groove and drive prevail, even in his slower compositions. With his spontaneous style, the music resembles bebop jazz, minus the swing rhythm. The ideas flowed out of Mozart as well, with elegance. There is an architecture and a feeling of inevitability in Mozart’s writing that is the hallmark of what we call “genius”. I like the phrase “sound sculpture” in describing his interplay of music and silence. I have experienced moments as well – of being a channel of ideas flowing through me, as if from a higher source. The content, however, doesn’t quite match the consistent warmth, beauty and power that flows out of Leopold Amadeus. Now Beethoven was a different animal entirely. He agonized over the details of his compositions, and was a genius of form and the development of ideas. Often the music initially projects an air of suffering and conflict, but ends on a note of triumphant optimism. Beethoven communicated emotions and aspects of the human condition with great intensity and directness. In my darkest hours, I turn to Beethoven for strength, courage and optimism. I formed relationships with certain compositions and felt they were speaking to me directly. Great art creates a world that sweeps you away, takes you on a journey, and then drops you out at the other end as an altered person – and for the better. Brahms was a composer who captivated me with the lushness of his strings and the weaving out of melodies ranging in scope from lyrical to majestic. In addition, Brahms played with rhythms in a way that can leave one disoriented, as time meters are ignored. Let’s call it musical vertigo. The romantic composers were the masters of heart-throbbing melodies and orchestration; that is, the art of blending instruments into a kaleidoscope of tonal colors. In particular, Tchaikovsky was a master of these techniques. During those Queens College years, I accompanied a soul/gospel group, the “Village Soul Choir.” That first-hand experience with blues and gospel music, in addition to playing in an interracial group, was invaluable. Following this experience was Wicker’s Creek, my and Bela Fleck’s first bluegrass group. Watching Bela grow into the banjo at age 16 and become an international star has been a thrill. I was lucky to pluck him out of his busy schedule to play on my CD, “Sound ics”. I next played in the Western Swing band, Harmony Grits. I was still a bit withdrawn then, and it was ironic, being introduced as Mad-Dog Marty Laster. I also played cowboy music with “Dobro Dick”, a self-proclaimed hobo who grew up in a middle-class family on Long Island, but lived his life riding freight trains and working on ranches in Montana. He had a demonic style of dobro playing that I still marvel at when listening to my ancient tapes. In the mid ’70s, I was in New Orleans, and my friend Pat Flory and I were booked to play at a bluegrass concert on a very local radio station in Walker, Louisiana. Now, Walker is about as far south as you could go in bayou country. I was feeling a bit apprehensive and wasn’t prepared for the scene that was to follow. As we entered the venue, there was an assortment of confederate flags and Ku Klux Klan recruitment posters hanging down saying “We Need Good Men and Women”. It then dawned on me that this was the Klan headquarters of the south that was untouched by the civil rights movement of the ’60s. There was a bluegrass band on stage, all chewing tobacco and with enormous beer guts. As they stared us down I couldn’t help thinking that being a northerner and Jewish were two big strikes against me. Finally when it was our turn to perform, one of the main honchos came up to me and said, “the good ol’ boys wanna hear a fiddle tune.” I immediately ripped into “Ragtime Annie”, and I mean immediately, and did a pretty good job. When I finished, the same guy came up, pointed his finger a few inches from my face, and said emphatically – “Boy! You were bawn with a fiddle in yo’ hand”. They kept us on stage an extra twenty minutes, and we escaped unharmed. Next in line was a Latin fusion group called Ell’s Kitchen (?). It was a large ensemble with horns, saxes, rhythm section and violin with great arrangements. My connection to each ensemble that I am listing lasted at least a year, and I immersed myself in each style, studying the violin masters, the Heifetzes of each style. In the group,“Rhythm and Romance”, we played strictly swing jazz. Next I pursued my Jewish roots while playing in the Klezmer band, Kepelya. I next played with a bluegrass band, “Yellin’ Grass” with Bob Yellin from “the Greenbriar Boys”. After gigging with various bands for several decades, I ended up in the orchestra pit of several Broadway musicals, including Big River, The Lion King, Footloose, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. However, with my bohemian sensibility, I felt not unlike the whores of the show. I was selling my talent for a decent income and a position of legitimacy as a professional. Artistic satisfaction was not in the contract, and neither was fun. To fully recharge my batteries, I would shed my tuxedo and squeeze in opportunities to play improvisational music of my folk, bluegrass and swing roots. In retrospect, I enjoyed – on different levels – any opportunity to play good music with good players of any instrument, and had novel experiences in all the work I did. Here are my stories of the life-saving potential of music: I was casually strolling while playing violin at a street fair in Great Neck, N.Y. – dressed in a makeshift Renaissance outfit, and looking fairly ridiculous. It was towards the end of the day, and I was bored and tired. I believe I was in the middle of the Italian song Funiculi, Funicula when I heard a car screech to a halt. An argument ensued after one car had cut off the other, and suddenly, one of the drivers, who had a crazed, drug -induced look got out of his car, opened the trunk and began to unzip what I’m sure was a rifle bag. Looking about as threatening as Barney the dinosaur, I took advantage of the situation and yelled out to the “gunman” with a nervous smile “Put it down – it isn’t worth it! ” He looked at me in a confused manner, cursed under his breath, slammed the trunk and sped off like a madman. I was in the right place at the right time. I believe that experience may have contained vestiges of the “street smarts” carried over from my boyhood days in the Bronx.

Another example is the time that a couple of hoods had just mugged someone in front of me and were on a roll. I was carrying my violin and dressed in a tux. They said, “Hey, why don’t you handover that violin.” My heart was racing but I looked them in the eye and said sincerely, “Look man, I look like I got money, but this violin is all I have. Give me a break.” They uttered some curses to save face and left me alone. Usually, but not always, honest, direct communication works. Another memorable experience, this time of the non-solo kind, was a mandolin-playing stint at Carnegie Hall. I was a good, not great, mandolin player, but was well-connected enough to land this gig.
This was a reenactment of a Carnegie performance of the ‘20s by the “Clef Club Orchestra”, an all- black ensemble that played pre-swing music, highly influenced by ragtime. We were mostly white this time around. We played the actual music charts of the original ensemble, though we’ll never know how much we captured the spirit of the original Clef Club, if at all. No words can describe the feeling of being on the stage of Carnegie Hall, where the greatest musical artists on the globe have performed. Unbeknownst to him, I can say that I shared that stage with Jascha Heifetz. Finally, I played with a folk ensemble that put it all together, the “Silk City Quartet” with mandolinist Barry Mitterhof. That group played several of my compositions that fused classical and folk elements. My life was inseparable from the violin, and that was my identity. In my spare moments, I was involved with my family. Jackie and I were married in ’84, and our son, Michael was born in 1990. Following a bout with colon cancer, I then recorded a CD of my music. This was the equivalent of running a musical marathon. I didn’t know at the time that my cancer was going into remission and threw in the kitchen sink, stylistically. I learned that New York City provides a musical palette that cannot be found elsewhere. I needed an Australian-style didgeridoo player, a jazz oboist, an Andean style wooden flute player, a Gypsy cimbalom musician, and an expert pedal-steel guitarist. They are all here, just a phone call away! A year later marked the beginning of the end of the major chapter of my life that I embraced for over 30 years, and all in a few clicks of a metronome. I was recording with the “Hot Club of Cowtown,” an excellent young western swing band, about 1999. I wasn’t playing up to par, and my coordination was a bit off. It was upsetting, but I tried to tell myself– we all have bad days. I then had traction treatments on my neck for some cervical problems, and in the middle of this, I noticed a very slight, intermittent tremor in my right arm. I assumed it was from the traction, and stopped the treatments. The tremors continued, and I went to a neurologist. He said, lacking in bedside manner, “It’s Parkinsonism”. In shock and disbelief, I went for a second opinion. This time I was told it was Parkinson’s disease. The diagnosis is made in the following way: You hold out your hand, and it shakes. Next, you complain of stiffness in your arm and, poof, it’s a Parkinson’s diagnosis. I continued to work, while creatively finding ways to hide the tremor. It is what is called a “rest tremor”, and when the arm is in motion, it stops. So I was able to still play, just not as well. The stiffness keeps me from playing repeated notes quickly and I get around that by slurring several notes to a bow. I’m glad I didn’t quit playing before my gig at the Russian Tea Room. It was a birthday party for Hillary Clinton. When the president finally arrived, the room lit up. Whatever your feelings about this man are, he has charisma. He also loves music. He entered the room, and headed straight for the bandstand and shook all our hands. And yes, I have a photo of him standing in front of me with the band! Most people didn’t notice my problem. The reality is that I was still playing well, but was tortured by the slightest downturn in my playing. I have come to realize that I carry the same perfectionism that immobilized my father. The identity crisis I suffered at a point when I was riding high in my career was real, but compounded by other issues. I had used music in part to avoid verbal contact, and my emotional life was tied up in notes. I had also been doing pretty well financially for a freelance musician, and the loss of income hurt our lifestyle and my confidence. For about three years, I walked around in a dark cloud, as my identity and confidence was disintegrating. I wasn’t simply a violinist. It was my first love. I was driven to improve my skills, which were standing still, but then began to take a downturn. I also lost my membership to a community of freelancers. No, it was several communities, due to all the styles I immersed myself in. It seemed like a cosmic joke was being played: that I was dealt this hand at the height of my creative powers, and at a relatively young age. A neighbor who has a business in liquidating people’s estates offered me an old violin that was found in an abandoned apartment. “Sure”, I said, fixing up instruments and selling them cheaply to new students is a hobby of mine. As it turned out, the violin wasn’t worth repairing, and was actually ideal kindling for a campfire. Before dumping the instrument, I had a thought. I had been exploring “assemblage”, a form of sculpture, using wood, glue and nails. Creating something with the violin would be a challenge, but this proved to be much more. It was the start of a painful, but life-affirming metamorphosis. I thought initially that I would chop up the instrument into the form of a big jigsaw puzzle; a fun project, a piece of cake. I began to dissect the instrument, and it set off a series of painful reactions in me. After countless times of “making love to the violin”, metaphorically speaking, I was now mutilating it. I then realized this was actually an act of rage. I felt betrayed by the instrument that was no longer responsive to my loving touch. I continued the painful process, as the broken violin was beginning to take on the symbol of a broken career and technique. I looked at the half violin that I destroyed, and wanted it fixed. I was wishing my life to be unified and whole once more. I then decided to leave the other half of the violin unbroken as a new, more positive symbol: one in which a new view of myself could emerge. Survival, I now realized, depended on getting in touch with my spirit – which expressed itself through music. That same spirit could be taught to channel itself through other modes of expression, I told myself. I was beginning to feel the possibility of emerging from my self-imposed cocoon, freed from the symbiotic relationship to the violin, and music in general. The sculpture began to take on the appearance of a fragmented violin that morphed itself into a symbolically fixed, whole and reborn instrument. After going through several titles, I arrived at “Rebirth”. I surprised myself that, in a medium in which I was a beginner, when one has an urgency to express oneself, the message gets through somehow, despite the rough edges. After completing the “sculpture,” I felt both drained and liberated, as a thick cloud was beginning to lift, with a new optimism replacing it. I also felt a bit more at peace with the “medical hand” that was dealt to me. The diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis was made fairly recently. I first awoke with some tingling and numbness in my left hand and arm. Two days later, the numbness spread up into my neck and scalp, and I couldn’t bend my head. I couldn’t hold a cup for more than 3 seconds,  and had no idea how soft or hard I was pressing on an object. I would awake at night, feeling something crawling on my chest. It was my hand. Most of these debilitating symptoms eventually subsided, leaving me with an annoying surface numbness in the left hand. The good news—I can play again—at least well enough to demonstrate for students. As far as my violin playing goes, I can still play when not stressed. The slightest bit of anxiety can, however, reduce me to a beginner or worse, as my arm tremors out of control. Yes, the tremor has progressed and is visible much of the time, but still subsides when the arm is in motion. What I have discovered is that when I lose my former sweet tone, I can still play some great blues. A raunchy sound is fully compatible with the blues as an expression of angst or anger! Seeing the glass half-full is a useful goal for living a more positive life, but it’s not that simple. In my opinion, the roller coaster ride is a more realistic metaphor of the human condition for most of us. Yes, it’s better if the track is heading steadily upwards, but you can’t avoid the downturns. The key is in the cliché that has passed the test of time of thousands of years of Buddhist practice: “going with the flow.” I love the title and first cut from my friend Ray Chesna’s CD. It is entitled – “Every Day above ground is a Good One.” No promises, but I hope to embrace that philosophy ‘til the end. I’ll leave you with another quote. This is from the neighbor who gave me the “Rebirth” violin. I asked him in the elevator, casually – “How are you doing?” His reply was, “You know, I thought I may live forever… Well, so far, so good!” It’s handy and comforting to have a Zen master living in your apartment building! Passing the torch and trying to touch individuals in a positive way is my immediate goal. In teaching children music, you have an opportunity to integrate the instrumental skills at hand with life’s other lessons. And through writing, therapeutic unto itself, I hope to bring some entertainment, pleasure and – perhaps, meaning – into people’s lives, even if limited to a handful of kindred spirits. The journey is not over as long as rebirth is possible with each challenge thrown my way.”  

By Michael Laster After the success of Band on the Run, Paul appeared on a 1974 TV special called One Hand Clapping, where he showcases his knack for writing songs in the style of old jazz standards, especially in the song All of You. In 1975, Paul and Linda, long-time animal lovers, realized that it took a certain level of cognitive dissonance to love animals while simultaneously enabling their cruelty when it came to food. From then on, they became vegetarians and vocal animal rights advocates. Paul and Linda guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode “Lisa the Vegetarian.” When John was seeing his girlfriend, May Pang in 1974, he briefly reunited with his son Julian, in addition to Paul. John’s attitude towards Paul mellowed out ever since he himself and the other two Beatles became dissatisfied with their manager, Allen Klein. However, once John moved back in with Yoko in 1975, he became very hard to reach. Some say Yoko was possessive of John, or envious of his bond with Paul, though the extent of Yoko trying to sabotage John’s friendship with Paul is pure speculation. Regardless of Yoko’s intention, it was ultimately John who could’ve done more to preserve the friendship. On his band Wings’ next album, Venus and Mars, there’s a song called Call Me Back Again. Paul never commented on it, but many speculate that it’s about his frustration in trying to reach his former best friend and songwriting partner. Their next album was Wings Speed of Sound, with the best known song being Paul’s retort to those who criticized his lyrics as being corny or sentimental. It’s called Silly Love Songs. Paul’s father Jim McCartney, died in 1976. Paul was on tour and didn’t make the funeral. Some of Paul’s other bandmates didn’t even know that Paul’s father died until he was asked about his parents in an interview. According to Wings bandmate, Denny Laine: “He likes to stay positive, because if he gets negative, he gets really negative, and he knows it, so he tries to rise above these things, and not have other people reminding him of too many negative things, or hurtful things, because of who he is. He has to be out there looking like he’s Paul McCartney, happy-go-lucky, and not bothering the world with his problems.” As we’ll see, public displays of grief were never Paul’s specialty. In 1976, Wings went on tour in America, finally winning over those segments of the public that wouldn’t take anything less than a Beatles reunion, though Paul did perform his own Beatles songs. A compilation of four of the concerts was released as a movie four years later, titled Rockshow. Their next album, London Town, featured a new catchy synthesizer–driven hit, With a Little Luck. The lyrics feature the same McCartney–esque optimism of We Can Work It Out from over a decade earlier. That same year, in 1977, Wings released a song co-written by key bandmate, Denny Laine, which is (or was) was a tribute to the Scottish countryside called Mull of Kintyre. It is one of Paul’s best-selling singles of all time, especially in the UK, reaching over 2 million sales, and is also one of the few pop hits in history to feature bagpipes. After their next album, Back to the Egg, Wings was scheduled for a world tour, including Japan. Paul and Linda were emphatically warned that Japan was not like other countries and that drug enforcement was taken incredibly seriously. Paul didn’t heed the warnings. He figured he could manage to sneak some marijuana through unnoticed, or if caught, get a slap on the wrist like his previous convictions in the form of a fine. Or, perhaps, he just didn’t like other people giving advice to him. He was caught with 7.7 ounces of marijuana in his suitcase, and risked the harsh sentence of 7 years in jail. He spent 9 days in prison, which included sporadic interrogations. It was the first time in his marriage to Linda that they ever spent a night apart – in this case, 9 nights. No one in the prison spoke English, but Paul tried to make the best of the situation by calling out Japanese brand names to other prisoners as they yelled back American brand names. Paul’s recklessness in Japan basically ended Wings, though he was growing weary of the band anyway. He was already privately working on music that was more experimental, prompting him to create his McCartney II album. It was the sequel to his first solo album, titled McCartney, that he had largely made alone at his modest home recording studio. The McCartney II standout track was called Coming Up, and a music video was made in which Paul and Linda play all the characters. In addition to the Band On The Run album, the song Coming Up was also praised by John, who said he couldn’t get it out of his head. In fact, some people say his appreciation of the song was one of the factors that got him back into the studio to record his final album, Double Fantasy. A few weeks after its release, John signed a copy of the album to a so–called fan. That same man, Mark David Chapman, ended up fatally shooting him later that evening. Paul’s manager telephoned Paul with the news. Like the other deaths in his life, Paul pushed through the grief and continued to spend the day working as if nothing happened. Paul’s handling of John’s death generated a bit of controversy itself after he was put on the spot by reporters the next day. He instantly regretted these comments, and later clarified what he meant: “I still haven’t taken it in. I don’t want to,” Paul said in a 1984 interview. In 2020, 40 years after the murder, he admitted he still hadn’t come to terms with it. “I can’t think about it. I’m sure it’s some form of denial. But denial is the only way that I can deal with it. Having said that, of course, I do think about it, and it’s horrible.” He expressed the same thing in a separate interview on CBS Sunday Morning several days later. “I don’t think I’ve dealt with it very well. In a way… I wouldn’t be surprised if a psychiatrist would sort of find out that I’m slightly in denial, ’cause it’s too much.” Paul admits that he’s internalized John’s voice in his head, and often defers to this “inner Lennon” to provide constructive criticism to whatever song he’s working on. Over the next two years, Paul was busy at work on his next album, Tug of War. He teamed up again with George Martin to produce the album, their first collaboration since 1973’s Live and Let Die. The songs What’s That You’re Doing? and Ebony and Ivory are collaborations with Stevie Wonder, and Get It is a duet with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins, who was a major influence on The Beatles in their early years. At one point during the making of the album, the weight of John’s death hit Paul all at once. He was moved to record a song in honor of John called Here Today. In an interview that same year, Paul shares a song from John’s last album, Double Fantasy. The song is Beautiful Boy, a celebration of John’s five-year-old son, Sean. Paul tries to keep his composure, but John’s lyrics are just too powerful, and in context, too tragic. Paul holds back tears throughout. Shortly after the release of Tug of War, Paul collaborated on three songs with Michael Jackson. The song, Girl Is Mine, written by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones, ended up on Jackson’s best-selling album, Thriller. The other two songs, The Man, and Say Say Say, ended up on Paul’s next album, Pipes of Peace. While Pipes of Peace featured many leftover tracks from the Tug of War sessions, they were both his most successful albums of the 1980’s. Another great tune from Pipes of Peace is Keep Under Cover. While making these albums, Jackson asked Paul for career advice, so Paul advised him to go into publishing, enthusiastically showing Michael the list of songs by other artists that Paul’s publishing company bought the rights to. Several years later, when the ATV catalogue went on sale in 1984, which included all of the Beatles’ songs, Paul tried to coordinate the purchase with George, Ringo, and Yoko, but coordinating the details of the bid proved too complicated. It was Michael who used his wealth from Thriller to make the purchase for 47 million dollars. Despite buying the catalogue fair and square, Paul saw this as a betrayal of their friendship. During this period, Paul desired to branch out into other mediums, and ended up writing the screenplay to a film called Give My Regards to Broadstreet, in which he played himself, and also featured his wife Linda, Ringo, his wife Barbara, and George Martin as themselves. Tracey Ullman also played a supporting role. The plot revolves around Paul’s search to track down his assistant Harry, who’s gone missing. Harry is a reformed convict who was supposed to deliver Paul’s master tapes to the factory for distribution. Some characters suspect that he stole the tapes, but Paul worries that he may have been kidnapped, or worse. If the tapes aren’t found by midnight, a villainous executive will take over the record company. While audiences enjoyed the many musical sequences, which featured new songs in addition to arrangements of many of his Beatle’s hits, the film was a total flop. Critics panned the dialogue as being dull, and Paul’s acting as being stiff. After filming was complete, the director, Peter Webb, who was primarily a director for television, was hospitalized for exhaustion, and it allegedly took him two years to recover. Paul’s next album, Press to Play – from 1986 – generally wasn’t well received, and today, much of the 80’s production style sounds a bit dated. However, there’s a ballad called Only Love Remains that sounds like it could have been written during any point in his career. For his next album, Flowers in The Dirt, he teamed up with Elvis Costello for several songs, including My Brave Face, and You Want Her, Too. Two songs from these sessions that didn’t make the album, Mistress and Maid, and The Lovers That Never Were, ended up on his next album, Off The Ground, from 1993. In between both of these albums, Paul was involved with another fruitful and incredibly ambitious collaboration – this time, with the English conductor and composer, Carl Davis. Davis was the music director of The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and he persuaded Paul to compose a work celebrating the orchestra’s 150th anniversary. Paul sang and played his ideas to Davis on piano, and in turn, Davis scored them for orchestra. The Liverpool Oratorio was generally not well received by those who expected a traditional classical vocal work, but was generally appreciated by die–hard McCartney fans. Paul would write several more classical works in his lifetime, including Standing Stone, made up of unrelated short movements for orchestra, his second oratorio, Ecce Cor Meum, and Ocean’s Kingdom, for the New York City Ballet, written in 2011. To compose these works, he used computer programs where he selected the desired pitches without having to use traditional notation, believing that learning to read and write music could interfere with his intuitive process. Throughout the mid–90’s, Paul joined up again with George Harrison and Ringo to collaborate on the Anthology project, a documentary about the Beatles from their first–person point of view. Since their former producer George Martin was now suffering hearing loss, they used George Harrison’s recent producer Jeff Lynne to complete two of John’s unfinished demos, Real Love, and Free as a Bird. Paul ended up using Jeff as producer for his next album, Flaming Pie, though George Martin did contribute some orchestral arrangements. The album received critical acclaim for its return to the more intimate sound of his early 80’s work like Tug of War. The song Calico Skies is almost a twin to Blackbird in its folksy finger–picking technique. After recording Flaming Pie, Paul was officially knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. As cheerful an event as this was, in addition to his latest successes with Flaming Pie and his classical album, Standing Stone, 1997 was a very tense year for Paul. Two years earlier, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was caught at too late a stage to prevent metastasis. The chemo treatment was making her increasingly weak, though she and Paul still continued to make plans into the future. She passed away surrounded by her family in April of 1998 on the family horse ranch in Arizona, though her death was announced as being in Santa Barbara, California, in order to maintain privacy and deter a media frenzy. Paul remembers, “I think I cried for about a year on and off. You expect to see them walk in, this person you love, because you are so used to them. I cried a lot, and it was almost embarrassing, except it seemed the only thing to do.” A year later, two of Linda’s friends organized a tribute concert in Linda’s memory, with all the proceeds going to various animal rights charities. In addition to Paul, performers included Tom Jones, (shin-AID) Sinéad O’Connor, Elvis Costello, and George Michael. A little after a year following Linda’s death, Paul met Heather Mills at a charity event to raise awareness of land mines. Mills was a former model who was struck by a police motorbike, costing her her left leg. Ever since the accident, she became a disability rights advocate, founding a charity that provided prosthetic limbs to amputees. Paul became interested in her charity work, and after several meetings, they started dating. Some of Paul’s children thought that, out of loneliness, Paul moved into a serious relationship too quickly without fully moving on from Linda. As we’ll see, his decision to not sign a prenup proved to be one of his major mistakes. After 9/11, Paul took part in the Concert for New York, where he performed several old hits, in addition to two new songs from his newest album, Driving Rain. They were the anthem Freedom, written as a response to 9/11, and From a Lover to A Friend. Sadly, another tragedy was right around the corner, which was the death of fellow-Beatle and younger schoolmate George Harrison, who, like Linda, was also taken by cancer. Paul had befriended George two or three years before meeting John. Paul let George and his family stay in a home that he owned during his final weeks in order to shield them from being hassled by the press. For Paul’s next album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard in 2005, he teamed up with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The album proved to be Paul’s most creative and Beatle-esque in years, and his fans usually rank it among his best. Like Calico Skies from Flaming Pie, the song Jenny Wren proves (proved?) he could still deliver masterpieces for acoustic guitar. Not too long after the release of the album, his marriage to Heather Mills suddenly fell apart in one of the ugliest, most publicized divorces of all time. Even in the years leading up to the separation, while they both told the press how happy they were, insiders knew otherwise. Their lawyers were the same two lawyers who represented the divorce between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Heather claimed Paul was a controlling and abusive husband, but ultimately her testimony and evidence were labeled by the judge as  “inconsistent, inaccurate, and less than candid.” Paul ended up paying only 24 million pounds, significantly less than the 125 million she was originally seeking. Luckily there were no further battles over their daughter Beatrice, and the two continued to split custody equally. In 2007, Paul released his next album, Memory Almost Full. It was less experimental than Chaos and Creation, but was still powered by his usual masterful sense of melody. Mr. Bellamy is a good example of Paul’s trademark ability to create rock suites consisting of contrasting sections, like a bite–sized opera unfolding before our ears. Also in 2007, Paul began dating philanthropist Nancy Shevell. They would marry four years later in 2011. Unlike Heather, Nancy preferred to stay away from the limelight, having never participated in any interviews with Paul or by herself. To this day, they remain together in what appears to be an incredibly successful marriage. It’s worth noting that they were married in the same office Paul and Linda were married in, but this time on October 9th, John’s birthday. Paul never publicly commented on the reasoning for these parallels, though we can almost be sure it was intentional. Speaking of John, in 2002, Paul started incorporating his 1981 tribute song to John, Here Today, into his live concerts. In a clip from 2007, the emotion of the lyrics hit him especially hard. A year after marrying Nancy, Paul released Kisses On The Bottom, an album of American songbook standards, which included an original song, “My Valentine”. In 2025, Paul re–recorded it as a duet with Barbara Streisand. The next year, Paul released another album called New, marking a shift towards a more pop–oriented direction. In 2018, Paul released the album Egypt Station, followed by McCartney III in 2020, which he recorded at home during the pandemic. Paul has five children and eight grandchildren. Heather, Paul’s adopted daughter from Linda, stays out of the limelight and currently sells pottery online. Of Paul and Linda’s biological children, Stella McCartney is a fashion designer who uses animal-free materials for her work. Mary is a photographer and vegetarian cookbook author like her mother, and James, like his father, is a musician and songwriter. Beatrice, from his marriage to Heather Mills, stays out of the limelight. Now 83 years old, Paul has another album due to come out in May of 2026. While his singing voice is no longer as powerful as it used to be, his energy and work ethic are still forces to be reckoned with. He continues to regularly perform and tour around the world to sold–out crowds. He stays in peak physical condition, in part from his vegetarian diet – in addition to exercise and occasional yoga, which includes his impressive ability to do headstands. It’s one thing to write great songs, but it’s another to also be the best person suited to sing and perform them, making Paul a complete musician, or, as some would say, a musician’s musician. Since the Beatles, there have been many other successful rock bands. But because of Paul’s intuitive grasp of melody, arrangement, and his emphasis on optimism, his songs will most likely be part of people’s lives for centuries to come. We close with one of his most iconic anthems during the Beatles, Let It Be.

By Moshe Denburg Klezmer – Intro Well, first of all, let’s take care of a few concepts: The term “Klezmer” primarily denotes the Jewish musician, and is a construction composed of two Hebraic words: kli, which means vessel or instrument; and zemer, which means song. Thus, the Jewish musician is understood to be a vessel of song, an instrument of song. I believe it was Giora Feidman, a wonderful Klezmer clarinettist*, who pointed out that the Jewish musician’s task is to act as a channel of music in this world, a connector between the divine and the earthly. At least, that is what we hope he does – and this is what makes him a Klezmer. By extension, it became common, in the old country – namely 19th-century Eastern Europe – to use the term “Klezmer” for a group or band of musicians playing for Jewish celebrations. So, “Golda, did you hire anyone to play at your daughter’s wedding”. “Yes, I hired a Klezmer”. Further, by way of defining the nomenclature, the plural of Klezmer, the individual musician, is Klezmorim, a Hebraic plural construction. So, my dear Klezmorim, play on, make us happy! The music that Klezmorim played at Jewish celebrations in the old country was mainly instrumental. There was a component of Yiddish (Judeo-German) song, and other entertainments, but this was not the main function of a Klezmer. Yiddish song grew as a parallel tradition, mainly as part of the Yiddish Theatre. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Eastern European Jewish people began to move more westward, to Western Europe and North America. Here, especially in the USA, is where the Yiddish Theatre blossomed, but the pure instrumental form of the Klezmer from the old country started to be less in demand. Certainly, there were always aspects of the instrumental forms in Yiddish song, and the Klezmer influence continued to be present in Jewish music; but gradually, with the emphasis on popular genres, and the development of music based on the Hebrew liturgy – prayers and scriptures – the purely instrumental form of the old country fell into disuse. In the early 1970s, by dint of old recordings and meetings with elderly Klezmorim, a movement was begun, the Klezmer revival movement. Here was a style of music–making – of inflection and rhythm and modal melodies – that was a separate esthetic, to be preserved. This is when the term “Klezmer” came to denote the style of instrumental music–making for Jewish celebrations, as in the old country. And due to the popularization of Klezmer music, the term “Klezmer” started to denote all the music of the Jews of the Western world, also known as Ashkenazi Jews. So wherefrom the term “Ashkenazi”? Ashkenaz is a biblical term that came to denote Eastern European places, and, from the 11th century onwards, it became associated with Germany and Northern Europe. Thus, Ashkenazi Jews are the Jews of Europe, and, by dint of migrations westward, a large proportion of the Jews of America. Though it is undoubtedly true that the Klezmer revival focused on the instrumental form, with its attendant melodic forms and rhythms, the origin of the term “Klezmer” denotes the Jewish musician. This lends credence to the view that the music of today’s Klezmorim, who are making music for celebrations today, can come under the banner of Klezmer as well. At least for the purposes of this discussion, Klezmer will mean ‘all’ the work of the Ashkenazi Jewish musician of yesterday and today. Klezmer – the instrumental genre To honour Klezmer’s roots, let’s deal with the instrumental genre. There are a great many examples of this genre today, and there have always been Klezmorim active in keeping this tradition alive. The modes utilized in traditional Klezmer are very specific, but what is less known is that these modes are the same as the modes utilized in the synagogue by the cantor, for prayers. So what, you may ask, is a “mode”? To be brief, a mode is a way of organizing the notes of a scale into melodic combinations. A mode utilizes certain typical melodic formulas for opening and closing a piece, and abides by certain rules governing the emphasis on one or another note or groups of notes. So as I was saying, there is a very strong continuity between synagogue practice and music for celebrations, the big difference being that traditional synagogue prayer modes are performed a capella, that is without instruments, whereas music for celebrations utilize instruments. Interestingly, many klezmer musicians today, especially in Europe, are not Jewish themselves, but have devoted themselves seriously to learning the genre, some very expertly. It is an example of how Klezmer is ‘not too Jewish’. But more about that later. Yiddish Song As we explained above, parallel to the development of the instrumental genre of celebration music in 19th-century Europe, the Yiddish Theatre was established, where Yiddish song was developed. The father of the Yiddish Theatre is acknowledged to be Abraham Goldfaden, who eventually came to America, where the Yiddish Theatre took root and continued to develop in the 20th Century. Yiddish song developed as a genre unto itself, and Jewish music is indelibly linked to its sentiments. After all, Yiddish was the language of Ashkenazi Jews everywhere, even in America, until after the holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel, where Hebrew became the official language. Still today, Yiddish is sung, the repertoire is vast, and it is still spoken by some, though mainly by the ultra Orthodox Hassidic sects who prefer to cleave to older forms of dress and language. There are so many beloved Yiddish songs in the repertoire today, and a wellspring of poetry that is still called upon to carry new melodies. And newly–minted Yiddish songs are still being created, as well as original arrangements of old chestnuts. ————————————————————— Migration to America and the Addition of Swing As Jewish people migrated more and more to America, in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, they started to interact with American culture. And, as has been the way of diaspora Jews the world over, they participated in, contributed to, and picked up aspects of Western culture. One very significant adaptation was the incorporation of swing into Yiddish songs. Perhaps as an extended expression of the Yiddish Theatre that the Ashkenazim brought to America, Jewish musicians and composers began to be active in the secular theatre in America. There are many who contributed greatly to this genre, to the Broadway musical, and then to Hollywood movies. Some names immediately come to mind: Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin), Richard Rogers (family’s name originally Rogazinsky), George Gershwin (born Jacob Gershwine), Eddie Fisher (his father’s surname was originally Tisch), Fanny Brice (born Fania Borach), Sophie Tucker (born Sofia Kalish); Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky). Then there are the Hollywood moguls, to mention a few prominent ones: Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz); Louis B. Mayer (born Lazar Meir); Warner Brothers – Harry, Abraham, Samuel, and Jack (whose family name in Poland was originally Wonsal). Later on in this presentation, in the section ‘Not Too Jewish’, we will touch upon the integration, and oftentimes assimilation, of these Jewish movers into American culture, and of their need to change their names in the first half of the 20th century. But once Jewish artists felt comfortable enough to express their own culture and their own names, we have the birth, in the 60s, of an indelible piece of Jewish-Americana, the Broadway show: Fiddler on the Roof, with music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.  ‘…but not Too Jewish’ I. Jewish Music by Non-Jewish Composers Though we will deal with the more jocular aspects of the ‘not too Jewish’ idea of our presentation a little later, here is the more serious part. An important matter to realize is that since the age of enlightenment, certain non-Jewish composers and musicians have actually tried their hand at creating very indentifiably Jewish musical works. The three 19th-20th Century European composers that come to mind are: Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Max Bruch. Here we can take the term ‘not too Jewish’ to mean ‘not only Jewish’.  Shostakovich identified with Jews as the victims of thousands of years of injustice. He said “I often test a person by his attitude toward Jews. I broke with even good friends if I saw they had any anti-Semitic tendencies.” In 1944, when he learned about what was happening in German concentration camps, he wrote klezmer-like music in the finale of his 2nd trio for piano, violin and cello. In America, in the later 20th Century, one name that comes to mind immediately is the composer John Williams. His signature ‘Jewish’ work is the theme from “Schindler’s List”. This is a very Jewish theme, showing that, to use a metaphor – “you don’t have to be Jewish to loveLevy’s Real Jewish Rye”. More seriously, we have now entered a truly global age of art, where one can learn from all cultures, and even create a signature piece of it. Music of Simcha (Jewish Celebration), Synagogue, and Liturgy What is probably the most Jewish expression of Jewish music, is the music of celebration, which is called a “Simcha” in Hebrew. The Simcha is usually a life passage event, a wedding, a bar or bat mitzvah, an anniversary or other significant milestone event in Jewish life, as well as communal events celebrating a holiday like Hanuka and others. There are a variety of ways the Jewish musician, the klezmer gives expression to Jewishness: instrumental Klezmer ensemble playing; the music of the synagogue; singing and dancing based on liturgical texts from the prayer book and from scripture. ‘…but not Too Jewish’ II. The irrepressible Jewish desire to join in, to be accepted And now we come to what we could call the kishkes (the guts) of the situation. What’s this ‘not too Jewish’ thing really about? Firstly, let’s face it, Jewish people have been guests in countries and cultures not their own for the better part of the last 2000 years. Apart from being kicked around, kicked out, and generally kicked, it seems to me that we have tried our best to adapt to the culture around us, involving ourselves in it, contributing to it, and borrowing certain things to take home with us, so to speak. So just to make sure we have an answer to the John Williamses of this world, let us not forget all the Jewish musicians and songwriters that have been very successful, over the years, in contributing music to the Christmas songbook. White Christmas by Irving Berlin is a prime example, but many others are also notable. Let’s go back a bit – it is likely that Klezmorim played together with non-Jewish musicians in the old country, and, just like today, the band that played at a Jewish Simcha was not 100% comprised of Jews. Modes and melodies were undoubtedly adapted and developed by the klezmer, and this dialogue of cultures is what is a hallmark of Jewish experience for as long as we can remember. There is a survival strategy here, in my opinion; for if we had tried to resist the outside culture entirely, it might have backfired, and assimilation, not to mention conversion, might have been the result. Interestingly, in America today, Jewish people have become so mainstream, that assimilation is, in fact, happening, and it is a challenge to be an American Jew with the accent on ‘Jew’. This ease of integration was not at all the case for the Jews who came from the old country. They did not want to be identified as Jews, so that they could more easily take part in American mainstream culture. Thus the ubiquity of name changing of, pardon the term, ‘goyification’ of identifiable Jewish names. (For those of you who do not know, the term ‘goy’ simply means ‘nation’, and in Jewish vernacular it denotes a “gentile”, a non-Jew). So, immigrant Ashkenazi Jews wanted to assimilate, and not be identified as ‘too Jewish’. The practice of changing Jewish surnames into non-Jewish sounding ones has been discontinued since the mid-20th Century, as Jewish celebrities do not mind being identified as Jewish. So Jerry Seinfeld is Jerry Seinfeld, and Paul Simon is Paul Simon. These represent Jewish Americans completely integrated into the mainstream of American culture. So this is an important thing about ‘not too Jewish’ – Jewish artists have engaged in contributing to the culture in which they found themselves, and by so doing, integrated outside influences into Jewish forms of expression. Because of this, Klezmer has elements of the music of non-Jewish Eastern European cultures; and in turn, it has contributed pieces to the repertoires of these host cultures. III. Putting on Another Culture’s Garb And now we get to the real fun, and funny part of ‘Not Too Jewish’. Pursuant to the idea of Jewish artists’ need to assimilate, as it became more and more accepted for Jewish artists to be identified as such, it has become great fun to put together, or juxtapose, Jewish and non-Jewish expression. One example of Yiddish-Americana is a Yiddish adaptation of Home on the Range. This stuff definitely belongs in Nosh-ville! It’s Jewish If That’s How You Feel About it But seriously, are these secular concoctions, and crossover tunes actually ‘Jewish’? For me, coming from a Rabbinical background, Jewishness has its roots in the religious culture. And indeed we may have been forged by the ritual references and practices of Judaism over the millennia. But collective identity is a tricky thing, and it is just as valid, I would say, that a saucy song from the Yiddish Theatre is every bit as Jewish as Kol Nidrei – the invocation chanted to enter into Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. But we all come back to our own experiences, the flavours, the smells, the melodies of our Jewish lives. As a klezmer, I have always been an equal opportunity musician – I have played for a Hasidic wedding, and for a Gay Jewish wedding as well. And for interfaith marriages, too. Many of the ‘same songs’, the same melodies, the same dances. Ok, I’m a very confused individual, eh? But the saving grace in all this is that the klezmer, the Jewish musician, refuses to get bogged down by one rigid definition of what is Jewish music. We play and sing Jewish music, but we are also learning from the world around us, stuff that’s ‘not too Jewish’, or at least, ‘not yet’ Jewish. So, in my fervent wish to give everybody a passing grade, let me say this: it’s Jewish if that’s how you feel about it!  

By Michael Laster Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band wasn’t just a commercial success – it was a massive cultural happening. Just as people remember exactly where they were on 9/11, or the moon landing, many also have strong memories of listening to Sgt. Pepper for the first time. All four Beatles, plus George Martin, played? key roles on the album, but as a whole, it was largely Paul’s vision, which was, in part motivated by a competitive streak with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Paul wanted to make sure the Beatles held onto their edge, which they did. Just as John made headlines with his “more popular than Jesus” comments, Paul picked up where John left off in terms of controversy. He told a reporter that he took LSD, making him one of the first pop stars to admit that he took it, even though his use, compared to John, was quite mild*. After being accused of being an irresponsible role model to young fans, he allowed a reporter to interview him outside his home. The interview almost seems like a Monty Python sketch, with both parties accusing the other of being the irresponsible one. Obviously, Paul lays out a false dichotomy of having to tell the truth, or lie when he just could have refrained from commenting at all. Just like bebop jazz musicians who believed drugs would make you a better player, there’s no doubt that many young musicians believed that LSD was the key to making great records. But to be fair to Paul, back in 1967, it was not uncommon to believe that the widespread use of LSD would lead to a cultural, and ultimately political renaissance. After Sgt. Pepper, their next album was Magical Mystery Tour, which wasn’t just an album, but a film, mostly directed by Paul. He felt that the Beatles needed a creative project to hold them together after the unexpected death of their manager, Brian Epstein. It featured the Beatles on a psychedelic bus tour, without any cohesive narrative. Unfortunately, most TV audiences in England were not ready for an escapade into psychedelia, but even if they were, they were robbed of half the psychedelia. It was shown in black and white instead of in color, which The Beatles blamed for its poor audience reception. As we’ll see, it would not be the first time Paul’s foray into film ended as a flop. Fans now generally have a more positive view of the film, though at the time, it was their first major setback after Sgt. Pepper. The color version was shown around Christmas that year, which is when Paul and Jane became engaged. At this stage in their career, Paul was the key Beatle to lead the change in their sound from primarily guitar-based, to including more piano. Three of Paul’s songs for the album – which feature Paul on piano – became classics, such as The Fool on the Hill, Hello Goodbye, and Your Mother Should Know. Paul soon followed these with one of his most iconic piano-based tunes, Lady Madonna, sung in his Fats Domino voice. It’s the perfect hybrid of boogie-woogie in the verses, complemented during the bridge by a shift back to the Victorian era, where the days of the week get listed like a Mother Goose nursery rhyme. When George brought the Beatles to a retreat in India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he encouraged the others to focus on meditation, but Paul couldn’t help but spend the majority of his time on guitar. When they returned, Paul had at least a dozen new song ideas ready to go for their next album, including Rocky Raccoon, Mother Nature’s Son, I Will, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Helter Skelter, and Back in The USSR. The songs Honey Pie and Martha, My Dear were two other songs to form part of Paul’s growing list of old-timey numbers, once again with impeccably tasteful orchestration by George Martin. Despite being branded as the hopeless romantic, when he and Jane were away from one another for extended periods of time due to her work, he continued living the life of a rock star bachelor. To paraphrase biographer Philip Norman, as angelic as Paul’s face may be, he would have to be endowed with the self-control of a saint to resist the daily, if not hourly, temptations of celebrity that all four Beatles were spoiled with ever since their Hamburg days. On a TV interview that year, Jane announced her engagement to Paul was over. She never commented on her relationship with him and in interviews, she solely focuses on her acting career. After the breakup with Jane, Paul broke off his relationship with Francie Schwartz, but continued to see Maggie McGivern, while also dating a new love interest, photographer Linda Eastman, whom he met a year earlier. This highly chaotic period in Paul’s personal life overlapped with John’s new love affair with Yoko Ono. John and Yoko were completely inseparable, and it created a significant strain not only in the studio, but between their friendship. These tensions would soon be exacerbated by the managerial void left by Brian’s death, and an upcoming tug of war over the search for a suitable replacement. Nevertheless, Paul was still as creative as ever. He wrote Hey Jude, which originally came to him as Hey Jules, as a way to console John and Cynthia’s son Julian about how to handle the separation of his parents. The real question Paul would have to ask is whether he himself could stay optimistic in the face of the challenges up ahead. Hey Jude is the Beatle’s best-selling single from the second half of their career, selling over 8 million copies, and staying at Number 1 in the US for over 9 weeks. The tensions continued into the sessions for what came to be the Let It Be album. Ever since Epstein’s death, Paul had the impossible task of trying to hold the Beatles together without the others perceiving him as being too bossy. Ringo temporarily quit the band during the White Album sessions, due to feeling unappreciated, with some pointing to the catalyst being Paul’s perfectionism over a certain drum part on Back in the USSR. Paul ended up playing drums on the song himself. Eventually, on the Let It Be album, Paul’s perfectionism caused George to temporarily quit. There seemed to be a fundamental disagreement between George and Paul that was never fully articulated, due to poor communication. George felt that being in a band should be collaborative, with everyone getting an equal say. He felt he should have just as much freedom in the guitar parts of Paul’s songs as George gave Paul on the bass parts to his songs. But Paul often had a very clear idea in his head of what everyone’s part should sound like, which ironically made his talent both a strength and a liability when it came to group unity. Even though some of the other Beatles at different periods expressed their criticism of Paul as being a control freak, the hours of tapes of rehearsal sessions show that while he was opinionated, he was never intentionally demanding or disrespectful towards the others. His contributions to the album include Two of Us, Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, and Get Back, which he wrote on the spot during a quiet moment to himself during rehearsals. The Beatles considered these sessions a failure, and abandoned sorting through the hours of recordings for over a year. Meanwhile, Paul got back to writing songs for other artists, including the angelically-voiced Welsh singer, Mary Hopkin. He produced much of her album, and suggested she sing the old Russian song Those Were The Days, which quickly became a hit on her album Post Card. In March of 1969, Paul and Linda announced their engagement after learning that Linda was pregnant. Linda, who had had her flings with various rock stars like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, and Paul, who had lost count of his flings, both giggled their way through their marriage vows. Paul raised Linda’s daughter, Heather from her previous marriage like his own. John and Yoko would marry a week later. The next few months were filled with torturous meetings about who should manage the band and their hemorrhaging business ventures. Allen Klein previously managed the Rolling Stones, and Mick Jagger tried to warn John of his shady practices. But Klein knew exactly which strings to pull in terms of praising John’s lyrics, and more importantly, expressing interest in Yoko’s art. Paul saw Klein as an opportunistic charlatan, and preferred Linda’s father and brother, Lee and John Eastman, who were successful entertainment lawyers. But John, George and Ringo were too deeply mesmerized by Klein’s lofty promises to listen to Jagger’s warnings, or Paul’s intuition. It also didn’t help that the two Eastmans would scream at Klein, hurling insults at him, which was a bad strategy, even if the accusations were justified. John loved Klein for his working-class persona, and hated the Eastmans for what he considered to be their upper-class snobbery. In spite of the headaches of these meetings, the music continued to hold the band together, even if by a thread. They completed their final album, Abbey Road in August of 1969, with Paul contributing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Oh! Darling, Golden Slumbers, and Her Majesty. He worked with George Martin to craft the final medley, where Paul contributed You Never Give Me Your Money, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Carry That Weight, and The End. You Never Give Me Your Money was based on Paul’s frustrations with Klein, and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was an upbeat vaudevillian tune about a serial killer and his victims. It’s hard to imagine Paul writing a song this dark during any other period in his life. A week after the final Abbey Road sessions, Linda gave birth to their first child, Mary, named after Paul’s mother. They would have two more children over the next decade. Stella was born in 1971 followed by James in 1977. Less than a month later, the thread that held John to the Beatles finally snapped. After a concert in Toronto with Yoko and a backing band, John decided he didn’t need the other three when it came to pursuing his creative vision. In a boardroom meeting, he told the others he was leaving the group. Paul was completely in shock, and believed that this was another example of John acting impulsively. While he waited it out, he and Linda moved to Paul’s farm in Scotland to start recording a solo album, simply called McCartney. It’s the first example in rock music of a multi-instrumentalist acting as a one-man band, showcasing his talent as a performer and arranger. Two songs stand out as instant McCartney classics – Junk, a haunting ballad written back in India, and of course, one of his most iconic songs of all time, Maybe I’m Amazed. For those who take part in the ridiculous framing John vs. Paul, those who side with John often criticize Paul for making up silly songs about imaginary characters, writing shallow generic love songs, and not wearing his emotions on his sleeve. But Maybe I’m Amazed is proof that Paul is just as capable of writing highly expressive and autobiographical songs when he’s moved to. In this case, it took an existential crisis to make it happen. The personal, legal, and musical drama resulting from John’s departure were still far from over. To Paul’s frustration, Klein was still in charge of the Beatles’ finances, and there was still the matter of finishing mixing the Let It Be album. After producer Glynn Johns failed at creating a viable album from the sessions, the other three Beatles brought in Phil Spector. Paul, favoring George Martin, was displeased with Spector as an arranger, specifically the strings and choir he added to The Long and Winding Road. Finally, Paul’s ability to keep the secret of the Beatles’ breakup would snap when he decided to take it upon himself to announce to the world that he was no longer in the Beatles. During the period after the release of his solo album, he was suffering a minor break down. Quote “I was going through a hard period. I exhibited all the classic symptoms of the unemployed, the redundant man. First you don’t shave, and it’s not to grow a groovy beard, it’s because you can’t be bothered. Mornings weren’t for getting up. I might get up and stay on the bed a bit and not know where to go, and get back into bed. Then if I did get up, I’d have a drink. Straight out of bed. I’ve never been like that. There are lots of people who’ve been through worse things than that, but for me this was bad news because I’d always been the kind of guy who could really pull himself together and think, “Oh, screw it!”, but at that time, I felt I’d outlived my usefulness.” He remembers Linda having the patience of a saint, taking care of her own daughter Heather, their newborn Mary, and giving Paul unconditional support in spite of his depression. In the meantime, Paul’s anxiety about Klein gutting their current and future earnings were seeping into his dreams, turning them into nightmares. He asked his lawyers if there was any way he could sue Klein individually to be able for Paul to have his own account that wasn’t managed by Klein. They told him “No”, that he’d have to sue his bandmates to dissolve the partnership. After days of thinking it over, he decided if that was the only way, he had to be the one to pull the trigger. He claims “it was almost as if I was committing an unholy act.” Paul filed the lawsuit at the end of 1970 and won a favorable ruling in 1971, which began dissolving the Beatles’ partnership. Klein retained management of the other three until they fired him two years later. Like John did with Yoko, Paul wanted Linda to travel with him everywhere, in addition to being a part of his new sound. She started singing backing vocals starting with his next solo album, RAM. Unlike the home recordings included in his last album, RAM was a return to the aesthetic that most Beatles fans were used to, teaming up with producer George Martin again for orchestral arrangements, plus two session guitarists and a drummer. Even though critics panned it at the time, it was highly successful commercially, specifically the track Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey. The album is considered a masterpiece by most commentators today because of its ambition and stylistic variety. In 1971, Paul and Linda hired Moody Blues member Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell into their new band, Wings. Linda would continue to sing backing vocals while playing some simple keyboard parts or tambourine. They released the album Wildlife, which received many negative reviews, and is still viewed as one of the weaker albums relative to the Wings albums that would soon follow. They decided that instead of drawing too much attention to themselves too early, they’d get into form by playing surprise gigs at universities. Paul brought his whole family on their tour of Europe, and encouraged the other musicians to do the same, traveling in a double-decker bus. Paul hired a tutor for the children to travel with them. It was no secret that Paul loved marijuana, especially given the fact that it’s the subject of Got To Get You Into My Life. Paul’s first drug bust was in Sweden in 1972, followed by another arrest and conviction for growing it on his farm in Scotland. In spite of being a proud Brit, he was strongly anti-colonialist, writing one of the only overtly political songs in his life, Give Ireland Back to the Irish. It immediately was banned by the BBC. Paul was asked by George Martin to write the theme song for the James Bond film, Live and Let Die in 1973, and it has since become a favorite during his live shows. That year, Paul released Wings’ second album, Red Rose Speedway. It was also considered second-rate by critics, but his ballad My Love did reach Number #1 in the US. Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine went to Lagos, Nigeria to record Wings’ next album, Band on the Run. While the experience was largely positive, he and Linda at one point were faced with the reality of the country’s poverty and crime firsthand. Luckily, he memorized his arrangements, and the recording went on as normal. Band on the Run was the first of Paul’s solo albums to be both a critical and commercial success, selling over 7 million copies. The album is one of the highlights of his entire post-Beatles output, including many fan favorites like Jet, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, and, of course, the title track. In part 3, we’ll examine his time spent imprisoned in Japan, the various losses in his life, including John and Linda, his foray into classical composition, his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth, and his post-Wings solo career up to the present. Mike Laster is an NYC-based composer, songwriter, and freelance guitar and piano teacher. He is also the bassist of the band Blue Spruce. Being a graduate of the City College of New York, he graduated magna cum laude and was selected by the faculty for the Presser Scholar award for excellence in music. Mike has studied with composers Daron Hagen, and David Del Tredici, and has written for orchestra, string quartet, solo piano, and film, in addition to various indie rock songs. He has also worked on several film scores, such as the short Denture Adventure, and Interreflections by activist Peter Joseph. 

The Jewish holiday of Passover is about the liberation of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It’s a story that is relevant throughout history, and that resonates in every culture, inspiring wonderful music from many traditions. When Giuseppe Verdi composed his opera, Nabucco, in 1836, the Italian peninsula was dominated by the Austrian Empire. To Verdi, the suffering of the ancient Jews was similar to the anguish of the Italians under foreign domination. It is the struggle of an oppressed people for freedom. Nabucco is based on the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews were taken as prisoners, and led by chains to the foreign land of Babylon. In the famous “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, the Jews are resting after a long day of forced labor. They lament their unhappy fate as prisoners, singing: “Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate…”  “Go, thought, on golden wings…” The thought is of their beloved homeland. They yearn for their homeland, singing: “Oh, my country, so beautiful and lost!” In celebrating Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, there is food and music, and it’s springtime. On the first night of the holiday, there is a ritual feast called the Seder meal. Seder means “order”, everything according to a formula, which is laid out in a book called the Haggadah, which comes from the Hebrew word “tell”. What’s being told is the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, returning to their homeland, thousands of years ago. When the Jews were freed from slavery, they left Egypt in such a hurry that they didn’t have time to let their bread rise, so it got baked as is, and the result was “Matza”. The Hagadah refers to Matza as “Ha Lachma Anya”, the bread of affliction. According to tradition, the youngest person at the table recites 4 very important questions, preceded by this question: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answer begins with: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. But God led us out of there with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm.” In Germany in the 1930s, when Hitler’s persecution of Jewish citizens was already well underway, Jewish composer Paul Dessau set that part of that text in his oratorio, “Hagadah Shel Pesach”. Another classic is the spiritual, “Go Down, Moses”: “”Thus spoke the Lord”, bold Moses said, “Let my people go! If not, I’ll smite your firstborn dead.” “When Israel was in Egypt’s land, Let my people go, Go down Moses, way down in Egypt land. Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.” Ostensibly, the words present a pious reiteration of Scripture. But the lyrics could convey the idea of taking up arms against the pharaohs of America. Spirituals strengthened the determination of the slaves to survive, and raised the spirits of an oppressed people. “Go Down Moses” helped the slaves prepare to escape to freedom in the North. Moses told Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh didn’t listen, so God smote all the 1st born of Egypt, the chief of all their strength. Handel set this to music in his oratorio “Israel in Egypt”, in which he relates the last and worst of God’s 10 plagues on the Egyptians. The composer, Ernst Toch, was an Austrian Jew who emigrated to the U.S. in 1934. While Hitler’s forces were goose-stepping their way into Vienna, Toch wrote his “Cantata of the Bitter Herbs”, which lays out the first 9 plagues. After the 10th plague, Pharaoh was so frightened that he said the Jews could leave, so they rushed to the Red Sea. However, they were at a loss as to how they could cross it. Moses then prayed to God for help. Rossini set that prayer to music in his French opera, “Moses and Pharaoh”. After this prayer, God parted the waters of the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross it. As written in the 106th Psalm, “He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up. He led them through its depths as if it were a desert. But the waters overwhelmed their enemies.” Handel depicts this in his masterpiece, “Israel in Egypt”. Cecille B. De Mille created 2 movies entitled “The 10 Commandments”. The first one was made in 1925 as a silent film, starring Theodore Roberts as Moses. 33 years later, he made the 10 Commandments again, this time with Charlton Heston as Moses, with music by Elmer Bernstein. In both movies, De Mille ingeniously depicted God’s parting of the sea, the Israelites crossing through it to the other side, and Pharaoh’s army of soldiers, horses, and chariots following in hot pursuit, only to be caught in the midst of the sea as God closes it back up. Dayenu: It would have been enough. The Haggadah says Delivering us from Egypt, punishing the Egyptians, giving us the Torah, getting us safely into the land of Israel, any one of those things  by itself would have been enough, but God did all of them.” Passover has inspired many composers. Jacques Fromental Halevy’s opera “La Juive”, The Jewess, contains a Seder scene. The story takes place in medieval Europe, where the Jews were being persecuted, so the Seder is conducted in secret. It includes the prayer: “Oh God of our fathers, come down to us. Oh God, keep our secrets hidden from those who wish to do us harm. You who light up our world, come down to us now.” During the Spanish Inquisition, the Marranos – or hidden Jews – had to hide their Seder. In a Yiddish song, one Marrano asks another: “So Marran, tell me, where will you hold your Seder?” The friend answers: “In a cave, in a little chamber. So, Marran, what will you do if your voice is heard?” Marran: “If the enemy catches me, I’ll die with a song on my lips.” On the 1st morning of Passover, there is a solemn prayer for dew: “T’filas Tal”. Dew is a symbol for revival, not just for plants in the spring, but for the Jewish people. Dew signifies favor, enlightenment, sweetness and abundance. Dew represents blessing, a gift from God. As the Hagadah says: In every generation, our enemies rise up to destroy us. Jewish composers were moved to compose pieces on Jewish themes during the 1930s and 40s. The Austrian composer Eric Korngold is best known for his wonderful Hollywood film music. But he also wrote a beautiful Passover Psalm composed in exile in Los Angeles, in 1941. The Passover story of freedom has taken on many associations over the centuries. Black slaves in the United States saw the bondage of the Jews and their eventual liberation reflected in their own situation. Some of their songs were powerful during the fight for civil rights. Some Jews use the Seder to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began on the 1st night of Passover in 1943. The great Paul Robeson sang the “Song of the Warsaw Ghetto” in Moscow! Towards the end, there is the grace after meals. There’s a beautiful recording by the legendary Cantor, Yossele Rosenblatt, singing Psalm 126, “Shir Hamaalos, A Song of Ascents”. This part of the Seder is devoted to praising God: from Psalm 118, “Hodu Lashem, Give Thanks to the Lord”. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever.”’ Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love endures forever.’” Another song is Adir Hu: He is mighty. God Is Mighty May He soon rebuild his house. Speedily, speedily and in our days, soon. God, rebuild! God, rebuild! Rebuild your house soon! Thirteen are the attributes of God. Twelve are the tribes. Eleven are the stars. Ten are the Words from Sinai. Nine are the months of childbirth. Eight are the days for circumcision. Seven are the days of the week. Six are the orders of the Mishnah. Five are the books of the Torah. Four are the matriarchs. Three are the patriarchs. Two are the tablets of the covenant. One is our God in Heaven and Earth. To end the Seder, everyone says: “Next year in Jerusalem.” At the end of the Seder is a song for the children: “My father gave me Chad Gadya, one little goat. Then God came and defeated the Angel of Death that killed the butcher, that slaughtered the ox, that drank the water that put out the fire, that burned the stick, that hit the dog, that bit the cat, that ate the goat, that my father bought for just two coins. One little goat, one little goat!”

Watch preview video: https://youtu.be/57QdZjav548 As you may know, Beethoven’s final symphony, the 9th, is the first time in history that voices appear as part of a symphony. It’s twice as long as other symphonies written up until that time, lasting a full hour. In the finale, he set to music Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy”. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy was heard during the protest demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in 1989. It is sometimes performed to mark the grand opening of a new concert hall, at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, and every New Year’s in Japan, it is sung by a chorus of 10,000 singers! Gregg Wolpert wrote: “Johann Friedrich von Schiller wrote his poem “Ode to Joy” in 1785. The poem contains Schiller’s conviction in the family of humankind, the equality of all people, and the desire for everyone to lead a happy and peaceful life. It is the official anthem of the European Union. After the fall of the Berlin Wall on October 3, 1990, more than 1 million Germans gathered to sing “Ode to Joy” to celebrate German reunification. The important message is that we are all brothers and sisters, equal, and should not be subject to ridicule or tyranny by those in power. Let us embrace friendship and gratitude, and reject violence, hate, and bigotry of all kinds, and share in the spirit of the oneness of humanity and equality of all humankind.”   Beethoven started out in life with perfect hearing, but began gradually losing it when he was in his late 20s. Eventually, he became completely deaf. Yet he continued composing to the end of his life, imagining the music in his mind’s ear.   My mentor, the Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, wrote: “In his late 20s, Beethoven began to be plagued with a ringing in his ears and abdominal pains. Gradually, his hearing began to fail. Bravely, he resisted this tragic destiny, declaring, ‘I shall seize fate by the throat!’ He eventually became completely deaf. When he realized that his hearing would never return, he became incredibly depressed, and thought of committing suicide. Ikeda wrote, “It was a struggle with one’s destiny, while at the same time, striving to impart courage to others. At the height of his career, he experienced a serious slump, composing very little for several years. Ikeda, ”He felt that his art should be dedicated to the poor–an extremely revolutionary way of thinking for a musician in those days. And it was an attitude and way of life that brought him much financial hardship.” The conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler said the beginning of the 9th Symphony is “the sound of the universe that has been resonating since the beginning of time.” And Thomas Knapp painted a depiction of the 9th Symphony. He said: “For me, the Ninth Symphony depicts the evolution of life from the beginning of the universe, continuing through the epic process of forming galaxies and solar systems, eventually to forming Earth, culminating in humans and ultimately to the state where humans live harmoniously together as one family. As a visual artist, I see the starting point of the symphony as if in a dark abyss.  Then, from seemingly empty space, little vibrations begin to pulse with life. At first one, then another, then more, until many are teaming together.  This life, at times, chaotic, is at other times, growing and powerful.   In later movements, I see the dynamism of the music as Life springing from the earth in abundance and diversity. The symphony seems to recount this part of earth’s history, as if in time-lapse, where millennia are condensed into mere moments. My challenge was how to represent the 4 movements in one painting, or even a series of paintings.  It was for this reason I needed to understand the true essence of what Beethoven was trying to communicate. But even when I felt confident in this regard, what images could I use? The first inspiration for my painting came from the Um-Pah, or very folkish sounds just before the start of the tenor solo. I know that Beethoven wrote his music specifically for the common people. As a result, the image of a folk dance, in the form of a circle came to me. Seen from an aerial perspective, this would represent the unity of humans, which the chorus proclaims. The next inspiration came to me when I wanted this unity to feel like an all-encompassing force, like the force of gravity.  At that moment, I realized that the aerial view should be of a country fair, where the folk dancers are situated in the center, and other people branch out from them in a swirling pattern, just like our Milky Way Galaxy.  These elements would combine the microcosm of the people, and the macrocosm of the universe into one image, which I felt captured the energy and message of the symphony. The composition of the fields and buildings are based on the farm where my mother grew up in southern Illinois. I used a splatter paint technique, like Jackson Pollack, to bring visual energy to the center of the composition.   I likewise used the pinwheel composition, so often used by Rubens, to create a sense of explosive power. The repetition of rectangles, the same proportion as the frame of the painting, radiates this energy outward again. I still need to add more detail to the people, which I continue to work on, to complete the painting.” I am absolutely overwhelmed by the incredible Aurora Orchestra from England, and its founder and conductor, Nicholas Collon. They play entire symphonies, including Beethoven’s 9th, entirely from memory, while standing! In 2024, to mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, they performed it at the Royal Albert Hall in London, preceded by a theatrical presentation highlighting many passages of the symphony, as well as vignettes from Beethoven’s life, featuring actors representing Beethoven’s nephew Karl, his assistant Anton Schindler, his doctor, and the deaf Beethoven himself, played by an actress who also happens to be deaf. The dialogues were taken from the 139 surviving Conversation Books, which document the conversations Beethoven had after losing his hearing. The actors were Rhiannon May and Tom Simper. The conductor was the Aurora Orchestra’s Founder, Nicholas Collon.   In 1937, the conductor Arturo Toscanini wrote to his mistress about the third movement: “I am deeply into the Ninth Symphony. The Adagio! Elysian Fields, Paradise, I feel what is inexpressible. It lifts me off the Earth, removes me from the field of gravity, makes me weightless; one becomes all soul. One ought to conduct it on one’s knees. Do you know that at the modulation to E flat I always conduct with my eyes closed? I see extremely bright lights far, far away; I see shadows moving around, penetrated by rays that make them even more disembodied; I see flowers of the most charming shapes and colors. And the very music I’m conducting seems to descend from up there, I don’t know where! It’s all a mysterious spell that wraps around me during those 16 bars, and it changes at the next modulation into the main key, when the second divine variation begins. The picture, the landscape is transformed, but it’s still another small part of the Elysian Fields. From this you can imagine the life I’m leading on the little island.” Daisaku Ikeda wrote: “At age 22, he was already making an attempt to set the Ode to Joy to music. But it took more than 30 years before the poem and melody were finally fused in the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony. “The vibrant voices of Ode to Joy in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony transport the listener to a higher spiritual plane that is majestic, sublime and solemn. Enveloped in joy, all discrimination disappears; with universal friendship as the core, all people are bound together as members of one human family. They join in lively celebration, until the joy reaches almost celestial heights as the finale approaches it’s climax. “When Ode to Joy made its debut, freedom and democracy were out of favor in Vienna, as resentment ran high over the Napoleonic wars. The music of the 9th is perhaps symbolic of the revolution taking place in the hearts of the common people, who, having now become the masters of their destinies, sever the heavy chains of earthly misery to rise high into the boundless skies of the spirit. The Ninth Symphony represented a light of freedom and democracy, penetrating the darkness of the age. It was a tribute to spiritual courage, a symphony dedicated to all humanity. The clouds of torment and anguish could not obscure the vast blue skies of his inner spirit.” The conductor Benjamin Zander called Beethoven’s 9th “a glorious shout of universal joy.” Daisaku Ikeda wrote, “The 9th Symphony is a tribute to the triumph of spirit that expresses Beethoven’s whole stormy life; it is a hymn to the sanctity of the human spirit. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the roar of the spirit of that great musical genius, who proclaimed: “At the end of suffering, there is joy!’ “One of Beethoven’s last letters contains words that actively sum up his entire life and being: they are ‘joy through suffering’. “A person’s true greatness lies in challenging and overcoming life’s hardships; doing so, represents a triumph of humanism. And the source of that triumph is joy. As we brave the fierce storms of life, the light of joy will illuminate both ourselves and the world around us with a rich golden hue.” Ikeda felt that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a masterwork of joy attained through vanquishing sorrow, was, in a sense, an expression of a profound Buddhist principle. He described music as “a vitalizing power, capable of inspiring courage and rekindling hope and transcending barriers between people”. Ikeda asserted the true essence of music lies in its ability to touch the human soul. Watch preview video: https://youtu.be/57QdZjav548

By Michael Laster James Paul McCartney was born on June 18th, 1942, in Liverpool, England to Jim McCartney, a cotton salesman, and Mary Mohin, a nurse. Paul’s younger brother, Mike, was born a year and a half after him. Paul didn’t know his grandparents, but he had a large, tight-knit extended family through uncles and aunts from his father’s side. Paul’s father Jim was an amateur self-taught musician who led a dixieland and ragtime band in his youth, and would regularly play piano during lively family gatherings. Paul remembers his dad playing the introduction to Gershwin’s “Stairway To Paradise,” while attempting to explain why the chord progression was clever. Jim even wrote a song called Walking in the Park with Eloise, later recorded by Paul in 1974. However, Jim was very modest about his abilities, believing that real songwriters lived in New York and London. In terms of the creation of his tune, he claims he didn’t write it, he merely “made it up!” Jim tried to get Paul to take piano lessons with a professional, but Paul quickly lost interest, complaining that his teacher’s home “smelled like old people.” To this day, Paul doesn’t know how to read or write music, preferring for music to be intuitive. Corporal punishment was not uncommon at the time, and Jim was known to hit and spank as a form of punishment, the only downside to a seemingly ideal childhood. Paul remembered the day he was able to stand up for himself. At an early age, Paul was praised for his singing voice, often singing harmonies along with songs playing on the radio. Paul also thrived in school and the boy scouts. At age ten, in spite of his modest working-class background, he was admitted to the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, the most prestigious of its kind in Liverpool. Luckily, admissions were free, and based on merit alone. Paul was quite popular in school, drawing caricatures of teachers and fellow classmates, and imitating all the voices he heard on various episodes of the Goon Show, a comedy show led by Peter Sellers. Sadly, Paul’s near-perfect streak of happy memories would not last. While he and his brother were away at camp, his mother started feeling pain in one of her breasts. By the time she had it diagnosed, the cancer had already metastasized. She died in the hospital in 1956 at the age of 47. Paul was just 14. He remembered, “We had no idea what my mum had died of because no one talked about it. She just died. The worst thing about that was everyone was very stoic. Everyone kept a stiff upper lip, and then one evening, you’d hear my dad crying in the next room. It was tragic, because we’d never heard him cry. I was determined to not let it affect me. I carried on. I learned to put a shell around me.” It was during this year that Paul, in addition to many other teenagers, became mesmerized by rock and roll. Elvis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry were dominating the radio, and a month after his mother’s death, Paul decided to trade in the trumpet that his father had given him as a birthday present for a guitar. Being left-handed, Paul restrung the guitar and flipped it over. Shortly after teaching himself guitar with the help of his friend Ian James, Paul was invited to see a performance of the Quarrymen outside of St. Peter’s Church, led by John Lennon. Paul was already familiar with John, and up to this point had steered clear of him due to John’s aggressive reputation. However, after the Quarrymen’s performance, where John made up many nonsense lyrics to many of the songs, Paul played and sang Twenty Flight Rock for John on guitar, and then went over to the church’s piano to perform A Whole Lotta Shakin Goin’ On by Jerry Lee Lewis. John was impressed, but faced a dilemma. Priding himself on being the leader, he didn’t want Paul to overshadow him, but he decided to invite him into the group for the music’s sake, knowing that he could learn from Paul. Being the new member, Paul helped tighten up the band’s musicianship, but was sure not to overstep John’s authority. In addition to Paul’s friendship with John, Paul’s closeness to George Harrison was also growing. George was a schoolmate a year behind Paul whom he overheard practicing guitar on the school bus. Paul eventually persuaded John to let George join the Quarrymen despite John feeling like he was too young looking. Two years after Paul lost his mother, John’s mother Julia was fatally struck by a car in 1958. Even though Paul understood John’s pain, the two didn’t really talk about it due to British conventions at the time about maintaining a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity. However, it did strengthen the bond between them. Paul’s girlfriend, Dot Rhone, became pregnant with Paul’s child. It was agreed between their families that they would get married. However, three months into the pregnancy, she suffered a miscarriage. Paul rushed to her bedside with flowers, but was secretly relieved that he wouldn’t have to give up music to find a so called proper job in order to be a responsible father. At the Liverpool College of Art, John befriended fellow student Stu Sutcliffe. Soon, his bond with Stu was closer than his friendship with Paul. He asked Stu to join the Quarrymen as bass player, in spite of Stu having virtually zero musical talent, which deeply frustrated Paul. At this time, Not too long after Stu’s arrival, they received an offer to play in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, its infamous red light district. Paul had to made the difficult decision to drop out of school in order to go. Paul’s father was not pleased, but gave in. Needing a drummer, they hired Pete Best whose mother was the owner of a cafe they performed in. At this point, after several changes of names for the band, they settled on The Beatles. During their first residency in Hamburg, they were at their wildest and raunchiest, performing up to eight-hour sets behind comedians, strippers and headliners, playing covers of popular songs. Back at home in Liverpool, they amassed a following at the Cavern Club. It was during this early period that Paul wrote fragments of, and complete versions of songs that would later find their way into their catalogue, such as I’ll Follow the Sun, and the verse to Love Me Do. There’s a lesser known song of his called The Love of the Loved, written around 1959, and recorded three years later as an audition for Decca Records. During their second residency in Hamburg, Stu quit the band out of a desire to pursue art, leaving Paul to take over on bass. Initially after playing Stu’s bass upside down, Paul ended up buying a Hofner violin-shaped bass guitar. He chose this particular model because it was symmetrical, and he originally intended to play it upside down. However, the shop owner offered to put in an order for a custom made left-handed model. Paul launched this bass model into prominence, making it Hofner’s best-selling instrument of all time. In 1962, the Beatles signed with their manager, Brian Epstein, the owner of a successful music store in Liverpool. Not too long after signing with producer George Martin of Parlophone Records, the Beatles had a chance to meet and tour with one of their foundational idols, Little Richard. Richard spoke highly of Paul, George, and Ringo, but took a disliking to John because of his cruel pranks, such as locking Richard in his dressing room. Out of all of the Beatles, it was Paul who was known for his imitation of Richard, which eventually stopped being an imitation, and simply became one of Paul’s several trademark vocal timbres. In the early days, Paul and John were equally talented as songwriters, and it can be difficult to delineate any noticeable difference in their songwriting, especially since they wrote most of their songs together, and shared most of the same musical influences. A key exception, however, was Paul’s love for vaudeville, British music hall, and songs from musicals. According to John, “Paul was more advanced than I was. He was always a couple of chords ahead and his songs usually had more chords in them. His dad played the piano. He was always playing pop and jazz standards and Paul picked things up from him.” As the Beatles evolved, a clear dichotomy emerged between the two, especially as Paul gained confidence as a songwriter and became less self conscious about his songs being labeled as sappy. For John, corniness was to be avoided like the plague, unless done ironically. For Paul, largely through his father’s taste, a good melody was a good melody, regardless of the lyrics. Lyrically, John’s early songs, when not the standard theme of “I Love You”, often contained themes of jealously, insecurity, and damaged pride, whereas Paul’s lyrics, when not generic love sentiments, were about sorrow, as in Yesterday, or frustration as in You Won’t See Me. It should be noted that while John and Paul’s personalities and feelings leaked into their songwriting, they saw themselves as craftsmen like any traditional songwriting team. Two of Paul’s best known songs from this early period include I Saw Her Standing There, and All My Loving. Paul and John were generally in total lockstep as songwriters. But from the beginning, Paul’s talent as a musician stood out from the others in three significant ways. First, was the quality of his voice. Neither George or John could pull off the pure tone Paul achieved on their version of Till There Was You from The Music Man. Paul was a natural harmonizer because his voice sits comfortably in the upper range of the vocal spectrum. He is a tenor, whereas George and John were baritones. Whenever they would sing three part harmony, like in Nowhere Man, This Boy, or If I Needed Someone, Paul is always on top. Secondly, Paul was also the first prominent rock bassist to sing while playing. Before Paul, it was virtually unheard of for bassists to effortlessly split their attention between their bass and their singing, especially the fast-paced walking bass that Paul mastered early on in Hamburg. Such a feat is generally more difficult than it is to sing while strumming the guitar to a uniform rhythm. Third, based on audio of their recording sessions, Paul seemed like the one who gave directions to the other three. While their producer George Martin wrote arrangements whenever classical instruments were used, and made suggestions about the structures of the songs, Paul appeared like the de-facto music director within the band. In 1963, Paul met the Shakespearean actress Jane Asher, who came from a wealthy, well-educated family. He impressed her with his knowledge of quotes from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and after befriending her parents, moved into a room in her family’s home. To dodge being mobbed by fans outside the Asher residence Paul would sneak through the neighbors’ house, with their permission, of course. Allegedly, Paul wanted Jane to give up her career to be a housewife, but Jane refused. This created some tension in the relationship, but they managed the best they could. Still close with his father Jim, Paul, now a millionaire, bought him a racehorse for his 62nd birthday, and gifted him enough money to retire early. The McCartney home was also surrounded by fans, who Jim would always be happy to invite in for tea. However, by 1964, the mobs of young women were so out of control that Paul could no longer safely visit. He bought Jim a new home in a more remote area, and paid for the renovation. The highlights of Paul’s output from 1964 include his songs on the album A Hard Day’s Night, such as Things We Said Today, And I Love Her, and Can’t Buy Me Love. In interviews, Paul was known for being charming, affable, and less sarcastic than John, though when he was sarcastic, there wasn’t any underlying bitterness or cynicism. In fact, unlike John, true anger seemed rare in Paul, and at the worst, would come out as frustration or annoyance, but never personal attacks. In some ways, this contrast in temperament made some brand John and Paul as complementary Yin and Yang, which is true in some ways, but overall, their commonalities outnumbered their differences. Paul also wrote songs for other artists, like Jane’s brother Peter, who was part of the duo Peter and Gordon. He wrote four songs for them, including A World Without Love and Woman. He also wrote It’s For You for fellow Liverpudlian Cilla Black. It wasn’t until the 1965 album Help! that Paul did something that completely separated himself from the other three. He woke up one morning with the melody to Yesterday in his head, and was sure he had heard it somewhere else. After being convinced by everyone he played it to that it was indeed original, it was decided that no contributions from the other three Beatles would be needed, marking the first time a Beatles track didn’t include any of the other three. George Martin masterfully arranged the strings, Paul’s contributions to the Rubber Soul album include Drive My Car, I’ve Just Seen A Face, You Won’t See Me, I’m Looking Through You, and Michelle, the only Beatles song to win the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1967, two years after its release. At the end of 1965, Paul was involved in a moped accident where he fell on his face, busting open the top part of his lip, and chipping his tooth. The chipped tooth can be seen in the video for Paperback Writer. The tooth was repaired, but he was left with a lip scar ever since. John, branded as the most artsy and intellectual Beatle, ended up taking a back seat to most of London’s artistic underground scene. Paul was the most active in this regard, befriending John Dunbar and Barry Miles, helping them create what became known as the Indica Bookstore and Art Gallery. He also met with the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, to briefly discuss the Vietnam War. In terms of music, Paul became interested in the works of experimental classical composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, and Edgar Varese, which helped inspire the use of experimentation on their upcoming album, Revolver. 1966 was a breakthrough year for the Beatles creatively. Paul played a key role on just about every song on the album, from the iconic bassline and guitar solo on George’s Taxman, to the guitars on And Your Bird Can Sing, piano on I Want To Tell You, and the tape loops on Tomorrow Never Knows. Paul’s songs from Revolver include Eleanor Rigby, Good Day Sunshine, Got To Get You Into My Life, For No One, and Here, There, and Everywhere, which he considered to be one of his best songs. After the Beatles decided to stop touring, they all briefly took a break to pursue their own projects. Paul helped write a short melody to underpin the score to the Haylee Mills’ film, The Family Way. George Martin then wrote variations on the melody, and helped score the entire film. When they returned to the recording studio, they worked on John’s song, Strawberry Fields, for which Paul created the famous Mellotron intro.  In response to John’s song about his favorite childhood location, Paul wrote Penny Lane. Next on the agenda was their monumental album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. For this album, Paul proposed that the band adopt alter egos, and write in any style, thus freeing them from the youth-oriented image of the Fab Four, and establishing their new brand as mature artists. It also gave Paul an excuse to finally embrace the musical influences that came from his father. Producer George Martin played the vaudevillian piano solo to Lovely Rita, and arranged the brass band for the title track. Paul wanted an orchestral arrangement for She’s Leaving Home, but Martin was busy recording another artist. Now used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it, Paul hired another arranger to write the accompaniment for harp and strings. This hurt George Martin, and as we’ll see, it wasn’t the only time Paul’s ambition caused him to unintentionally overlook the emotions of those around him. Paul’s only song without George Martin’s orchestrations was Fixing A Hole. The song When I’m 64, was one of Paul’s oldest melodies, from before he met John. Many speculate that he eventually wrote the lyrics to this tune for his father’s 64th birthday a few months earlier, though Paul himself never confirmed this theory. George Martin wrote the accompaniment for clarinet trio. It’s at this point that Paul reached maturity as a bass player. He was inspired by James Jamerson’s bass parts on Motown recordings that had their own melodic independence. From the beginning of his career, Paul’s bass lines had evolved from being tasteful, yet ordinary, to being a secondary melody that complements the vocals without distracting from them. When it came to the iconic cover of the Sgt. Pepper album, Paul received help from several other artists and designers to work out the details, but the concept was largely his. Some fans speculate on two sources of inspiration. One is the cover of a Swedish Brass band that played Beatles songs from 1964, three years before Sgt. Pepper. And here’s a picture of Paul’s father, Jim, with his old jazz band, surrounded by friends. There’s no proof that either of these pictures provided direct inspiration for the cover, but the photo of his father’s band provides some potential symbolism of what Sgt. Pepper meant to Paul. By fully embracing his influences from childhood, with the help of George Martin’s arrangements, Paul was creatively unstoppable. Now there was nothing in the way of him writing in any style he chose. Starting with the string quartet on Yesterday, followed by George Harrison’s sitar on Rubber Soul, the Beatles reached the peak of expanding the definition of what a rock band could be. As we’ll see in Part 2, Paul’s growing independence within the group may have been one of the factors that eventually led to John’s desire to seek independence from the group. But for now, the four of them were still as close as could be. In fact, when it came to their creative trajectory, Sgt. Pepper proved to listeners that, even though they were no longer putting on concerts, their work in the recording studio seemed to be getting better, one album at a time.

By Hunter Ferguson The Harlem Renaissance – from the 1920s to the mid-30s – shifted the world’s consciousness. There was a renewal of black life, thought, leadership & possibilities. What’s known as the Roaring Twenties was a decade of economic prosperity, jazz, radio, automobiles, women’s rights, and the prohibition. The Great Migration brought millions up north, turning Harlem into a cultural and economic center. Blacks from the South and the Caribbean arrived in search of opportunity and escape from Jim Crow. In 1910, Blacks in Harlem made up roughly 1 out of 10 residents. Ten years later, nearly one-third of the population, and by 1930, more than 70%! This growth fueled new Black-owned businesses, and with more people, meant a demand for arts, housing, entertainment, dining, newspapers, fashion, cultural organizations and retail shops that all catered to the community. This circulated wealth, and challenged the racial limitations placed on black Americans. Rent parties, Connie’s Inn, the Savoy Ballroom, and the infamous Cotton Club all became symbols of Black determination. The writers W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke pushed for what they called a “New Negro”, a confident, self-defined, and unapologetically expressive person. Du Bois was the editor of the NAACP magazine, The Crisis, which published and promoted Black artists. One of Du Bois’s most famous books, “The Souls of Black Folks”, became a foundational text for this futuristic mentality. The Savoy Ballroom opened on Lenox Avenue. Unlike the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom was one of the first major public dance halls in the country to adopt an integrated policy, and practice non-discrimination from the start. People of different races, classes, and backgrounds all danced side–by– side. The Cotton Club, also on Lenox Avenue, took a different approach – catering to only white audiences. The venue fantasized the black experience, showcasing brilliant talents like Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Lena Horne, who all launched their careers on the stage. Black performers were celebrated, but banned from entry. Even the club’s décor and food menu reinforced racist stereotypes, selling a fantasy of the Old South to its white clientele. Behind the scenes, the club was deeply tied to organized crime. Gangsters used the Cotton Club to launder money from bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition. The following will not be a comprehensive account of every voice or contribution. Instead, I will offer a taste into the lives of some of the people who shaped the era that made Harlem a cultural capital of the world, improved the economy of Black communities, challenged political systems, and opened dialogue around identity, sexuality, and freedom. Cab Calloway got his break in a show called “Plantation Days”. Once he started building his reputation, within a few years, he opened at the Cotton Club. These shows were one of the 1st to be nationally broadcast on radio, and this elevated him as one of the biggest names in show business. Cab was perfect for the emerging medium of film at that time, setting a standard of music performances on screen & animation which he trailblazed. Most famously, he made his impact by incorporating “call and response” elements in his music. His 1931 hit song, “Minnie the Moocher”, resulted in him being the 1st black artist to sell over 1 million records! This wasn’t just an artistic movement, it was a sexual one, too. Black queer Americans had a space to create, gather, and exist with fewer restrictions than anywhere else in the country. These artists faced pressure to censor themselves, or hide their identities, but refused to do so. For example, the “Hamilton Lodge Ball” was a drag show, which drew thousands of people. Two women who pioneered their sexuality & talent – unapologetically – were Ma Rainey & Bessie Smith, who would become one of the biggest names in blues. In 1928, Ma Rainey wrote a song titled “Prove It On Me Blues”, which was a song about her sexual preference. Beyond stating that she doesn’t like men, the lyrics celebrate her choice to wear a collar shirt or tie, and talk to women like any other man would. Ma & Bessie weren’t women to be played with. Along with their talents, both were known for speaking their minds, and weren’t afraid of altercations, man or woman! Bessie Smith once fought off a group of KKK members in North Carolina who were trying to destroy tents at her show. On another occasion, she was stabbed for beating up a man who was harassing her niece. She was rushed to the hospital, but left after a few hours to perform a show the next day! After she parted ways with Ma Rainey, Bessie’s big break occurred in 1923, when she signed with Columbia Records, and released her first hit single, “Downhearted Blues”. The record was explosive, and by the next year, her total sales surpassed two million records. This launched her into the national spotlight, making her the highest-paid Black entertainer of her time. Count Basie, born as William James Basie, absorbed Harlem’s energy through the clubs, rent parties, and theaters. When Basie first moved to Harlem as a young musician, he lived near the Alhambra Theater. His first steady gig was at a club called Leroy’s, a place known for its piano players and “cutting contests”, which were friendly musical battles, where pianists showed off their improvisational skills. During this period, Basie was influenced by other Harlem pianists like Fats Waller, Willie “The Lion” Smith, and James P. Johnson. Count Basie’s big break came in Kansas City, where he formed his own band. Their music was raw, and driven by rhythm rather than strict arrangements. Basie’s leadership motivated his bandmates beyond jazz into a confident expression of freedom. This approach set Basie apart at a time when many big bands relied on orchestration. As a bandleader, he earned their respect, not only through his talent, but with his humanism. Basie truly lived that Big Life. He was married to Catherine Morgan Basie, who was a prominent community organizer and activist, and who later worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. Their daughter, Diane, was born with cerebral palsy. Doctors believed she would never walk, but she did, eventually learning to swim, too – all from her parents’ support. Diane was described as the “hidden core” of Basie’s creativity; he was very protective of her, and often wrote letters to her while touring. Art Tatum, who grew up in Toledo, Ohio, was nearly blind from childhood, but possessed superhuman ears. Coming on the scene in the early 1930s, after moving to Harlem, he also participated in those piano “cutting contests.” The story goes that once Tatum sat down, no one else would play afterwards. His legacy was virtuosity & innovation. He was a major influence on pianists Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk & Herbie Hancock. Even classical pianists studied him in secret, including Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff, two of the greatest classical pianists ever. Rachmaninoff famously said: “If this man ever decides to play classical music, we’re all in trouble”! Three women whose talents spanned comedy, literature, music, and theater were: Moms Mabley, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ethel Waters. Together, they helped shape the era. Moms Mabley became one of the most popular comedians of the time. She paved the way for women in stand-up comedy, and redefined black female expression. Behind the comedy was razor-sharp social commentary. Zora Neale Hurston, known as the Queen of the Harlem Renaissance, was a novelist and anthropologist. Hurston framed Black life through language, folklore, spirituality, and humor to tell her stories. As a central literary voice of the era, she documented southern black life and womanhood with beauty. Her masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was included in Time magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels ever published. Ethel Waters is known as the voice that carried the Blues to Broadway. She rose from poverty to become one of the most celebrated singers and actresses of her time. Waters helped legitimize Black musical artistry within mainstream American culture. As Harlem’s artists thrived in jazz clubs, she elevated Black performance into respected theatrical spaces. Her success pushed racial barriers, and expanded opportunities for Black performers in both music and drama. The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold were more than dancers; they changed the game. Fayard was 18 years old, and Harold just 11 when they premiered at the Cotton Club in 1932. They moved with maturity and excitement, which made their precision, timing, and acrobatics even more phenomenal! They grew up backstage because their parents were musicians working in vaudeville theaters. Without formal training, they taught themselves to dance by studying what they saw. They didn’t just tap dance, they soared! Splits in midair! Flips over each other, landing in perfect time! The Nicholas Brothers were innovative. Just as Langston Hughes and Zora gave voice to Black experience through poetry, and musicians like Art and Cab reshaped American sound, the Nicholas brothers redefined what the human body could do. Globally, they were celebrated as cultural ambassadors of American jazz and dance, and in 1991, they received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing their lifetime contribution to American culture. In the film Stormy Weather, the Nicholas Brothers delivered one of the greatest dance sequences ever filmed. Oscar Micheaux was the first major African American filmmaker, and one of the most prolific independent directors in film history. He wrote, directed, produced, distributed, and even promoted his own films. A one-man studio! He created over 40 films between 1919 and the late 1940s. Sadly, many are lost. But his 1920 film, “Within Our Gates”, is his most famous surviving film, which was a direct response to the infamously racist film, The Birth of a Nation, from 1915. Micheaux’s films addressed colorism, corruption, class tension between southern and urban life, sexual politics and gender power. This is what made him radical, not just representing, but arguing, too. He didn’t care to comfort anyone – black or white. He pioneered black filmmakers owning their narratives. Without Micheaux, there is no clear path for directors Spike Lee, John Singleton, Julie Dash, Ryan Coogler, or Issa Rae. The silent film, Body and Soul, featured the emerging star Paul Robeson, who played dual roles: a corrupt preacher, and his honest twin brother.  Robeson went on to star in 13 films. Though Body and Soul is historically huge and was Robeson’s first film role, Robeson later disliked it. He felt the portrayal of the preacher reinforced negative stereotypes about blacks. During the Harlem Renaissance, there were disagreements about survival, power, and strategy within the black community. Like Robeson, some believe that art should counter racist stereotypes and show “the best” of black life. Others like Micheux felt realism was more important. If the art projects fantasy to protect the race, it stops being art. This was a defensive strategy to avoid criticism that could be used by racists. It was an intense dispute about how the black community was portrayed in entertainment. Paul Robeson is a man many people know little about. Born in Princeton, NJ in 1898 to a once– enslaved father, he learned from the beginning to embrace a radical, rebellious & political spirit. A pioneer as one of Rutgers University’s first Black students, and its first Black football player. He also led academically, and was a star athlete achieving two-time All-American football awards, and was equally great at basketball and track. After graduating at the top of his class, he played professional basketball and football in the first NFL season to help pay his way through Columbia Law School. Robeson tried to practice law, but when a white secretary refused to take dictation from him, he learned that law wasn’t for him or his people. In the entertainment industry, there were more possibilities. He lived in Harlem for many years, collaborating with W.E.B. Dubois and Langston Hughes, and where he even met his wife, who pushed him towards the arts and his mission. One of his earliest lead roles was part of the vocal quartet of the 1921 musical “Shuffle Along” by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, which was the first musical written and performed entirely by a black cast. Robeson would go on to become a legendary bass-baritone singer, and a legendary actor in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. He sang black spirituals, work, & folk songs from around the world, and even classical pieces sung in their original languages. He learned French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Hungarian, Turkish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech, Modern Greek, Ancient Latin, Portuguese, Russian, and Yiddish! African languages, too!: Yoruba, Yu, Efik, Benin, Ashanti, Swahili, Chuuwee, Tiv, Ga, Hausa and others! Robeson made more than 200 recordings, and was beloved all over the world. His performance of “Ol’ Man River” in the film Show Boat is among the most iconic moments in film musical history. Robeson famously altered the lyrics from a subservient POV into an anthem of resistance, and Black strength. He changed “I’m tired of livin’ / And scared of dyin’” to “I must keep fightin’ / Until I’m dyin’”. And he changed “Ah gits weary / An’ sick of tryin’” to “But I keeps laffin’ / Instead of cryin’”. The 1933 movie “Emperor Jones”, starring Robeson, is the first mainstream film to feature a black actor who was billed above his white co-stars. It positioned him as the first African-American leading man in mainstream U.S. cinema. Robeson was never comfortable with Hollywood’s racial limitations. His roles usually were black stereotypes, and he openly criticized them all. Eventually he announced that he would stop performing to focus on fighting against injustice. Because of his outspoken criticism of the United States government, he was blacklisted, and became a prisoner in his own country when his passport was revoked for 8 years. Robeson was as radical as they come. The CIA & FBI had it out for him. In their eyes he wasn’t an artist but a national problem. The FBI opened a massive file on him, of thousands of pages. His phone calls were tapped, his mail was opened, and informants were planted in audiences with the aim of discrediting and silencing him. Because Robeson refused to retreat, he performed by telephone and radio to audiences overseas. After his passport was taken away, he gave several concerts in which he sang and spoke across the U.S. & Canada border in Washington State to a crowd of 40,000 gathered on the other side! After multiple attempts on his life, his son was convinced that the CIA poisoned Robeson with mind-altering drugs at a party in Moscow. The next morning he was found in a pool of blood in his bathroom with both wrists cut. Afterwards, he went through 56 electroshock treatments, and was prescribed 23 drugs, all of which dramatically damaged his brain. Robeson wasn’t targeted because he was disloyal, but because he refused to shrink and give in to a country that denied his humanity.

Jessye Norman Mattiwilda Dobbs was born in Atlanta in 1925. She graduated from Spelman College and  Columbia University, and won a number of scholarships to study in Europe. After winning the Geneva International Music Competition in 1951, she sang at the major festivals and opera houses throughout Europe, and was the first black singer to perform at La Scala. Her successful European career set an example to younger black female singers such as Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, and Kathleen Battle. She was the first black woman to sing a lead role at the SF Opera, and to sing a lead role and be offered a long-term contract by the Met, where she sang for eight seasons. Dobbs taught at Howard University, and was the first African–American on the faculty of the University of Texas. Dobbs served on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera, received an award from the NAACP, the Order of the Northern Star from the king and queen of Sweden, and an honorary doctorate from Spelman College. She died from cancer in 2015 at the age of 90. Leona Mitchell was born in 1949 in Oklahoma. She studied at Oklahoma City University and the Juilliard School. In 1973, she made her Met and San Francisco Opera debuts. She sang the role of Bess in the first complete recording of Porgy and Bess, for which she received a Grammy award. She has sung at most of the world’s best known opera houses and major symphony orchestras. She has performed for many dignitaries, including four US presidents. Mitchell has been awarded many honors and two honorary doctorates. Her hometown of Enid has a street and a museum named in her honor. She was Oklahoma’s state cultural ambassador and has been inducted into the Oklahoma African-American Hall of fame. Robert McFerrin, Sr. was born in Arkansas in 1921. He is the father of Bobby McFerrin. He studied voice in high school, at Fisk University, and at Chicago Musical College. In 1949, he made his New York City Opera debut. In 1953, he was the first African-American to win the Metropolitan Opera’s “Auditions of the Air”, and was the first African-American male to sing a role at the Met. The following year, he became the first African-American to sing a title role at the Met, where he sang for 3 years, and was the first African-American to sing at both the Met and New York City Opera. He was also the first African-American to sing a title role in Naples at the San Carlo Opera. In 1958, he recorded the role of Porgy for the soundtrack of the movie Porgy and Bess in which Sydney Poitier starred as Porgy. McFerrin taught at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Sacramento State College, and the St. Louis Institute of Music. He has received two honorary doctorates, a Lifetime Achievement Award and is commemorated in the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 2016, McFerrin died in St. Louis at the age of 85. George Shirley wrote “Robert McFerrin instilled within me and countless other black males the resolve to pursue our Destinies as performers in the profession of grand opera.” Reri Grist was born in New York City in 1932. She attended The High School of Music & Art, and received her Bachelor of Music degree from Queens College of the City University of New York. In her early teens, she performed on Broadway with Essie Davis and Ruby Dee, and was Consuelo in the original cast of West Side Story. Her operatic debut was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1959, after which she made her debuts at the Cologne Opera,The Royal Opera House – Theatre in Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Vienna State Opera, where she performed for 25 years. Grist sang at the Salzburg Festival, and at the San Francisco Opera for 12 years, and at the Met for 13 years. From 1965 to 1987, she performed regularly at The Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala Milano, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Holland Festival, and the Ravinia Festival. Grist made 11 films, and ended her opera career in 1991. She has held professorships in voice at Indiana University and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. She has participated in various International juries and has given master classes at several Young Artists programs internationally. Honors include the title of Bayerische Kammersängerin, and a “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award from the American Opera Association. Grist lives in Germany. Years after her retirement from singing, her voice was still beautifully intact! Florence Quivar was born in 1944 in Philadelphia. As a child, she studied piano and voice with her mother, and began singing solos in church by age 6. She attended the Philadelphia Academy of Music, followed by the Juilliard School. She took master classes with Maureen Forrester, won the Baltimore Lyric Opera competition, the Marian Anderson Award and a Grammy award. She made her Met debut in 1977, where she sang more than 100 Performances. Quivar sang with leading opera companies and symphony orchestras all over the world, has been especially active in rescuing the works of forgotten composers, especially African-American composers, and has been a champion of new music.  Seth McCoy was born in Sanford, NC in 1928. He studied to become a barber while working evenings as a postal clerk for 13 years. After auditioning for the great conductor, Robert Shaw, who cried the first time he heard McCoy sing, he became a soloist with the Robert Shaw Chorale, and appeared with the leading American orchestras and festivals. McCoy made his operatic debut when he was 50 at the Metropolitan Opera and sang the American premieres of several operas. He was a much beloved voice professor at the Eastman School of Music, and was the recipient of several distinguished awards. He was only 68 when he died in 1997 Ja’nai Bridges grew up in Lakewood, Washington. She attended the Manhattan School of Music, the Curtis Institute, and participated in the Young Artist program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She considers Denise Graves, Shirley Verrett, Kathleen Battle, and Jessye Norman – at whose funeral she sang – as her inspirations. She has performed at the Los Angeles Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Washington National Opera, the Kennedy Center and the Metropolitan Opera. She is a winner of the Marian Anderson Award, and two Grammy awards. After the murder of George Floyd, she proposed and led an online panel of black opera singers with the Los Angeles Opera. In March of 2022, she sang with the National Philharmonic in the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on The Neck, a tribute to George Floyd. George Shirley was born in Indianapolis in 1934. He attended Wayne State University, was then drafted into the army, where he was the first black member of The U.S. Army Band and Army Chorus, and was the first African-American music teacher in Detroit high schools. He was the first black singer to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and is the first black tenor to sing leading roles at the Met, where he sang for 11 years. He has sung more than 80 roles. Shirley was a faculty member of the University of Maryland, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the University of Michigan, where he was Director of Vocal Arts. Shirley was awarded four honorary degrees, a Grammy award, The National Medal of Arts award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Opera Association. Shirley Verrett was born in New Orleans in 1931. She trained as a mezzo-soprano at the Juilliard School, and made her debut at New York City Opera in 1958. She made her first recordings and her European debut in Cologne in 1959, and in 1961, she won The Met’s Laffont Competition—previously known as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1962, she made her debut with the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and appeared in the first televised concert from Lincoln Center. In 1963, she made her debut at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, and in 1964, began recording for RCA. She made her Covent Garden debut in 1966 at London’s Royal Opera House, and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1968 as Carmen. That year, Verrett was named “New Artist of the Month” by Musical America. The following year, she made her La Scala debut. In 1973, she made operatic history when she sang both roles of Cassandra and Didon in Berlioz’s epic, Les Troyens at the Met. In 1976, she achieved the rare accomplishment of adding soprano roles to her mezzo–soprano repertoire, such as Tosca and Norma, which was her favorite role. In 1996, Verrett joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 2003, her memoir written with Christopher Brooks, I Never Walked Alone, The Autobiography of an American Singer was released and became a national best seller. In it, she spoke frankly about the racism she encountered as a Black person in the American classical music world. For example, when Leopold Stokowski invited her to sing with the Houston Symphony in the early 1960s, he had to rescind the invitation because the orchestra board refused to accept a black soloist. Verrett died at age 79 in 2010 from heart failure. She was the recipient of several honorary doctorates and numerous awards, including Commander of The Order of Arts and Letters award by the French government. The Shirley Verrett award was established at the University of Michigan in 2011. Eric Owens was born in Philadelphia in 1970, began studying the piano at age 6, and began studying the oboe in junior high school. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Temple University, and his Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute. He then joined the Young Artist Vocal Academy at the Houston Grand Opera in 1996, and won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In the Ring Cycle at the Met and elsewhere, he has sung the roles of Alberich and Wotan, and has sung the lead in Porgy and Bess in several productions, including that of the Met. Owens is in great demand throughout the world for his performances of both the standard repertoire and contemporary operas. He is the recipient of 3 Grammy awards, the Marian Anderson award, Musical America’s 2017 “Vocalist of the Year” award, and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. In 2017, the Glimmerglass Festival appointed him as its Artistic Advisor, and in 2019, Owens became the co-chair of the Curtis Institute’s opera department. Kathleen Battle was born in 1948 in Portsmouth, Ohio. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Cincinnati, where she worked with the great basso, Italo Tajo. Afterward, she taught elementary school music while continuing to study privately. Battle made her professional debut in 1972 at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. She made her operatic debut in 1975 with the Michigan Opera Theater, her New York City Opera debut the following year, and in 1977, made both her San Francisco Opera and Metropolitan Opera debuts. At the Met, she sang more than 150 performances of thirteen roles. As her status grew, so did her reputation for being difficult and demanding. In 1994, she was fired from the Met for “unprofessional” actions during rehearsals. She is the recipient of an Emmy award, several Grammys, a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, and six honorary doctorates. Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia in 1945, and learned to play the piano as a young child. At age 9, she became an avid listener to the weekly broadcasts of The Metropolitan Opera, and began listening to recordings of her inspirations, Marian Anderson, Mattiwilda Dobbs and Leontyne Price. She began formal vocal coaching in junior high school, and studied at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. She then began a three-year contract singing with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her U.S. debut was in 1982 with Opera Philadelphia. Her Met debut was in 1983 on opening night of the company’s 100th anniversary season. Norman received a 15–minute standing ovation. By the mid-1980s, she was one of the most popular and highly regarded dramatic sopranos in the world. “As for my voice, it cannot be categorized and I like it that way, because I like so many different kinds of music that I’ve never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range”. She sang at the second inaugurations of Presidents Reagan and Clinton, the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and for Queen Elizabeth’s 60th birthday. The President of France asked her to sing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Norman funded a pilot school of the arts for children and opened The Jessye Norman School of the Arts in 2003, a tuition–free performing arts after–school program for economically disadvantaged students in Augusta, Georgia. In 2009, Norman curated a series of events sponsored by Carnegie Hall honoring African-American trailblazers, and she sang Amazing Grace in tribute to Sidney Poitier the night he was a Kennedy Center Honoree. She served on the Board of Trustees of the Augusta Opera and of Paine College, and on the boards of Carnegie Hall, City-Meals-on-Wheels in New York City, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Public Library, the National Music Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the S.L.E. Lupus Foundation, and was spokesperson for Partnership for the Homeless. She was the recipient of several Grammy awards, winner of Musical America’s Musician of The Year, 1982, Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, the Legion of Honor from France, the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, the Kennedy Center honors, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-kill Medal for her work in the fight against lupus, breast cancer, AIDS, and hunger, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, The National Medal of Arts, the Glenn Gould prize, was made honorary ambassador to the United Nations. Eighth Street in Augusta, Georgia has been renamed Jessye Norman Boulevard, an interstate interchange in Georgia was renamed the Jessye Norman Memorial Interchange, and Augusta University Amphitheater was named in her honor. Norman received more than 30 honorary doctorate degrees. Jessye Norman suffered a spinal cord injury in 2015, and died in 2019 at age 74. In 2021, it was reported that her brother was pursuing legal action for alleged medical negligence from a surgery in 2015.

Leontyne Price   The soprano Sissieretta Jones was born in 1868 in Virginia. By 1895, she had become the most well-known and highly paid African-American performer throughout the world. Jones sang for the British royal family and for four US presidents, but was forced to enter the White House through the back entrance. There are no recordings of her voice. Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia in 1897. She was denied admission to the Philadelphia Music Academy because of her race. In 1925, as a competition winner, Anderson performed with the New York Philharmonic, but racial prejudice prevented her career from gaining momentum. In 1930, she met the composer Sibelius, who was so moved by her singing that he altered and composed songs for Anderson. Arturo Toscanini told her she had “a voice heard once in a hundred years”. Although she gave approximately 70 recitals a year in the United States, Anderson was still turned away by many hotels and restaurants. Because of this, Albert Einstein, a champion of racial tolerance, living in exile in Princeton, hosted her on many occasions. In 1939, she was barred from singing in DAR Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. As a result, Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial, for an audience of 75,000 people, and heard on the radio by millions. In 1955, Anderson became the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. She worked as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and as a goodwill ambassador for the State Department touring the world. She sang at the historic march on Washington in 1963, and at the inaugurations of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Anderson was awarded the first Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the United Nations Peace Prize, New York City’s Handel Medallion, and was the recipient of 24 honorary doctorate degrees. She died in 1993 at the age of 96. Her music studio is now a museum in Danbury, Connecticut, the house of her birth in Philadelphia is part of The National Register of Historic Places and there is a United States postage stamp bearing her image. She established the Marian Anderson Award in 1943, which continues to award $25,000 each year to an established artist who exhibits humanitarian leadership. Todd Duncan was born in 1903 in Danville, Kentucky. He received a Bachelor’s degree from Butler University, and a Master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. He was Gershwin’s personal choice for the world premiere of Porgy and Bess, and sang the role of Porgy more than 1,800 times. In 1945, he was the first African-American to sing with a major opera company: the New York City Opera. Duncan taught at Howard University while touring as a soloist. He sang over 2,000 performances in 56 countries. Duncan was the recipient of several awards and two honorary doctorates. He died in 1998 at the age of 95. Anne Brown was born in Baltimore in 1912. She trained at Morgan College, and after being rejected from the Peabody Institute due to her race, at 16 she became the first African-American singing student to be admitted to Juilliard. She sang the world premiere of Porgy and Bess in 1935, and in the Gershwin biographical movie, Rhapsody in Blue. Her singing career was cut short due to asthma. In 1998, Brown received the George Peabody Medal from the Peabody Institute, the same institution that denied her admission 70 years earlier. She was also made an honorary citizen of Baltimore, and was awarded The Arts Council Norway Honorary Award. She lived in Oslo until her death in 2009 at the age of 96. Martina Arroyo was born in New York City in 1937. She studied piano with her mother, earned her bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, became a high school English teacher, and then a social worker. In 1958, she won the Metropolitan Opera’s “Auditions of the Air” and made her Met debut in a small role in 1959. She then moved to Europe where she also sang small roles, but eventually she became a leading soprano all over the world. She is a recipient of the Opera Honors award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and is a Kennedy Center honoree. After her retirement from singing in 1989, Arroyo taught at several universities, and has judged competitions, and given master classes internationally. She served on the National Council of the Arts and the Board of Trustees of Hunter College and Carnegie Hall, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is the founder of the Martina Arroyo Foundation dedicated to the development of young opera singers. Grace Bumbry was born in 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri. She studied at Boston University, Northwestern University and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara with the great Lotte Lehmann. In 1958, she was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She made her operatic debut in 1960 at the Paris Opera, and became a member of the Basel Opera in Switzerland. At age 24, she became the first black singer to appear at the Bayreuth Festival. At the end of her first performance there, the audience applauded for 30 minutes – resulting in 42 curtain calls. Bumbry is the recipient of several honors and international awards. A long-time resident of Switzerland, she now lives in Salzburg. At the Kennedy Center honors, Aretha Franklin narrated the tribute to her: Morris Robinson was born in Atlanta in 1969. He received a scholarship to play college football for the military school, The Citadel, in Charleston, SC, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree, and where he was a 3-time All-American offensive lineman. He then became a sales rep for Exxon and the 3M company for 10 years, making 6 figures a year. But he was very unhappy. At 30, he decided to continue his education at the New England Conservatory, and made his debut with the Boston Lyric Opera, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. His Met debut was in 2002, and he has enjoyed success throughout the world with the largest opera companies and symphony orchestras. He was named “Artist-in-Residence” with the Atlanta Symphony, and Artistic Advisor of the Cincinnati Opera. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from The Citadel, and was named Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. Denyse Graves was born in 1964 in Washington DC. She studied voice at the Oberlin and New England Conservatories, and received further training at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio. Graves made her Met debut in 1995, and performed at the second inauguration of George W. Bush. She has sung the world premieres of several contemporary operas, and her recording of We Shall Overcome was sent to space on the NASA’s Orion spacecraft. In 2020, Graves sang at the US Capitol as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket was “lying in state”. She’s a recipient of the “Ambassador of the Arts” award by the Washington Performing Arts, and the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. Limmie Pulliam, a native of Missouri, attended the Oberlin Conservatory, and participated in the young artist programs of the Cleveland Opera, Opera Delaware and Opera Memphis. He is the winner of several competitions, but Pulliam grew “disenchanted,” with the scene, especially for black musicians, and went on hiatus from singing. After 12 years, he rediscovered his love for music, and successfully returned to performing and competing. I was flabbergasted when I first heard him. In 2021, he made his L.A. Opera debut, and has sung with several opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the United States. In 2022, he made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra singing Otello. He made his highly successful Met debut not long after, in Aida. Angel Blue was born in 1984. In high school, she studied piano and voice, received her bachelor’s from the University of Redlands, a master’s degree from UCLA, and was a member of the Los Angeles Opera’s Young Artist program. She has performed leading roles all over the world, and is the winner of several competitions. She made her Met debut in 2017, and in 2020, she starred in Porgy and Bess there. She is the first black woman to sing the role of Mimi in La Boheme at La Scala. Angel Blue has sung to raise funds for housing projects for Haitians who have relocated to the Dominican Republic. And in 2014, Blue sang in the annual AIDS Gala in Dusseldorf, Germany, raising $142,000 Euros to help those affected by AIDS and HIV in Germany and South Africa. Simon Estes was born in Iowa in 1938. His grandfather was enslaved and sold at auction for $500. Estes attended the University of Iowa and the Juilliard School. In 1965, he made his opera debut in Berlin, and won the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, after which, President Johnson invited him to perform at the White House. In 1978, he became the first black man to sing a leading role at The Bayreuth Festival where he sang for several years. While his career was flourishing in Europe, American opera companies refused to hire him – except the San Francisco Opera. Finally, in 1982, he made his Met debut, but was warned by Leontyne Price, who had suffered threats to her life when she first appeared at the Met: “Because you are a black male, the discrimination will be greater. You have a beautiful voice, you are musical, intelligent, independent and handsome. With all of these ingredients, you are a threat. It will be more difficult for you than it was for me.” He sang at the Met for several years, including for the Met’s first-ever production of Porgy and Bess in 1985. He has been at the forefront of artists for HIV Aids prevention and education. In 2013, his foundation partnered with the UN to raise funds to eliminate malaria in Africa. He has taught voice at several universities, and is the recipient of many honorary degrees. Lawrence Brownlee was born in 1972 in Youngstown, Ohio. He had a very musical childhood, playing trumpet, guitar and drums, and singing Gospel music in church. Brownlee attended Anderson University for his undergraduate degree, Indiana University for graduate studies, and participated in The Seattle Opera Young Artists Program and the Wolf Trap Opera Company. His professional debut was in 2002 with the Virginia Opera, and he made his Met debut in 2007. He gives recitals featuring his Spiritual Sketches album with Damien Sneed, and in 2015, he performed the role of Charlie Parker in the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s opera Yardbird. In 2018, Brownlee premiered Cycles of My Being by Tyshawn Sorey and Terrance Hayes. It centers on what it means to be a black man living in America today, and in 2020, it was made into a film. With a young son diagnosed with autism, the song that gives him comfort is All Night all Day Angels Watching over me. Lawrence Brownlee is the winner of the Met’s Laffont Competition, the Richard Tucker Award, the Marian Anderson Award, the Opera Philadelphia’s Anne d’Harnoncourt Award for Artistic Excellence, and Seattle Opera’s 2008 Artist of the Year. Brownlee is sought after throughout the world as one of the most exciting tenors of the bel canto operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. Leontyne Price was born in 1927 in Laurel, Mississippi. She began piano lessons as a young child, and when Leontyne was nine, her mother brought her to a concert by Marion Anderson. It was a life-changing event for her. While in high school, Leontyne began singing professionally at funerals and picnic functions. She then enrolled at Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio, and was assisted financially by the family for whom she had worked as a maid and babysitter in Mississippi. Leontyne was also assisted by the celebrated bass, Paul Robeson, who sang a benefit concert to augment her scholarship at Juilliard. While at Juilliard, the composer Virgil Thomson heard her and cast her in his opera, Four Saints in Three Acts in Paris, and for a Broadway run. She then sang the role of Bess in a touring production of Porgy and Bess in the U.S. and, sponsored by the State Dept., throughout Europe. In 1952, she married her Porgy and Bess co-star, William Warfield. They separated in 1967. In 1953, she sang the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs with Barber at the piano. At age 27, Price made her NY debut at Town Hall, which led to her singing Tosca and the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute on TV. The State Dept. then sent her on tour to India and Australia. In 1957, Price sang Poulenc’s new opera, The Dialogue of the Carmelites in San Francisco where she also stepped in as a last-minute replacement singing Aida, which she sang for her European debuts at the Vienna State Opera, London’s Royal Opera and at the Arena di Verona in Italy. In 1959, she made her first recording, which won her a Grammy award. In 1961, the Met invited her to sing 5 operas, including Aida, with which she made her Met debut. Her ovation at the end of the 1st performance was said to be the longest in the history of the Met, and she soon appeared on the cover of Time magazine. In 1966, Leontyne sang at the grand opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, singing the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Anthony and Cleopatra. The role of Cleopatra was written specifically for her. During her 21 years at the Met, she sang 201 performances of 16 roles. At age fifty-eight, Leontyne Price ended her operatic stage career by singing a farewell performance of Aida at the Met. The applause after her big aria went on and on for several minutes before the performance could continue! In Sept. of 2001, at age 74, she came out of retirement to sing at a memorial concert for the victims of 9/11 and sang God Bless America, unaccompanied. Among her many honors and awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, the Kennedy Center honors, the National Medal of Arts, numerous honorary degrees, 13 Grammy awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The sopranos Renee Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jessye Norman, Leona Mitchell, the mezzo sopranos Janet Baker and Denyce Graves, and the bass baritone, Jose van Dam, all spoke of Price as their inspiration.  

Dean Dixon was born in Harlem in 1915.  His mother purchased his first violin when he was 3 ½, and he began having three violin lessons each week. He slowly worked up to practicing five hours a day. Dixon’s father did not contribute to the family’s income, so at age 13, Dean created the Dean Dixon School of Music, giving private piano and violin lessons in his room. Having learned to play all the instruments of the orchestra, he eventually taught violin, cello, viola, piano, singing, and composition. On Saturdays and Sundays, he taught from 7 am to 11:30 pm. He played in the first violin section of his high school orchestra and with a number of community orchestras. The thought of accepting a black conductor who could assert musical authority over white male men was offensive to many, and opposed at every turn. At 17, he founded the Dean Dixon Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Society and Dixon entered the Institute of Musical Arts, later known as the Juilliard School, and paying the tuition from his earnings as a music teacher. He also began presenting popular music lectures around New York on topics such as Expectant Mothers and Music or Music and Its Relation to Digestion.  And he found innovative ways to educate and inspire children of all ages about the joys of classical music.   He completed the graduate conducting program at Juilliard on a full tuition scholarship and fellowship, while simultaneously earning a master’s degree in music education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. At 23, he made his conducting debut at New York’s Town Hall, and the following year, founded the New York Chamber Orchestra – after which he began his doctoral studies at Columbia University. In 1941, 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended a concert of the Dean Dixon Symphony Orchestra, and wrote about her favorable impressions in her nationally syndicated column. A month later, the 26-year-old Dixon was invited to conduct two live broadcast performances with Toscanini’s NBC Symphony. They were so successful, that he was quickly engaged to conduct the orchestra the following year, and immediately became the first African–American to conduct the New York Philharmonic. After the performance, when Dixon gestured to the orchestra to stand and acknowledge the applause, the musicians refused, and instead joined in with the audience to applaud Dixon. When he conducted the New York Chamber Orchestra again in Town Hall, Mrs. Roosevelt spoke to the audience about how music is ever so important given the current international crisis. “I think that in times like these in a troubled world, music is a universal language that all of us need.” It was the beginning of W.W. II. She also praised the performance in her syndicated column and wrote: “The arts are the one avenue not blocked by the hate which comes with war. I think we should give every art expression our support whenever we possibly can.” Dixon was unable to serve during W.W. II because of severe asthma. Therefore, he brought his Harlem orchestra and chorus to perform at veterans hospitals, schools, and civic centers.  In 1944, Dixon established the American Youth Orchestra to make concerts affordable and accessible. The orchestra performed at hospitals, army camps and rehabilitation centers because he wanted to let those who fought, sacrificed, and became incapacitated know that they had not been forgotten. From 1947-1953, Dixon was married to the American pianist Vivian Rifkin, with whom he did a good deal of performing and recording. Their daughter Diane was born in 1948. He conducted most of the major orchestras in Europe, Africa, Israel and South America. At age 26, was the first Black American to lead the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony. Despite further successes with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and as the 1st Black conductor to conduct the Boston Symphony, these triumphs did not lead to an appointment with a major American orchestra because of the color of his skin. Despite his talent, education, expertise, entrepreneurial efforts and unanimous successes, Dixon couldn’t even secure professional career management in the United States. Dixon became increasingly disillusioned, and in 1949 left the United States for Israel and Europe, where his schedule was filled with prestigious guest conducting appearances and led to permanent appointments with the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, the Radio Symphony in Frankfurt, Germany and the Sydney Symphony in Australia. When 87 year-old Jean Sibelius heard Dixon conduct his own 5th Symphony with the Helsinski Stadorkester on the radio, Sibelius said: “This is a man I want to see. He has understood what I meant.” And so Dixon visited Sibelius in his home, where the composer praised the performance. They met again the following year when Sibelius invited Dixon to Helsinki to conduct his music. Hurt beyond words from what he characterized as the cruelest form of abandonment, he did not return to the United States for 21 years, until he received another invitation to conduct the New York Philharmonic in 1970, some 29 years after his debut with the orchestra. From 1954-1973, Dixon was married to his 2nd wife, Mary Mandelin, a Finnish countess and playwright, who gave birth to their daughter Nina. They moved to Sweden where Dixon was the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony from 1953-1960. Dixon was fluent in English, German, Swedish and Italian. In 1959, he was offered 3 permanent positions in Germany: the radio orchestras in Hanover, Munich, and Frankfurt. Dixon chose Frankfurt, where he was its principal conductor until 1974. In 1964-1967, he was also the music director of the Sydney Symphony in Australia. Finally in 1970, he returned to the United States to conduct several performances with the New York Philharmonic and was presented with the key to the city by mayor John Lindsay. He also conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the orchestras in St. Louis, Pittsburg, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Detroit, the District of Columbia, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. His return to the United States – after more than two decades – represented a need to be accepted by a country that had abandoned him so many years before. The tragedy is that when Dixon finally became greatly sought after in the United States, his European manager refused to free up time on Dixon’s calendar to accept invitations to conduct American orchestras. This was because the European manager only made money from Dixon’s European engagements. In 1973– Dixon married his 3rd wife, Ritha.  He made many recordings with the Prague Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, and in Vienna with the Volksoper Orchestra. He was honored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and received the Ditson Conductor’s Award, and the Medal of Distinguished Service from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Dean Dixon suffered from cardiovascular disease and died from a stroke in 1976 in Switzerland. He was only 61. Michelle Cann, was born in North Carolina in 1987, made her orchestral debut at age fourteen, and has since performed as a piano soloist with numerous orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati and New Jersey. Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute. She appears frequently in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China and South Korea, and has appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist on National Public Radio. An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019, Ms.Cann served as the Cincinnati Symphony’s Multicultural Awareness Council Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African–American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement. She is the recipient of the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing her dual role as both performer and pedagogue, her responsibilities include teaching residencies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association. As a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, she holds the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. A champion of the music of Florence Price, a great, but neglected African–American composer of the 20th century, Michelle Caan performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s One Movement Piano Concerto in 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere in 2021. Randall Goosby was born in 1996. He began studying violin at age 7, and made his debut with the Jacksonville Symphony at age 9. At 13, Randall made his debut with the New York Philharmonic and was the youngest ever to win the Sphinx Concerto Competition. He spent the summers during his teenage years studying at the Perlman Music Program, the Verbier Festival, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, his family flew him to New York each week to attend Juilliard’s pre-college program on a full scholarship, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and artist diploma degrees. He is a protégé of Itzhak Perlman, who, on several occasions, invited Randall to join him in performances of Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins, including with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Randall is the winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists Competition, and is the recipient of Sphinx’s Isaac Stern Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and of a career advancement grant from the Bagby Foundation. Here is some of the spiritual, Deep River, based on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s transcription, in a version by Maud Powell. The pianist is Zhu Wang. He has performed as soloist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, the Royal Scottish National, the London Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Dallas, San Francisco, Antwerp, Nashville, the New World, and the Philharmonia in London. He records for Decca, and can be heard on the soundtrack of the film Chevalier, the movie about the 18th century black violinist and composer Chevalier de Saint-George. Goosby is deeply passionate about serving others through education, social engagement and outreach activities. He has performed at schools, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the U.S. Randall Goosby is determined to make music more inclusive and accessible, and to bring the music of neglected composers to light. He plays a Stradivarius violin on loan from the Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea made in 1708. Hazel Scott was born in Trinidad in 1920. At age 4, Scott moved to Harlem with her mother, who was a classically trained pianist and music teacher. As an 8 year old child piano prodigy, she received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School. In her teens, she performed with the Count Basie orchestra and on the radio, and she was a prominent Jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 40s. By 1945, Scott was earning today’s equivalent of 1.1 million dollars a year. In 1950, she became the first African-American to host her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show. In 1958, Scott voluntarily appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee. She expressed frustration with the false accusations of entertainers. Her television program was canceled a week later, and less than a year after that, Scott suffered a nervous breakdown. Therefore, Scott moved to Paris, and performed in Europe for 10 years. She was one of the first Afro Caribbean women to be cast in respectable roles in major Hollywood movies. Scott also refused to perform in segregated venues. In 1981, Hazel Scott died of cancer in Manhattan at the age of 61. She used her status and influence to improve the representation of African-Americans in film and to fight against racial injustice. Singer–songwriter Alicia Keys looks up to Scott as her inspiration. In the 1943 Mae West movie, The Heat’s On, Hazel Scott demonstrated her technical virtuosity by playing one of her famous compositions, “Black & White Are Beautiful” on two pianos simultaneously.   Philippa Schuyler was born in Harlem in 1931. She was the only child of a prominent black journalist and a white Texan heiress. Schuyler knew the alphabet at 19 months, and was able to read and write at the age of two. At four, she was playing the piano music of Mozart and Schumann and began to compose. Schuyler won her first gold medal at age 4 from the National Guild of Piano Teachers. Her IQ at the age of six was 185. Schuyler won eight consecutive prizes from the New York Philharmonic, and won gold medals from the music education league and from the city of New York. Schuyler’s radio concerts attracted significant press coverage and the admiration of New York’s mayor Fiorello LaGuardia who declared June 19, 1940 Philippa Duke Schuyler Day at the New York World’s Fair, where she performed two concerts. By the age of 14, she had composed 200 compositions, and was touring constantly in the United States and overseas. At 15, she graduated from high school and performed with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium, and then continued her studies at Manhattanville College. She became a role model for many children in the United States. In later life, Schuyler grew disillusioned with the racial and gender prejudice she encountered in the United States, and chose a voluntary exile of performing in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe. She played at the inauguration of three successive presidents of Haiti and in Africa performed for several heads of state. As a writer, 5 of her non-fiction books were published, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles internationally. She spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Although Schuyler engaged a number of affairs, she never married. In 1966, she traveled to Vietnam to perform for the troops and various Vietnamese groups. She returned to Vietnam in 1967 as a war correspondent, and served as a missionary when she was killed in an army helicopter crash during a mission to evacuate Vietnamese orphans. 2,000 mourners attended her funeral at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Schuyler’s mother was profoundly affected by her death, and committed suicide a few days before the second anniversary of her daughter’s death. André Watts was born in 1946 in Nuremberg, in then Allied-occupied Germany, to an American army officer and a Hungarian mother. He began studying the violin when he was 4, but decided he preferred the piano when he was 6. He made his debut as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 9. Watts studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where he studied with Leon Fleisher. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in Carnegie Hall at age 16, and immediately began recording for Columbia Records! That year, he made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the following season with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D. C., and at 19, made his European debut with the London Symphony. He taught at Indiana University, was elected to the American Philosophical Society, was a Grammy Award winner, and received honorary doctorate degrees from Albright College, Yale University, and honors from the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, the Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory of John Hopkins University. He also received the Avery Fisher-Price, the American Classical Music Hall of Fame Honor, the American Liszt Society Medal, the Order of Zaire, the University of the Arts Medal from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the National Medal of Arts, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Watts was married to Joan Brand, and had 2 step–children, and 7 step-grandchildren. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016, from which he died seven years later at age 77. André Watts was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th century. During the six decades of his career, he performed with every major American orchestra and most of the world’s major orchestras. He soon became so widely sought after that his performances were booked three years in advance, giving 150 performances per year, many of which were televised from Lincoln Center. Sheku Kanneh-Mason was born in 1999, and grew up in Nottingham, England. He began cello lessons at age 6, and at 8, won the Marguerite Swan Memorial Prize. At 9, he was awarded a scholarship to the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and later completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy. He later donated 3,000 pounds to his former secondary school, which enabled 10 students to continue their cello lessons.  At age 17, he became the first Black musician to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, which prompted his hometown of Nottingham to name a bus in his honor.  In 2018, he was asked to perform at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, which was televised throughout the globe. He won the Southbank Sky Arts Award, the Male Artist of the Year and the Critic’s Choice Award at the Classic BRIT Awards, the Best Classical Artist at the Global Awards, and was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to music. The Royal Academy of Music appointed him as its first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring, and the Cincinnati Symphony appointed him as innovator with its multi– cultural awareness council. He records exclusively for Decca Classics, and his recordings have quickly gone to the top of the charts.  Sheku was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 12, and was appointed as a global ambassador of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He is also an ambassador for the Music Masters and Future Talent Charities. He plays on a Matteo Goffriller cello made in 1700. All of Sheku’s six siblings play classical music!

By Michael Laster In 1968, George invited the other three Beatles to join him at a retreat in Rishikesh, India led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John wanted to give meditation a shot, but ultimately he didn’t get the same benefits from it that George did. In fact, an incident occurred where Mia Farrow believed she was touched inappropriately by the Maharishi. After hearing about this, John was enraged, feeling personally betrayed by him. He wrote a song called “Maharishi” as a response to the incident, feeling like the Maharishi was a charlatan who made a fool of everyone at the retreat. But to avoid controversy, it was later changed to “Sexy Sadie.” This was one of the many songs written in India that ended up on the White Album from 1968. Another song on the album that referenced his time in India is Dear Prudence. Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence took meditation incredibly seriously, and would go straight to her cottage after lectures and meals, earning the reputation of a recluse. John wrote Dear Prudence to encourage her to come out and socialize with everyone else. By this time, John was being pursued by the abstract artist Yoko Ono, who was looking for a patron to help fund her art career. Still married to art promoter Anthony Cox, Yoko originally reached out to Paul a year earlier for a manuscript to be given to the avant-garde composer John Cage for his birthday. After meeting John at her gallery in 1966, she sent him postcards and short poetic messages. John at first found her intriguing, and over the next year, started to feel like she was a fellow free spirit who saw the world in the same quirky outside-the-box way he did. After John returned from India, and while his wife Cynthia was away in Greece, John invited her over and they recorded the album Two Virgins. The next morning Cynthia returned early, finding John and Yoko staring into each other’s eyes, with John in his bathrobe, and Yoko in Cynthia’s bathrobe. While all the Beatles’ wives and girlfriends were more or less aware of their casual infidelities on the road, this was a level of betrayal Cynthia could not stand for. She saw Yoko’s growing emotional influence over John, and when she found them together, neither John nor Yoko acted like anything was unusual. No guilt, no apology, no remorse. Cynthia filed for divorce a few months later. It’s easy to preach universal love and peace in the abstract, but in real life, empathy was still clearly a challenge for him. Around this time, Yoko introduced John to heroin, something she already had experience with. It is unknown how long their heroin use lasted, but they went on and off of it for several years, eventually finding treatment with methadone. Ever since the night they recorded Two Virgins, they were completely inseparable, and Yoko’s presence in the studio was a considerable strain on the normal dynamics of the band. But John was highly protective of her during this period, and the other Beatles didn’t dare challenge him on it. They knew, if it came to a choice between Yoko and the Beatles, John would choose her. In John’s mind, it was he and Yoko against the world, and the Beatles were secondary. While Yoko’s presence added tension in the band, there’s no evidence that Yoko encouraged John to quit the Beatles. Claims that she broke up the Beatles fail to give John any true agency. But that does not mean that other accusations against her are completely based on bigotry alone. Anyone who does enough digging into the testimony of those who knew her and John can see patterns of possessive, controlling, and occasionally manipulative behavior. In Cynthia’s mind, Yoko reminded John of his aunt Mimi. According to Cynthia, “John had grown up in the shadow of a domineering woman – it was what he knew and was most familiar with. While I had offered the devotion and loving acceptance he had needed after his mother’s death, Yoko offered the security of a mother figure who always knew best.” The song Julia, on the White Album, is an homage to John’s mother. But in the song he refers to her as “Ocean child”, which is the translation of the word Yoko in English. Clearly, John saw Yoko as an archetypal remedy for the wound left by the loss of his mother. It’s easy to speculate that John’s attraction to Yoko was based on the fact that she had both the eccentric qualities of his mother, and the strong, independent qualities of his Aunt Mimi. Yoko’s personal life during her relationship with John, and after John’s death is largely shrouded in secrecy, and it’s very likely that those who were close to John chose not to speak out too harshly about her for legal or practical reasons. While this documentary isn’t about Yoko, it is worth noting that her complex personality can be partially explained by a dysfunctional childhood, similar to John’s in effect, but based on the opposite situation. Instead of family members fighting over custody as in John’s case, Yoko lived with both parents, but their wealth and social status made them constantly busy and emotionally distant. She was raised by nannies, and remembers having to make appointments in order to see her father, who was a prominent Japanese banker. During WWII, she and other family members bartered for food with local farmers, and coped with periods of hunger by sharing imaginary meals with her siblings. There’s no doubt that these experiences shaped her desire to use creativity to advocate for peace. John and Yoko married in March 1969, a month after her divorce from her second husband. For their honeymoon, they staged what they called a “bed-in”, where they invited press into their hotel room in order to promote a publicity campaign for peace. It was at this bed-in that he wrote and recorded the anthem “Give Peace A Chance” Two more major protest songs were written during this period, including Power To The People, and Happy Christmas, War Is Over. John and Yoko throughout the late 60s into the early 70s, presented spectators with a Rorschach test. On one hand, John and Yoko could be seen as two megalomaniacs childishly wearing bags, scream singing, and making avant-garde sound collages just for attention. On the other hand, they could be seen as two lovers who really believed in using their privilege to make a positive change in society by challenging their audience with outside-the-box antics. Very few celebrities have advocated for peace in ways that generated as much publicity as John and Yoko did. Their approach was unique – they wanted to generate a movement that challenged the status quo not with anger or revolts, but with humor, creativity, and optimism. Several months later, after completing the Abbey Road album, John and Yoko performed with Eric Clapton as part of a music festival in Toronto. The festival reminded John of what it was like to lead a rock and roll band without the audience’s expectation of hearing the Beatles, which he felt had become too stifling. Complicated by disagreements over management decisions and contracts, John officially quit the Beatles a week after the concert. He recalled, “Well, there was this Japanese monk, and it happened in the last 20 years. He was in love with this big golden temple, y’know, he really dug it, like—and you know he was so in love with it, he burnt it down so that it would never deteriorate. That’s what I did with the Beatles.” During the post-breakup period, John often put down the work of his former bandmates, including the work of their producer George Martin, seemingly dismissing any music that wasn’t overtly political or deeply confessional. After his departure from the Beatles, John formed the Plastic Ono Band with Ringo on drums and his Hamburg friend, Klaus Voormann on bass. Klaus also illustrated the cover of the Revolver album. One prominent song from this period includes Cold Turkey, featuring  Eric Clapton on lead guitar, with lyrics detailing his struggle to quit his heroin habit. His next single was Instant Karma, followed by his first solo album, John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band. The album was extremely personal, and songs like “Mother”, “God”, and “Working Class Hero” showcase his struggle to grapple with his traumatic past and his sense of post-Beatles identity. In the song God, he renounces all the things he considers false idols, and resolves to only have faith in himself and Yoko. The album was also influenced by primal scream therapy, developed by psychologist Arthur Janov. John and Yoko had sessions with Janov at his clinic in Los Angeles, during this time. The album represents John securing an aesthetic for himself outside the Beatles, with a raw sound and minimal production that made no attempt to be commercial. Nevertheless, the album peaked at number 6 on the Billboard charts. His next album was Imagine, created in 1971. Ironically, the song Gimme Some Truth was co-written with the help of Paul in 1969 during the Beatles’ Get Back sessions, while How Do You Sleep? attacks Paul. John interpreted some of the lyrics from Paul’s solo song “Too Many People” to be a dig at John and Yoko, specifically the line “you took your lucky break and broke it in two,” as a reference to John’s decision to leave the Beatles. Of course, John being John, hit back twice as hard in How Do You Sleep by attacking Paul as a songwriter, and as a person. He sings, “The only thing you done was Yesterday, and since you’re gone you’re just Another Day”, referring to Paul’s songs Yesterday and Another Day. John also included the line “the sound you make is muzak to my ears”. Muzak refers to orchestral arrangements of popular songs intended to serve as background music in shopping centers and elevators. Paul later admitted that he was hurt by this, but in public John downplayed his bitterness towards Paul, brushing it off and saying, “If I can’t have a fight with my best friend, I don’t know who I can have a fight with.” These two songs, Too Many People and How Do You Sleep, are the most overt examples of their lyrics being used to communicate to one another. However, many fans and writers often speculate that other songs in their solo careers deal with their mutual brotherly bond, and a longing to reconcile as friends and songwriting partners, which will be touched on later. Imagine is his most successful album, both commercially and critically, with angry songs like How Do You Sleep? and Gimme Some Truth being contrasted by songs like Oh My Love, How?, Oh Yoko, and the title track, Imagine. The album also showcases one of his more confessional songs, Jealous Guy, originally written in India in 1968 when it was called Child Of Nature. Later that year in 1971, John and Yoko moved to New York City’s Greenwich Village, seeking a new network with political activists and avant-garde artists. They teamed up in a concert with activist Jerry Rubin advocating for the freeing of John Sinclair, who was in jail for the possession of marijuana. The concert was a success, and Sinclair was reunited with his family shortly after. Eventually, John fell out with Jerry Rubin after Rubin stated that radicals should riot during the Republican convention. In June of 1972, John released Some Time in New York City, which consists of live performances of politically charged songs that tackle sexism, incarceration, racism, and imperialism. The album was a commercial flop, but John’s attempt to position himself as a working-class hero did not go unnoticed by the powers that be. John’s activism got him in trouble with Nixon, specifically because of John’s support for anti-war presidential candidate George McGovern, and his donations of over 70 thousand dollars to family members of those killed by police during the Attica state prison uprising. His phones were tapped, over 500 pages of FBI files were gathered on him, and he was given an ultimatum to leave the US in 60 days or face deportation. The fight for residency went on for three years until it was finally granted in court in October of 1975, with his green card issued in July of 1976. In August of 1972, John and Yoko watched a TV special about the Willowbrook asylum, which showcased the abominable conditions for children with mental disabilities. They decided to organize a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden that raised 1.5 million dollars for the cause. It would be John’s last full-length concert. After their move to Manhattan’s Dakota building on West 72nd St in 1973, his next major album was Mind Games. After the public feud from two years earlier, fans speculate that John and Paul continued communicating through their albums. There’s a line in John’s 1973 song “I Know,” that reads, “And I know it’s getting better all the time, as we share in each other’s mind.” The line “It’s Getting Better All The Time” is the refrain from the song Getting Better on the Sgt Pepper album, written by Paul. Another line in the song is “today, I love you more than yesterday,” which might sound like a generic love sentiment that could just as easily be applied to Yoko, but remember that John’s attack on Paul a few years earlier in “How Do You Sleep?” was the line “The only thing you done was Yesterday.” Perhaps this was John’s way of apologizing for how he behaved toward his friend? We’ll never know, since John dismissed the song as “just a piece of nothing.” During this time, his marriage with Yoko was becoming strained, due to two primary reasons. The first was after Nixon was reelected, they went to a party at Jerry Rubin’s apartment, where John got drunk, and cheated on Yoko in the next room with Jerry Rubin’s roommate. Everyone in the living room, including Yoko, could hear everything. Yoko claims that she tried to forgive him, but that something was irrecoverably lost. Also, she had trouble coping with being hated by so many people, including the press. Even though she pursued John because of his influence, and hoped that others would see her as a creative equal, she was now ambivalent with all the stress and criticism that came with living under his shadow. She and John agreed to a separation, with mutual freedom, and told her assistant, May Pang, to become John’s girlfriend. Pang was originally shocked and said no, but Yoko insisted. According to Pang, while still defiant towards Yoko’s proposal, she eventually fell in love with John after he began pursuing her, seemingly independently. It was because of Pang that John briefly reconnected with Julian, and with Paul. John and Pang spent 18 months together in LA, where John forged strong friendships with Elton John, David Bowie, and Harry Nilsson. John produced Nilsson’s album Pussy Cats, and Elton John played piano on John’s song, Whatever Gets You Through the Night, one of the most recognizable songs on his next album Walls and Bridges. Paul alleges that he spoke to Yoko during their separation, and that she told him that even though she still loved him, John would have to work his way back to being with her. Seeing that John was falling back into alcoholism and substance abuse while in LA, Paul helped John reconnect with her, and much to May Pang’s discontent, John told her, “She’s allowed me to come home.” There are accounts by May Pang that John was going to start writing with Paul again. Allegedly when Yoko heard about this, she decided to allow John back into her life. It’s hard to know what Yoko’s true motivation was for taking John back, but according to Pang, John continued to see her romantically without Yoko’s knowledge. His last public appearance was in 1975, when John performed for a tribute to British media mogul Lew Grade. He appeared in a red jumpsuit, performing Slippin and Slidin’, Stand by Me, and Imagine. Six months later, Sean Lennon was born on October 9, sharing John’s birthday. Sean gave John a renewed sense of meaning in life, and John decided to take an indefinite hiatus from music, feeling disillusioned with the industry. There are accounts of him being a house husband, changing diapers, and learning to cook and bake bread, and other accounts that John spent much of his time in his room watching TV or reading, with hired nannies taking care of Sean. But there is no doubt that in the first five years of his life, Sean was able to spend more time with his father than his older brother Julian ever did. Five years after Sean’s birth, on a trip in Bermuda in 1980, John experienced a new surge of creativity, prompting him to go back into the studio and record his final album. When Yoko found out about his return to music, she insisted on it being a double album that would alternate between her songs and John’s, hence the title, Double Fantasy. Well known songs of his on the album include Woman, (Just Like) Starting Over, and Watching the Wheels. He also wrote a heartfelt song dedicated to his son Sean, called Beautiful Boy. The overall theme of the album seems to be that of John looking forward to how the rest of his life would unfold. Tragically, as we know, that promise of a better future was broken less than a month after the release of the album. On December 8th, 1980, John was approached for an autograph by a man with a copy of Double Fantasy. John generously obliged. Five hours later, returning home from the recording studio, the same man, Mark David Chapman, called out his name, and shot him twice in the back, and twice in the shoulder. John was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital, and when the police arrived, Chapman was arrested without a struggle. He has appealed for parole every year since 2000, and each year his appeals have been rejected. Friends and fans from all over the world were heartbroken and shocked that John, who advocated so fervently for peace, died so suddenly in such a senseless act of violence. Yet, his musical legacy is a gift that keeps giving. Strawberry Fields in Central Park is a memorial that was set up by Yoko as a “living monument” that keeps his memory alive. Fans and performers still gather daily to celebrate his music with the Beatles, and after the Beatles. A posthumous album was released in 1984, Milk and Honey, also a joint endeavor between him and Yoko, featuring John’s songs “Borrowed Time” and “Nobody Told Me.” Three of John’s unfinished demos were completed by the remaining Beatles during two different periods. Free As A Bird and Real Love were completed in 1995 by Paul, George, Ringo, and producer Jeff Lynne, and Now and Then was completed in 2023 by Paul, Ringo, and Giles Martin, son of The Beatles’ producer George Martin. John is considered a legend not just due to his activism for peace, or just because of his timeless melodies and powerful lyrics. He’s also a legend because of his ability to embody the full range of a multifaceted human being, including joy, pain, tenderness, aggression, insecurity, and wit. He reminds us that it’s okay to feel flawed or broken, as long as we believe in our own potential to move in the right direction.

By Michael Laster John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool, England on October 9th 1940 to Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley. Alfred lost his father at the age of 6 and was sent to live in an orphanage because his mother couldn’t afford to care for all four of her children. As a child, Alfred had rickets, wore leg braces, and grew to only 5 feet 4 inches tall. But he was a natural entertainer, and was described as happy-go-lucky and known for being quick and witty. Both Alfred and Julia played the banjo. To support his family, Alfred joined the Merchant Navy in 1940 as a bellboy and steward during World War II. Absent from Julia and John’s lives during this period, Alfred sent checks until he went AWOL in 1943, stopping the payments. By the time he returned in 1944, the marriage was essentially over, due to Alfred’s lack of communication. Julia became pregnant by another man, and although Alfred offered to raise the child as his own, she rejected him. John Lennon’s half sister Victoria was put up for adoption due to pressure from Julia’s family, including her sister Mimi. Mimi, who was strict and judgmental, disapproved of Julia’s marriage to Alfred, and was highly critical of her sister’s lifestyle, which she characterized as carefree and irresponsible. Mimi repeatedly contacted child protective services, believing it was inappropriate for John to share a bed with Julia and her new partner, Bobby Dykins. Due to this pressure, Mimi and her husband George eventually took in the five-year-old John. The following year, Alfred took John to his Blackpool home without Mimi or Julia’s knowledge, sparking a notable incident. Alfred reportedly planned to move to New Zealand to raise John, but Julia and her partner Bobby located them within a few days. This led to a confrontation, in which John’s father allegedly asked John to choose between Alfred and his mother. John at first chose his father, but then as his mother left, he ran after her crying. Alfred’s friend Harry Smith disputes this story of John being forced to choose who to live with, but in any case, the emotional toll of being caught in a custody battle within a fractured family must have been incredibly traumatic. On one hand, he likely felt like the most important child on Earth, but was also incredibly confused by the frequent changes in his caregivers. John’s lifelong struggles with jealousy and fear of abandonment likely stemmed from these formative years. After this incident, he wouldn’t see his father again for almost two decades. For the rest of his childhood, he lived with his Aunt Mimi and her husband George. Mimi was loving but strict, and somewhat prudish, while George was more lenient and carefree. George died of a liver hemorrhage when John was 15. John’s mother Julia and her partner Bobby had their own child when John was 7, also named Julia. At school, John had behavioral issues and had trouble following directions. He developed a reputation for being a troublemaker, and parents would warn their kids not to hang out with him. “I was aggressive because I wanted to be popular. I wanted to be the leader. It seemed more attractive than just being one of the upper-class snobs. I wanted everybody to do what I told them to do, to laugh at my jokes and let me be the boss.” However, he earned praise for his artistic skills, particularly his satirical cartoons. John often skipped school to spend time with his mother, whom a childhood friend described as more of an older sister than a mother to John. She introduced him to rock music and taught him banjo chords on the guitar. John’s love of early rock music included Elvis, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, and Smokey Robinson. In 1956, John formed an amateur band with his friends, which became known as the Quarrymen. In 1957, the Quarrymen performed at a festival outside of St. Peter’s Church. This was the day John met Paul McCartney. Recognizing Paul’s natural talent, John was initially hesitant to let him join the band. “He could obviously play the guitar. I half thought to myself – he’s as good as me. I’d been kingpin up to then. Now, I thought, if I take him on, what will happen? It went through my head that I’d have to keep him in line, if I let him join. But he was good, so he was worth having. He also looked like Elvis. I dug him.” John joined the Liverpool College of Art that year, where he met Stu Sutcliffe. John deeply admired Stu’s artistic talent and knowledge of literature and philosophy. They formed a tight bond, greater than the bond he had with Paul at the time. During this time, Paul brought George Harrison into the band to play lead guitar, whom he had overheard practicing on the school bus. In 1958, they recorded their first two songs, including Paul’s original “In Spite of All the Danger.” The title would prove to be all too relevant. Several days after the recording, John’s mother Julia was fatally hit by a car driven by an off-duty police officer. John was devastated and increased his alcohol use. Paul, who lost his mother to breast cancer a year earlier, remarked, “So this was a great bond John and I always had. We both knew the pain of it, and we both knew that we had to put on a brave face because we were teenage guys, and you didn’t talk about that kind of thing where we came from.” After Julia’s death, John met Cynthia Powell in his college’s calligraphy class. She was already engaged to another man, but eventually broke it off after falling for John’s charm, creativity, and intensity. Like his earlier education, John didn’t take art school very seriously. If he showed up at all, he continued to be a class clown, often drawing his trademark cartoons of misshapen characters. John seemed to have a fascination with the abnormal. It’s likely that his fascination with outsiders was a reflection of his own insecurities. In a Christmas card to Cynthia, John wrote “Our first Christmas” on the front and “I hope it won’t be our last” on the back. In 1960, the Quarrymen, now renamed the Beatles, received an offer to perform in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, its red-light district. Needing a bassist and a drummer, they hired Stu on bass and Pete Best on drums. During their two years in Hamburg, the Beatles were at their wildest and raunchiest, performing up to eight-hour sets behind comedians, strippers, or as headliners. They immersed themselves in all the sex, amphetamines, and alcohol that the Reeperbahn offered. One drunken night, John performed on stage in his underwear, wearing a toilet seat around his neck. Stu Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 to focus on his art career. Tragically, Stu died at age 21 from a mysterious brain hemorrhage a year later in April 1962. When his fiancée broke the news to the Beatles, John broke down, alternating from crying to laughing hysterically. Having already lost his father, his uncle George, and his mother, Stu was the fourth major loss of his life. By this time, Cynthia was pregnant. According to her memoir, John told her “There’s only one thing for it, Cyn, we’ll have to get married.” Julian Lennon was born in April 1963.  By this time, the Beatles had signed with their new manager Brian Epstein, and replaced their original drummer Pete Best with Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr. Their first major hit was Please Please Me. Their cover of the R&B hit  Twist and Shout was also foundational in establishing John Lennon as one of the most iconic vocalists in rock. His nasal and raspy baritone voice is instantly recognizable, always striking the perfect balance of vulnerability, and confidence. Even in his most tender songs, there’s often a sense of a latent power and aggression that can come forward at any moment. After the recording session, for which the first take was used, he recalls, “My voice wasn’t the same for a long time after; every time I swallowed, it was like sandpaper.” Beatlemania was now in full swing in England in 1963, and by the end of the year, in America too. The Beatles’ rise to fame would have been less unlikely if it weren’t for the group’s collective charisma. George Martin, who signed the Beatles, said initially he wasn’t impressed with them musically, but was won over by their chemistry and sense of humor. While all of them are usually quick on their feet, John is often considered the wittiest. Fame was exciting at first, but John quickly grew disillusioned with the pressure and insanity of being bigger than Elvis. John said “The elevator man wanted a little piece of you on your way back to the hotel room, the maid wanted a little piece of you back at the hotel – I don’t mean sexually, I mean a piece of your time and your energy.” All the Beatles were friendly with fans and down to Earth given their circumstances, however, fame comes with a price. Being idolized as Gods at a young age must have felt deeply dehumanizing. At the height of Beatlemania, after their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and the creation of the album A Hard Days Night, John released his first book of absurdist poems and illustrations, In His Own Write. John’s use of wordplay was heavily influenced by Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, while his illustrations were influenced by the works of James Thurber, illustrator for the New Yorker. The following year, John released his second book, A Spaniard in the Works. It was the last book he published during his lifetime. A third book of short stories, Skywriting by Word Of Mouth was published posthumously. Here’s John promoting In His Own Write on Swedish TV in 1964. One evening in 1965, John, George, and their wives Cynthia and Patti, had their drinks spiked with LSD by their dentist John Riley at a dinner party. John used LSD more frequently than any of the other Beatles. “I’ve always needed a drug to survive. The others, too, but I always had more, more pills, more of everything because I’m more crazy, probably.” LSD directly influenced John’s studio experiments and lyrics, notably, the songs Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said She Said from their album Revolver. She Said She Said was based on an incident where all the Beatles but Paul took LSD in Beverly Hills at a rented home. George was telling one of their guests, Peter Fonda, tried to comfort George by saying he knew what it was like to be dead and that it’s nothing to worry about. Fonda accidentally shot himself in the stomach when he was 10, and his heart stopped on the operating table several times. John, who was trying to enjoy himself, overheard the conversation and told Fonda to shut up, exclaiming, “You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born!”  John also claimed that LSD helped him embrace an attitude of non-violence. John was known for having a sharp tongue, and his relationship with physical violence during his early years is troubling, though often exaggerated. During Paul’s 21st birthday party, Bob Wooler, the MC of the Cavern Club, made an off-handed remark about John Lennon’s recent holiday in Spain with their manager Brian Epstein, who was gay. Wooler said “Well, come on, John, tell me about you and Brian, we all know.”  This insinuation about John’s sexuality caused something in John to snap. Highly intoxicated, he beat up Wooler to the point where Wooler had to be taken to the hospital. “The Beatles’ first national coverage was me beating up Bob Wooler at Paul’s 21st party because he intimated I was homosexual. I must have had a fear that maybe I was homosexual to attack him like that and it’s very complicated reasoning. But I was very drunk and I hit him and I could have really killed somebody then. And that scared me…” Cynthia claims there was a single incident in 1958 while still dating John where she wanted to dance with their mutual friend Stu, and he slapped her out of jealousy. clip  Yoko claimed that John was never physically violent towards her. Unless both are lying to protect his image, rumors of John being a physically violent husband outside of the one incident with Cynthia lack any evidence. A week or two before Revolver was released, an old interview with John from earlier in the year was reprinted in the US. In the interview, he claimed, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” These comments were largely uncontroversial in the UK. However, in the US, especially among conservatives in the South, the comments were seen as downright blasphemous. In fact, The Beatles were already unpopular among many conservatives because of their public stances in favor of civil rights and against the war in Vietnam. John tried to clarify that the quote was taken out of context. Despite John’s clarification, the backlash continued. Several southern radio stations organized bonfires encouraging fans to burn copies of their records, and members of the Ku Klux Klan openly threatened them. During a concert in Memphis in 1966, an audience member threw a firecracker onto the stage. Out of concern for their safety, and a desire to keep evolving in the recording studio, they decided to stop touring for good. During a brief hiatus, John would play a supporting role in a black-comedy film called How I Won The War, directed by the same director of A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. The film itself was not a success. However, during his free time on the set, John started writing one of the Beatles’ most enduring and beloved songs, Strawberry Fields Forever. John fully embraced the psychedelic era, writing songs like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, parts of A Day in the Life, I Am the Walrus, and All You Need Is Love. Many songwriters would envy writing even one of those songs, yet John wrote all four in just seven months. By this time in 1967, John felt increasingly disillusioned with his identity as a Beatle. He recognized that Paul and George Martin drove the Sgt. Pepper album’s success, and he may have envied their credit despite his own fan adoration. Recognizing Paul’s greater talent as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, John felt increasingly insecure as a musician. He felt unhappy in his marriage, and felt intense pressure to live up to Sgt. Pepper. He was also left without any direction after the death of their trusted manager, Brian Epstein, whose accidental sleeping pill overdose came as an unexpected shock. John’s efforts to rebuild his identity and confidence were closely tied to his deepening relationship with conceptual artist Yoko Ono, whose influence on him was growing. Part II explores how John’s pursuit of artistic independence, which was paradoxically inseparable from his reliance on Yoko, ultimately led to the breakup of his marriage with Cynthia, the breakup of the Beatles, and the start of his solo career.

Itzhak Perlman was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv as an only child. His parents were natives of Poland and emigrated to Palestine in the mid-1930s where they met. He began studying the violin at age 4. Perlman contracted polio at age 4 and has walked using leg braces and crutches since then. As of 2018 he uses an electric scooter for mobility. At Age 3 he was denied admission to the Music Conservatory because he was too small to hold a violin. He therefore taught himself how to play using a toy violin until he was old enough to study at the conservatory and at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He gave his first recital at age 10. He then moved to the United States to study at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and his assistant Dorothy Delay. Perlman won the Levintritt competition in 1964 and went on to perform with every major orchestra and in concert halls around the world. He has taught at Brooklyn College and for the past 20 years at the Juilliard School. He also teaches one-on-one at his music camp called the Perlman program on Long Island, New York. The program was founded in 1993 by his wife Toby for exceptional string players between the ages of 12 and 18. He has also conducted throughout the world, especially with the Detroit Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Westchester Philharmonic. His Stradivarius violin was made in 1714 and had previously belonged to Yehudi Menuhin. He also plays the Guarneri Del Gesù, made in 1743, and the Carlo Bergonzi Ex Kreisler, made in 1740. Here he discusses his beloved Strad. Perlman has recorded a magnificent album entitled Eternal Echoes: Songs & Dances for the Soul, a collaboration with the great cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot. While Perlman was never formally trained to play Klezmer, he recalled: “When I started to play, it took me about four or five seconds, and then I just felt at home.” Perlman has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Frugal Gourmet, The Tonight Show and Sesame Street. Amnon Weinstein is an Israeli violin craftsman who started locating violins that were played by Jews in the camps and ghettos of the Holocaust, painstakingly piecing them back together so they could be brought to life again on the concert stage. He calls these instruments the Violins of Hope. Inlaid in each violin is a Star of David in remembrance, so that the lives of those who played them will never be forgotten. Perlman played some of those violins privately. Perlman played for Queen Elizabeth at the White House and performed at the first inauguration for President Obama. He was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine, and has received 16 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, four Emmy Awards, the Medal of Liberty, the National Medal of Arts, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has performed with the Israel Philharmonic in their first visits to Poland, Hungary, China, India, and the former Soviet Union. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, Roosevelt, Yeshiva the Hebrew University and Juilliard. His devotion to the cause of the disabled is an integral part of his life. The Genesis Prize recognizes and celebrates Jewish talent and achievement, honoring individuals for their accomplishments and commitment to Jewish values. Each year, the Genesis Prize winner chooses to forgo the 1 million dollar financial award and asks The Genesis Prize Foundation to support a philanthropic initiative that is personally meaningful. Perlman has lived for many years in New York City with his wife Toby, who is also a classically trained violinist. They have five children: of the three daughters, one is a pianist, one is a social worker, and one is a teacher. As for the two sons, one is a pop singer and one is a lawyer.

Brief video: https://youtu.be/yMi56EzreL4 Leonard Norman Cohen was born into a prominent Orthodox Jewish family in Montreal in 1934. His Lithuanian Jewish mother, Marsha Klonitsky, immigrated to Canada in 1927. His paternal grandfather, Lyon Cohen, who had emigrated from Poland to Canada was the founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan, was a clothing store owner and died when Leonard was nine. His parents gave him the Hebrew name Eliezer, which means “God helps”. He said “I had a very Messianic childhood. I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest.” His family were members of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, to which Cohen retained connections for the rest of his life. During his high school years he taught himself to play the acoustic guitar and formed a country–folk group that he called the Buckskin Boys. He later switched to classical guitar. He has attributed his love of music to how moved he was by his mother’s singing. Cohen attended McGill University, and his literary influences were Yeats, Whitman, Lorca, Henry Miller, the Beat Generation writers of the United States, and Irving Layton, who was Cohen’s mentor and friend. Lou Marinoff also attended poetry workshops given by Layton, and describes the Montreal ethos from which Cohen emerged: “As an ex-Montrealer, let me take you back in time. Being Jewish in Montreal in Cohen’s day meant commuting between the “Two Solitudes” of Canada’s founding families, the French and the British. While they inhabited mutually exclusive worlds, Jewish people moved in both. It was two Solitudes to them, but one Diaspora to us. Jews hired French-Canadian workers for their urban businesses, while Roman Catholic priests defamed us from the pulpits as Christ-killers. The usual story. Jews were welcomed by tolerant WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), but we encountered hereditary anti-Semitisms among rougher social strata and upper-crust Anglicans alike. So what else is new? Well, maybe this: Cohen’s literary work was forged in the crucible of Quebec, and epitomizes yet a “Third Solitude”: Jewish Montrealers. We were simultaneously accepted and rejected by various segments of the other Two Solitudes, yet we amicably and symbiotically engaged with both in a complex ménage-à-trois. This unique ethos launched poets Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, author Mordecai Richler, with Star Trek Captain William Shatner at the helm, into stellar acclaim. They were not only our mentors, heroes and idols: they were also kids from next door, boys from the hood, lantzsmen who hit the big time. And Leonard Cohen was the “poet laureate” of our generation.” Cohen began publishing poetry in small literary journals before releasing his first collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies at age 22. The poems invoke biblical stories, Greek myth, and contemporary anxieties combining religious imagery with eroticism, mythic allusions, and existential doubt. Cohen then spent one term attending the McGill Faculty of Law and then a year at Columbia University. He abandoned graduate school and returned to Montreal in 1957 where he worked at various odd jobs and focused on writing fiction and poetry. Cohen’s second poetry collection, The Spice-Box of Earth from 1961, solidified his reputation as one of Canada’s emerging young poets. The spice box is a Jewish ritual object used in Havdalah, the ceremony marking the end of the Sabbath, but Cohen also uses it as a metaphor for erotic fragrance and memory. The poems are both mystical and grounded, tender and ironic. They convey Cohen’s lifelong preoccupation with how physical desire and spiritual yearning overlap. The poems address love and relationships with reverence and cynicism, delving into themes of betrayal, isolation, and the weight of history. His poetry is immersed in the human condition, finding beauty in brokenness and light in the shadows. It helped expand the audience for Cohen’s poetry and helped him gain critical recognition as an important new voice among Canadian poets, mixing personal confession with biblical myth. Cohen continued to write poetry and fiction throughout the 1960s and lived a quiet life after buying a house on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. While there he published the semi-autobiographical novel The Favorite Game in 1963 and a collection of poems entitled Flowers for Hitler in 1964, which deal with the aftermath of World War II, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the disturbing reality of human cruelty. Cohen confronted the devastations of history while attempting to find beauty in the wreckage. The poetry including its title was a provocative statement, showing Cohen unafraid to explore the uncomfortable truths of his time. In 1965 Cohen was the subject of a 44-minute documentary called “Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen.” His second novel, “Beautiful Losers” from 1966 is a milestone of Canadian avant-garde literature. It is a far more ambitious and experimental work, exploring spiritual decay and the search for transcendent experience. It’s about Canadian history, colonialism, religious mysticism, and sexual obsession. It attracted a lot of press because of a number of sexually graphic passages. The novel’s audacious look at human frailty alienated some readers and earned Cohen a cult following. It is sexually explicit and politically provocative. It takes on historical figures, myth, sexuality, mysticism, and politics. Some critics dismissed it as incoherent excess while others hailed it as groundbreaking. The novel explores how erotic energy, religious devotion, and historical trauma intersect. It displayed Cohen at his most fearless, unconcerned with commercial accessibility. After Beautiful Losers, Cohen returned to poetry. Many of his songs are about the tension between the sacred and the profane, love and betrayal, despair and hope. It is impossible to separate Cohen the poet/novelist from Cohen the songwriter; each feeds into the other. In 1966 he wrote “Suzanne”, which was recorded by Judy Collins on her album In My Life. It became a hit for Judy Collins, who subsequently recorded a number of Cohen’s other songs.  For many years “Suzanne” was his most recorded song. Collins recalls that when she first met him, he said he could not sing or play the guitar, nor did he think “Suzanne” was even a song: “People think Leonard is dark, but actually his sense of humour and his edge on the world is extremely light.” Cohen stated that he was tricked into giving up the rights for Suzanne, but was glad it happened because “it would be wrong to write a song that was so well loved and to get rich for it also.” In 1967, disappointed with his lack of success as a writer, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer–songwriter. In Cohen’s transition from literature to music he began to see his poems as lyrics and realized he could reach a wider audience. Like “Suzanne”, many of his most famous songs were originally poems. For example, in the tearful yet hopeful farewell to a former lover, titled “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”. Cohen’s first album was Songs of Leonard Cohen. The album was released in the US in late 1967 to generally dismissive reviews, but became an immediate success among avid listeners to Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other 1960s icons. Cohen lived on Hydra with Marianne Ihlen, with whom he was in a relationship for most of the 1960s. The song “So Long, Marianne” was written to and about her. He would never stop singing it during decades of performances. Cohen’s prodigious love affairs engendered both poetry and progeny. The song Chelsea Hotel was inspired by a brief relationship Cohen had with Janis Joplin while staying at the hotel in 1968. Cohen also had well-known relationships with Joni Mitchell and  actress Rebecca De Mornay. In the 1970s, Cohen was in a relationship with the photographic artist Suzanne Elrod. Their relationship produced two children: a son, Adam, and a daughter, Lorca, named after the Spanish poet. Adam is a singer–songwriter and the lead singer of pop-rock band Low Millions, and Lorca is a photographer. Cohen also had three grandchildren. In the 1980s Cohen was in a relationship with French photographer Dominique Issermann. His second album was Songs from a Room in 1969, featuring the often-recorded “Bird on the Wire”, Songs of Love and Hate in 1971, and New Skin for the Old Ceremony from 1974. In 1971, film director Robert Altman featured the songs “The Stranger Song”, “Winter Lady”, and “Sisters of Mercy”, in the movie McCabe & Mrs. Miller. In the poetry collection The Energy of Slaves from 1972 he reflected on disillusionment and the constraints of freedom. A film about his 1972 tour of Europe and Israel is also entitled ‘Bird on a Wire’. In 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, Cohen arrived in Israel. He went to Sinai to sing for Israeli soldiers. Even though he reportedly voiced “pro-Arab political views” before the war, he said after the war, “I am joining my brothers fighting in the desert. I don’t care if their war is just or not. I know only that war is cruel, that it leaves bones, blood and ugly stains on the holy soil.” In Sinai, Cohen was introduced to the Major General Ariel Sharon, future Prime Minister of Israel. Cohen later described the improvised concerts: “We would just drop into little places, like a rocket site and they would shine their flashlights at us and we would sing a few songs. Or they would give us a jeep and we would go down the road towards the front and wherever we saw a few soldiers waiting for a helicopter we would sing a few songs. And maybe back at the airbase we would do a little concert. It was very intense.” Deeply moved by encounters with Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write “Lover Lover Lover”. This song has been interpreted as a personal renunciation of armed conflict, and ends with the hope his song will serve the listener as a shield against the enemy. “‘Lover, Lover, Lover’ was born over there; the whole world has its eyes riveted on this tragic and complex conflict.” In April 2022, author and journalist Matti Friedman published Who By Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen. It’s about Cohen’s 1973 tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War, and has inspired a TV miniseries. In 1974, Cohen released a new album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony, with songs inspired by the war. “Lover Lover Lover” was written and performed in Sinai.” Who By Fire”, reflecting on the war, takes its name from the Yom Kippur prayer the Unetaneh Tokef, Let us proclaim the awesome sanctity of this day. Other songs inspired by the war are “Field Commander Cohen” and “There is a War”. In 1976, Cohen made a European tour giving 55 performances, including his first appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1978, he published a book of poetry titled Death of a Lady’s Man and in 1984 Cohen published Book of Mercy, for which he won the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Poetry. The book contains 50 prose-poems, influenced by the Hebrew Bible and Zen writings. Cohen referred to the poems as “prayers” and are often likened to modern psalms: spiritual, intimate, and explicit about longing, doubt, and redemption. In 1979, Cohen’s album Recent Songs was released, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and East Asian and Mediterranean influences featuring instruments like the oud, the Gypsy violin, and the mandolin. An album of performances from this tour is entitled Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979. In the early 1980s, Cohen co-wrote the rock musical film Night Magic filmed in Montreal. The song ‘Hallelujah’ was first released in 1984 on Cohen’s album Various Positions and he sang it during his European tour in 1985. At first it had limited success but it became more popular through a 1991 cover by John Cale, and a later cover by Jeff Buckley. “Hallelujah” has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages. The song is the subject of the 2012 book The Holy or the Broken and the documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song. Cohen spent years struggling with it and it eventually became “one of the most haunting, and often performed songs in American musical history”. We’re saving it for our “grand finale.” In 1985 he gave a series of highly emotional and politically controversial concerts in Poland, including the song “The Partisan”, regarded as the hymn of the Polish Solidarity movement. In 1985 the song “Everybody Knows” from I’m Your Man and “If It Be Your Will” in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume helped expose Cohen’s music to a wider audience. The song “Everybody Knows” also featured prominently in the 1994 film Exotica. In 1992, Cohen released The Future, which urges perseverance, reformation, and hope.  Three tracks from the album were featured in the movie Natural Born Killers, which promoted Cohen’s work to younger generations. It is influenced by political and social unrest, the title track being a response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The title track of The Future includes the line: “I’ve seen the nations rise and fall/ … / But love’s the only engine of survival.” His most enigmatic excursion into politics is titled “First We Take Manhattan”. Cohen emphasized that it was not an endorsement of physical violence but rather an “artistic provocation”, exploring the mindset of someone with an unyielding and uncompromising view of the world that reveals Cohen’s mixture of politics with psychedelics. In 1993 Cohen published Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, and in 2006, after 10 years of delays, additions, and rewritings, he published Book of Longing, dedicated to the poet Irving Layton. It reveals Cohen’s mythic, erotic, spiritual, and self-scrutinizing voice through meditations on aging, mortality, and memory. Perhaps his most powerful poem of 1993 was “Dance Me to the End of Love”. At first blush a romantic song, it was a response to the Holocaust, specifically to the stories of Jews being forced to play classical music in the camps as they marched to their deaths. The “burning violin” in the lyrics is a reference to the immense suffering and destruction of the time. Its “official video” has received more than 197 million views! In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles for five years of seclusion and in 1996 was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk. Cohen was a Sabbath-observing Jew. When asked how he squared that faith with Zen, he replied ‘In the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship to a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.’” Cohen showed an interest in Jesus as a universal figure, saying, “I’m very fond of Jesus Christ. He may be the most beautiful guy who walked the face of this earth. Any guy who says ‘Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek’ has got to be a figure of unparalleled generosity and insight and madness, a man who declared himself to stand among the thieves, the prostitutes and the homeless. His position cannot be comprehended. It is an inhuman generosity. I’m not trying to alter the Jewish view of Jesus Christ. But to me, in spite of what I know about the history of Christianity, the figure of the man has touched me. I very much feel part of the tradition of Judaism and I practice that and my children practice it, so that was never in question. The investigations that I’ve done into other spiritual systems have certainly illuminated and enriched my understanding of my own tradition.” In addition to Mount Baldy, Cohen went back and forth to and from India several times, where he became immersed in the Advaita (or non-duality) tradition of meditation. The release in 2001 of his album Ten New Songs, was a major hit in Canada and Europe and won Cohen four Canadian Juno Awards. In October 2004, Cohen released Dear Heather, largely a musical collaboration with his romantic partner Anjani Thomas. He said in a number of interviews that his depression had lifted in recent years, which he attributed to Zen Buddhism. His kindness shone through his demons, and psychedelics helped transform his depression into creativity. Cohen contributed to other artists’ albums including those of U2, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, and Judy Collins Kelley Lynch was Cohen’s longtime business manager and was a close family friend. In 2005 Cohen discovered that she had sold his publishing rights and had stolen most of the money in his accounts including money from his retirement accounts and charitable trust funds. Cohen unsuccessfully sued Lynch, though she was jailed for 18 months and given five years’ probation for harassing Cohen after he dismissed her. In 2006 Cohen published Book of Longing, a book of poetry and drawings, which quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. Philip Glass composed music for Book of Longing. It was written during his years at a Zen monastery, and is tinged with self-deprecation, combining spiritual reflection with playfulness. In 2008, to recoup the money his ex-manager had stolen, Cohen embarked on his first world tour in 15 years. Cohen said: “It was a most fortunate happenstance because I was able to connect with living musicians. And I think it warmed some part of my heart that had taken on a chill.” In March 2009, Cohen released Live in London, his first official DVD, followed in 2010 by Songs from the Road, a live CD/DVD album from his 2008 and 2009 live performances. At his concert in Ramat Gan in 2009, Cohen offered Jewish prayers and blessings to the audience in Hebrew. He opened the show with the first sentence of Ma Tovu, How good, in which the non-Jewish prophet Balaam is inspired to bless the Israelites instead of cursing them. At the middle, he used Baruch Hashem, Blessed is God, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing of Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing asking for God’s blessing, protection, grace, and peace upon the people. His final concert was in 2013 in New Zealand. Bob Dylan described Cohen as the ‘number one’ songwriter of their time. “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines give a celestial character and melodic lift to his songs. No one else comes close to this in modern music. I like all of Leonard’s songs, early or late. They make you think & feel. I like some of his later songs even better than his early ones. Yet there’s a simplicity to his early ones that I like, too. He’s very much a descendant of Irving Berlin. Both of them just hear melodies that most of us can only strive for. Both Leonard & Berlin are incredibly crafty. Leonard particularly uses chord progressions that are classical in shape. He is a much more savvy musician than you’d think.” Dylan was not the only mega-star to be enamored of Cohen. John Lennon traveled to Hydra to visit Cohen, and so did Donovan Leitch. In the final years of his life he released three albums: Old Ideas from 2012, which became his highest charting album, Popular Problems in 2014, and You Want It Darker from 2016, the last of which was released three weeks before his death. His fifteenth studio album, Thanks for the Dance, was released 3 years later. And his poetry collection The Flame, which he had been working on at the time of his death, appeared posthumously in 2018. Cohen died in his Los Angeles home in 2016 from leukemia at age 82. He had fallen that evening, and he subsequently died in his sleep. According to his wishes, Cohen was laid to rest in Montreal with a Jewish rite. Within a month, the city of Montreal held a tribute concert to Cohen. Two murals were created in Montreal the following summer, and in 2017 an interactive exhibit was created, which toured internationally. There is a bronze statue of Cohen in Vilnius, Lithuania. A species of spiders from Iran and a species of weevils from South Africa are named after him. A TV series So Long, Marianne, is based on Cohen’s relationship with Marianne Ihlen, and several documentaries have been made about him. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He was a recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize, received Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for literature, and was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. Cohen consistently explored the entanglement of physical desire with spiritual longing. A lifelong student of Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism, Cohen wove religious imagery into his work to grapple with human suffering and hope. Yet there is also undying love. He continued to sing So Long Marianne into his last days. In 2016, Marianne Ihlen died of leukemia three months and nine days before Cohen. His farewell letter to her was read at her funeral: “Dearest Marianne, I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up, just as yours has too. I’ve never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. I don’t have to say any more. Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Endless love and gratitude. — your Leonard” In 2006, Lou Marinoff was invited to contribute the entry for Leonard Cohen in the Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature. Here is part of what he wrote: “Leonard Cohen is best-known and most admired for his poems and songs. These are not strictly separable, since many of his songs—most famously Suzanne—are poems set to music. Like his novels, Cohen’s poetry is flush with the dialectic of love and the antics of sex. It also abounds with misplaced religious imagery, sadomasochistic allusion, and post-Holocaust defiance. Hence one encounters crucifixes without worship, razor blades without shaving, and Flowers for Hitler without condolences. Cohen has made his reputation first and last as a poet. While his novels are centered in Montreal, and are arguably best-understood by Montrealers, his poems are universal in their desire for desire, love of love, and musings on the Muse.” For Cohen, literature was a form of prayer as much as artistic expression. Indeed, his lyrics and music fuse into a prayer that became his greatest hit: Hallelujah. Brief video: https://youtu.be/yMi56EzreL4      

This exploration is a mere sampling of the myriad complexities of Israeli music. While it includes many different artists and styles, it is certainly not comprehensive. Most of this music is very new and inspiring to me. Researching and discovering it has greatly reinforced my determination to visit this land of miracles. The first wave of immigration was in 1882 with Jews coming from Eastern Europe and Yemen. Many came from Russia and brought with them the folk tunes and musical style of Russia while creating lyrics in Hebrew. Klezmer music was also brought by the immigrants with lyrics translated into Hebrew or with new Hebrew words. The music of Yemenite Jews was influential in the development of Israeli music because it was seen by early Zionists as a link to their biblical roots. The second wave of immigration began in 1904 and resulted in an increase of original songs by Jewish settlers in Palestine. These immigrants came with a passion for socialism. One of their creations was the kibbutz, the communal village. From 1919 to 1926 there were a lot of immigrants arriving, many of whom could write songs. Jewish composers began to seek to distinguish their songs from the traditional European music they had been brought up on. People started writing original songs in Hebrew with original melodies. Many songbooks were published and new songs were commissioned to encourage the creation of a new culture celebrating work, the land itself, national consensus, communalism, patriotism, and by 1948, military heroism and the tragedy of war. Hava Nagila is one of the first modern Jewish folk songs in the Hebrew language. In order to encourage the learning of these songs, daily events called public sing-alongs were established. People would gather in a public auditorium or in a communal dining hall to learn the songs, to create a shared community and a shared set of values. It was also a great way for new immigrants to learn Hebrew. The lyrics of the most famous Hebrew song of all, Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem were written in 1877 by Naftali Herz Imber, who emigrated from Ukraine. The words express the longing of the Jewish people to return to the land of Zion. The melody that was chosen for the poem had been written in Italy in the early 16th century called Ballo di Mantova. Over the centuries many European countries had their own local song set to that melody. In the 19-century it was used by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in a song called Rhapsodie Bretton. Bedrich Smetana used this melody in his tone poem about the Moldau River in the Czech Republic. The poem was set to this melody by Samuel Cohen, a new immigrant to Palestine from Romania, who based it on the Romanian song Cart with Oxen. (Carul cu boi.) John Williams created a magnificent version for orchestra. In the 1930s films and recordings from the West were shunned by the authorities. It was important that Israeli culture be different from the traditional Jewish culture of the diaspora. They wanted to create the new Jew, the Hebrew person, the Israeli to be rooted in the culture of the ancient Jews of the Bible. New songs were often set in the first person plural. We, the people of Israel as a collective. In a country that has faced major wars and military conflict since it’s inception, army life and wars are common themes in Israeli songs. Most are melancholic, focusing on sacrifice, heroism, separation and loss during war, and the longing for peace. The earliest of the professional performing groups was the Gevatron from the kibbutz Geva. One of their best-known songs is Our barns are Filled with Grain written for the 1933 festival of Sukkot, which is the harvest holiday. One of the first early stars was Shoshana Damari. She was born in Yemen. Her most famous song is Kalaniot, Windflower, which is a little red flower with a black circle in the middle of it. It was used as a metaphor for the British soldiers in Palestine who used to wear red caps. They wore the enemy to the Zionist establishment because they were keeping them from achieving their goals so people started referring to the British soldiers as windflowers, meaning that they have a red top and a black heart. They would call them windflowers in the streets. And for a time this song was banned by the British, who felt that this was a dangerous song. At the end of 1936 the Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman and the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini launched the orchestra now known as the Israel Philharmonic. The State of Israel was established in 1948 during the War of Independence, in which 6,000 people died, of whom 1/3 were civilians. It is not surprising that many of the first songs written in Israel were about the war. Israel has had a war in each decade: in ’48, ’56, ’67, ’67 to ’70, ’73, ’82 and 2006. And the wars had a huge impact on Israeli society and its music. Israel may be one of the only countries that has this genre of Memorial Day songs, sad songs that were written from the ‘30s until the present day about the wars, and about the individuals who died in the wars. The song Friendship is about friendship during wartime. The Friendship is sung by Shoshana Damari, one of Israel’s most popular singers during the country’s infancy. During the 1950s there was a huge wave of immigration from the Middle East and North Africa. And one of the biggest hits in 1957 was The Falafel Song by the 4 Ayalons. Israel’s military establishment has had a huge influence on its music by promoting music through military performance groups and its army-run radio station. Since the 1950s the Israel Defense Forces have had performing groups called army ensembles comprised of enlisted soldiers who tour bases and field positions to encourage the troops. Many of Israel’s most popular songs were written for these army ensembles. And many of Israel’s star musical artists have come from these army ensembles. One of the most famous army groups is called the Nahal Entertainment Troupe. From the 1950s through the 1970s army singing groups had a huge influence on Israeli musical culture. These groups conveyed Hebrew culture and values through songs to the many immigrants. One very optimistic song about tomorrow is called Machar. Marc Lavry was born in Latvia in 1903. He immigrated to Israel in 1935. “I felt that the country inspired me as a composer and that here I wrote my best compositions.” He became resident composer of the Ohel Theater in Tel Aviv in 1941, and conductor of the Palestine Folk Opera where he composed the first Hebrew-language opera “Dan the Guard”. In 1948 he moved to Jerusalem to undertake the creation of the Kol Zion Lagola radio station. There, he founded the first professional choir in Israel. In 1963, he became the conductor of the Haifa Symphony where he remained until his death in 1967. Pop and rock came late to Israel. The Beatles were scheduled to perform in Israel and tickets were printed but the Israeli parliament didn’t allow it, fearing the Beatles would be a negative influence on young people. Because foreign performers had to be paid in foreign currency, the government made it impossible to pay the Beatles in foreign currency so their appearance in Israel never took place. Years later the Israeli government apologized to Paul McCartney. Arik Einstein was very well known for singing traditional Israeli music but in the 60s he recorded Mazel, set to the melody of the Beatles’ song Do You Want to Know a Secret. The authorities wanted to keep composers from becoming too Western in their style so in 1960 the Israeli radio established the Israel Song Festival, a competition to encourage the production of Hebrew songs. The festival was broadcast every year on Independence day from 1960 until 2000, first on the radio, then on TV. In 1967 the Israeli song festival was held three weeks before the Six-Day War. The mayor of Jerusalem asked all the big songwriters if they would write songs about Jerusalem because there was a lot of tension. Naomi Shemer wrote the song Jerusalem of Gold sung by Shuli Natan; it was a huge success. This song preceded the reunification of Jerusalem by three weeks and it became almost like a second national anthem. The album, also called Jerusalem of Gold was the best-selling album in Israel. There wasn’t a home in Israel in 1968 without this record. The Six-Day War in 1967 marked an important turning point in Israeli culture. The number of art galleries increased by a third, the number of theaters doubled, and a proliferation of restaurants, nightclubs, and discotheques opened. Economic growth went from one percent per year to 13% the year following the war. A lot of music lost its national flavor and became inspired by International styles, although many Israeli musicians continued creating music with a distinct national identity. The Navy Variety Ensemble recorded Ma Avarech, a song that is about mourning for a friend who died in the Six-Day War. It is played every year on Memorial Day. In 1969 the Hebrew production of the rock musical Hair opened in Israel and it was an incredible success. This led to the composition of the Song of Peace, Shir LeShalom, Let the Sun Rise, influenced by the song Let the Sun Shine In. It was very controversial because it came out during Israel’s war with Egypt at the border, and commanders at many military bases banned it. Later it became a major peace anthem in Israel. And it was sung by Itzhak Rabin at the rally the night he was assassinated. In fact after he died a bloodied piece of paper with the song’s lyrics on it was found in his pocket. There is a famous photo from the 60s of the March on the Pentagon during the anti-war movement in the U.S. You can see someone putting a flower in the barrel of a soldier’s gun. Israel’s Artillery band wrote a song about that: Prachim B’Kaneh, Flowers in the Barrel of a Gun. This was a hit song in 1971. Israeli Rock really took off when musicians who were respected Zionist singers began creating rock n roll songs. They were clean cut with neatly trimmed hair who had served in the army and were exemplary citizens. The first rock album in Israel was entitled Poozy by Arik Einstein in 1969, a collaboration with the first successful rock group in Israel, the Churchhills, thereby inventing Israeli rock, though the lyrics were about patriotic themes and historical events in Israel. Many Israeli youth wanted to emulate the youth of England and the United States and sing about sex, love and fun. The few radio stations that existed were controlled by the government which considered Western pop and rock n roll to be a dangerous influence on youth, and therefore severely limited their air time on the radio. The group HaSignonot was one of the 1st rock groups in Israel.  Their song Ma Lach Yalda was one of the first real rock songs in Israel. The first pop-rock band was The High Windows founded by Arik Einstein, Josie Katz and Shmulik Kraus. Arik Einstein is one of the most important Israeli singers of all time. Another song from the Jerusalem of Gold album is Hatishma Koli, Will you hear my voice, written by Rachel HaMeshoreret, Rachel the Poet, and in a way it is connected to Naomi Shemer’s song Jerusalem of Gold because they were both from Kinneret. And they are buried next to one another. You can see Rachel on the 20-shekel bill. The first superstars of Israeli Rock was a group called Poogy or Kaveret, meaning beehive. They were veterans from the Army troops. A popular song is Yo Ya from 1973. This group Kaveret, which was composed of ex-military band members and others was the first band to bring electric guitars to the forefront. They also wrote songs that did not have the patriotic flavor that many other Israeli songs had. They wrote their own lyrics. This song Natali La Khayay, I gave Her My Life was the Israeli entry into the Eurovision contest in 1974. Starting in 1973 Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest and in 1978 Israel won for the first time with Abanibi by Yizhar Cohen. The following year the contest was in Jerusalem, and Israel won again with the song Hallelujah. And in the next few years Israel came in 2nd twice. This accelerated the trend towards globalization in Israeli pop. One of these songs was Am Yisrael Chai, The Nation of Israel lives by Ofra Haza in 1983. That year the contest was held in Munich, Germany, and Ofra Haza became a national hero as a result. In 1977 for the first time Menachem Begin, a right-wing leader was elected. From the 1920s until 1977 the Labor Party, the workers’ party had been in power. The election of Menachem Begin symbolized the rise of other voices in Israeli society. In music these other voices were singers influenced by Arab and Eastern music styles. The song Haperach BeGani, The Flower in My Garden was one of Zohar Argov’s biggest hits. Avihu Medina, the writer and composer of the song is one of those who is responsible for opening up and broadening Israeli music to other genres. In 1979 the peace treaty with Egypt was signed. And on the radio were tons of songs about peace. Such as David Broza singing It Will Be OK. In the early ‘80s after the Peace Agreement with Egypt, Naomi Shemer, who was a passionate advocate of community singing in Israel, created Al Kol Ele, singing “Don’t uproot the sapling that has been planted”. This became a massive pop music national anthem. During the 1980s the major Israeli record labels refused to accept Mizrahi music. A very popular Mizrahi singer was Chaim Moshe who put out an incredibly successful album in 1983 called The Love of My Life. Copies of it were sold on cassette tapes in kiosks at the central bus stations. A big hit from that album was Linda Linda, based on a Lebanese song. Ofra Haza recorded an album of Yemenite songs and when her song Im Ninalu was remixed and released in Europe it became the biggest-selling Israeli record ever: If the Doors Are Locked. In the ‘90s a big star was Aviv Geffen who was also very critical of the government. He appeared on stage in drag and heavy makeup, bragged about his evasion of the draft, and sang about drugs, sex and alienation in a hard rock style reminiscent of punk rock. Aviv Geffen’s song To cry Over You was a big hit when Arik Arnstein performed it. It was about the death of a friend in an auto accident, though it was thought of as a song about the deaths of soldiers. Geffen sang it at the rally on the night Itzhak Rabin was assassinated and it became associated with Rabin’s assassination. It is sung on Israel’s annual Memorial Day. The term Mizrahi music was changed to Music of the Mediterranean. Israeli immigrant communities from Arab countries have created a blended musical style called Muzika Mizrahit that combines Turkish, Greek, Arabic, and Israeli elements. An underground style of popular music by Israelis of Sephardic origin combines eastern and western elements. In 1970 the Israeli radio started the Mizrahi song festival. One of the biggest stars singers today is Omer Adam, who sings Mizrahi style music which has become the most popular music in Israel today: Mizrahi singing, set in a contemporary style. Two of the most successful Israeli musicians are violinist Itzhak Perlman and violinist and violist Pincus Zuckerman. Both also took up conducting. The Israeli government subsidizes education in Israel. In fact the Ministry of Education supports 41 music conservatories throughout the country. The two classical music conservatories the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv teach jazz and popular music, as does the Riman school, and the Hed school in Tel Aviv teaches jazz and pop music. The Jerusalem Academy of music and dance has an advanced degree program in Arabic music and in 2007 the first pre-college conservatory for the Arab speaking population opened in Shfaram. The orthodox Jewish community of Israel has developed a unique form of Hasidic rock that combines the sonorities, instrumentation and rhythms of rock music with melodies in a klezmer style, and words taken from religious texts. Yiddish and Ladino are enjoying a revival in Israel. Language institutes and universities offer programs in these languages. Cuando el Rey is an example of a well-known Ladino song. In addition to the Israel Philharmonic there is the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra which is supported by the state radio and television, the Rishon LeZion Orchestra, and the Camerata Orchestra. One of the motivations for creating these orchestras was to provide employment for Russian immigrants who could not find jobs. The new Israel Opera Company was founded in 1985. World-renowned musicians in the classical sphere include Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Gil Shaham, Ivry Gitliss, Shalom Mintz, and many others. Composer Paul Ben-Haim was born in Munich in 1897 and emigrated to Palestine in 1933. He won the Israel Prize for Music in 1957 and died in 1984. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a youth orchestra consisting of virtuoso musicians from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Spain. It was founded in 1999 by the academic Edward Said and the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and educated in Israel. A number of new anthologies of Yiddish songs have been compiled. In 2006 there were an estimated 165,000 migrant workers in Israel from the Philippines, Thailand, India, China, Africa, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Each community of migrant workers has its own musical culture. The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is a magnificent orchestra comprised of 14-18-year-olds from throughout Israel. What an inspiration they are! Here’s a short video: https://youtu.be/Fv5Kyvw6Ghk

Tchaikovsky composed musical settings from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. He was very moved by the traditions and pageantry of the Russian Orthodox style of worship and during his life his faith gradually grew stronger. “I very often go to mass: the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is, in my view, one of the greatest works of art.” He also composed settings of texts from the Russian Orthodox All-Night Vigil ceremony. “I am now arranging for full choir the basic chants of the All-Night Vigil. I want to preserve the ancient ecclesiastical chants quite untouched.” These compositions inspired Rachmaninoff to compose his own versions of them. Tchaikovsky wrote about his process of composing. “The main idea and the general outline of all the separate parts should not be arrived at by process of looking for them, but should suggest themselves through the supernatural, inscrutable power called inspiration. When I have the main idea and when it starts to grow into distinct shapes, measureless bliss possesses me. You forget everything, you become almost demented, you tremble and throb inwardly, you can scarcely manage to get the sketches down as one idea piles upon another. “Musical ideas always come to me in their complete form. This means I never conceive a melody without the harmony and orchestration to go with it. I write my sketches in a very abbreviated form on the first scrap of paper that comes to hand. The sketching is accompanied by anxiety, by a kind of nervous excitement. You sleep badly and sometimes you completely forget to eat. Sometimes in the midst of this miraculous process an external stimulus suddenly rouses you; somebody rings at the door, a servant comes in, the clock strikes and reminds you that you have an appointment. Such interruptions are indescribably troublesome. “Sometimes inspiration slips away and is elusive. You very often have to conquer laziness and disinclination. But I consider it an artist’s duty never to give in to them. One must not wait. Inspiration is a guest who does not like visiting the lazy. She comes to those who invite her. The whole secret is working systematically every day. In this respect I have an iron grip on myself and when I don’t especially feel like working I can always make myself overcome my disinclination and develop some enthusiasm.” He wrote: “I have just finished my symphonic ballad, Voyevoda, and I am very pleased with it.” Six weeks later he wrote: “My new composition, Voyevoda, is no good and I am going to destroy it. I fear that this is a sign of the decline of my powers. And so it seems that until I draw my last breath I will only strive for mastery and never attain it.” Tchaikovsky did destroy the score, but fortunately, the orchestral parts survived and were kept and reconstructed after his death! “As soon as one composition is finished I immediately feel the irresistible urge to start on a new one. Work, this sort of work is as necessary to me as the air I breathe. As soon as I succumb to idleness I begin to feel melancholy, to have doubts about my ability. I feel dissatisfied and even hate myself. I begin to feel that I am a useless creature. The only way to escape from these excruciating doubts and self-recriminations is to get down to work again. I am very inclined to hypochondria and I know that I must not give in to the attractions of idleness. Work alone can save me.” “I had scarcely embarked on a few days of doing absolutely nothing when I began to feel weary and weak, not feeling well; I began to sleep badly. I couldn’t hold out and I started doing a bit of work on sketching out my next symphony— and then? And then I immediately felt healthy and fit, and my mind was at rest.” “Life is a constant alteration between grim reality and fading visions and dreams of happiness. An artist lives a double life: an everyday human life, and an artistic life. It is absolutely necessary for a composer to shake off all the cares of daily existence, at least for a time, and give himself up entirely to his art-life.” Tchaikovsky constantly moved around, usually staying on his brother-in-law’s estate and in the various homes his patroness made available to him in Russia, Italy, and Switzerland. Interestingly, Tchaikovsky didn’t have a residence of his own until the last years of his life. He always had a young male valet live and travel with him except short periods when he was alone. “Because I am dreadfully absent-minded and I’m constantly absorbed in my music, I need someone around to look after me and all my possessions. Half of the clothes in the linen are now missing. I haven’t the remotest notion what has happened to the rest. I will have to get a grip on myself and pay attention to these things but unfortunately it would be easier for me to write 40 symphonies than to keep my few possessions in order. “In a sad period like the one we are now going through only art can distract our attention from unpleasant reality. When I sit at the piano I am completely isolated from all the tormenting questions which weigh us down. Is this perhaps egoistic? But then each of us serves the general good in his own way; and art is, in my view, an essential requirement for humanity. Outside of the musical sphere I am incapable of being of service to my neighbor. Tchaikovsky composed his tragic opera Mazeppa based on a poem by Pushkin. He frequently attended concerts given by Paul Pabst, and used to refer to him as “a pianist of divine elegance, a pianist from God. I heard Pabst’s Fantasie on Mazeppa. It was quite effective.” Pabst created several piano fantasies based on Tchaikovsky’s theatrical works. “I wish, desire, and love people to be interested in my music, but I have never sought that they should be interested in me personally. I have always hated publicity. There is a sense of alienation, fear of others, timidity, excessive shyness, mistrustfulness – which make me more and more unsociable.” “I am constantly exchanging letters with my four brothers, my sister, several cousins, innumerable friends and acquaintances, and on top of that I have mountains of correspondence with people who are very often quite unknown to me.” It was not unusual for Tchaikovsky to write up to 20 letters per day, and most of them were quite long. Tsar Alexander III conferred the Order of St. Vladimir upon Tchaikovsky, which included a title of hereditary nobility and a personal audience with the Tsar, who awarded Tchaikovsky a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles. In 1890 Nadezda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s patroness for 13 years, wrote to him stating that she was ruined financially and was stopping his allowance. Her financial difficulties were only temporary but she was also ill, greatly suffering from arthritis. Perhaps she was pressured by her family to stop his allowance once the Tsar awarded him an annual pension. His letters to her may have been intercepted because at this time she also abruptly stopped their correspondence and didn’t answer his letters. Tchaikovsky wrote “She has treated me very cruelly. I have never before felt so humiliated, so wounded in my pride.” From 1890 von Meck’s life slowly declined, due to a terrible nervous disease, which changed her relationship not only with Tchaikovsky, but with others. She passed away 2 months after Tchaikovsky. His Trio for piano, violin and cello was composed as a tribute to his friend Nikolai Rubinstein, who had died several months earlier. He subtitled the Trio “In memory of a great artist. Of my works I can say with my hand on my heart that with very few exceptions they come straight from my heart.” Tchaikovsky’s penultimate opera is The Queen of Spades, based on a novella by Pushkin. “I admit that I like it the best of my operas and there are lots of passages in it which take my breath away and I want to cry. I wrote it with unusual zeal and enthusiasm, and put my whole soul into this work. “I sketched out the opera particularly quickly in less than 6 weeks. It may very well be that The Queen of Spades is a very poor opera; it is quite possible that in a year’s time I will dislike it, as I dislike many of my creations; but right now I believe this is my best writing and that the opera has a brilliant future”. “The trick is to write with love. And The Queen of Spades was written with particular love. I finished the opera 3 hours ago. When I reached the scene of Herman’s death and final chorus, I felt such pity for Herman that I suddenly began to weep out loud bitterly. I had never had sobbing like that before.” While the opera was given an enormous reception at its world premiere, the critics unanimously condemned the libretto and didn’t approve of the music. “He not only repeats himself, but does not shrink from imitating other composers.” Another thought this “the weakest of all his efforts at opera.” However the audiences loved it and its success increased from one performance to the next, despite the ranting of the press. In 1884 he wrote: “My English studies are going so well I can now read Dickens without difficulty and without constantly looking words up in the dictionary. In 1891 Tchaikovsky was invited to the United States to conduct several performances of his music for the grand opening of Carnegie Hall and performances in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Just as he departed for America his sister Aleksandra passed away.“It is difficult to convey what I went through but I do not recollect ever being so unhappy.” And he wrote about feeling homesick “which I can now never avoid when I am away from Russia.” He was treated like a king in the United States. “I am 10 times better known in America than I am in Europe. Isn’t that odd?!!!” He was delighted with his hotel accommodations in New York writing “There are all sorts of things to make one comfortable which do not exist in Europe.” He was impressed by the tall buildings, he called Central Park “magnificent”, and visited Niagara Falls writing “I will not describe the beauty of the Niagara Falls, for these things are difficult to express in words.” He was very impressed with Andrew Carnegie writing “Carnegie, an amazing eccentric, who from being a telegraph boy, became one of America’s richest men, but who has remained a simple, modest man who does not at all turn his nose up at anyone, and inspires an unusual warmth of feeling in me. Although I was most perfectly received in New York, and in spite of having seen much in America that was interesting I longed to get home and cannot say how happy I was when I found myself back in Russia.” Tchaikovsky composed his Violin Concerto in Switzerland in 1878, where he had gone to recover from the nervous breakdown after his disastrous marriage. Jascha Heifetz’s teacher, Leopold Auer refused to perform the work, stating it was “unviolinistic and impossible to play”. Eduard Hanslick, the dean of Viennese music critics lambasted it as “music that stinks to the ear”. It has since become one of the most popular violin concertos ever. In 1881 Tchaikovsky spent several weeks in Italy. “I read Italian quite fluently, but speak it pretty badly. I have been right to the top of the volcano at Mr. Vesuvius, which is a sight of hellish magnificence. Tivoli is one of the most enchanting places I have ever seen. Of all I have seen I was most impressed with Sorrento. If there is a place on this earth which one can call paradise, it must be this wonderful corner of the world.” “I have also discovered how important it is to look at a painting intently and for a long time. Every painting needs at least a whole day, such as Rafael’s Transfiguration. “Michelangelo’s frescos in the Sistine chapel fill me with wonder at his original and powerful beauty. Here a miracle was worked. The more I see of Michelangelo the more he astonishes me. Michelangelo’s Moses is a tremendous work! On a number of occasions I have stood gazing at the statue for a long time and on each occasion I feel even greater reverence for it. I stood looking at it for a long time. The face of Moses is filled with awful wrath. It began to frighten me. He is a majestic and commanding figure. Nothing more perfect than this mighty statue can be imagined. “I have started making sketches for an Italian fantasy on folk tunes, Capriccio Italien. It will be effective thanks to the delightful melodies which I succeeded in collecting partly from albums and partly with my own ears from the streets in Italy. The sketches were completed within a week.” In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, only the second Russian to be so honored. The following year, the University of Cambridge awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree. His 6th Symphony, the “Pathétique” was composed just months before his death and is one of his greatest masterpieces. “As I was mentally composing it on my travels I frequently wept copiously. “I cannot longer write so quickly as before because I have become far more severe on myself and I lack my former self-confidence. I definitely think it is by far the best and in particular by far the most sincere of all my pieces. I love it as I have never loved any other of my musical children and I am more proud of it than of any other of my works. It is no exaggeration to say that I have put my whole soul into this symphony.” Tchaikovsky’s dedication of his 6th Symphony to his nephew and the feelings he expressed about him in his letters are indicative of romantic love between the two. Davydov committed suicide in 1906 when he was just 34. Tchaikovsky conducted the world premiere of his last symphony just nine days before his death at 53. It ranges from intense passion to deep despair and is often thought to have been Tchaikovsky’s Requiem for himself, perhaps a premonition of his early death. Tchaikovsky’s sudden death has long been ascribed to the cholera epidemic at the time in St. Petersburg. But there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was really the cause or if his death was a mandatory suicide. From Alexandra Orlova’s book Tchaikovsky A Self Portrait: “Count Stenbock-Fermor had become concerned by the attentions which Tchaikovsky was paying to the count’s young nephew. He wrote an indignant letter addressed to the Tsar and had handed this letter to Nikolai Jacobi of the Russian Senate.” Exposure would have threatened Tchaikovsky as well as the sacred honor of his alma mater, the School of Jurisprudence and its alumni. In order to prevent this from becoming public knowledge, Jacobi invited Tchaikovsky and his former fellow students to his house and held a court of honor of eight men. The meeting lasted almost 5 hours. Their conclusion was that the letter to the Tsar could be suppressed only in the event of Tchaikovsky’s death. Tchaikovsky may have returned home very upset and drank a glass of unboiled water possibly taking poison with it. What actually happened cannot be conclusively determined because many of the documents in the Tchaikovsky archives are still under lock and seal. However, in 1960 at a lecture on forensic medicine in the First Leningrad Medical Institute, the case of Tchaikovsky was cited as an example of enforced suicide. The accounts by first-hand witnesses of Tchaikovsky’s illness and death include many contradictions. Also, Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries were astonished and perplexed by the failure to observe the most elementary precautions. The government’s orders concerning those who have died from cholera were very specific. “In the event of a death from cholera the body should be removed from the house as soon as possible in a hermetically sealed coffin; it is also recommended that the arrangement of a widely attended funeral service or funeral banquet should be avoided.” In Tchaikovsky’s case all the rules were violated. 15 people gathered around him as he died. His corpse was on the view for two days. Requiem masses took place in the presence of a constant stream of people. The composer Rimsky-Korsakov remembered that it was strange that although the death was said to be the result of cholera, there was free access. “I remember seeing the cellist Alexander Verzhbilovich kiss the corpse’s head and face.” In the 1920s Tchaikovsky’s doctor, Vasily Bertenson, who attended to him as he lay dying told the musicologist, Georgy Orlova that Tchaikovsky committed suicide. No other composer has successfully captured the fairy-tale world of childhood innocence as inimitably as Tchaikovsky in his ballet The Nutcracker. The world premieres of his last opera, Iolante and The Nutcracker in 1892 were performed as a double bill. They were a great success with the public but not with the press. He wrote “The whole of the Petersburg press is busy cursing my latest offspring in a variety of styles. I know that in the end I will get my due. Here’s a short video: https://youtu.be/B3FOfNkVXxo

Tchaikovsky was very well read and wrote about the music of many of his contemporaries. “I have bought Massenet’s The King of Lahore and play it with the greatest pleasure. I am quite in love with it. I would give a lot for my Maid of Orleans to be as good. Tchaikovsky wrote about Delibes’s ballet Sylvia. “What charm and elegance, what riches in the melody, the rhythm, the harmony. I was ashamed. If I had known this music before, I would, of course, not have written Swan Lake. “Bizet’s Carmen is one of the most charming operas of our time, a masterpiece. It is delightful from beginning to end. I cannot play the last scene without weeping. In a few years Carmen will be looked upon as a perfect masterpiece. I am convinced that in 10 years or so Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world. Bizet is head and shoulders above everybody.” “I have heard Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust which is one of the miracles of art. When I Iistened I only stopped my sobs with difficulty. “I have always been fond of Bellini. As a child I often cried under the strong impression made upon me by his beautiful melodies, which are impregnated with a kind of melancholy. He wrote about having dinner at Dvořák’s home. “His Quintet was played. He is very nice to me; he was awfully friendly and I like his Quintet.” Tchaikovsky was also friendly with Busoni, Saint-Saëns, and Brahms, though he didn’t care for his music. Nor did he like the music of the young Richard Strauss. Boris Bekhterev has made piano solo arrangements of some of Tchaikovsky’s songs. One of them is Take My Heart Away. Tchaikovsky was very enthusiastic about the young Chekhov calling him “our great new Russian literary talent. In my view he will be a pillar of our literature”. Chekhov dedicated a collection of his stories to Tchaikovsky and wrote “I am willing to stand day and night as an honorary watchman at the door of Pyotr Ilich’s house, so great is my respect for him.” “I regard Lev Tolstoy as the most powerful and profound genius which literature has ever known. The main note which sounds on every page of Tolstoy, is – love, compassion for humanity at large not just for the insulted and the injured. I have constantly read and reread him, and I regard him as the greatest writer in the world, past or present. “Tolstoy has convinced me that the artist who works not in response to an inner stimulus but with a careful calculation of the effect which he will achieve is not truly an artist, that his works will not last, that his success is ephemeral. I am completely converted to the truth of this view. One should compose in direct response to one’s own inclination and with no thought of pleasing this or that section of humanity.” At a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1st String Quartet Tolstoy burst into tears during the slow movement. This part of the quartet has become one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular compositions. As Tchaikovsky became more and more popular his fame and celebrity also continued to grow. “More distressing and insufferable than anything else is my total inability to avoid the necessity of seeing and meeting endless people who are of no interest to me, whom I do not especially like or, at best, regard with indifference. Making speeches at dinners and suppers is one of the most disagreeable things I have to do. “I am an unsociable person by nature. I have always found knowing people and meeting new people a source of acute mental strain. When my situation did not permit me to avoid meeting people, I did meet them, pretended that I enjoyed it, was compelled by sheer necessity to act out my part, and suffered agonies. Only God knows what I went through. What a torment it has been! I am morbidly shy. The poison of pathological shyness is the most terrible of poisons, and there is no cure. My fear of meeting people has become something like a mania. I am at peace only in the country or abroad, where nobody knows me. Tchaikovsky complained about his life in Moscow: “From morning till night I either have to go out visiting or to receive visitors who require something of me. I haven’t sufficient character to turn invitations down firmly and take the risk of offending or annoying people – the result is that I waste heaps of time. He wrote about “forcing oneself to be worldly, to speak when one wants to be silent, to smile in a friendly manner when in one’s heart one has no cause to smile, to chatter meaninglessly when one needs to work. “I must get away, get away somewhere as soon as I can. I want to see nobody, to know nothing about anything, to work, work, work. I would most ardently wish to live in constant isolation from the mass of humanity. I cannot stand the noise of towns at all. Every passing carriage makes me wild with rage, every shout, every sound grates on my nerves. “The peace, the opportunity to work without any interruption – oh, how I value it all! I have no intention of chasing after fame and honors. In 1885 Tchaikovsky composed his Manfred Symphony based on Byron’s poem Manfred. “I started on the sketches for the symphony and as often happens I got carried away and couldn’t stop. Never before have I put so much effort into a piece of work and never have I been so exhausted by it. As he did with many of his compositions, after a few years Tchaikovsky turned cool towards it. “So far as Manfred is concerned, I find the work disgusting and loathe it heartily, with the exception of the first movement. I am so happy and relaxed now precisely because I can, at least here in the country, live without seeing anybody apart from those with whom I can be myself.” In 1885 he rented a house in Maidanovo: “What a joy it is to be in my own place! What a blessing it is to know that nobody will come, nobody will interrupt my work, my reading, my walks!” Tchaikovsky founded a school for the local children in Maidanovo. “The people here are especially poor. I’m very pleased about it!” Tchaikovsky continued to support the school for the rest of his life. “I am overwhelmed with various young composers who want advice and guidance from me.” No matter how busy he was, he never refused help and always gave a detailed critique of the compositions that were submitted to him. He also handed out money to complete strangers in his everyday encounters in public. In 1877 Tchaikovsky wrote from Italy to his patroness. “The trouble is depression, an all-consuming insane depression, which will not leave me for a moment. The weather is magnificent, there is plenty to see and to be distracted by—but I am still tormented by a gigantic, colossal depression! Scrutinizing and observing myself I soon found the cause. All I needed to do was start composing. But what? “For me there is no happiness, none, none, none. Work, when it is in full swing, takes such a grip on you that you have no time to think about what you feel like and you forget everything.” To dispel the rumors of his homosexuality, at the age of 37 he married Antonina Miliukova. “I seek marriage or some sort of public involvement with a woman so as to shut the mouths of those who are in a position to cause distress to those near to me.” The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually, the couple lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left her and suffered a nervous breakdown during which he attempted to kill himself. Miliukova, who Tchaikovsky paid a monetary allowance to for the rest of his life, refused to grant him a divorce, and spent the last 20 years of her life in a mental hospital. Eugene Onegin is the best-loved of Tchaikovsky’s 13 operas. It is based on Pushkin’s novel of the same name. Tchaikovsky wrote: “I doubt that Onegin is a great work. But there is no doubt that this music is to the greatest degree from the heart and it is the fruit of deep and sincere enthusiasm. I have never written a work as easily as I did this opera. What I have written literally poured forth from me; it was not contrived or forced out. I trembled with indescribable delight when I was writing it. “I have played through almost the whole of Eugene Onegin at the piano! I’m ashamed to admit it, but the music brought tears of delight. And there were moments when I had to stop from excitement and my voice refused to sing because my throat was full of tears. Sergei Lemeshev’s signature role was Lensky in Eugene Onegin, and beginning in 1927 the great tenor gave more than 500 performances of it, the last one on his 70th birthday, after suffering three heart attacks and having a lung removed. He referred to the character Lensky as his “dearest, beloved, and the utmost satisfaction of my creative work.” In a film of one performance, Lemeshev conveyed the heart of an 18-year-old young man thirsting for love, hope and life. “To be entirely free and alone, to be able to visit the woods every day, to be amongst greenery and flowers all the time, to listen to the nightingale at one’s windows at night. One of the pleasures of country life is finding oneself far away from all the hideous monstrosities that are now taking place in towns and cities. I cannot pick up a newspaper without a feeling of horror! I can think of no more perfect form of happiness than lying on the grass drinking tea on a fine day in the woods.” “There is nothing to compare with these moments of isolation, surrounded by greenery and flowers. These moments of holy rapture in the contemplation of nature are higher even than the delights of art. For a moment I could not hold back tears of ecstasy. I was so seized with rapture that I fell to my knees and thanked God for the intensity of my bliss. I am in a permanent condition of ecstasy. At such moments I am offended and irritated by any sharp reminder that I belong to the real world.” While composing his 5th Symphony he wrote “Recently I have been haunted by the idea that I am played out, that my head is empty, that it is time to stop, etc. etc.”  In 1888, Tchaikovsky conducted the world premiere of his 5th Symphony and his tone poem Hamlet. The critics were hostile. However, both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by the audience and Tchaikovsky continued to conduct his 5th symphony in Russia and Europe. Tchaikovsky’s enormous popularity drew a cult following. Beginning in his 40s Tchaikovsky was in considerable demand as a conductor at home and throughout Europe. Traveling to many European cities to conduct his music he wrote “I am getting more and more exhausted and simply do not know how I can face up to all that lies ahead. My life in Berlin was sheer torture. I didn’t have a minute to myself; from morning till night I had either to receive visitors or go out paying calls. The success which I have enjoyed everywhere is very pleasant. But what was dreadful and unbearable was the utter impossibility of getting away on one’s one, resting, reading, of doing anything at all, apart from this insufferable slavery to the social round.” While composing his ballet The Sleeping Beauty he wrote “I think that the music for this ballet will be one of my best works and yet I wrote it incredibly quickly.” However, after the world premiere the press wrote “Was it actually a ballet? The music of Tchaikovsky does not suit the dances at all. It’s not even possible to dance to it. It unsuccessfully imitates ballet rhythms. It is a complete decline of choreographic art.” One of Tchaikovsky’s most well known compositions is the 1812 Overture. Not to be confused with the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, this overture is about the Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. That summer Napoleon led 680,000 French soldiers into Russia. After weeks of fighting, the French army attacked the Russian army at Borodino about 78 miles west of Moscow. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Napoleonic Wars. It was another victory for Napoleon and one week later his armies marched into Moscow ready to claim victory. The Russian army had no intentions of surrendering at Moscow. Instead, knowing that Napoleon’s army was on its way, the retreating Russian army set fire to the city after most of Moscow’s inhabitants had been evacuated. The city was destroyed by the fires leaving Moscow barren and desolate. Famine, disease and the bitter cold overwhelmed the French and with their supply lines overextended they were forced to retreat. Napoleon suffered a disastrous defeat. Only a fraction of his army survived and the Russians were victorious. To commemorate the victory Tsar Alexander I commissioned the construction of the Cathedral to Christ the Savior, “to signify our gratitude to divine providence for saving Russia.” 68 years later the cathedral was nearing completion. Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose a patriotic overture to be played at its grand opening and to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Tsar Alexander II, who was to be in attendance. Tchaikovsky hated what he’d been asked to do, but he didn’t turn down such a prestigious and lucrative offer and completed the overture in 6 weeks. A brass band was to perform with the orchestra on a raised platform in front of the cathedral. Near the end of the overture all the church bells of Moscow were to ring . And as Tchaikovsky specified, canon shots would be fired. However, in March of 1881 Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. Tchaikovsky did not conduct. No stage was erected. It was performed in a tent next to the still unfinished cathedral. There was no brass band, and there were no cannons. It begins with a simple melody from the Eastern Orthodox hymn, O Lord save thy people. This represents the Russian people gathered throughout the nation to pray for divine intervention because the French army was on the march. Next, the French national anthem La Marseillaise can be heard, which represents the invading French army. The Marseillaise is heard competing against Russian folk melodies. This represents the two armies fighting in battle as the French Army gets closer and closer to Moscow. Then we hear five canon shots which represent the Battle of Borodino. At this point the melody of La Marseillasie is at its most prominent and seems to indicate that Napoleon is winning. When the French reached Moscow Napoleon just walked through the front door without a fight. But it was a trap! The Russians never intended to surrender. They had already abandoned the city, set it on fire and depleted the winter supplies. We then hear is a long passage of descending notes that represents the French army’s retreat out of Moscow and Russia.At the end of this long section the hymn we heard at the very beginning returns signifying prayers being answered. This time the melody is triumphant with church bells and chimes ringing in celebration. During the grand finale we hear eleven more cannon shots and the Russian national anthem, God Save the Tsar, as well as the clanging of large church bells. The 1812 Overture cemented Tchaikovsky’s status as a Russian hero and an international superstar but Tchaikovsky didn’t like it! He wrote that the overture was “very loud and noisy and completely without artistic merit, obviously written without warmth or love.” He might be surprised to know that the 1812 Overture has become one of his most popular compositions performed all over the world including in the U.S. on the 4th of July with fireworks. Tchaikovsky’s opinion remains a lesson to us all -that it’s often best to leave it up to the audience to make the final judgement about music! Here’s a short video: https://youtu.be/ZjgXCvKqRqU

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was one of the most influential and beloved composers of the 19th century. His prolific output spans various genres, including 7 symphonies, 4 orchestral suites, several orchestral tone poems and overtures, many duets, a trio, 3 string quartets, a sextet, many compositions for solo instruments and orchestra, an important composition for string orchestra, many pieces for piano solo, more than 100 songs, 13 operas, and 3 iconic ballets. Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia, 800 miles east of Moscow. He began piano lessons at age five and by age six was fluent in French and German. He later learned Italian and English. He was a nervous child, capricious and irritable, very reticent and unsociable. Tchaikovsky’s parents hired a tutor, encouraged his piano studies and bought an orchestrion, a mechanical organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects. It played excerpts by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and von Weber. Beginning at age 5 every spare moment he had was spent at the piano picking out melodies he heard on this instrument. He said “I am never away from the piano; it cheers me up when I am sad.” The only careers available for a musician in Russia at that time were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder having no more rights than peasants. So when he was 10 Tchaikovsky’s parents sent him to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence for 9 years, a boarding school for boys in St. Petersburg to prepare their son for a career as a civil servant. While there Tchaikovsky had music lessons and sang in the choir. When he was 15 Tchaikovsky’s father funded private piano lessons with Rudolph Kündinger, who, when questioned about a musical career for his son, Kündinger replied that while he was impressed with the boy’s talent, he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer! “I have now written another two songs. I have taken texts from Aleksey Khomyakov. What a poet he was! The two poems I have chosen are sheer delight! They are so original and delightful that I can feel how my music has come out better and more successfully then in all the others.” One of these is called The Last Night. “I have never met anyone who was more in love than I am with Mother Russia in general. I am passionately fond of Russians, of hearing the Russian language, of the Russian way of thinking, of the beauty of the Russian face, of Russian customs. I was steeped from my earliest childhood in the indescribable beauty of Russian folk music with all its special characteristics. I am a Russian in the fullest sense of the word.” Despite Tchaikovsky’s disdain for public life, he participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. At age 37 he wrote “I am an artist who can and must bring honor to his country. I can feel great creative powers within me. I still have not done even a fraction of what I can do.” At age 11 his mother brought him to hear his first opera performance: A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka, which was one of his favorites throughout his life. “How Glinka with a single stride, placed himself alongside (yes – alongside!) Mozart, Beethoven, and anyone else you like. This can be said without any exaggeration of the man who wrote Slavsya! (Glory!)  Slavsya is something quite overwhelming and gigantic, a work of superlative inspiration, which stands alongside the loftiest manifestations of the creative spirit in the great geniuses. What a remarkable phenomenon Glinka was! All the Russian composers who followed him including myself continue to this day to borrow contrapuntal and harmonic combinations from him.” Tchaikovsky was a musical misfit. Other Russian composers were into nationalism: music that’s earthy, folksy and very Russian! Tchaikovsky created his own style. It’s why international audiences love him but Russian critics of his time didn’t. They said he was overly reliant on Western melodies and harmonies. A turning point was a speech in 1880 by the great novelist Dostoyevsky, who called for a “universal unity” with the West. The message spread throughout Russia and Russians began to reassess Tchaikovksy. “For me the best opera ever written is Don Giovanni. I was 16 when I first heard it. It was the first music to have a really shattering effect on me. It took me into the world of artistic beauty where only the greatest geniuses dwell. It is to Mozart that I am in indebted for the fact that I have dedicated my life to music. It was he who caused me to love music more than anything in the world. I do not merely like Mozart. I worship him. What marvelous sensations I experience when I immerse myself in his music! When I read or play Mozart I feel more lively and vigorous, almost a young man again! I so love the music of Don Giovanni that at this very moment as I write to you I could weep from emotion and excitement. I cannot discuss it calmly.” Thousands of letters written by Tchaikovsky have survived. Alexandra Orlova worked as a young musicologist in the Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin. She assisted in compiling a chronicle of Tchaikovsky’s life and a subject index of his unpublished letters to his brothers. Many of Tchaikovsky’s letters have been censored and many of the letters that were published contain redacted passages because of references to his homosexuality. Orlova wrote “Tchaikovsky’s brother, Modest’s unpublished reminiscences are in the archives of the Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin. Access to them is not now granted; but I read Modest’s reminiscences when I was working at the museum in 1938 and ‘39” “I have been constantly depressed this winter to a greater or lesser degree and sometimes to the ultimate degree of being so revolted by life that I would have welcomed  death. Now that spring is approaching these attacks of melancholy have stopped all together but, other things involve much biting of nails and the smoking of a vast number of cigarettes.” Tchaikovsky was an artist who had known success and recognition on two continents, who was in his lifetime covered with glory, affection, and adulation. So why the sadness, the pain, the torment?” Despite his great, international success, Tchaikovsky’s life was filled with personal crises and depression, including the traumatic, early separation from his mother when he was sent to boarding school at age 10, and her death from cholera 4 years later, which caused emotional scars that he never recovered from. He experienced wild mood swings, extreme social anxiety, and his disastrous marriage to Antonina Miliukova, resulted in a nervous breakdown. His frequent suffering negatively affected his physical health. He was a heavy smoker and drank excessively, often to medicate himself because of his frequent emotional pain. Tchaikovsky was greatly influenced by Shakespeare, resulting in his orchestral compositions Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and 2 compositions based on Hamlet. His operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades are based on works by Pushkin. Towards the end of his life he studied Spinoza. And he considered Tolstoy to be above everyone. In 1878 he wrote “In the course of these two weeks, without any effort, as though moved by some supernatural force, I wrote the rough draft of the whole of The Tempest.” 5 years later, after mixed reaction to a performance of it in Paris he wrote “I was devastated by the thought that the Tempest, which I have grown used to regarding as my most brilliant composition, is in fact so worthless!” At age 21 Tchaikovsky began the formal study of music. Bored with his civil service job, he quit the following year and entered the new St. Petersburg Music Conservatory. He was awarded a silver medal for his graduation assignment, composing a cantata on Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”. Upon graduation Tchaikovsky was hired by Nikolai Rubinstein to be a professor of music theory and composition at the new Moscow Conservatory of Music. In 1877 he wrote “I can say, with no false modesty, that everything I have written up to now seems so imperfect, so feeble by comparison with what I can and must do. And I will do it.” “I am a terrific lover of animals.” As a humanist Tchaikovsky hated evil and violence. He was a passionate lover of nature. “From time to time I am seized with those moments of ecstasy which only nature can provide. Only when one is alone in the warm bosom of nature can one experience moments of true happiness. Not even art can provide those moments of ecstatic rapture which nature gives.” In 1938 the legendary tenor Sergei Lemeshev was the first artist to sing all 100 songs by Tchaikovsky in 5 concerts. Almost all his performances during the 1930s and 40s were accompanied by crowds of fans following him through the streets, spending days and nights near his house. He was married six times and had numerous affairs! Asteroid No. 4561 was named after him. His recordings of Tchaikovsky’s song, Autumn are classics. Tchaikovsky wrote: “I think that the tender melancholy of nature’s coloring in autumn has the power to fill my soul with a gentle sense of joy.” Tchaikovsky combined composing with his teaching duties at the conservatory. For a few years he also worked as a music journalist. This activity exposed him to a lot of contemporary music and opportunities to travel abroad where he got to meet and know many of his composer colleagues. In his reviews, he praised Beethoven, considered Brahms overrated and admired Schumann. He appreciated the staging of Wagner’s tetralogy, The Ring cycle, which he attended at its world premiere in 1876 in Bayreuth, Germany. He wrote about The Ring having “many striking beauties. It is one of the most significant events in the history of art. After the last notes of The Twilight of the Gods, I felt as though I had been let out of prison. The Nibelungen may actually be a magnificent work, but it is certain that there never was anything so endlessly and wearisomely spun out. “I dislike Wagner himself as a man but his colossal musical talent cannot be denied. In my view, it is a talent which is nowhere so apparent as in Lohengrin. This work will remain the crowning glory of Wagner’s achievement. My particular interest in Lohengrin at the moment is the orchestration.” In 1884 he wrote: “I am studying Parsifal in the evenings. My God! How wearisome it is! “In my view Grieg has immense gifts. His music is infused with a captivating melancholy which reflects the beauties of the Norwegian landscape. We instinctively recognize a deeply poetic nature. I am sincerely grateful to fate for enabling me to meet him and get to know him personally. I became particularly friendly with Grieg and his wife, who are charming people.” His wonderful ballet, Swan Lake was a failure at its world premiere in Moscow in 1877. A Pas de deux originally intended for Swan Lake was lost until it was accidentally discovered in 1953 and choreographed by George Balanchine. The Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda has repeatedly emphasized the profound and transformative power of music, describing it as a vitalizing power capable of inspiring courage, rekindling hope, and transcending barriers between people. Ikeda asserted that the true essence of music lies in its ability to touch the human soul. In her later years the ballerina, Marta Gonzalez was struck with with Alzheimer’s disease and had become unresponsive. A therapist placed head phones on her, and while listening to Swan Lake, she suddenly remembered its choreography from when she was a prima ballerina 50 years before and began to recreate the gestures of the ballet in her wheelchair! Tchaikovsky wrote: “Indeed I would go out of my mind were it not for music. That is truly heaven’s greatest gift to mankind as it blunders about in the darkness. Music alone brings light, and calm, and reconciliation. It is a true friend, protector, and comforter, and it alone makes life on this earth worth living. After all, there may not be any music in heaven, so let us live in this world so long as there is life in us!” Tchaikovsky was greatly helped by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railroad tycoon, who was totally captivated by his music. As well as an important friend and source of emotional support, she became his patroness for 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composing. Although Tchaikovsky called her his “best friend”, they agreed never to meet under any circumstances, and didn’t! Her financial assistance and her invitations for him to stay at several of her estates helped to create the optimal conditions for him to compose. In 1878 Tchaikovsky composed his opera about Joan of Arc entitled The Maid of Orleans “I think that at last I have got it right in The Maid of Orleans but I may indeed be mistaken.” About the world premiere he wrote: “I took eight curtain calls at the end of Act 1. In all I took 24 calls. After that I spent a sleepless night.” Tchaikovsky dedicated his 4th Symphony “To my best friend Nadezhda von Meck. I don’t know how things will turn out later, but at the moment I think that it is the best of all that I have written. This is one of my most favorite children, one which was written from beginning to end under the impetus of true inspiration, with love and genuine enthusiasm. None of my previous orchestral works has ever cost me so much effort, but then I have never felt so much affection for one of my works. There is not a single phrase in that symphony which is not deeply felt, which is not the echo of some sincere emotion.” The 3rd movement is very interesting because Tchaikovsky indicated that the string players pluck their strings and not use their bows. At its world premiere the symphony did not impress the audience nor the press, but has since gone on to be one of the most loved and often played symphonies. “I will approach the fulfilling of my duties at the conservatory with extreme revulsion. I always have been and always will be a bad teacher if only because I have got into the habit of regarding my pupils as sworn enemies whose job it is to torment and torture me. Then have I not an obligation to devote all my time and all my powers to the cause which I love, which constitutes the whole purpose, the very essence of my life?” With von Meck’s consistent subsidy, he was able to resign from teaching at the conservatory. “What bliss it is to be free not to have to correct 60 harmony and orchestration exercises every day!” Nikolai Rubinstein was a pianist and composer, one of Tchaikovsky’s teachers, and the founder and first Director of the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky greatly admired his piano playing and when he completed his 1st Piano Concerto he played it for Rubinstein, whose reaction was quite negative. He told Tchaikovsky that it was no good at all, that it was unplayable, that some passages were hackneyed, awkward, and clumsy beyond redemption, that the work as a whole was bad and vulgar, that there were only two or three pages which could stand and the rest would have to be thrown away or completely revised. “He said that a large number of passages required radical alteration, and said that if by a specified time I revised the concerto in accordance with his demands he would do me the honor of playing my piece at one of his concerts. I replied ‘I will not revise a single note and I will publish it in exactly the form it is now!’ And I did.”’ Hans von Bülow praised the concerto very highly—in direct opposition to Rubinstein—saying, that of all Tchaikovsky’s works with which he was acquainted this was “the most perfect. I should grow weary if I attempted to enumerate all the qualities of your work.” Its first performance was in Boston performed by Hans von Bülow and was an immediate success. It has become one of the most popular concertos ever written. Tchaikovsky wrote “A few days ago I had a letter from Bülow. After every performance Bülow was obliged to repeat the entire finale! Such a thing could never happen here.” Tchaikovsky dedicated it to him in gratitude and von Bülow championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor. Here is a short video tease: https://youtu.be/glFSAREwras

In 1965 she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. Among the songs she sang was a medley of Ellington songs performed without words such as I am Beginning to See the Light, and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore. In 1972 she sang at the All-Star Swing Festival at Lincoln Center, and at the end of the performance Dizzy Gillespie came out on stage and took Ella by surprise by dancing with her! In 1966 Ella was performing at the jazz festival on the Cote d’Azur on the French Riviera when her sister passed away. Ella flew home to Los Angeles for the funeral, and then turned right around and flew back for the following night’s performance. Ella gave herself no time for mourning or embracing the emotions she was feeling. She simply rushed back to work. There was also no consoling her son, who lost his aunt, and who may have been his biological mother. She began having many health issues but at this point she had no life except for her music. For the rest of her life, she consistently defied her doctors who insisted she retire or at least slow down, but she kept working at a hectic pace. About her scat singing, Mel Torme said: “Anyone who attempts to sing extemporaneously, that is, scat, will tell you that the hardest aspect of that kind of singing is to stay in tune. You are wandering all over the scales, the notes coming out of your mouth a millisecond after you think of them. A singer has to work doubly hard to emit those random notes in scat singing with perfect intonation. Well, I should say all singers except Ella. Her notes float out in perfect pitch, effortless, and most important of all, swinging. She had those extraordinary ears. She grew up surrounded by great musicians and she kept those extraordinary ears open and listening. So she assimilated all of this. How do you describe it? It’s a God given talent. It’s the only way I can describe it.” Ella and Mel Torme were mutual admirers of each other. In 1976 Ella won her 8th Grammy Award and she and Mel Torme sang together again. Torme called it one of the highlights of his life. Ella was paid $500,000 for her first series of commercials for Memorex audio tape. And the 6 figure contract was renewed several times! In 1968 she said: “Being at the top is a strain. The first time you get hoarse or aren’t up to par, you think you’re slipping. Anytime you think that you’re at the pinnacle, that you’ve made it, then you’re nothing.” Ella loved to sing ballads sometimes even more than the fast songs. By 1970 Ella was dealing with several health issues including treatments and surgeries to save her eyes. Having diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure were very serious for an exhausted woman who was extremely overweight. And yet, by the middle of 1971 she sang in New York’s Central Park to an audience of 200,000 people. Despite her doctors warning her to slow down during the 1970s, Ella continued to ignore their recommendations, performing two shows a night as many times as six nights a week. Her blood pressure was high. It became more difficult to get around. And her eyesight and arthritis worsened. Beginning in 1983 Ella lost nearly 100 lbs in 2 years. This was after she fell onstage due to dizziness, medication, and the loss of footing caused by the amputation of one of her toes, due to diabetes. In 1985 she began suffering from fluid buildup in her lungs. The following year Ella suffered from congestive heart failure, had quintuple coronary bypass surgery, and had a valve in her heart replaced. Ella continued performing an exhaustive schedule despite protests from her doctors, her manager, her family and friends. Her biographer, Stuart Nicholson, wrote: “It’s ironic that Ella, who so loved her audiences and who throughout her life has given unstintingly of herself, should have remained such a lonely figure. Apart from her 6-year marriage to Ray Brown, her life was spent in a series of affairs that have never led to the security and happiness of which she sang and which she sought so desperately. But she found fulfillment through her music and in the warmth and joy she received from her audiences.” When asked about her favorite singers, she replied: Sarah Vaughn, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Mel Torme. There was a beautiful humility about Ella Fitzgerald. Mel Torme said “She doesn’t know how good she is. I’m presenting an award to her on the 4th of July 1991, a Black Achievement Award at the Palladium, and I consider it a signal honor. But believe me, when she gets that award it’s going to be like all the other awards she has received: ‘What did I ever do to deserve this?’ That’s the way she is.” Two years before her death another of her biographers, Geoffrey Fidelman wrote: “She was a legend who is still nervous about being good enough. Ella never really accepted the fact that she was so popular, or that she was unconditionally loved from the moment she walked on stage. Humble as ever, when she received another Grammy award in 1991 she said to a friend: “They’re just giving it to me ‘cause I’m old and still around.” In 1992 a second toe was amputated due to diabetes. Ella loved to laugh and her favorite subject to talk about was music and songs. Her social life was practically non existent. In her later years when she was at home a lot of time her favorite activity was watching soap operas on TV. Ella was not social. She seldom left the house, did not chat on the phone to friends, and spent little time with family. She lived to perform. Ella never healed from the operations to remove her toes. Because of severe diabetes, her eyesight greatly deteriorated, gangrene set in and in 1993 both her legs were amputated. Ella Fitzgerald died in her home from a stroke in 1996. She was 79. The majority of her media and memorabilia is at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. She recorded well over 200 records, and during her lifetime sold over 40 million albums. The Cole Porter songbook and the two My Fair Lady albums became the largest selling record albums in history. She was inducted into the Down Beat Magazine Hall of Fame, and is the recipient of 13 Grammy awards, a Grammy lifetime achievement award, the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, honorary membership in the nation’s oldest and largest African-American sorority, Alpha, Kappa, Alpha, the first New York City Cultural Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, France’s Commander of Arts and Letters Award, the Peabody Medal, the UCLA Medal for Musical Achievements, the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, the first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award named the “Ella” in her honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, the Univ. of Southern California Magnum Opus Award, and honorary doctorates from Talladega, Howard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale and Harvard universities. The University of Maryland created the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts, Ella Fitzgerald Days were proclaimed in New York and Los Angeles. A theater in Newport News, Virginia was named after her, and there is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, New York, across from the railroad station. Another statue is located at Chapman University in Orange, California. The United States Postal Service issued a stamp bearing her image and the most recent documentary, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things was released in 2019. In 1947 Ella began helping orphaned and disadvantaged children, an act of compassion that continued for the rest of her life. She became the chairperson of the Foster Parents Plan, which supported orphanages and disabled children in war-ravaged Europe. And she funded a place in a home for a young orphan in Naples, Italy. Though it was rarely publicized, throughout her career she gave pro bono concerts and charitable donations to many causes, culminating in The Ella Fitzgerald Child Day Care Center in the Watts section of Los Angeles, which she helped establish in 1977 and of which she was a long time supporter. In her later years her main social concern was fighting against child-abuse, for which she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through annual benefits that featured many popular entertainers. She sang for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to benefit international refugees from various wars, plagues, and political struggles. She also performed to raise money for the Retina Foundation. In 1968 she accepted the honorary chairmanship of the Martin Luther King Foundation, and in 1974 she sang with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler to benefit the Retire Association. She supported the Dream Street Foundation, that provides camping experience for children with life-threatening diseases. In 1990 at Lincoln Center a star studded show raised money for the American Heart Association to establish the Ella Fitzgerald Research Fellowship. She also supported the City of Hope organization, dedicated to cancer research, treatment and prevention. In 1993 Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, and medical research of diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment. She always did her charity work very quietly, shunning publicity. Almost no one knew of her work with inner-city youth in Los Angeles, or of her help to children everywhere. Many of her hundreds of concerts per year were sung either gratis or at greatly reduced fees to benefit children. Ella defied the traditional expectations of a black person in a predominantly white society. She endured discrimination with dignity, and she was acknowledged as a legend in her own lifetime. She once said: “It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.” Here’s a short video: https://youtu.be/ZMqmJ0LsvdM

Barbara Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1927. Her father was a traveling hat salesman and her mother was an operator for Southern Bell. Her father left the family when Barbara was 6, and her parents divorced. Her mother blamed Barbara. When she was 3, her only sister Patricia died of pneumonia and whooping cough as an 18-month-old infant. Barbara spoke about this near the end of her life: “My younger sister had just died of double pneumonia, and I heard my mother or one of our relatives say that maybe Patricia would have lived if I hadn’t given her whooping cough. I was three years old, so I thought I killed her. I grew up thinking that her death was my fault. I know that’s not true now, but I still live with that guilt. I think my feeling about my sister has really held me back because I have this feeling that I don’t deserve it, you know? And, I realize that’s not true, and I’ve realized it for a long time, but I believed it for a long time, too.” She began singing at a very young age at the Elks Club. In high school, kids made fun of her because she wore the same clothes to school all the time and didn’t have the money to join a sorority. When she was 20 Cook moved to New York in 1948. She found work as a typist, sought work as an actress, and started singing in clubs and resorts. After 2 years she was engaged by the Blue Angel Club. “The first work I did in NY was in a place called the Blue Angel when I first came to NY. I didn’t do those big clubs like the Copacabana and all that you know. I did the more artsy ones if you know what I mean.” In 1951 she made her broadway debut in the musical Flahooley, and was cast in the City Center revival of Oklahoma! In 1952 Barbara married David LeGrant, with whom she  performed in a national tour of Oklahoma! 1952 also marked her first TV appearance, which was on the Armstrong Circle Theater show. In 1954 she appeared in the soap opera Golden Windows, sang in the City Center revival of Carousel and starred in a TV production of Babes in Toyland. In 1955 Cook won a Theater World award for her performances on Broadway in Plain and Fancy. In 1956 she sang in the original Broadway production of Candide. She soon began appearing regularly on TV, in Bloomer Girl, The Yeoman of the Guard, Hansel and Gretel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Perry Como Show, The Dinah Shore Shevy Show, and The Play of the Week. In 1958 she won a Tony award for her performances in the original cast of The Music Man. Her one child, Adam, was born in 1959. The next year she starred in the City Center revival of The King and I, and in the next 2 years in the Broadway productions of The Gay Life, and She Loves Me. She Loves Me featured her in the song Vanilla Ice Cream, which became one of her signature songs. Barbara and her husband divorced in 1965. Marital problems, alcoholism and obesity interrupted her Broadway stardom in the 1960s and she worked less frequently. The tragedies of the past: the death of her sister, the abandonment of her father, the undiagnosed mental illness of her mother, living through the poverty of the Great Depression all resulted in Cook’s insecurities formed during her childhood in Atlanta, and were not cured by her success. As an unemployed single mother, she was, in her own words, “a drunk — not a nice, ladylike drinker, but a drunk. I just stayed home and got drunk every night by myself … I didn’t shower or brush my teeth for days at a time.” Cook described the depression that left her paralyzed on the couch, surrounded by filth, empty liquor bottles and a mountain of unpaid bills. She said: ”The depression that comes with alcoholism creeps up on you so slowly you don’t know when it started. It’s so common that you think: Oh, I drink because I have problems. And if I fix the problems, I won’t need to drink. But what happens, of course, is the drinking becomes the problem, and you can’t fix anything until you stop drinking. I don’t know exactly when it became more difficult to be a good mother, but Adam went to live with his father when he was 14. I was really in bad shape. I had tried again and again and again to stop drinking, and I couldn’t do it.” But she did do it. Speaking about her 2016 autobiography, Then and Now, A Memoir, she said: “I wanted to be honest. And I’m hoping maybe people who are reading the book who need help will have an open mind and hopefully be helped. That’s the final thing I thought about writing the book—because I put it off a long time, and I didn’t really want to do it because I knew how hard it would be. And then finally it occurred to me that if somebody’s in trouble and they have an open mind, maybe there are things in the book that could help them. Maybe they could see that you can have a second life. And you can stop drinking. It ain’t easy, boy.” When Cook stopped drinking in 1977 her depression subsided as well. She could not, however, conquer her problems with weight. For some time she had difficulty getting hired. At one point she lost her home, and was staying with a friend and shoplifting food. Terribly depressed, she gained an incredible amount of weight. Her ex-husband told her son that he didn’t expect her to live much longer. Then in 1975 with her new accompanist, the composer, Wally Harper, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in a highly successful solo concert. She credited Harper with helping to get her singing again. Cook and Wally Harper returned to Carnegie Hall in 1980, and performed together all over the world, including at the White House for Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton. She worked with Harper for 30 years until his death in 2004. For many years Cook helped young singers find their core by teaching master classes. She said: “What actors need to do is to find a way to show people their despair, their joy, their pain, their exhilaration. All of these deep, deep emotional things, good and bad, so that if you’re able to do that, then there’s a kind of resonance that happens.” Her role models were Ella Fitzgerald and Rosemary Clooney, and the performer who made the deepest impression on her was the celebrated cabaret singer: Mabel Mercer. Cook didn’t want to sing when the house lights were completely turned down because then through the glare of the stage lights, she would only see blackness as she looked out into the audience; she wanted the house lights only dimmed because she wanted to see that she was communicating with a room full of people, so not enough light to see their individual faces, but at least to see that the people she was singing to, so that it was an intimate experience. “I’ve been singing intimately for people all my life cause I don’t remember when I didn’t sing. And of course my family would ask me to sing and so as a little thing I’d sing for them.” In 1985 Cook appeared with the NY Philharmonic in 3 performances of a concert version of Follies. In 1986 Cook recorded The Secret Garden, and in 1987 she sang in a recording of Carousel with the Royal Philharmonic and won the Drama Desk Award for her one-woman broadway show A Concert for the Theatre. In 1988 Cook performed in the world premiere of Carrie with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1994 she made the animated film version of Thumbelina, and was a featured artist at the Carnegie Hall gala that raised money for the performing arts and AIDS research. That year she gave an acclaimed concert series at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. In 1997 Cook celebrated her 70th birthday by singing a concert in London accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic. In 1998 Cook was nominated for an Olivier Award for her one-woman show, also in London. In 1999 she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs. In 2000 Cook sang at the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and recorded Lucky in the Rain. In 2001 and 2002 she returned to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and London for Barbara Cook’s Mostly Sondheim, which was nominated for 2 Olivier awards and a Tony award. She then took the show on a tour of the U.S. She appeared at Lincoln Center again in 2004 in Barbara Cook’s Broadway, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and won the NY Drama Critics Circle Award. At age 77 Cook said: “I’ll sing better five years from now, because I expect I’ll have more courage to be even more open. I consider myself a work in progress. This is not the done deal.” In 2005 Cook appeared in the solo shows Tribute and No One is Alone and in 2006 she became one of the first female pop singers ever to appear in concert at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. And that year she sang at the Kennedy Center for the Silver Anniversary of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington D.C. In 2007 Cook performed at the Arts! by George gala at George Mason Univ. in Virginia, and celebrated her 80th birthday singing with the Ft. Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus at the Broward Center and by singing a concert at London’s Coliseum Theatre. That year she also gave 4 sold out performances with the NY Philharmonic and was named Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year. In 2008 Cook performed with the English National Ballet in Strictly Gershwin at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and sang highly acclaimed performances in Chicago and San Francisco.  In 2009 the octogenarian performed with the Princeton Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, and at the Regency in NY. In 2010 she was nominated for another Tony Award for her performances on Broadway in the revue: Sondheim on Sondheim. In 2011 Cook appeared at Carnegie Hall with James Taylor, Bette Midler and Sting for the gala “Celebrating 120 Years of Carnegie Hall”, and capped off the year as a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor for her lifetime of contributions to American culture. She celebrated her 85th birthday performing in Los Angeles with the LA Philharmonic and with a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. When she was 86 she appeared in New York at Feinstein’s 54 Below Club. She spoke about her art at a break during rehearsals. “I want to learn it absolutely as it’s written and then let it go and just get it off the page. And then fill it with my life’s blood if you know what I mean. They’re songs that allow me to sing emotionally and hopefully touch people, so that it can be a song that has just one line of gold. And I just can’t wait to get there to do it.” Next she wrote her autobiography which was published in 2016. She returned to Feinsteins 54 Below Club when she was 88! She retired in 2017. When her legs would no longer carry her she said: “I’m not crazy about being seen in this wheelchair. It may be silly, and I’ll probably get over it, but arriving in a wheelchair is not what I want to do. I do need to get over that I think.” She died from respiratory failure on August 8, 2017 in her NYC apartment. She was 89. The following night, the lights of the Broadway Theatres’ marquees were dimmed in tribute to her. A year before her death she said: “When I sing, I put my whole life into that – in other words, all my memories of all these things that have happened, good and bad. And by singing, that’s what I try to do.”

Risë Stevens Rosa Raisa was born Raitza Burchstein in Bialystok, Poland in 1893. When she was 14 she fled Poland because of the Bialystok pogrom. She emigrated to Italy and studied at the conservatory in Naples. At age 20 she was engaged to sing in Parma for the 1913 Verdi centenary, and that year sang her 1st performances in the U.S. in Philadelphia and Chicago. In 1914 she debuted in London singing with John McCormack and Enrico Caruso. The next year Raisa sang the South American premiere of Der Rosenkavalier. In 1924 she sang the world premiere of Boito’s last opera, Nerone with Toscanini at La Scala. And chosen by Puccini, in 1926 she sang the world premiere of Turandot again with Toscanini at La Scala. Raisa died in 1963 from bone cancer. George London was born George Burnstein in 1920 in Montreal. He grew up in Los Angeles. He made his Met debut in 1951 and sang over 270 performances there in baritone and bass-baritone roles. London sang part of Tosca with Maria Callas on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. He sang Wotan in the legendary recording of Das Rheingold conducted by Geog Solti in 1958. And in 1960 at the height of the cold war he was the 1st American to sing Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow. He suffered from a paralyzed vocal chord and stopped singing when he was 46. In 1971 he established the George London Foundation for Singers which gives grants to young singers, $80,000 each year to the winners of an annual competition. He stage directed the first production of the RING cycle for the Seattle Opera in 1975, and that year became the General Director of the Washington National Opera. In 1977 he suffered the 1st of 3 heart attacks, with brain damage that left him partially paralyzed. He died in Armonk, NY at age 65. Natalie Dessay was born in Lyon, France in 1965. She initially intended to become a  ballet dancer, then an actress. She trained at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and quickly became successful singing in Europe and made her Met debut in 1994. And she opened the Met’s 2007-2008 season singing a new production of Lucia. In 2013 she starred in the film Becoming Traviata and that year announced her retirement from opera to pursue a career as a dramatic actress and chansonnier. She is married to the bass baritone Laurent Naouri and she converted to his Jewish faith. They have 2 children. Alexander Kipnis, one of the greatest basses ever, was born in Ukraine in 1891. His impoverished family of 7 lived in a Jewish ghetto. After the death of his father at age 12, Kipnis supported his family as a carpenter’s apprentice and by singing soprano in local synagogues and in Moldova. As a teenager he performed in a Yiddish Theatrical group, and entered the Warsaw Conservatory at 19, where he studied trombone, double bass, and conducting, while continuing to sing in synagogues. He then studied in Berlin with Ernst Grenzebach who was Lauritz Melchoir’s teacher. He made his debut in Hamburg in 1915. In 1917 he began singing in Wiesbaden where he gave more than 300 performances. Kipnis also sang at the Salzburg Festival, at Bayreuth, the Chicago Civic Opera, and until 1935 with the Berlin State Opera, when he fled Nazi Germany and sang with the Vienna State Opera until the Anschluss in 1938. His Met debut was in 1940. Kipnis sang many times with Toscanini, including productions of Tristan, Tannhäuser, The Magic Flute, Fidelio, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, his Missa Solemnis, and Verdi’s Requiem. Kipnis died in 1978 at age 87. His son was the famous harpsichord player, Igor Kipnis. Friedrich Schorr was born in Nagyvarad, in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1888. He was considered the greatest Wagnerian bass baritone of his generation. He was the son of a cantor, and sang all over the world, making his Met debut in 1924 and sang there for 19 years. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1931. He died in Farmington, NY in 1953. Some of his recordings were made when he was passed his vocal prime, yet they demonstrate the great emotional expressiveness of his singing. Risë Stevens was born in New York City in 1913 as Risë Steenberg. She studied at the Juilliard School and continued her training in Vienna. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1938. Stevens made several movies including The Chocolate Soldier with Nelson Eddy and Going My Way with Bing Crosby. Her voice was insured by Lloyd’s of London in 1945 for $1 million dollars. For 23 years Stevens was the Met’s leading mezzo soprano and the only mezzo to command top billing and fees normally awarded only to star tenors and sopranos. She was especially celebrated for her performances of  Carmen. Her recording of Carmen with Licia Albanese, Jan Peerce, and Robert Merrill has never been out of print. After her retirement from the operatic stage she became the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera National Company for several years, and devoted a great deal of her time to coaching young singers. In 1990 she was a Kennedy Center honoree. She died in her home in New York, just 7 weeks before her 100th birthday. Richard Tauber was born in Austria in 1891. He wanted very much to become a singer but none of the voice teachers he auditioned for accepted him. So he entered the conservatory in Frankfurt and studied piano, composition and conducting. He made his debut in 1913 and sang for 5 years at the Dresden Opera. He was a remarkably quick study. He learned Gounod’s Faust in 48 hours. He learned Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in one afternoon! Tauber made more than 700 recordings. He was also a composer and a conductor. Franz Lehar composed several operettas for Tauber including The Land of Smiles. In 1933 he was attacked by a group of Nazis whereupon he left Germany for his native Austria, and continued singing at the Vienna State Opera until the Anschluss in 1938. He then became a British citizen where he remained singing and conducting during WW II. He died from lung cancer in 1948 in London. Regina Resnik was born in the Bronx in 1922. Her parents had just emigrated from Ukraine. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in 1942 and immediately began singing opera professionally. 2 years later she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air and she was called to substitute for soprano Zinka Milanov singing Il Trovatore. Then in 1953 she realized that her voice had been consistently darkening in color, and while singing at Bayreuth, the conductor Clemens Krauss suggested that she was actually a mezzo soprano. So she took a year off and studied with the baritone Giuseppe Danise who had sung with Toscanini. As a mezzo she was enormously successful.

She sang all over the world in 6 languages and the Met was her home base. She was the only singer in the history of opera who sang both the soprano and mezzo soprano roles in much of the repertoire. She received honorary doctorate degrees from Hunter College and the New England Conservatory and was a board member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She died in 2013 in New York from a stroke. She was 90. Here is a short video: https://youtu.be/t2lIdbOnJbA

Leonard Warren was born Leonard Warenoff in 1911 in New York. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. At age 24 he joined the chorus at Radio City Music Hall. 3 years later he entered the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air and with his astounding voice was immediately given a contract. A recording contract with RCA soon followed. Although he sang all over the world including at La Scala and the Soviet Union, he sang more at the Met than anywhere else. He was often thought of as one of the greatest baritones of the Verdi repertoire, especially Rigoletto, which he sang with Toscanini in Madison Sq. Garden. His last performance was in 1960 at the Met in a performance of La forza del destino. He had just finished singing the 3rd act aria which begins with the words “to die, a terrible thing.” He fell face down on the stage and immediately died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. he was only 48. The tenor, Joseph Schmidt was born in Ukraine in 1904. He was  only 4′ 11″ and this made a stage career in opera impossible. However, he made many recordings, radio broadcasts and 9 movies. In 1942 he was interned in a Swiss refugee camp. He was in bad health and was treated for a throat infection in a hospital outside of Zurich. He had complained of chest pains but was discharged from the hospital and died 2 days later at age 38 from a heart attack.  Roberta Peters was born in 1930 in the Bronx as Roberta Peterman. The tenor, Jan Peerce recommended she study voice with William Herman, and at age 13 she dropped out of school and began having voice lessons 6 days a week, in addition to lessons in French, German and Italian. She was only 19 when she unexpectedly made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, and sang there for 35 years. She was a magnificent light coloratura soprano, and as a teenager, she carefully practiced technically very difficult passages using a book written for clarinet players. It paid off; her rapid scales were amazing! She was the most frequent guest to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show: 65 times! In 1952 she married the baritone Robert Merrill and later explained that she had fallen in love with the voice and not the man. They divorced amicably, and continued to perform together. She died in January of 2017. She was 87. Robert Merrill was born in Brooklyn in 1917 as Moishe Miller. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Warsaw, Poland. He paid for his singing lessons by working as a semi-professional pitcher and began singing at bar mitzvahs and weddings and at the Borscht Belt resorts in the Catskills and on the radio as a crooner. He then sang at Radio City Music Hall, and as a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air in 1945, he immediately made his Met debut in La Traviata. Toscanini heard the broadcast and after auditioning him, engaged Merrill for the maestro’s last performance of La Traviata in 1946. Merrill was just 29. He later sang Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with Toscanini. After the untimely death of Leonard Warren in 1960 Merrill became the Met’s principal baritone. In fact he sang 769 performances there in 21 roles. He frequently performed the Star Spangled Banner at Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium. Merrill died at home watching Game 1 of the 2004 World Series. Beverly Sills was born in 1929 in Brooklyn as Belle Miriam Silverman. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Romania. As a child she spoke Yiddish, Russian, Romanian, French and English. She began singing as a child, and after being repeatedly rejected by the NY City Opera, she was finally engaged by the company in 1955 singing Die Fledermaus. Her daughter was deaf and has multiple sclerosis and her son is severely mentally disabled. Sills became quite famous beginning in 1966 when she sang and recorded Handel’s Julius Cesar with the NY City Opera. She appeared in all the major opera houses of the world, and was featured on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazines. She finally made her Met debut at age 46 in 1975. Sills helped to popularize opera by appearing on talk shows including with Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, David Frost, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore. She even appeared on the Muppet Show. After she retired from singing, she became the General Manager of the NY City Opera in 1980, the Chairperson of Lincoln Center in 1994, and the chairperson of the Met in 2002. Her charity work was devoted to the prevention and treatment of birth defects. Sills died at age 78 in 2007 from lung cancer. Jan Peerce was born Joshua Pincus Perelmuth on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1904. His parents were immigrants from Belarus. He attended Columbia Univ. and was a professional violinist before his singing career, which started at Radio City Music Hall in 1932. Toscanini heard Peerce sing on the radio and after auditioning him, invited Peerce to sing with him and the NBC Symphony on 15 occasions beginning in 1938. Besides his musical style, Toscanini admired Peerce’s Italian diction and sometimes asked the tenor to demonstrate at rehearsals to Italian members of the cast! His Met debut was in 1941; he sang there for 26 years. Peerce was the 1st American to sing with the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow. In 1971 he made his Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof and continued singing until he was 78! Having experienced a stroke and pneumonia, Peerce died in 1984 at age 80. Richard Tucker was born in Brooklyn as Rubin Ticker in 1913. His parents were from what is now Moldova and Ukraine. Tucker dropped out of high school in his 2nd year and became a runner on Wall Street, and as a cantorial student he sang at weddings and bar mitzvahs. While working in New York’s garment district, he sang as a part-time cantor in Passaic, New Jersey, then full-time in the Bronx, and starting in 1943 at the prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center. He was married to Jan Peerce’s sister, Sara. In 1945 he made his Met debut and for the next 30 years was the leading American tenor. In 1949 Toscanini engaged Tucker to sing in the maestro’s last performance of Verdi’s Aida, a live telecast. Tucker was only 62 when he died from a heart attack before a performance he was about to sing in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1975. He is the only person whose funeral was held on the stage of the Met. And New York City designated the small park across the street from Lincoln Center as Richard Tucker Square. The Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established to assist young singers. Here is a short video: https://youtu.be/anBx6pDpzjQ

Fiddler on the Roof is based on Tevye the Dairyman and other stories by Sholem Aleichem. It’s about a Jewish community in 1905 in the fictitiously named village of Anatevka, Ukraine. He wrote the stories in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 and they are based on Aleichem’s own upbringing. The plot centers on Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman and his wife, Golde, whose 3 eldest daughters flout their community’s tradition of arranged marriages by choosing their own husbands. According to Tevye, the lives of the Jewish residents of Anatevka are as precarious as a fiddler on the roof, and by the end of the film are forced to leave the village by order of the Tsar. The original stage version opened in 1964. It was the first musical in history to have a continuous run of more than 3,000 performances, and held the record for the longest running Broadway musical for almost 10 years. It won 19 Tony awards, and led to five Broadway revivals, and an incredibly successful film adaptation. It was also the longest running musical ever produced in Tokyo. The script was written by Joe Stein, and the music was composed by Jerry Bock, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Its producer, Harold Prince, chose Jerome Robbins to choreograph and direct the show. The lead character, Tevye was played by Zero Mostel. Fiddler was made into a movie in 1971, produced and directed by Norman Jewison. It starred the 32-year-old Israeli singer and actor, Chaim Topol. The music was arranged, orchestrated, and conducted by John Williams. The interiors were shot in London, and Norman Jewison chose the former Yugoslavia to shoot the exterior scenes, which he felt closely resembled the story’s setting in the little Ukrainian village or as it’s referred to in Yiddish, the shtetl. A documentary about the making of the film entitled Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen was created in 2021, produced and directed by Daniel Raim. And in 2020 Sheldon Harnick’s nephew, Aaron Harnick announced that he was co-producing a remake of the film. Fiddler on the Roof received eight Academy award nominations, including Norman Jewison for best picture and best director, and Chaim Topol for best actor. It won a Golden Globe Award for best musical or comedy motion picture and Chaim Topol won a Golden Globe award for best actor. It was the highest grossing film of 1971, and is often considered to be one of the greatest musical films of all time. Norman Jewison’s Solidarity with the Jewish People “No Jews, Nigg****, or Dogs.” The sign was posted at Kew Beach, a five-minute walk from Norman Jewison’s childhood home in the Beach district of Toronto. He passed it countless times during his childhood, on summer days spent swimming and canoeing in Lake Ontario, among families whose day at the beach was not to be spoiled by the sight of a Black person or a Jew. He had seen similar signs barring Jews from the nearby Balmy Beach Canoe Club. They were a feature of the social environment into which he had been born in 1926. If you want to understand Norman Jewison, start with his name. Jewison: son of a Jew. The fact that he was actually the son of two Anglo Protestants didn’t count for much on the streets of Toronto in the 1930s. Antisemitism was woven into the social fabric of a city in which Jews were banned from hotels and beaches and blocked from entering the professions. And Toronto’s antisemitism was a physical reality for a boy named Jewison in the 1930s. Norman remembers being attacked by local ruffians who called him “Jewy” and “Jew-boy” from the age of three or four. He befriended Jewish kids in the neighborhood— and there was safety in numbers, although they were still beaten up from time to time. Toronto of the 1930s was not what you could call a safe space for Jews. One summer night, three weeks after Jewison’s seventh birthday, members of what the papers called the “swastika movement” descended upon a baseball game at Willowvale Park (now Christie Pits). The Toronto Star described a gang “openly flourishing pieces of metal pipe, chains, wired broom handles, and even rockers from chairs.” Cries of “Heil Hitler!” pierced the air. As many as 10,000 Torontonians eventually joined the melee. “Heads were opened, eyes blackened and bodies thumped and battered as literally dozens of persons, young and old, many of them non-combatant spectators, were injured more or less seriously by a variety of ugly weapons,” the Star reported. The following night, gang members began roaming the streets in search of Jews, where they surrounded a 22-year-old medical student named Louis Sugarman, “pummeling him with their fists and inflicting acute damage on his head with a heavy iron pipe.” Witnesses claimed that police efforts to pursue the perpetrators was lackadaisical. Reporters uncovered that “scores of Toronto constables today carry swastikas around on their keyrings” and that the emblem was stamped on locker keys at a police motorcycle depot. “The whole thing of carrying this name that starts out with the letters J-E-W—it affected me deeply,” Jewison later said. Even as an adult, he couldn’t get into a Scarsdale golf club. “One thing that really sets me off is any kind of racial prejudice or intolerance,” he said. Jewison’s anti-racism was pounded into him by experience. Jewison’s personal interest in Judaism deepened when he became the director of Fiddler on the Roof. In late September 1969, Jewison flew to Jerusalem and spent a few days embedded among descendants of the Eastern European Jews depicted in the Sholem Aleichem stories that were the basis of Fiddler on the Roof. He greeted the Sabbath with residents of Shaare Hesed and visited a synagogue for Simchat Torah. He shared the Sabbath meal with an Orthodox Jewish family, following the customs and traditions as they had been observed in the shtetl. He sang the Zemirot, the family songs of Sabbath. Saturday morning, he took a guided tour of Meah Shearim, the Hasidic Quarter, and attended prayer at the Western Wall with professor Davis. The experience was unexpectedly moving. Jewison was touched by the strength of the familial bonds of the Orthodox Jews, their reverence for tradition, and what struck him as the clarity of their lives. He loved the theatricality of their traditions, their devotion to the details of its performance. Mistaken for a Jew his entire life, Jewison discovered a deeply felt connection with his Jewish hosts and their historical burden. “I spent quite a bit of time in Jerusalem,” Jewison said later. “It was quite possible for me to identify with Tevye, and with the Jewish religion. The more I studied it and the more I exposed myself to Jewish homes, more Orthodox homes… I identify with certain aspects of the Jewish religion. I find it a very personal religion.” Jewison had been almost overwhelmed with emotion when, after the Jerusalem premiere of Fiddler, Prime Minister Golda Meir squeezed his hands in approval. “Your words that night meant more to me than all the Oscars or critical praise the film ever received,” Jewison later wrote to Meir. Jewison wrote to his old friend Carl Reiner that in making Fiddler on the Roof he had “found, in a way, in myself my own Jewishness.” His time researching the film in Jerusalem had also awakened a love of Israel. Jewison penned an article for Variety encouraging more Hollywood producers to film in Israel. “There is a spirit in the country and among its people that grabs you,” he wrote, “and if you spend any time there you will never be the same.” Jewison’s profound identification with the Jewish people was unshakable. In 2010, Norman Jewison married his second wife, Lynne St. David, beneath the chuppah in their garden. If the chuppah represents home and openness, its place in the ceremony also signified, in some small way, the influence that Jewish culture, history, and sensibility had always exerted over Norman Jewison’s imagination. (Adapted from The Canadian Jewish News based on Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life by Ira Wells  2021.) “Maybe Steve McQueen’s right. Maybe it all just gets down to power and juice; I don’t know. But I’ve never felt that I wanted power. The only thing I’ve ever felt, is I wanted something very definite to say about the programs I directed. I don’t think that’s asking too much. That’s what you’re hired to do. ‘Cause there’s no sense doing anything you’re not going to be happy with. There’s no sense in entering a relationship. When I become involved in something I go to bed with it. It’s my love. It means more to me than anything in the world. Anything. When I commit myself to something I want to commit my mind, and my body, and my spirit, and every ounce of energy and effort I have to make it successful, to make it work, to make it somehow materialize into something that’s beautiful, or good, or moving. And anyone who doesn’t feel that way I don’t want around me, and I don’t want them to be involved in it.” (Norman Jewison, 1971) Watch Norman Jewison on Fiddler on the Roof with prisoners’ family photos from Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/cB_PeMp3_tE Watch Norman Jewison reading from Sholem Aleichem’s writings: https://youtu.be/T69mRIfJSRE

Nina Simone was born as Eunice Waymon in North Carolina in 1933. She began playing the piano at age 3, began formal piano lessons at age 5 with Muriel Massanovich, and by age 6 was performing in her local church during services. Nina gave her first public recital when she was eight and made her debut at 12 playing an all-classical program. When she made her entrance onto the stage and sat down to play, she noticed that her parents, who were seated in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the venue to make way for some white people. Nina announced that she would not begin to play until her parents were allowed to return to the front, and they were! Mazzanovich was very enthusiastic about Nina’s talent and progress and encouraged her that she would become the first black woman classical pianist, which Nina believed to be her destiny. “Once I understood Bach’s music I never wanted to be anything other than a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music.” Her teacher organized a local fundraising campaign to pay for her music lessons and to eventually send her to the Juilliard School of Music in New York. When it was time for high school, Nina was sent to a boarding school, where she practiced five hours a day all through high school. She was valedictorian of her high school class, and was awarded a 1 year scholarship to the Juilliard School. Her dream was to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In fact her family moved to Philadelphia because they had the expectation that Nina would be a student at the Curtis Institute. After her time at Juilliard she auditioned for Curtis in 1951. However, she was rejected, and for the rest of her life, was convinced that it was because of the color of her skin, and never got over it. She began taking lessons from Vladimir Sokoloff, a piano teacher at Curtis, but then discovered that it was too late to reapply because Curtis didn’t accept students over the age of 21. To support herself she worked as an accompanist in a voice teacher’s studio, taught private piano lessons and worked as a photographer’s assistant developing photos. Nina continued taking lessons from Sokoloff in Philadelphia. To pay for them and her other living expenses she got a job in a bar and grill in Atlantic City, where she played jazz, blues, and classical music. However, the owner told her that she needed to sing while she played in order to keep the job. It was around this time that she changed her name to Nina Simone because she didn’t want her mother to know that she was playing in a bar. Her mother, who was a Methodist minister, considered music outside of church to be “the devils music”. In 1959 she made a very successful Town Hall debut in New York City. That year she released her first and biggest hit single in the United States: I Loves You Porgy from Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. Simone wrote: “Critics started to talk about what sort of music I was playing and trying to find a neat slot to file it away in. It was difficult for them because I was playing popular songs in a classical style with a classical piano technique influenced by cocktail jazz. On top of that I included spirituals and children’s songs in my performances, and those sorts of songs were automatically identified with the folk movement. There was something from everything in there, but it also meant I was appreciated across the board – by jazz, folk, pop and blues fans, as well as admirers of classical music. “Some days I found myself sitting down and thinking; ‘I am working hard, I am earning good money, I am successful, people respect me, I am doing well, so why aren’t I happy?’” Al Shackman was Nina’s friend, guitarist, and music director for 43 years. For 10 years beginning in 1961 Nina was married to Andrew Stroud, a New York City cop, from whom she suffered violent domestic abuse. He quit the police department to manage Nina’s career. Their daughter, Lisa, was born in 1962. She did play some classical music at that concert including an extraordinary performance of Delilah’s aria from St. Saens’s opera, Samson and Delilah. “As I acquired fame and money those early goals I had chased so hard slowly slipped away. Classical music became a part of my past almost without my realizing it. There just wasn’t the time to practice anymore, or the motivation.” In June of 1963 civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Mississippi, followed in September by the death of 4 young black girls who were killed in the bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama during a Bible study class. In the rioting which followed, Birmingham police shot another black child, and a white mob beat a young black man to death. These terror attacks deeply pained Simone. That same day, full of agony she turned to her art to convey her rage. The result was her song Mississippi Goddam, her 1st protest song against racial injustice. In 1965 she also performed Mississippi Goddam at the conclusion of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama for voting rights. She said the song came to her “in a rush of fury, hatred and determination”. This is what she created from the pain. She wrote: “News came through every day of friends getting arrested, beaten and intimidated. My music was dedicated to a purpose more important than classical music’s pursuit of excellence. It was dedicated to the fight for freedom and the historical destiny of my people. I felt a fierce pride when I thought about what we were all doing together.” In 1967 she created the protest song, Backlash Blues, with lyrics by the poet, Langston Hughes. Nina was particularly attentive to the acoustics of every venue she performed in. “I learned to prepare myself thoroughly. I’d go to the empty hall in the afternoon and walk around to see where the people were sitting, how close they’d be to me at the front and how far away at the back, whether the seats got closer together or further apart, how big the stage was, how the lights were positioned, where the microphones were going to hit, everything. I was especially careful of microphones, taking the trouble to find one that worked for me and throwing away those that didn’t. So by the time I got on stage I knew exactly what I was doing. “Before important concerts I would practice alone for hours at a time, so long sometimes that my arms would seize up completely. There was one period when I was so dissatisfied with drummers that I decided not to use them anymore. So I sat down for days and trained my left hand like a drum. Just as I mastered it my arm went paralyzed from all the work it had done. Other times I’d fall asleep at the piano. I did my preparation as carefully as possible. I made sure the musicians in my bands understood in every detail the way we were to play, and we rehearsed regularly.” Some of the activists in her personal network included Malcom X, James Baldwin, Stokie Carmichael, and Langston Hughes. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, Nina’s bass player, Gene Taylor wrote the song: Why? (The King of Love is Dead). She debuted it 3 days later at New York’s Westbury Music Fair. She wrote: “I think my performance that night was one of my very best, focused by the love and quiet despair we all felt at our loss.” Simone was very close to her father. However, in 1971 she overheard him telling her brother that he had consistently supported their family, when it was Nina who had been helping the family financially for years. She was so hurt and betrayed by his lie that she disowned her father and a year later suffered the loss of both her father and her sister Lucille within weeks of each other, which she took very badly. The concert producer Ron Delsner said: “As she became embittered by what was going on in this country, it came out in her performance. She started to turn off the white audiences who were now afraid to go to a show, afraid of getting beat up or mugged, or afraid of hearing some message they were sick and tired of hearing.” She wrote: “The protest years were over not just for me but for a whole generation and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile. I became bitter and disillusioned. I was lost and I struck out at the people around me, which destroyed my recording career in America.” Her career had already been damaged because of her intense concentration on performing and recording mainly songs of angry protest for several years. In 1969 she composed the song To Be Young, Gifted and Black with lyrics by Weldon Irvine, based on her friend Lorraine Hansberry’s unfinished play by the same name. “All my friends had either left the movement or were exiled or were killed. And so I was lost and I was bitter, very bitter. I became paranoid and imagined that somebody was out to get me and out to kill me every minute of my life. Indeed the FBI did have a file on me. “When the civil rights movement died there was no reason to stay. And the racial prejudice was so much I couldn’t bear it and I had to get out of there. I didn’t think it was my home anymore.” In 1970 she left her husband and the United States and lived the rest of her life in Liberia, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Barbados, where she had a lengthy affair with its prime minister, Errol Barrow. She especially loved living in Liberia, but had stopped performing and recording. Another civil rights song she sang was I wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free by Billy Taylor composed in 1953. Simone performed several Hebrew songs, including Vaynikehu, an Israeli song in 5/4 time. Od Yishama, (It will yet be heard), and a popular Jewish wedding song, Shabbat Shalom. In the early 50s Eliyahu Gamliel composed Eretz Zavat Chalav U’Dash A land flowing with milk and honey. Taken from a biblical passage, it speaks of a people yearning for a better life. Shlomo Carlebach was born in Berlin in 1925. His father was an Orthodox rabbi and in 1933, the family fled from the Nazis. “I realized that most people don’t go to synagogues anymore.” To reach people he started singing. “I take words of the prophets, and words from prayers which are about a better world, more peace in the world, more love in the world, more oneness. My songs are not against anything, they are only ‘for’…. They give strength, like a Jewish vitamin pill.” One of Carlebach’s most famous songs, “Am Yisrael Chai The People of Israel Live,” became an anthem for Jewish people especially those living in the former Soviet Union. At age 69, Shlomo Carlebach died of heart failure in 1994. His body was flown to Israel for burial. Carlebach and Nina Simone met in 1957 when she was working as a pianist and lounge singer in Atlantic City. Simone was drawn to the unconventional rabbi. They both wanted to change the world, believing that one can’t be an artist just to entertain people. They both wanted very much to change the destiny of their peoples. Simone stated: “I don’t know any genius who had a happy life,” Carlebach commented “Her manic depression and bipolar disorder didn’t help. But she loved me the best way she knew how.” A musical and a movie based on this unlikely alliance is called Soul Doctor. 4 years after his death an article alleged that Carebach had sexually assaulted dozens of women. Daniel Wise, the creator of Soul Doctor stated “After over 100 interviews with credible individuals, and researching dozens of documents and published articles, there was nothing I could find to support such allegations.” While still living in the United States Simone had begun experiencing hallucinations, which continued during her years abroad. Her daughter spoke of Simone’s schizophrenia and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, and when she refused to take them, her intimates mixed them into her food. In 1976 in London Nina ingested 35 sleeping pills in a failed suicide attempt. During the 1980s she performed regularly at a jazz clubs for very little money. Often she was too drunk to sing or play the piano properly. At other times she scolded the audience. Three of her intimate friends then intervened. In 1993 she settled in the south of France, and passed away in her sleep from breast cancer in 2003 at age 70. In 1957 Simone recorded You’ll Never Walk Alone from the 1945 musical Carousel by Richard Rodgers. She continued playing it including a phenomenal performance of it in Hamburg in 1989. The song My baby just cares for me was composed by Walter Donaldson. It’s from the 1930 musical Whoopee! made famous by Eddie Cantor. She recorded it for her very first album in 1957. In 1987 it became a major hit in Europe after it had been used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume there, resulting in a brief surge in popularity. She once said that the song is about her piano. My baby was the piano. That was her first and lifelong love. In her performance of it at the 1987 Montreux Jazz Festival, she barely sang the words. When I hear it I am absolutely mesmerized at the inventiveness, the rock solid rhythm, and her ability to sustain the perpetual motion as she played it on a 10 foot Bösendorfer piano. Nina Simone recorded 47 albums, over 400 songs, and gave over 2,000 performances during a career that spanned almost half a century. She was nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Some of her songs have been performed by other artists, and are heard in various movies, TV series, and video games. Her song Mississippi  was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. She was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, received a lifetime achievement award by the Irish Music Hall of Fame, was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for her interpretation of Gershwin’s I Loves You, Porgy, and was the recipient of honorary degrees from Amherst College, Malcolm X College, and just 2 days before her death from the Curtis Institute of Music, the same school that had refused admission to her 52 years before. In addition to her autobiography, 7 biographies have been written in English, and some in French. 4 documentaries, 1 bio pic, and 2 plays have been created about Simone. Streets have been named after her in the Netherlands and in Mount Vernon, New York, and a statue of her was erected in Nina Simone Plaza in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina. This video contains excerpts from the documentary: https://youtu.be/eRvdb_6HEoY   These are the lyrics to the song, Why? The King of Love is Dead, which  Gene Taylor wrote when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. Once upon this planet Earth Lived a man of humble birth Preaching love and freedom for his fellow man He was dreaming of the day Peace would come to earth to stay And he spread his message all across the land Turn the other cheek he’d plead Love thy neighbor was his creed. Pain, humiliation, death he did not dread With his bible at his side From his foes, he did not hide It’s hard to think That this great man is dead Will the murders never cease? Are they men or are they beasts? What do they ever hope, ever hope to gain? Will my country fall, stand or fall? Is it too late for us all? And did Martin Luther King just die in vain? ’Cause he’d seen the mountaintop And he knew he could not stop Always living with the threat of death ahead Folks you’d better stop and think ‘Cause we’re headed for the brink What will happen now, that he is dead? He was for equality For all people, you and me Full of love and goodwill Hate was not his way He was not a violent man Bigotry had sealed his fate We can all shed tears But it won’t change a thing Teach your people Will they ever learn? ‘Cause you always kill with burn, and burn with guns And kill with guns and burn Don’t you know how we got to react? Don’t you know what it will bring? But he had seen the mountaintop And he knew he could not stop Always living with the threat of death ahead Folks you’d better stop and think Everybody knows we’re on the brink What will happen, now that the King is dead? I’m gonna say he had seen the mountaintop And he knew he could not stop Always living with the threat of death ahead Folks you’d better stop and think and feel again For we’re headed for the brink   What’s gonna happen, now in all of our cities My people are rising They’re living in lies Even if they have to die Even if they have to die At the moment that they know what life is Even at that one moment that you know what life is If you have to die, it’s alright ‘Cause you know what life is You know what freedom is for one moment of your life What’s gonna happen Now that the king of love is dead? He has seen the mountain top And he knew he could not stop Always living with the threat of death ahead Folks you’d better stop and think ‘Cause we’re almost to the brink What will happen, now that the King of love is dead?

By Michael Laster July 6, 1957, could have been another ordinary day in Liverpool. However, a band called The Quarrymen was performing for a festival right outside of St Peter’s Church. The young man leading the group, John Lennon, caught the attention of a young onlooker, also a musician, who was impressed by Lennon’s stage presence, in spite of him singing the wrong words. A mutual friend introduced John to this young man, who tuned John’s guitar and performed two songs for him. Unlike John, he memorized all the words and knew all the chords. This was John Lennon’s introduction to Paul McCartney. John, initially hesitant of being overshadowed, invited Paul into the band a few weeks later. Needing a lead guitarist, Paul brought in a younger acquaintance who was just shy of 15. This was George Harrison, who Paul befriended after overhearing him practicing guitar on the school bus. Several months after George joined the band, a friend with a tape recorder captured them singing the Buddy Holly song, “That’ll be the Day,” and an original by Paul titled “In Spite of All the Danger.” The title of the song would prove to be all too relevant. Several days after In Spite of All The Danger was recorded, John’s mother Julia was killed after she was struck by a car driven by an off-duty policeman. Having grown up with an absent father, 17-year-old John was devastated losing the one parent he was close with, and went through a period of social withdrawal. Paul also lost his mother from breast cancer before meeting John. He remembered, “So this was a great bond John and I always had. We both knew the pain of it, and we both knew that we had to put on a brave face because we were teenage guys, and you didn’t talk about that kind of thing where we came from.” Needing a bassist, John recruited his friend Stu Sutcliffe, whom he met at the Liverpool College of Art. Around this time, they officially changed their name from the Quarrymen to The Beatles. Their informal manager Alan Williams booked them to play several months in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, its famous red light district. Needing a drummer, they recruited their friend Pete Best, the son of the owner of a cafe they frequently performed in. In Hamburg, more than any other time in their career, this would be The Beatles at their wildest and raunchiest, the polar opposite of their future clean cut Ed Sullivan image. This experience playing Hamburg was invaluable for developing their musicianship and stage presence, often having to play eight-hour sets, mostly of covers of well known hits. Back in Liverpool, they continued to build a following at the Cavern Club, playing gigs there regularly. Stu Sutcliffe quit the band to focus on his art career, so Paul stepped in to take over on bass. At the Cavern, they caught the eye of Brian Epstein, a local record store owner and music enthusiast. Their on stage energy and charisma led Brian to propose a meeting with them at his record shop, where he offered to become their manager. Weeks later, they agreed to sign Brian’s contract. John Lennon, being 21, signed for himself with the other three, under 21, requiring a signature from a parent. 1962 After arranging an unsuccessful audition at Decca Records, Brian brought the Beatles to George Martin, a producer at Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI. Initially, Martin wasn’t very impressed with their musicianship, but signed them largely on their charisma. Martin found Pete Best’s skills on drums lacking, preferring a session drummer for recordings. This aligned with John, Paul, and George’s growing dissatisfaction with Best, so they asked Brian to replace him with Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr. He was a Liverpool favorite from the band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and had occasionally played with the Beatles in Hamburg and Liverpool. He’s a clip of them performing a cover of the song Some Other Guy at the Cavern, just days after bringing in Ringo. By the end of the year, their single Love Me Do, and their B side, P.S. I Love You, helped push the Beatles to get the attention of the UK. 1963 It wasn’t until 1963 that The Beatles reached #1 on the UK charts with their song Please Please Me, also the title of the album of the same name. 1963 was their breakout year in the UK, and they followed it with other catchy hits like From Me to You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Their on-stage charisma was punctuated by the yin and yang dynamic of Paul being diplomatic and professional, and John clowning around. *clip* By the end of the year, Beatlemania was now in full swing throughout the UK, and the British classical music critic William Mann was praising their gifts for writing sophisticated melodies and harmonies. Also, by the end of the year, their music was starting to reach America. 1964 In 1964, the Beatles literally reached America, landing at JFK airport on February 7th. President Kennedy was assassinated just four months earlier, and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was watched by 73 million viewers, 40% of the US population. Months later, they played themselves in the feature film A Hard Day’s Night, where director Richard Lester captured the height of Beatlemania. Alun (Alan) Owen wrote the screenplay, accurately portraying their whimsical personalities. Their album A Hard Day’s Night, written while filming the movie, presented a new level of sophistication of their arrangements. Paul’s Latin-tinged ballad, And I Love Her, demonstrates their growing attention to detail, featuring claves, bongos, and a Spanish guitar. *clip* The album also helped popularize the 12-string electric guitar, which would prove quite influential to Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. You can hear the same jangly guitar sound in their covers of Pete Seeger’s song Turn Turn Turn, and Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man. After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, they continued breaking new ground with their single, I Feel Fine. It opens with the first use of guitar amplifier feedback on a record. Originally an accident, the Beatles loved the sound and asked George Martin if he’d allow it into the recording, which he did. This was the first of many experiments in the studio. 1965 1965 opened with the recording of their hit Ticket To Ride, defined by the jangly 12-string guitar. Their next movie, and album, Help!, was their first to use orchestral instruments. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away features flute, and the only instruments on Yesterday are Paul’s acoustic guitar and a string quartet. From this point forward, George Martin played a key role in helping to write the arrangements for parts outside of the scope of standard rock instrumentation. Their next single, We Can Work It Out, written by Paul, features a harmonium, and the bridge deviates from the march-like rhythm into a waltz, the first time they changed what’s known as the meter in a song. Their next album, Rubber Soul introduced a host of musical innovations. John’s tune, Norwegian Wood, features George Harrison on sitar for the first time, which he bought after seeing one on the set of Help!. George’s song Think For Yourself features Paul on two bass parts – one of them standard, and the other featuring the bass through a fuzz pedal. The song Girl, written by John, contains an interlude written by Paul featuring two acoustic guitars harmonizing together in their upper register, allegedly influenced by the sound of the bouzoukis from the soundtrack of the film Zorba the Greek. One of the most important innovations of Rubber Soul was the keyboard solo for John’s poignant classic, In My Life. John asked George Martin to write something Baroque sounding for the middle of the song, so Martin ended up composing a Bach-like interlude. It proved too fast to play at full speed, so Martin ended up playing it an octave lower at half speed, then sped up the recording to double the speed, returning it to its original octave. This accidentally resulted in it sounding much brighter, like a harpsichord. 1966 It’s worth noting that around this time, they were experimenting with heavier drugs than the uppers and downers they were introduced to in Hamburg, or the marijuana they were introduced to by Bob Dylan. John, George, and their wives had their drinks spiked with LSD by their dentist John Riley at a dinner party a year earlier. By 1966, all 3 Beatles had taken it except for Paul, with John using it the most often. Paul started experimenting with it towards the end of 1966. It’s impossible to know exactly how much this drug was responsible for the artistic landmarks to come. Making use of the newest studio technology was inherently exciting for them, in addition to their competitive streak with other bands like the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, and The Who. Considering their track record of innovation, even without LSD, they would probably still be at the creative forefront of the 1960s counterculture. Their next single, Rain, the B-side of Paperback Writer, showcased their new embrace of psychedelia, featuring an Indian-influenced drone on the guitars throughout. Most noteworthy is the ending where John’s lead vocals are replayed backwards. Like the use of feedback in I Feel Fine, or sped up piano in In My Life, or the use of the sitar in Norwegian Wood, this was a first in rock music. At this point, they had fully mastered the art of writing catchy songs. Now they were ready to infuse their music with surprise and experimentation that not only delighted, but challenged their listeners. Their next album, Revolver, pushed the boundaries of what a rock record could be. In fact, the album’s second track, Eleanor Rigby, has no rock instruments at all. It consists only of vocals accompanied by a string octet, which was masterfully arranged by George Martin, partially inspired by Bernard Herrmann’s score to Psycho. Continuing their new found love of reverse-tape loops, I’m Only Sleeping includes a backwards guitar solo, helping to reinforce the idea of being in the state between waking and sleeping. George’s composition Love You To from Revolver was their most Indian influenced song to date, featuring not only sitar, but other instruments like tabla and tambura. For No One features a clavichord, and a French Horn. Yellow Submarine, a children’s song written by John and Paul for Ringo to sing, showcases a number of sound effects depicting life aboard this imaginary submarine, including bubbles, waves, rattling chains, clinking glasses, and a marching band. Revolver was also significant for having Paul’s bass more prominent in the mix, showcasing his sophisticated countermelodies that were essential to each song. The closing track, Tomorrow Never Knows, is the most experimental and psychedelic song of the album. It features a variety of altered tape loops, played backwards, sped up, or both. John intended to evoke “a thousand Tibetan monks chanting on a mountain”. While the Beatles get credit for coming up with such inventive ideas, their sound engineer Geoff Emerick was often the one who had to figure out how to implement them on a practical level. A week or two before Revolver was released, an old interview with John from earlier in the year was reprinted in the US. In the interview, he claimed, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.“. These comments were largely uncontroversial in the UK. However, in the US, especially among conservatives in the South, the comments were seen as downright blasphemous. In fact, The Beatles were already unpopular among many conservatives because of their public stances in favor of civil rights and against the war in Vietnam. John tried to clarify that the quote was taken out of context.  Despite this, the backlash continued. Several southern radio stations organized bonfires encouraging fans to burn copies of their records, and members of the Ku Klux Klan openly threatened them. During a concert in Memphis, an audience member threw a firecracker onto the stage. Out of concern for their safety and a desire to keep evolving in the recording studio, they decided to stop touring for good. All three but Paul were already married, with John and Ringo being fathers. They were now ready to fully let go of the Fab Four image marketed towards teenage girls, in favor of a more mature, artistic direction. Three months later, now with mustaches and goatees, they were back at Abbey Road studios to record John’s new song, Strawberry Fields Forever. The song famously opens with an introduction played by Paul on mellotron, a synthesizer-like keyboard that here imitates the sound of flutes. George Martin arranged the orchestral track, which featured four trumpets, three cellos, and the Indian swarmandal. The song is filled with backwards effects, and is the product of pasting together two takes in different keys at different speeds. John favored these two particular takes, and asked George Martin to do what he could to make them work together. Martin accomplished this highly unorthodox task by slowing one down and speeding up the other so the difference is imperceptible. The song is considered one of the most experimental, sophisticated, and influential songs in rock music history. Those previously isolated in the world of classical music were now finally paying attention. 1967 The Beatles sustained this creative momentum into their next album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album broke new ground in terms of what a rock album could be, and is their best selling album, having sold over 30 million copies. One song fades into the next, creating a sense of continuity from beginning to end. George Martin played an essential role on this album, arranging the orchestral instrumentation throughout, like the clarinets on When I’m 64, the strings and harp on She’s Leaving Home, and the brass band for the title track. For George Harrison’s composition, Within You Without You, classical strings were seamlessly combined with traditional Indian instrumentation. The most innovative song on the album, however, was the closing track, A Day in the Life. The reflective, outer sections were written by John, with a contrasting, cheerful middle section written by Paul. But between the two sections, and at the ending, there’s a 20-second passage featuring a 40-piece orchestra. John and Paul wanted something that would “sound like the end of the world,” so George Martin directed the orchestra to slide from their lowest note to their highest over 24 bars, creating a dramatic build-up. The song ends with a single E chord that lasts for a full 40 seconds, played by several pianos. Sgt Pepper represents the band at their peak as innovators. Their next single, All You Need Is Love, was released in 1967 at the height of the Summer of Love. While there’s plenty to say about the song musically, such as the many quotes from classical music and jazz during the ending fade out, it was the first song ever to be recorded in the studio live on TV. Later that summer, their manager Brian Epstein’s life was cut short at 32 from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol. They were clearly shaken by the news. They decided not to replace him, and to manage themselves. With psychedelia still in the air, they began their next project, Magical Mystery Tour. Like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, this would be their third album that was tied to a movie. It was broadcast by the BBC and was a complete flop. Critics considered it amateurish and lacking any coherent narrative, but Paul criticized the BBC for airing it in black and white, thus depriving viewers of the full visual experience. Paul’s song, The Fool on the Hill, is a standout on the album. It features a quirky recorder, played by Paul, and three flutes, arranged by Martin. John’s absurdist, I Am The Walrus, was partly inspired by Lewis Carrol’s poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter. The song fades out over a radio broadcast of King Lear. 1968 George, in addition to learning sitar with Ravi Shankar, was now a devoted meditator and practitioner of Hinduism. He persuaded his bandmates to come with him to India, where they learned transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their experience was mixed, but they returned back to London with over 30 new songs, which provided the material for two albums worth. The double album is simply called The Beatles, commonly referred to as The White Album. The songs represent a departure from their psychedelic phase, and ranges from folky acoustic tracks like Julia, Blackbird, and Mother Nature’s Son, to edgy rockers like Helter Skelter, Back In The USSR, and George’s classic, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. This song features Eric Clapton on lead guitar. George brought Clapton in for his skill, but also hoping it would clear some of the growing tension within the band. Paul, being self-taught on bass, drums, piano, and guitar, got into the habit of recording his tracks by himself. George was frustrated with being limited to two songs per album in spite of his clear growth as a songwriter. And John’s new love interest, the avant-garde artist, Yoko Ono, was sitting in on all the sessions, which broke the unspoken “no partners in the studio” rule. After coming home early from a vacation in Greece, John’s wife, Cynthia, found John and Yoko together, with Yoko wearing her bathrobe. Cynthia immediately moved out with their son Julian, and filed for divorce shortly after. During these White Album sessions, Paul wrote the single Hey Jude to comfort John’s son Julian, originally calling it Hey Jules. It became the best selling single of the second half of their career, and is an example of the tail wagging the dog. The repeating chant of the song’s ending goes on longer than the rest of the song! Later that year, the animated film Yellow Submarine was released. It featured a combination of new songs and old songs, and an orchestral score composed by George Martin. The Beatles’ speaking roles were voiced over by actors, though they do briefly appear in person for the closing song, All Together Now. 1969 The goal of their next major album, Let It Be, was to return to their roots by recording their songs together, as a band, unlike much of the White Album. George brought the young, talented Billy Preston to sit in on keyboard. Billy’s presence lifted the vibe immediately. The album was released in May of 1970, along with a film documenting the making of the album, even though most of the recording took place in January of 1969. This includes their famous final concert, which took place on the roof of Apple Records. Eventually the police were called in to stop the concert, but this only helped to solidify their continued desire to be seen as counter-cultural rebels. In February of 1969, they hired Allen Klein to help sort out the band’s business and financial concerns. But their decision wasn’t unanimous. Paul distrusted Klein, but was outvoted by the other three. Their next project was their iconic album Abbey Road. It features two of George Harrison’s most beloved songs: The ballad, Something, and Here Comes The Sun. It was now more apparent than ever that he had found his voice as a mature songwriter, and many consider these two songs the strongest of the album. However, Abbey Road’s boldest experiment is the medley at the end, consisting of eight short songs performed without pause. This helped to recreate the tight continuity they pulled off on Sgt Pepper. George Martin played a key role in shaping the flow of the medley. It begins with Paul’s song You Never Give Me Your Money, inspired by his dissatisfaction with Klein as a manager. Unfortunately, shortly after Abbey Road was recorded, John announced he was leaving the band to focus on his solo projects with Yoko. The other Beatles, knowing John could sometimes be impulsive, weren’t sure whether this was permanent or temporary. John’s departure wasn’t publicized because Klein needed the Beatles to appear united to negotiate a new contract with Capitol Records for higher royalties. 1970 Eventually, their united front finally fell apart when Paul publicly announced his departure from the Beatles. This was due to his dissatisfaction with Klein as a businessman, the final straw being Phil Spector’s lush orchestral overdub of the Long and Winding Road. The others liked how it sounded, but Paul despised it. He angrily demanded that Klein remove Spector’s contribution, but Klein ignored him; copies of the album were already being printed. Feeling like he could lose creative control over his songs under Klein’s management, Paul was forced to take up the ugly task of suing his bandmates to dissolve the partnership. Years after the breakup, the other Beatles admitted that Klein was indeed a conman, and that Paul was right about him. After the Beatles, they all enjoyed successful solo careers, which (will be covered in future programs.) (are covered in separate programs.) Unfortunately, the 4 Beatles would never officially reunite. Tragically, on December 8th, 1980, John was fatally shot outside of his apartment building by a lone gunman. Many Beatles fans who lived through this event are still in shock, including Paul, who claimed that he’s partially still in denial. However, in the mid-90s, the three remaining Beatles did reunite as part of the Anthology documentary. They collaborated on finishing two of John’s unfinished home demos, Real Love, and Free As A Bird, produced by Jeff Lynne. Several years later, in 2001, George died from cancer as he was putting the finishing touches on his final album, Brainwashed. A memorial concert was filmed a year later, called Concert For George, which featured many of his collaborators and friends, including Paul, Ringo, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, and George’s son, Dhani. In 2023, Paul, Ringo, and George Martin’s son Giles, completed another one of John’s demos, Now and Then. The song soon reached number 1 on the UK and US charts. The Beatles continue to hold the place of best-selling artist of all time, having done what very few get the historical opportunity to do, or have the vision to accomplish. Namely, they mastered the formulas of pop music, and then, after having the world’s attention, made their songs into timeless works of creative expression. As they evolved in the studio, they invited the public to evolve with them, as listeners.

Barbra Streisand, singer, writer, producer, director, actress, composer, designer, photographer and activist. She was born to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York! Her father’s parents emigrated from Poland and Ukraine; Her mother’s parents emigrated from Russia, where her grandfather had been a cantor. Barbra’s father died when she was just 15 months old. Her mother then worked as a bookkeeper, and struggled to support themselves. The result was that Barbra didn’t receive adequate attention from her mother. “When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food.” Barbra attended the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn. “I always wanted to be somebody, to be famous, you know, get out of Brooklyn.”  She made her debut as a child at a PTA meeting. She was determined to become an actress, especially when at age 14 she saw hfer 1st Broadway play, The Diary of Anne Frank starring Susan Strasberg. As a teenager she studied the lives of actresses Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt, and the acting methods of Stanislavski. In high school she joined the chorus, where she sang alongside her classmate, Neil Diamond. Around that time, she acted in the play Driftwood with Joan Rivers. After graduation at age 16, leaving the unpleasant situation with her mother, she moved out on her own, took any theatrical jobs she could get, such as ushering, and knocked on the doors of many casting offices. She often stayed at the homes of various friends on her army cot. According to Barbra, her mother had a great voice, but not once complimented nor praised her daughter’s talent in those years. Her mother begged her not to try to go into show business. That only made Barbra even more determined: “My desires were strengthened by wanting to prove to my mother that I could be a star.” At 18 she won a talent contest at a gay nightclub in NYC. She then landed a steady job at another club as the opening act for comedian Phyllis Diller. Her salary was $125 per week. She soon was asked by the playwright Arthur Laurents to appear on Broadway in the musical comedy, I Can Get it for You Wholesale. Barbra received a Tony nomination and the NY Drama Critics’ Prize for best supporting actress. She was 1st seen on TV as a guest on the Tonight Show in 1961, and appeared several times on the PM East PM West show hosted by Mike Wallace. She soon appeared on several Bob Hope specials, and the Ed Sullivan and Mike Douglas shows. And the pianist, Liberace brought her to Las Vegas as his opening act. In 1963 she married actor Elliot Gould, with whom she had her only child, actor and singer Jason Gould. In 1963 she recorded The Barbra Streisand Album, her 1st, which rose to the top 10 on the Billboard chart and won 3 Grammy awards, resulting in her becoming the best-selling female vocalist in the country. She soon thereafter recorded The 2nd Barbra Streisand Album. In 1964 she appeared again on Broadway in Funny Girl, and was soon featured on the cover of Time magazine. 2 years later she performed Funny Girl in London. At age 25 during a huge concert in NY’s Central Park before an audience of 135,000 fans, she forgot the words to two of the songs. This had a dramatic effect on her. For the next 27 years she refused to sing in public again, terrified that she would not remember all the words. She confined her work to recording studios and making movies. And it was only when teleprompters were invented and became available to her that she resumed singing in front of audiences. Streisand never listens to her own recordings, and because of her severe stage fright, actually does not enjoy performing. She doesn’t sing at home, not even in the shower. She prefers the informal, private atmosphere of the recording studio for singing. Streisand has spoken of being proud to be Jewish, and described herself as “a Jewess through and through, although I’m not religious.” She has been generous to Jewish causes and philanthropies in the United States and in Israel, such as her donation of the Emanuel Streisand Building for Jewish Studies, a gift she made to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in memory of her father. At a concert during the Six-Day War in 1967, Streisand had such a deep-rooted fear of being assassinated for her outspoken support of Israel that she continuously weaved around the stage to make herself a more difficult target for any potential sniper attack. In 1978 she performed for the 30th anniversary of the State of Israel, during which she broadcast a telephone conversation with Golda Meir, Israel’s 4th Prime Minister. In 1968 she appeared with Harry Belafonte at the Hollywood Bowl to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Poor People’s Campaign, which had been started by Dr. Martin Luther King. Her 1st four TV specials were televised between 1965 and 1968. Also in ’68 she won an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in the movie Funny Girl. In 1969 she starred in the movie Hello Dolly with Walter Matthau. In 1969 and ’70 Streisand dated the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, the father of Justin Trudeau. In 1973 she had a relationship with the hairdresser and producer Jon Peters, who later became her manager and producer. In 1969 together with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and Steve McQueen she established the 1st artists production company for actors to secure and develop movie projects for themselves. And in 1972 she formed the Barwood Films production studio. In 1973 Streisand co-starred in The Way We Were with Robert Redford. Its theme song, The Way We Were won an Academy Award, became a million-selling gold single, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her 2nd Academy Award was in 1976 for best original song for her song Evergreen in the movie A Star is Born. Her 1st efforts as producer, director and star was in 1983 for the movie Yentl, which received 5 Academy Award nominations. She was also the co-author of the script with Jack Rosenthal. In 1992 she spearheaded a boycott of Colorado ski resorts when that state denied gay men and lesbians any legal recourse against even the most blatant homophobia. “We must refuse to play where they discriminate. I know that I can speak more eloquently through my work than through any speech I might give. So, as an artist, I’ve chosen to make films about subjects and social issues I care about, whether it’s the inequality of women, or about being discharged from the army for one’s sexuality.” Streisand is also a longtime Democratic fundraiser. She has raised 25 million dollars for various organizations, and through her foundation, has donated 16 million for the protection of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues, nuclear disarmament and climate change initiatives. She has produced such TV films as Rescuers: Stories of Courage, that pays tribute to rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. The Streisand Foundation funds charities close to her heart. Her 1994 concert tour set box-office records and generated over ten million dollars for charity. In 2000 Streisand announced that she was retiring from giving live performances. Yet in 2006 she sang 20 concerts on a tour of the U.S. that grossed more than 92 million dollars. When asked why she performs, Streisand said that it is not for the money. “I have enough money, thank God, and the only reason I want it, is to give it away. There’s nothing more I need.” For 5 years in the 80s she lived with Richard Baskin, of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream family. She also dated Richard Gere and Clint Eastwood in the 80s. And in the early 90s, Peter Jennings, Jon Voight, and the tennis champion, Andre Agassi, 28 years her junior! She is alleged to have had affairs with Bill Clinton and Prince Charles. In fact she told an audience in London: “If I had played my cards right I could have become the 1st Jewish Princess!” In 1995 Streisand spoke at Harvard Univ. about the role of the artist as citizen in support of arts programs and funding. She has been an outspoken supporter of voter rights advocacy, and gay rights, including same sex marriage. In 1998 she married actor, James Brolin. In 2009 she sold 526 of her possessions at an auction to benefit her foundation. The following year, she collaborated with 20 others in recording a new version of We Are the World, to benefit relief aid for Haiti, 2 weeks after the massive, destructive earthquake there. Beginning in 2009 when Streisand learned that more women in the U.S. die from heart attacks than all types of cancer combined, she endowed the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The program researches women’s cardiovascular disease. By 2012 she had raised 22 million dollars and personally donated 10 million. In 2013 she made her 1st concert tour of Israel, including a performance of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, for its former Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, to celebrate his 90th birthday. Streisand has recorded 50 albums. By the ’70s she was named the most successful female singer in the U.S. She’s also the highest-paid singer in history. She is the only recording artist whose albums became #1 in each of the past 6 decades. In fact she has recorded 52 gold albums and 31 platinum albums. Barbra Streisand is the recipient of the Israel Freedom Medal, the Scopus Award of the American Friends of The Hebrew Univ., honorary doctorate degrees from Brandeis Univ. and the Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, the 1st Annual Jewish Image Award, the Legion of Honor, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Billboard magazine ranked her as the top female Jewish musician of all time. The movie Funny Girl was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry, and the song People was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. She was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, and the National Museum of American Jewish History. She has been nominated for 43 Grammy awards, and has won 8 of them. She is also the recipient of 2 Academy Awards. She’s created 17 TV specials, and of the 19 movies she’s made, she directed 3 of them, which received 14 Oscar nominations. She is the recipient of the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 4 times. She is the honorary chairwoman of the board of directors of Hadassah’s International Research Institute on Women. Streisand worked on writing her autobiography for years. It was published in 2023. The memoir spans 970 pages, while the audiobook, read by the author, exceeds 48 hours. She lives in Malibu, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In 2018 she stated that because of her stage fright, she was not going to sing before audiences again. That year she spoke about the danger she believed Donald Trump posed to the U.S., and recorded the album Walls as a protest to Trump. One of its songs is titled Don’t Lie to Me. It also features Streisand singing John Lennon’s Imagine. In January of 2017 she spoke at the historic Women’s March in Los Angeles. In June of 2020 Streisand gave George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter two of her albums, My Name Is Barbra and Color Me Barbra. Streisand stated: “I sent Gianna videos where I played a little girl in my first television special singing kid songs and my second special a sequence with lots of baby animals.” Streisand also gifted George Floyd’s daughter shares of Walt Disney stock.

By Michael Laster Tom Lehrer was born Thomas Andrew Lehrer in 1928 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He started classical piano at age seven, but he was more interested in popular music and soon began composing his own show tunes. In addition to his passion for songwriting, he shone as a mathematics prodigy. At 15, he was admitted to Harvard University and started writing satirical songs for his friends. By 19, he had earned his Master’s degree at Harvard and recorded his first album, Songs by Tom Lehrer, in 1953. While Spike Jones was known for his slapstick musical parodies, this album by Lehrer can be said to be the album of modern musical satire, setting the stage for the biting social critique heard in the music of Randy Newman, Tim Minchin, and Bo Burnham, not to mention Weird Al Yankovic. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1955, Lehrer served until 1957, working at the NSA. Two years later, he released his second and final studio album, More of Tom Lehrer, featuring songs like “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” “The Masochism Tango,” and “The Elements,” sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Major-General’s Song. Through the 1950s and ’60s, he toured widely while teaching mathematics at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley. Around 1972, he retired from performing to focus on teaching math and musical theater at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The oldest composer on our list, he is still alive at 96 as of March, 2025. Leonard Norman Cohen was born in 1934 in Montreal into an Orthodox Jewish family. At nine, he faced a profound loss when his father passed away, an event that shaped his early years. Reflecting on his upbringing, he once called it “a very Messianic childhood,” noting, “I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest.” In high school, Cohen nurtured his love for music and poetry, teaching himself acoustic guitar and forming a country-folk group, the Buckskin Boys. A chance meeting with a young Spanish guitarist sparked his interest in flamenco, prompting him to switch to classical guitar. Meanwhile, he shared his poetry at local clubs, sharpening his creative voice. At McGill University, Cohen pursued undergraduate studies and forged a key friendship with faculty member Irving Layton, who guided him to publish his first book of poetry. His early artistic path was captured in the 1965 film Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen. By 1967, he turned his focus to music, though he later released three more poetry collections. A lifelong seeker of spiritual truth, Cohen explored various religions and, in 1996, was ordained as a Buddhist monk in the Zen tradition. Yet he clarified, “I’m not looking for a new religion. I’m quite happy with the old one, with Judaism. For one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship and no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.” Cohen’s songs weave Biblical themes from both the Old and New Testaments. No subject was off-limits for him; he drew inspiration from the sacred, the sensual, and the political, often blending all three. Though not the most technically gifted singer on this list, he wielded his hoarse voice to suit his artistic persona—that of a modern-day prophet imparting wisdom, yet connecting with listeners as an equal. His words sprang not just from studying spiritual texts but from lived experience, casting him as both an otherworldly sage and as a very worldly sinner. Most people recognize Leonard Cohen for his iconic song “Hallelujah,” famously covered by Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright. Phil Ochs was born Phillip David Ochs in 1940 in El Paso, Texas. His father, drafted into World War II as a medic, witnessed the war’s horrors, which fueled his struggles with depression and bipolar disorder. This instability took a toll on the family, sparking financial hardship and frequent moves as his father worked at hospitals in Far Rockaway, Long Island; Perrysburg, in Western New York; and Columbus, Ohio. As a child, Phil showed a deep love for music—particularly classical and big band—and his talent led him to play clarinet with the Capital University Conservatory of Music orchestra in Ohio, where he became principal soloist before turning 16. After high school, Ochs enrolled at Ohio State University. There, he studied the Cuban Revolution while learning guitar and leftist politics from fellow student Jim Glover. He soon began writing newspaper articles, often tackling radical themes. When the student paper rejected his more provocative pieces, he launched his own underground newspaper, The Word, and contributed to the satire magazine The Sundial alongside classmate and future Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. In the early 1960s, Phil Ochs emerged as a key figure in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene, renowned for politically charged songs like “The Draft Dodger Rag” and “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.” His career, defined by activism and shadowed by battles with depression, bipolar disorder, and paranoia, met a tragic end when he took his own life in 1976 at age 35—the same age as Mozart when he died. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents, children of Jewish immigrants from Odessa and Lithuania—then part of the Russian Empire—raised him in a culturally rich household. Though later celebrated as a folk artist, Dylan’s musical roots were shaped by early rock and roll influences. At one talent show, his music blared so loudly that the principal reportedly switched off the microphone. In high school, he performed Little Richard and Elvis Presley songs, and at 17, attended a life-changing concert of another idol, the great Buddy Holly. Three days after this performance, Holly was tragically killed in a plane crash. During his first year at the University of Minnesota, Zimmerman dove into Minneapolis’s folk music scene. In a 1985 interview, he reflected, “I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.” After one year, he dropped out of college and, in 1961, settled in New York City, now calling himself Bob Dylan—a name inspired by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. He legally adopted it in 1962, five months after releasing his first album, which featured just two original songs. His next release, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, brimmed with nearly all original tracks, including “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Dylan built one of the most prolific solo careers of any artist, easily the most prolific songwriter on this list. Yet, for a brief two-year stint starting in 1988, he joined the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, alongside George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to Christianity, releasing three gospel albums. Still, his occasional ties to Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism, reveals a lasting bond with his Jewish roots. His artistic legacy mirrors a chameleon’s: he began as a devoted Woody Guthrie follower, then famously defied folk purists by going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, later morphing into a country crooner, a facepaint-wearing rocker on the Rolling Thunder Revue, an evangelical Christian in 1979, and even a cryptic figure in Victoria’s Secret ads. Beyond music, he shines as a visual artist, with paintings displayed in galleries worldwide. But his true genius lies in painting narratives with the English language, weaving storytelling, surrealism, metaphor, and social commentary with ease. Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey to Hungarian Jewish parents. At four, they moved to Flushing, Queens, in New York City. By 13, he teamed up with his schoolmate Art Garfunkel to sing as a duo.  Simon writing original songs inspired by the late 1950s pop style of The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. From 1957 to 1963, they performed as Tom & Jerry, while Simon released solo tracks under various pseudonyms on the side. During this time, he studied English at The Queens College of New York, and after graduating, enrolled at Brooklyn Law School—only to drop out after one semester to pursue music full-time. In 1964, he recorded his first album with Garfunkel, followed by a solo album the next year while living in England, where he explored English folk music. Both flopped commercially. But Tom Wilson, the producer of their debut, saw the rise of folk-rock and, without their knowledge, overdubbed their track “The Sound of Silence” with electric guitar, bass, and drums. His hunch paid off: the song soared, selling over a million copies by 1966. The duo released four more albums, with Simon crafting the music and lyrics for all of their original tracks, including Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Boxer, and Mrs Robinson before before they split up in 1971. Simon’s solo career spanned 15 albums, peaking with Graceland in 1986 and finishing with Seven Psalms in 2023. Graceland showcased musicians from Johannesburg, South Africa—drummers and the vocal choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo—while his follow-up album, The Rhythm of the Saints, featured Brazilian artists. Unlike Bob Dylan, whose stylistic reinventions were firmly rooted within the range of Americana, Paul Simon’s eclecticism across continents makes him the most worldly on this list. Yet, despite his global influences, he penned some of the most iconic songs about the American experience. Carole King was born Carol Joan Klein in 1942 in Manhattan. By age four, her parents discovered she had perfect pitch, able to name a note just by hearing it. Her mother, who learned piano as a child, began giving her formal lessons. King later recalled, “My mother never forced me to practice. She didn’t have to. I wanted so much to master the popular songs that poured out of the radio.” That same year, in kindergarten, she showed a knack for words and numbers, skipping first grade entirely. In high school, she formed a vocal quartet and, at 16 in 1958, recorded her first two songs for ABC-Paramount, “Goin’ Wild” and “The Right Girl,” now using the last name King. At Queens College, she briefly collaborated on two songs with Paul Simon, a friend who leaned on her help in a math class. There, she also met Gerry Goffin, who became her husband and chief lyricist for the next decade. Together, they penned a string of hits for other artists, including “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for the Shirelles, “Chains” for The Cookies—later covered by The Beatles—“The Loco-Motion” for Little Eva, and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” for Aretha Franklin. Their fruitful partnership ended in divorce in 1968, driven by her push for independence as a songwriter, Goffin’s battles with drugs and mental illness, and his affair with a Cookies singer, which produced a daughter. Her first solo album, Writer, struggled to gain traction. But her next release, Tapestry, changed everything. Her defining solo work, Tapestry stands as the best-selling album by any Jewish composer, with over 30 million copies sold worldwide, ranking it among the all-time best sellers. It features songs like “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late” (with lyrics by Toni Stern), and “You’ve Got a Friend,” soon famously covered by James Taylor. Other career highlights include her landmark 1973 Central Park concert, composing music for Maurice Sendak’s animated short Really Rosie—later expanded into an off-Broadway musical—and re-recording “Where You Lead” from Tapestry as the Gilmore Girls theme. Laura Nyro (NEER-oh) was born Laura Nigro in 1947 in the Bronx, New York City, her Italian last name inherited from her paternal grandfather. Her other three grandparents were Jews of Russian and Polish descent. As a child, she taught herself piano while absorbing her parents’ jazz, classical, soul, and rock albums, eventually writing her first original song at age eight. In a 1970 interview with Billboard magazine, she reflected, “I’ve created my own little world, a world of music, since I was five years old. I was never a bright and happy child.” After graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art, she dove straight into her career as a singer-songwriter, releasing her first two songs in 1966: “Wedding Bell Blues,” a future hit for the 5th Dimension in 1969, and “Stoney End,” which was covered by Barbra Streisand in 1970. Her second album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, earned the highest critical praise. It showcased a musical uniqueness rare in pop, with unpredictable shifts in speed and mood that became her signature across all her work. Unlike performers who connect through outward stage presence, Nyro’s introverted, creative, and sensitive nature turned her live shows into intimate glimpses of her retreating into the inner world of her childhood. She died at 49 in 1997 from ovarian cancer—the same disease that claimed her mother at the same age. Billy Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, but within a year, his family moved to Hicksville, Long Island. His father, Howard—originally Helmut, a German Jew—fled the Nazis in 1938 with his own father, escaping first to Switzerland, then Cuba, and finally to New York. He found Americans “uneducated and materialistic,” and resettled in Vienna after divorcing Billy’s mother, Rosalind when Billy was eight. There, after remarrying, he fathered Billy’s half-brother, Alexander Joel, now an acclaimed conductor. Billy began piano lessons at four, and as adolescence hit, faced bullying over his small stature, Jewish heritage, and love for music—prompting him to take up boxing. Though he joined friends at church as a young teen, he identifies as an atheist Jew. In high school, Joel played gigs with local bands to support his family, but after one late night, he missed a crucial English exam needed to graduate. He recalled, “I told them, ‘To hell with it. If I’m not going to Columbia University, I’m going to Columbia Records, and you don’t need a high school diploma over there.’” In 1971, he released his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, featuring favorites like “She’s Got a Way” and “Tomorrow Comes Today,” the latter’s lyrics drawn from a suicide note he wrote before drinking furniture polish after a breakup. Fortunately, his drummer rushed him to the hospital, where he received treatment for depression. Two years later, Joel broke through with the album Piano Man, propelled by the title track’s popularity. Like Paul Simon, Joel stands as a key songwriter proudly tied to New York City, especially through “New York State of Mind.” Much like Bob Dylan, he’s a chameleon, but with a twist: rather than shifting personas, Joel mastered composing in any genre he chose—doo-wop in “River of Dreams,” or Bach- and Chopin-inspired pieces in his classical album of solo piano works, Fantasies and Delusions. Not only a chameleon in style, he was also a vocal shapeshifter, channeling specific singers for different songs, like Mick Jagger in “You May Be Right,” John Lennon in “Laura,” James Brown in “Easy Money,” and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in “Uptown Girl.” Janis Ian was born Janis Eddy Fink in 1951 in Farmingdale, New Jersey. At two, she insisted on piano lessons, likely inspired by her father, Victor, a professional music teacher. By twelve, she wrote her first song, and in her early teens, was already skilled on organ, harmonica, French horn, and guitar. At 14, she recorded her debut single, “Society’s Child,” a poignant tale of a white girl ostracized by friends, family, and teachers for dating a Black boyfriend, ultimately yielding to social pressure to end the relationship. Leonard Bernstein praised the song on his 1967 CBS TV special about pop music. Still, many radio stations banned the song, and Ian faced ongoing hate mail and death threats. Despite this early hit, her initial albums sold poorly. It wasn’t until 1975, with Between the Lines, that she found major success, winning a Grammy for “At Seventeen,” a reflection on being a high school outcast. She has stayed musically active ever since, and her autobiography, released as an audiobook, earned her a second Grammy in 2013, this time for Best Spoken Word Album. Beyond music, she writes short science fiction stories and has been with her partner, Patricia Snyder, since 1989; they married in Toronto in 2003. Regina Spektor was born in 1980 in Moscow, eleven years before the Soviet Union’s collapse. At seven, she began piano lessons, and two years later, her family relocated to the Bronx to escape rising antisemitism. She attended a Jewish middle school and studied classical piano privately with Sonia Vargas of the Manhattan School of Music until age 17, when she started writing songs. Spektor then enrolled at Purchase College to study composition, completing the four-year program in three years with honors. Her debut album, 11:11 followed shortly after in 2001. Her songs are known for their imagination, quirkiness, and clever nods to literature and world history. As opposed to songwriters whose lyrics reflect their personal feelings, she sees her songs as short works of fiction, giving voice to one or many characters in imaginary circumstances. Highly versatile, she pulls from classical, jazz, pop, or any other style she’s inspired by.

by Moshe Denburg The Three Streams of Jewish Music – reprise   Here is a brief reprise of the main conceptual framework of the discussion of the Many Worlds of Jewish Music, namely, The Three Streams of Jewish Music. Have a look at the following graphic, which is a historical atlas, as it were, of Jewish Music. We can describe Jewish Music as having three distinct streams. One is the Ashkenazi, or Western stream. This includes Klezmer, and is music originating in Eastern Europe and extending to the rest of Europe and the Americas. The second stream is the Sephardi, which refers to Mediterranean cultural sources, including Spain, Portugal, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey. The third stream is the Mizrahi, literally Eastern, and refers to the music of Jewish people who resided over the centuries amidst Arabic and other Middle-Eastern cultures. As you can see, these three streams are not completely separate, but do in fact intersect in many places. The Ashkenazi Stream includes the music that originated in Eastern Europe and moved westward and northward throughout Europe and later into North America. The language most associated with this stream is Yiddish, a unique hybrid of Medieval German and Hebrew. And the instrumental style of music most associated with this stream is Klezmer. The Sephardi Stream refers to music that originated around the Mediterranean, and the Hebrew word  ‘Sephardi’ literally means Spanish. This alludes to the fact that until the Spanish expulsion of all non-Christians in 1492, a very fruitful Jewish culture existed in Spain, and these Jews developed a spoken language of their own, called Ladino. Ladino, based on the 15th-century Spanish that they spoke before the expulsion, forms the basis of much Sephardi repertoire. The Mizrahi Stream is the music of Eastern Jews, from the Eastern Mediterranean and eastward into Asia. ‘Mizrahi’ literally means ‘Eastern’. This music is the child of the interaction between Jewish people and the cultures of Arabia, Turkey, and Persia. Generally, this encompasses the following countries: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and as far east as India. In song, the main language used is Hebrew, though local languages have also been used, most notably, Arabic. It is important to note, that The Three Streams idea is a snapshot in time, and does not depict an unchanging situation. Things are evolving all the time. But the concept gives us a good starting point for the study of Jewish Music today. Music of the Synagogue This topic, to my mind, is the very essence of Jewish Music. In fact, it is so central to understanding Jewish Music in its traditional sense that we have decided to deal with this section in a much fuller manner in a separate presentation. For now, we will touch upon this topic to give the listener a sense of Jewish music in its home context. In the Synagogue, two main musical traditions have developed over the centuries, namely: Biblical Cantillation, which is the chanting of the Torah, the holy scriptures, and The Modes of Prayer, or the melodic settings of the prayers. In addition, the services are enhanced by Congregational Singing. In fact, this is seen as the best way to get congregants involved in the services. The interesting thing about Congregational Singing is that melodies can be brought in from the outside world, even the secular world, and prayers are set to these tunes. Thus, they are instantly recognizable, and the congregant feels at home. The Intercultural Synthesis  In the three streams diagram, serendipitously or deliberately, Israel is to be found in all three. It is the only geographical area that finds itself sharing all three streams. This reflects the overall trajectory of Jewish cultural experience over the last two millennia. The in-gathering of the Jewish people in the land of Israel gives expression to all the varied cultural experiences that Jews brought with them from the lands of their dispersion. The commonality of Jewish diasporic experience has always been our desire to participate in the cultures surrounding us, contributing to them, and integrating them into our own practices. In Israel, this integration has been heightened and has rendered some unique music. Early Israeli music is replete with instances where Yemenite (a Mizrahi culture) melodizing and the Ashkenazi system of harmony and orchestration come together. To me, this has always been a true intercultural synthesis. To be honest, for many years, the Ashkenazi culture was ascendant in Israel; perhaps this was because modern Zionism was born in Europe, and in general, European cultural expression was ascendant in much of the world when Israel was founded. Today, the Mizrahi manner of singing and playing is front and center in Israeli culture. But the early experiments are a great example of how Jewish music is an intercultural phenomenon. Cultural Interplay in North America Tearing ourselves away from all this heavy intercultural synthesis, let’s have something completely different. As was alluded to plenty in the presentation, Klezmer: Jewish but not Too Jewish, another kind of synthesis is one in which the Jewish musician laughs at himself regarding his early predicament in America, of being the outsider wanting in. One great exponent of this conundrum in song was Mickey Katz, with his Yinglish workups of a lot of American chestnuts, such as She’ll Be Comin Round the Katzkills (aka She’ll Be Comin Round the Mountain), HaimAfen Range (aka Home on the Range), and Borscht Riders in the Sky (aka Ghost Riders in the Sky), to mention but 3 of his innumerable tongue in cheek parodies. Early in part 1 we alluded to songs that marry the Yiddish language with a swing rhythm. There are other intercultural marriages that have been happening as well. Songs that utilize well-known folk songs in English and create new Hebrew lyrics for them are examples of this kind of synthesis. The intercultural synthesis is going on everywhere today, in Jewish music and in general. In North America, just as in centuries past in other countries, the melodic structures of folk music are being utilized in Synagogue song. One excellent exponent of this contemporary integration is the late singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman, who has contributed many melodies for significant prayers that are part of the Synagogue services. Her melodies are not in the traditional modes or melodies of prayer, but rather resemble American folk song. Songs like these are playing a more and more important role in preserving the Jewish tradition, as they permit the congregant to join in the Hebrew liturgy, by introducing melodies that are both uplifting and musically familiar. Going in the opposite direction, we can cite the seminal song by Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah, a staple of the English language world’s musical expression, taking a serious Jewish conception and bringing it to general public awareness for Jews and non-Jews alike. I consider this song as a kind of update of the Song of Songs, a book of the Biblical Canon that speaks of erotic love unabashedly. Finally, going from the sublime to the irreverent, there is Kinky Friedman, who, with songs like They Ain’t Makin Jews Like Jesus Anymore, delivers a more ‘in-your-face’ hit of Jewish-Americana. Deliberate Synthesis and Today’s Intercultural Context Now to get back to the subject of Intercultural Synthesis in earnest, I would point to the very deliberate intercultural constructions happening nowadays. Over the past 150 years or so, the West and East have been learning more about each other, first via scholars who brought religious and other texts from one part of the world to another, and then, gradually, in the 20th century, the actual sharing of the arts. This has only accelerated in the 21st century, with global access now at our disposal via the internet and widespread travel. If I may share my own experience and artistic trajectory, for many years I sought an opportunity to create a large-scale intercultural project. This eventuated, in 2001, with the founding of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO). Now there have been other large-scale projects, some quite ad hoc, like Ravi Shankar’s sitar concertos, and some more established, like YoYo Ma’s Silk Road Project. My own compositions created for the VICO have often been based on Jewish texts. This is a deliberate attempt, on my part, to utilize the larger world as a musical palette to present matters of Jewish sensibility and tradition. Making Intercultural Music with Jewish Musical Elements There are always several ways to begin to refer one type of music or cultural tradition to another. To my mind, the first, most obvious feature of any culture is language. The language of Jewish people everywhere has always been Hebrew. This is the language of prayer, of the Bible, and of poetry and literature throughout the ages. Even though Jewish people have lived with, and contributed to many other languages, and created their own dialects in these, the one unifying language, written, chanted, sung, and – for the last 100 years especially – spoken, is Hebrew. Thus, taking as a point of departure a poem, or a prayer, in Hebrew, one can begin to construct an intercultural work which may incorporate many other cultural references, including instruments and techniques. Another way is to utilize the modes, the melodic structures of Jewish music, and adapt them to the various instruments one is writing for. Modes very much capture the ‘soul’ of a people, and yet there are many Jewish modes that have commonalities with modes of other cultures. A mode is a home where a melody is born; and a melody is a universal musical common denominator. Thus, modes are a time-honoured way any culture borrows tunes and ideas from another. Intercultural music-making is about the composer and the musician attempting to incorporate into their work something that does not exist in their own culture. To summarize, intercultural music is a process whereby the main ingredients of one culture’s music are varied and mixed with the ingredients of another musical culture. These ingredients may include melody, rhythm, harmony, instruments, ornamental techniques, scales, and modes. The Many Worlds of Jewish Music – Conclusion Jewish Music is many things, but historically it is the music of the wanderer, taking from and contributing to many cultures, while preserving Jewish identity. Today things are changing in two ways: Israel has become a geographic center for integrated Jewish cultural expression; The global access to many cultures, facilitated by the internet and travel, has made possible many intercultural collaborations which are giving rise to many new musical hybrids and experiences. Central to understanding Jewish Music is the 3 streams idea. Of course, it is mainly a historical-geographical snapshot of where Jewish music comes from, it is not a permanent construct. But it clearly illustrates the intercultural synthesis idea, how Jewish music is varied, with great potential for the creation of many new worlds. The Many Worlds of Jewish Music – part 2 Important Notice The Many Worlds of Jewish Music is a non-monetized presentation, created exclusively for educational purposes. Music Credits Ani Ma-amin – movement V (I Believe) by Moshe Denburg Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and Laudate Singers Lars Kaario, conductor Russian Sher Traditional Klezmer Repertoire Performed by Tzimmes Cuando El Rey Nimrod (When King Nimrod) Traditional Ladino Repertoire Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Adon Has’lichot (Master of Forgiveness) Text: Hymn for the concluding service on Yom Kippur Music: Traditional Mizrahi Repertoire with additional music by Avishai and Itzik Eshel Adon Olam (Ruler of the Universe) Text: Traditional Synagogue Liturgy Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells by James Lord Pierpont Performed by Moshe Denburg Yesh Li Gan (I Have a Garden) Text: Chaim Nachman Bialik Music: Nachum Nardi Adapted from a traditional Syrian melody Performed by Bracha Tzfira, accompanied by Nachum Nardi Shnei Shoshanim (Two Roses) Text: Yaakov Orland Music: Mordechai Ze-ira Performed by Shoshana Damari Bo-i (Come With Me) Music and Words: Idan Raichel Performed by the Idan Raichel Project Eize Yom Tov (A Good Day) Music: Idan Raichel Lyrics: Idan Raichel and Tamar Yahalomi Performed by Nasrin Kadri and Idan Raichel Tisma-ani (Hear Me) Lyrics: Amir Abu, Tamar Yahalomi, Yonatan Kalimi Music: Tamar Yahalomi, Yonatan Kalimi Performed by Nasrin Kadri Modeh Ani (I Give Thanks to You) by Avi Ohayon and Asaf Tzruya Performed by Omer Adam Y’ladim Ze Simcha (Children Are Happiness) Lyrics: Yehoshua Sobol Music: Shlomo Bar Performed by Shlomo Bar and Habreira Hativ’it She’ll Be Comin Round the Katzkills Based on She’ll Be Comin Round the Mountain Adapted by Mickey Katz with additional texts and music Rahav Hayam (Wide is the Ocean) Music: Traditional Folk Repertoire, ‘O Waly Waly’ Hebrew Lyrics: Moshe Denburg and Simon Ophir Performed by Tzimmes Mishebeirach (The One Who Has Blessed) Text: Liturgy of Jewish Prayers Music: Debbie Friedman Performed by Debbie Friedman Hallelujah Music and Words by Leonard Cohen Performed by Leonard Cohen They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore by Kinky Friedman Performed by Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys Ahavat Hadasa (The Love of Hadasa) from Dreams of the Wanderer by Moshe Denburg Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra Lars Kaario, conductor; Amir Haghighi, tenor soloist Capilano College Singers, Capilano College Festival Chorus, Cecilia Ensemble Women’s Choir Dror Yikra (He Shall Declare Freedom) Text: Dunash Ben Lavrat (10th Century) Music: Traditional Performed by Tzimmes Ani Ma-amin – movement V (I Believe) by Moshe Denburg Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and Laudate Singers Lars Kaario, conductor Debka Hasid Music: Traditional and Original Adapted and Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Resources on Jewish Music – https://www.tzimmes.net/jewish-music/overview        

by Moshe Denburg What is Jewish Music? – One Jewish Musician’s Take Over the years, in presenting workshops on the topic, I began with the question: What is Jewish Music? Answers to the question varied widely – some said it was happy-sad, undoubtedly referring to typical Jewish songs. Others responded that it is music related to life passage events. Yet others to specific Jewish languages, such as Yiddish or Hebrew. Many even considered music Jewish if it was written by a Jew. According to this rule, White Christmas counts as Jewish Music because it was written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant to the USA! I would like to start this discussion by giving my take. Jewish Music, whether now or in the past, is that which is related to Jewish religious experience. I mean by this that at some point in the past, near or distant, Jewish experience and identity was a religious and ritualistic one. Take Klezmer for example. In its manifestation as an instrumental form, with many correlations with the music of non-Jewish cultures, it is still very identifiably Jewish; and, I would assert, this is mainly because it has become associated with Jewish life passage events and communal celebrations. And not coincidentally, its main modes are the same as those traditionally utilized by the Cantor, in leading prayers in the synagogue. I will explain the term mode soon enough, but for now, take the term to be synonymous with melody. So, somewhere along the line, a piece of music deemed Jewish related to the ritual Jewish experience, the religious/ritual context. This said, I am perfectly willing, and in fact wish to admit, that what began in ritual practice and prayer has gone very far afield – certainly one may utilize prayer modes for life passage events, but then other musical ideas are brought into the mix. The Idea of Intercultural Synthesis Jewish people have always lived in a wider world, which includes other cultures not rooted in Judaism, and one may argue that it has always been a Jewish imperative to integrate some aspects of other cultures into Jewish practice. It certainly has been a hallmark of Jewish experience to reach out to other cultures, to honour them, to adapt to them and to contribute to them. Some stuff we integrate into our own practice, whether in the synagogue or in a somewhat more secular sphere, like a wedding reception. The Yiddish Theatre is an example of this celebration of Jewish life, via the integration of many non-ritual musical and poetic ideas. However, in its celebration of lived Jewish experiences, its music is definitely Jewish. Some Yiddish songs have borrowed rhythms from other cultures, most notably ‘swing’ in America. Swing is, of course, borrowed from jazz, and is an example of how Jewish musicians have borrowed various musical elements from the cultures around them. So this brings us to an idea that is well-accepted by Jewish musicologists. The idea is what I would dub, ‘Intercultural Synthesis’. In other words, due to our constant adapting to the cultures around us, Jewish music is a type of intercultural synthesis. There is a cultural survival strategy in this. In order not to assimilate completely into cultures not their own, Jews borrow from them and contribute to them, and thus retain a Jewish identity in their art and culture. Jewish people, who for over 2000 years have been treading water in cultures not their own, might have become inadvertent experts in this adaptation and integration strategy. So, the klezmer (the Eastern European musician) played with non-Jews, and shared a great many musical ideas, borrowing and contributing. This still goes on today, and more and more deliberately I should add. Take American Folk Music for example, which, in contemporary Jewish music plays an important part, folky melodies forming the basis for many songs based on liturgical texts. Jews utilize many secular song forms in their prayers in order to bring people into the synagogue from the secular world outside. This activity is part and parcel of the intercultural synthesis of which I speak. The 3 streams of Jewish Music – a Historical Atlas of Jewish Music To begin our discussion of the Many Worlds of Jewish Music, it will be helpful to give an overview of Jewish Music. We can describe Jewish Music as having three distinct streams. One is the Ashkenazi, or Western stream. This includes Klezmer, and is music originating in Eastern Europe and extending to the rest of Europe and the Americas. The second stream is the Sephardi, which refers to Mediterranean cultural sources, including Spain, Portugal, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey. The third stream is the Mizrahi, literally Eastern, and refers to the music of Jewish people who resided over the centuries amidst Arabic and other Middle-Eastern cultures. Of course, these three streams are not completely separate but do in fact intersect in many places. Have a look at the following diagram. The 3 streams of Jewish Music The music that originated in Eastern Europe (the Balkans, Romania, Bulgaria, among others) and moved westward and northward throughout Europe and later into North America, belongs to the Ashkenazi tradition. It includes Klezmer music. ‘Ashkenazi’ refers to Jews who in the 9th century began to settle along the banks of the Rhine. Since these Jews are the forebears of much of European and Western Jewry, ‘Ashkenazi’ today refers to Jewish people of a Western cultural orientation. Other than Hebrew, the traditional Ashkenazi language of speech and song is mainly Yiddish; nowadays, English and other local languages have come to play a large role in Jewish Music of the Ashkenazi stream. By the way, the traditional modes of prayer utilized in Synagogue services, and the modes utilized in Klezmer instrumental repertoire are very much the same. Here’s a quick explanation of the term ‘mode’, and how it differs from the term ‘scale’. A scale is a collection of notes, whereas a mode is a way of organizing the notes of a scale into melodic combinations. A mode utilizes certain typical melodic formulas for opening and closing a piece, and abides by certain rules governing the emphasis on one or another note or groups of notes. Thus a scale is simply a template from which modes and melodies are made. Apart from Yiddish, Ashkenazi music – as is the case with all the streams – is steeped in Hebrew, the language of prayer, of the Hebrew Bible – more commonly known as the Torah – and of the land of Israel. And there are also typical rhythms associated with the Ashkenazi stream. One very important one is known as a Freylakh, literally ‘joyful’, and it is essential for the dancing at Jewish celebrations. The Sephardi stream of Jewish Music refers to music that originated around the Mediterranean, from Spain and North Africa to Turkey and Greece. In Hebrew, ‘Sephardi’ literally means Spanish, and alludes to the fact that until the Spanish expulsion of all non-Christians in 1492, a very fruitful Jewish culture existed in Spain. When these Jewish communities were expelled they migrated to places all around the Mediterranean basin – Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, etc. They took with them a 15th century version of Spanish which they called Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and over the centuries it incorporated many Hebrew words, as well as words from the various tongues spoken where these Jews made their homes. Sadly, much like Yiddish, Ladino is not a spoken language today. But, also like Yiddish, its repertoire has been kept alive and has been given new renditions and arrangements. The music of Eastern Jews, from the Eastern Mediterranean and eastward into Asia can be designated as the Mizrahi stream of Jewish Music. ‘Mizrahi’ literally means ‘Eastern’. This music is the child of the interaction between Jewish people and the cultures of Arabia, Turkey, and Persia. Generally, this encompasses the following  countries: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and as far east as India. In song, the main language used is Hebrew, though local languages have also been used, most notably, Arabic. In Mizrahi music you will hear a very non-Western melodic construction. Eastern modes and melodies utilize ‘in-between’ tones, and may sound out of tune to a western ear at first. But the East is the cradle of the great modal traditions of the world, traditions that go back thousands of years. Yet another typical aspect of Mizrahi music features many notes on a single sung syllable, also known as melisma. Music for Celebrations and Communal Life – Ashkenazi    The World of Klezmer Bands Klezmer is a very popular category of music, and in some instances today – in the West – it has become synonymous with Jewish Music itself. Of course, Klezmer is but one branch of the Ashkenazi stream of Jewish Music, an important one for sure, but it is not the entirety of Jewish Music, nor even the entirety of Jewish Music in the Ashkenazi stream. ‘Klezmer’ is a Yiddish word created from two Hebrew words – kley (instruments of), and zemer (song) and it denotes the individual Jewish musician. It has come to denote a band of Jewish musicians, as well as an entire Jewish musical style originating in Eastern Europe in the 19th century. Thus the Jewish Musician is understood to be ‘an instrument of song’, a channel in this world for sacred melody. And klezmorim, a Hebraic plural of klezmer, means ‘Jewish musicians’. In origin, Klezmer is the instrumental repertoire of Jewish music making utilized for Jewish celebrations; but Klezmer bands today are some of the main exponents of songs in Yiddish, and thus preserve not only an instrumental style of playing, but songs in the beloved Yiddish language. There is a vast world of Klezmer bands, ranging from those who are dedicated to preserving the original tradition, to those who are very experimental. As mentioned, traditional Klezmer does not, strictly speaking include Yiddish song, but nowadays most Klezmer bands do include them. The great repository of Yiddish song, traditionally speaking, was the Yiddish Theatre and songs that were composed for performance and recording in Europe and America in the 20th century. Chassidic Music and Nigunim A tremendous contribution to Jewish Music is the Hassidic Nigun. A nigun is literally a tune or a melody, and is linked to the Hassidic (Jewish devotional) tradition of seeking simplicity in one’s expression before God. The tradition holds that a nigun is a thread that can bind a human soul to god. Generally the nigun is sung without words, in fact, a wordless Nigun is deemed a more direct vehicle for uniting with the divine than melodies sung with text. Thus, certain syllables are utilized, like Ya bi bi bi bam, or di gi di gi day, and so on. It is interesting to note that the different Hasidic sects each have their own syllables, and each may boast that their syllables are the best. So the ‘Yam bim bom’ sect does not mingle with the ‘Ya da day’ sect, nor, heaven forbid, the ‘Ya gi di gi day’ gang! And intermarriage? Completely out of the question! Music for Celebrations and Communal Life – Sephardi    Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) repertoire As already mentioned, the term Sephardi literally means ‘Spanish’ in Hebrew. It denotes that significant portion of Jewish cultural identity stemming originally from Spain, in the post-1492 expulsion centuries. There was a thriving Jewish community on the Iberian Peninsula for centuries, and this included North Africa as well. Some of Judaism’s greatest Rabbis, like Moses Maimonides, and poets like Judah Halevi, lived in Spain and North Africa in the 11th and 12th centuries. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497, these communities were dispersed all around the Mediterranean, as well as to northern places like Amsterdam and London. They took with them their Spanish of the 15th century and continued to utilize it as a vernacular. This language, called Ladino, already mixed with Hebraic terms, and tinged with Hebraic linguistic construction, added new words from the languages of the cultures where Jews found themselves. There is a very large Ladino repertoire, songs that were kept alive by Jewish musicians and that are still sung and played. Interestingly, much of the repertoire is comprised of songs in a secular and romantic vein, and to the best of my understanding, were kept alive by women as part of celebratory events like weddings. North African/Arabic influences, modes, and rhythms Regarding the musical materials themselves, there is no strict system of modes compiled for the Sephardic stream, as there is in the Ashkenazi stream. However, modes are definitely utilized, and some of them, stemming from the communities of North Africa and the Near East, like Turkey, are tinged with the Arabic musical experience. Thus, Sephardic music is made up of songs in Ladino, plus music that integrates the modes and rhythms of Arabic and Turkish music. In this context, it is important to differentiate Sephardi and Mizrahi cultural expressions. While both have integrated some modes and rhythms of the Arabic-Turkish-Persian systems of music, I would say that what typifies the Mizrahi stream is that it eschews harmonic expression in deference to the very strong nuances of microtonal inflections – or what we may call ‘in-between notes’. Harmony, the way we conceive of it in the West, only gets in the way of the melodic expression of Mizrahi modes. Music for Celebrations and Communal Life – Mizrahi In Israel, some of the songs and modes of Mizrahi music have been harmonized, so their pure form is lost. This is part of the intercultural synthesis at the heart of the Jewish Musical experience. There are examples from the Tzimmes repertoire which illustrate this whereby a song comes across as more Westernized. In part 2, there are several more examples of Mizrahi musical expression, but for now suffice it to say that in Mizrahi communities singing and celebrating in song has been practiced as much as anywhere in the Jewish world. And the music in the Middle Eastern cultures where Jews resided over the centuries, incorporates a wide range of song forms and instrumental music for ensembles. So, from Turkey, eastward to Uzbekistan, Jewish musicians have participated in and helped develop the music of the cultures in which they resided. To some degree, this may have been due to the proscription, in strict Moslem circles, against the occupation of musician itself, and of music making for its own sake. Interestingly, in Jewish jurisprudence, music-making was likewise seen as somewhat less than holy, because, from the theological point of view, Jewish people have been in a state of mourning since the loss of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. However, authoritative Rabbis no less illustrious than Moses Maimonides, a 12th-century giant of Jewish law, pointed out that it is not natural to keep people from celebrating with music and dance, and in fact the Rabbinic consensus is that it is a mitzvah (a good deed as commanded by God) to do so. As a klezmer myself, who has played countless weddings and other Jewish life-passage celebrations, the mitzvah I am hired to facilitate and perform is generally called – Making the Bride and Groom Happy! And the way we do this is, you guessed it, by playing lively music and getting everyone to dance a hora, a circle dance, till they drop! It’s the same for all Jews, only that the more orthodox will create separate circles for men and women. So with this we conclude part 1 of The Many Worlds of Jewish Music. In part 2 we shall make the case for the Intercultural Synthesis at the root of the Jewish Musical experience. The Many Worlds of Jewish Music – Part 1 Important Notice The Many Worlds of Jewish Music is a non-monetized presentation, created exclusively for educational purposes. Music Credits Ani Ma-amin – movement V (I Believe) by Moshe Denburg Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and Laudate Singers Lars Kaario, conductor Sheyibane Beit Hamikdash (May the Holy Temple Be Rebuilt) Traditional Synagogue Prayer Performed by Moshe Denburg Shein Vi Di Levone (As Beautiful as the Moon) by J. Rumshinsky and C. Tauber Performed by Tzimmes Kiddush Traditional Sabbath Eve Benediction Music by Kurt Weill Performed by Cantor Azi Schwartz and the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin Havdala Song Traditional prayer for concluding the Sabbath Music by Debbie Friedman Studio recording by Debbie Friedman Hu Eloheinu (He is Our God) Synagogue Liturgy to the tune of Erev Shel Shoshanim (Evening of Roses) by Yosef Hadar Performed by Moshe Denburg Yome Yome Traditional Yiddish Repertoire Adapted and Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Ahava Raba/Hava Nagila Demonstration of Traditional mode for Synagogue and Klezmer by Moshe Denburg Siman Tov uMazal Tov Traditional Celebration song Performed by Cantor Azi Schwartz Siman Tov uMazal Tov Demonstration of Freylakh Rhythm by Moshe Denburg Cuando El Rey Nimrod (When King Nimrod) Traditional Ladino Repertoire Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Adon Has’lichot (Master of Forgiveness) Text: Hymn for the concluding service on Yom Kippur Music: Traditional Mizrahi Repertoire with additional music by Avishai and Itzik Eshel Shuvi Shuvi (Return, Return) Texts from the Song of Songs Music by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Bukharester Bulgar Traditional Klezmer Repertoire Performed by the Klezmer Conservatory Band Russian Sher Traditional Klezmer Repertoire YouTube credit: Maurice Le Gaulois; Paolo Driussi Russian Sher Traditional Klezmer Repertoire Performed by Tzimmes Yossel Yossel by Samuel Steinberg and Nellie Casman Performed by Tzimmes Nigun Maor (A Song of Light) Music by Moshe Denburg Sung by Moshe Denburg with the Neginah Orchestra Arranged by Yisroel Lamm Simkha L’Artsecha (Joy to Your Land) Text: Liturgy of the High Holidays Music: Traditional melody of the Modjitzer Hassidim Performed by Tzimmes Avre Tu Puerta Serada Traditional Ladino Repertoire Adapted by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Shdemati – River of Light Shdemati (My Field) by Yitzhak Shenhar & Yedidia Admon River of Light by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Arrelumbre (Shine) Traditional Ladino Repertoire Adapted, Arranged, and Performed by Tamar Ilana and Ventanas Mizrahi Mode in Congregational Singing Excerpted from The Mizrahi Project youtube.com/watch?v=ulEoW5eCNOU Maqam Bayati Excerpted from Maqam World maqamworld.com/en/maqam/bayati.php Shabhi Yerushalayim (Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem) Text: Psalms CXLVII, v. 12-13 Music: Avihu Medina Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Debka Hasid Music: Traditional and Original Adapted and Arranged by Moshe Denburg Performed by Tzimmes Resources on Jewish Music – https://www.tzimmes.net/jewish-music/overview    

By Dr. Anthony LaMagra Great Women Violinists Part II highlights some of the most gifted and talented female violinists who benefitted from the pioneering efforts of many of the women introduced in Part I. All born after WW II, they have expanded the opportunities for women musicians not only as soloists and recitalists, but also as members of symphony orchestras around the world, and as developers of young musicians through their teaching in music schools, colleges and universities. They have also varied the repertoire and created a variety of new venues for presenting concerts as a means of broadening audiences. JULIA FISCHER, born in Munich, Germany, in 1983, exemplifies the breadth and depth of many 21st-century female musicians. She is a renowned classical violinist and pianist who performs 60 concerts per year while regularly teaching at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. Fischer started playing the violin before her 4th birthday and a few months later began taking piano lessons from her mother. At age 9 she was admitted to the Munich University of Music. Her early career as a professional violinist was defined when, at age 12, she won the prestigious International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition. One of the judges wrote, “Not only did she win outright in the junior category, but she was magnificently more inspired than anyone in the senior category.” Julia Fischer has performed with many internationally acclaimed conductors and orchestras in most European countries, the US, Brazil and Japan. Her concerts have been broadcast on TV and Radio worldwide. When she was 23 Fischer was appointed as a professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and was Germany’s youngest professor at the time. In 2011, she took over her former teacher’s chair at the Munich University of Music. The recipient of many awards, in 2007 she was nominated Gramophone Classical Music Award Artist of the Year. Julia Fischer has often appeared as both piano and violin soloist on the same concert. JANINE JANSEN, a Dutch violinist and violist, was born into a musical family in 1978. Her father was a distinguished church organist, her mother a classical singer, and her two brothers were professional musicians. Janine began violin studies at age 6, and at age 13, she competed in the Menuhin International Competition advancing to the Finals. By 2001, Jansen’s career had flourished both as soloist with major orchestras and as a recitalist and recording artist. In 2005 Jansen was featured in the first of many performances at the famous Proms Concerts in London. After one concert at the Berlin Philharmonic’s outdoor venue, the Waldbuhne, she received a standing ovation from the enthusiastic audience of 25,000 people. A similar reaction occurred after her appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic before a sold out audience. Janine Jansen is an avid advocate of chamber music and has performed and recorded with smaller string ensembles, often including her cellist brother and her father at the harpsichord. She created her own chamber music festival in Utrecht and has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1998.  In addition to her solo appearances, Jansen has collaborated with numerous elite chamber musicians, such as cellist Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich. Janine Jansen’s repertoire ranges from Bach to Schoenberg and she has issued recordings of concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Britten and Prokofiev, as well as numerous sonatas and other solo violin literature. Jansen has performed on several famous Stradivarius violins loaned to her by various institutions. In 2020, Janine was gifted the use of the 1715 Stradivarius named “Rode, Duke of Cambridge” courtesy of a European benefactor.  In September of 2021, she starred in a documentary film about the legendary violin maker, Antonio Stradivari. ARABELLA MIHO STEINBACHER was born in 1981 to a Japanese mother and German father. When she was three Arabella started violin lessons based on the Suzuki method and at age nine, was enrolled in the Munich College of Music and was taught by its top teacher, Ana Chumachenco. In later years Steinbacher took part in master classes at Juilliard with the legendary Dorothy DeLay and with Kurt Sussmannhaus in Aspen, Colorodo. Along the way, she won several important prizes including, the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition, as well as a grant from the Free State of Bavaria in 2001. Shortly thereafter, Steinbacher became a student of the Anne-Sophie Mutter “Circle of Friends” where she polished her technical and interpretive skills. Arabella Steinbacher frequently appears with world-class orchestras around the globe including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the London Symphony, the Chicago Symphony & the Cleveland Orchestra. Her concert tours have brought her to many countries in Europe and Asia, and she has collaborated with famed conductors including, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Dohnanyi, Zubin Mehta and Charles Dutoit. Her recordings are critically acclaimed and very much in demand. Arabella is driven to use music as a means to uplift and support those in need. In 2011, she launched a tour of Japan in response to the tsunami disaster earlier that year. SARAH CHANG is a Korean American violinist born in Philadelphia in 1980.  Her mother, being a composer and her father a violinist and music teacher. Chang’s parents moved to the United States from South Korea in 1979 for her father’s advanced music degree from Temple University. Young Sarah was taught by her mother to play one finger melodies on the piano at age 3. For her 4th birthday, she was given a 1/16 sized violin.  In 1986, when Sarah was 5 years old, she auditioned for and was accepted to the Juilliard School in NYC where she spent weekends studying. At age 6, Chang began violin lessons with Isaac Stern outside of school, and in 1989 she started working with the legendary teacher, Dorothy DeLay. At age 9, Sarah Chang played as soloist with both the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras and became one of the most celebrated child prodigies. Following her High School Graduation, Sarah returned to Juilliard for university classes and continued lessons with Dorothy DeLay. During that time and into the mid 2000s, Chang made solo appearances with many of the world’s major orchestras. Her popularity was such that for the 2004 Olympics, she was selected to carry the Olympic Torch. Sarah Chang has toured with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and played in Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She also held recital tours across Europe, North America and Asia. Chang has performed with every major orchestra in the world and has been soloist under the baton of the most revered conductors. As a chamber musician, Sarah Chang has collaborated with Pinchas Zuckerman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, YoYo Ma and Isaac Stern. Sarah has promoted and supported childhood music education for many years. Chang was appointed by President Obama to serve as a State Department Special Cultural Envoy and Cultural Ambassador for the United States. In that role, she was invited to play in North Korea with a South Korean Orchestra in 2002. Sarah Chang continues to be a much sought after soloist and recitalist throughout the world. Hilary Hahn is an American violinist born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1979.  A musically precocious child, Hahn began playing the violin one month before her 4th birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore’s Peabody Institute.  After one year, she studied in Baltimore with Klara Berkovich.  In 1990, at age 10, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Jascha Brodsky for seven years. Hilary learned numerous etudes as well as Paganini’s Caprices, 28 violin concertos, chamber works and assorted showpieces. At 16 she completed the Curtis Institute’s university requirements but remained for several years to pursue elective courses until her graduation in May of 1999. During this time Hilary studied violin with Jaime Laredo and chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. She also spent four summers in the total-immersion language programs in German, French and Japanese at Middlebury College. Hilary Hahn made her major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony in 1991 followed soon after by debuts with the Philadelphia, Cleveland & Pittsburgh Orchestras. Her international debut was in 1994 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In 1996, she debuted at Carnegie Hall as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, playing Saint-Saens’s third violin concerto. Hahn began recording in 1996 – her albums often blend newer and traditional pieces. She has soloed with most of the major symphony orchestras including those of Chicago, Boston, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. And in 2007 she played in Vatican City with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Hahn has been interested in cross-genre collaboration and pushing musical boundaries. In 2005 she began touring with various singer/songwriters, often presenting songs that were completely improvised. Since 2016, Hilary Hahn has piloted free concerts for parents with infants, a knitting circle, a community dance workshop, a yoga class and art students. She plans to continue these community-oriented concerts, encouraging people to combine live performances with their interests outside the concert hall and providing opportunities for parents to hear music with their infants who might be barred from traditional concerts. NICOLA BENEDETTI is an Italian–Scottish violinist and festival director. She was born in 1987 in Scotland to an Italian father & an Italian-Scottish mother. She started to play the violin at age 4 and at 8, she became the concertmistress of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. By the age of nine, Nicola had already passed the eight grades of musical examinations while attending the independent Wellington School, and in 1997, began to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School for young musicians under Lord Menuhin and Natasha Boyarskaya in rural Surrey, England. At age 11 Benedetti played a solo concert in London’s Wigmore Hall, and made her Paris debut. In 2000, she competed in the Menuhin International Competition as a junior. Subsequent, very successful appearances at concerts throughout London and Scotland led to Nicola being granted the UK’s Brilliant Prodigy Competition Award. Nicola Benedetti left the Menuhin School at age 15 and began studying privately with the former concertmaster of the English Chamber Orchestra. In the spring of 2003, invited as a soloist by the London Symphony, she participated in the recording of the DVD “Barbie of Swan Lake”. That recording led to the creation of a televised documentary on Benedetti, increasing public awareness of her talent and musical skills. In May of 2004, at age 16, Benedetti won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, performing Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony. In 2020, Benedetti won the Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for Marsalis: Violin Concerto: Fiddle Dance Suite. In September of 2012, Nicola Benedetti was honored to perform at “Last Night of the Proms” in London, playing Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. That same year she was lent the 1717 “Gabriel” Stradivarius by a board member of the London Symphony. Benedetti has received numerous awards, including: honorary doctorates from Glasgow Caledonian University, the University of York and the University of Edinburgh. In 2019, Nicola Benedetti was made a Commander of the British Order of the Empire “For Service To Music”. LISA BATIASHVILI is a prominent Georgian violinist active across Europe and the United States. She was born in 1979 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to a pianist mother and violinist father with whom she began violin lessons at age four. The family left Georgia in 1991 when she was 12, and settled in Germany.  Shortly thereafter, Lisa enrolled in the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hamburg.  Mark Lubotsky, her teacher in Hamburg had been a student of the great David Oistrakh. Later, Lisa Batiashvili studied with Ana Chumachenco, the noted teacher of two other violinists we have heard today, Julia Fischer and Arabella Steinbacher. At age 16, Batiashvili placed second at the International Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. From 1999-2001 Lisa was one of the first of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. During that time she performed extensively as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2000. Batiashvili has had a number of compositions dedicated to her and she and her oboist husband, Francois Leleux, have commissioned works from Georgian composers.  They have been performed both in Europe & the United States. Lisa has been an artist-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic and with the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her recordings are extensive and include a broad spectrum of both standard classics and newly commissioned works on the SONY label and has recorded several albums with Deutsche Grammophon, including a much acclaimed album of the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius Concertos, and an album of Prokofiev’s works including his violin concertos. Lisa plays a 1739 Guarneri del Gesu violin lent to her from the private collection of an anonymous German collector.

At the turn of the 20th Century in America, appreciation of classical music, particularly violin soloists, was in its infancy.  With only five professional orchestras and limited opportunities for solo engagements, it was especially difficult for female artists since all orchestra players were male and a professional career in music for women was frowned upon. With the arrival of Maud Powell, followed by a group of pioneers, a way was paved allowing all future women violinists to flourish. MAUD POWELL was born in 1867 in Peru, Illinois in the western frontier of the American heartland. She inherited the pioneering passion of her ancestors who were involved as missionaries, in innovative education, exploration of the Grand Canyon and scientific research. She was a prodigy who began violin and piano study at age 7. When she was 13, her parents sold their home to raise funds for her future study in Europe in conservatories in Leipzig and Paris, and with Joseph Joachim, the great violinist and friend of Brahms. After returning to America in 1885, knowing that “girl violinists were looked upon with suspicion”, Powell boldly walked into a rehearsal of the all-male NY Philharmonic and demanded a hearing by Theodore Thomas, then America’s foremost conductor. He was impressed and engaged her on the spot to play the Bruch Concerto with his orchestra. Maud Powell blazed new concert circuits throughout the country, even for the Far West, braving primitive touring conditions to reach people who had never before heard a concert. She never played down to her audiences and included folk songs as well as sonatas and concertos in recital She also wrote her own program notes and many music journal articles in an attempt to elevate her audiences’ appreciation of music. Maud Powell toured Europe, North America and South America to wide acclaim. She also introduced 15 famous violin concertos to the American Public, as well as music by Black Composers. Maud Powell died in 1920 from a second heart attack.  94 years later, in 2014, she was posthumously awarded a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was among the first instrumentalists to make Red Seal recordings for the RCA Victor Talking Machine Company starting in 1904 until 1919.  With these recordings she set an enduring standard for violin performance. Before Heifetz and Kreisler, Maud Powell sold more violin recordings then any other person on earth. One of her earliest recordings is Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Melodies) by Pablo Sarasate. ERICA MORINI was a Jewish Austrian violinist born in Vienna in 1904. Erica had six siblings, all of who were involved in the arts either as musicians, dancers or impressarios. Her first teacher was her father, Oscar Morini – then she completed her studies at the Vienna Conservatory under Otabar Sevcik, composer of many violin etudes & exercises. Erica Morini made her professional debut in 1916 with the Berlin Philharmonic under famed conductor Arthur Nikish who spoke of her as an equal of the most famous of the younger generation of violinists. Her American debut was in NY in 1921 at age 17 – critics called it one of the musical sensations of the year. Shortly after her debut, Erica was presented with the Guadagnini Violin which was owned by Maud Powell who had passed away the year before. In that same year, Morini made her first recording for the RCA Victor Company. Erica Morini resided in Austria until 1938 when she relocated to New York City where she made regular concert appearances and taught at the Mannes College of Music where she influenced and trained a generation of young violinists, female and male. Harold Schonberg, music critic of the NY Times once described her as “probably the greatest woman violinist who ever lived”. She was not pleased with that notion and said, “A violinist is a violinist and I am to be judged as one, not as a female musician”. Morini was honored with numerous awards and prizes, including: Honorary Doctorates from Smith College, the New England Conservatory, and NYC honored her Lifetime Achievement with a Gold Medal. After a ten – year break from concertizing, Erica Morini returned in 1976 to give a final recital at Hunter College. The New York Times wrote: “ This concert was one of the most musically satisfying of the season”.  Following that concert, she retired from the stage and reportedly never played the violin again. Morini’s valuable Davidov Stradivarius as well as paintings, letters, music scores and other valuables were stolen from her NYC apartment shortly before her death in 1995. She had been hospitalized with heart disease and was never told of the theft. That crime remains unsolved. Born in 1919, French violinist Ginette Neveu was considered by many leading musicians in France to be a “once in a lifetime” kind of talent. She made her solo debut at the age of seven and at nine, she won first prize at the City of Paris Prix d’Honneur Competition.  Neveu then studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Nadia Boulanger, Carl Flesch, and George Enescu who taught Yehudi Menuhin. In 1935 at age 15 Ginette Neveu achieved worldwide celebrity status when she won the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition finishing first (out of 180 contestants) placing 26 points ahead of future great violinist, David Oistrakh. Neveu was immediately signed to an extensive touring contract allowing her to perform internationally over the next two years. After WW II, which interrupted her career, she resumed worldwide performing to rave reviews. Ginette Neveu gave her last concert in 1949, in Paris. A week later she was on board an Air France flight from Paris to New York when it crashed on a mountain after attempting to land in the Azores. All 48 people on board perished, including Ginette, her brother accompanist and the French former boxing champion, Marcel Cerdan. After Neveu’s death, tributes poured in from admirers including: the Queen of Belgium, composer Francis Poulenc, Charles Munch, the recently appointed Boston Symphony conductor, and Jacques Thibaud , the great French violinist. Pablo Casals wrote: ” Her playing was one of the greatest revelations, both instrumentally and musically.” France posthumously awarded Neveu the Cross of the Legion d’Honneur. A street is named in her memory in the Montmartre region of Paris. Ginette Neveu made few commercial recordings but all of them are still available. Unfortunately, there are no videos. In her recording of Ravel’s Tzigane, the brilliance and intensity of her playing as well as the beauty of her tone are very evident. IDA HAENDEL was a Polish-British-Canadian violinist. Born in 1928 to a Jewish family in Poland. Haendel was a child prodigy whose career spanned over seven decades. She also became an influential teacher and competition adjudicator. Major competitions paved the way for much of her early success. Haendel won the Warsaw Conservatory Gold Medal at age 5 and she competed in the first Wieniawski International Competition with David Oistrakh and Ginette Neveu when she was 7.  These honors enabled her to study with esteemed pedagogues Carl Flesch and George Enescu in Paris. In 1937, her London debut at the Proms brought her worldwide acclaim and a lifelong association resulting in 68 performances there. During WW II Ida Haendel played in factories and for British and American troops, and performed in Myra Hess’s National Gallery Concerts. Living in Montreal, Canada from 1952-1985, her work with Canadian Orchestras made her a celebrity of Canadian musical life. In 1973, Ida was the first Western soloist invited to China following the Cultural Revolution. Ida Haendel has made annual tours of Europe and also appeared regularly in South America and Asia. Haendel’s recordings have earned critical praise and include all of the major concertos, including a number of 20th-century works by Bela Bartok, Benjamin Britten and William Walton. As a noted teacher, she has inspired a generation of new violinists such as Anne Sophie Mutter. Haendal was a much sought-after adjudicator for violin competitions including the Sibelius, Benjamin Britten and Henryk Wieniawski International Competitions. In 1991, Ida Haendel was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. She received Honorary Doctorates from The Royal College Of Music, London and McGill University. Ida Haendel died at a nursing home in Pembroke Park, Florida in 2020 at age 91. After performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in Helsinki in 1949, Ida Haendel received a letter from the composer in which he wrote: “You played masterfully in every respect. I congratulate myself that my concerto has found an interpreter of your rare standard.” CAMILLA WICKS, born in Long Beach, California in 1928, was an American violinist and one of the first female violinists to establish a major international career. Both of her parents were distinguished Norwegian musicians and they helped launch her career as a child prodigy at age 7. She then studied at the Juilliard School in NYC with legendary teacher, Louis Persinger. In 1942 Camilla made her solo debut at age 13 with the New York Philharmonic and her Hollywood Bowl performance, at age 17, with conductor Leopold Stokowski, in Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto #2 was a great success. Over the next decade, Camilla Wicks performed regularly with the world’s finest conductors and orchestras, and went on extensive European tours, particularly in Scandinavian countries. Though her repertoire included a wide range of classic masterpieces, she promoted many lesser-known works, in particular, by Scandinavian composers who wrote many works for her. Though there are several recordings of Camilla Wicks available, only one video of her playing exists: a concerto by Norwegian Composer Fartein Valen. At the height of her popularity, Camilla Wicks halted her playing career during the 1950s to raise her five children. However, she taught on the faculty of several American universities, including the University of Michigan and Rice University.  In the early 1970s, Wicks was invited to head the String Department at the Oslo Royal Academy, where she developed many of the violinists who became members of leading Norwegian orchestras. In 1999, Camilla Wicks was made Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. Wicks also held the Isaac Stern Chair at the San Francisco Conservatory before she retired in 2005. Camilla Wicks died in 2020 at age 92. KYUNG WHA CHUNG, born in 1948, is a South Korean violinist. She is also among the first of the women violinists, born after WW II, who have reaped benefit from the efforts of the pioneering women we have already discussed. Chung began violin lessons at age 7 and within two years became recognized as a prodigy after playing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic. As she and her talented siblings, who all played instruments, became well-known in Korea, Chung’s mother decided to move to the United States to further their musical education and careers. At age 13, Chung arrived in the United States and was enrolled in the Juilliard School where she studied with the eminent violin pedagogue, Ivan Galamian. In 1967, Chung and Pinchas Zuckerman were joint winners of the prestigious Leventritt Competition. This prize opened the door to several engagements with the Chicago Symphony and The New York Philharmonic and a 1967 television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show one week before her appearance with the NY Philharmonic. In 1970, Chung substituted for Nathan Milstein at a White House performance, and later for Itzhak Perlman with the London Symphony Orchestra. These successes led to many other engagements and recording contracts. While in Europe, Chung continued music studies with the great Joseph Szigetti. In 2007, Chung joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in both the Music and Pre-College Divisions where she continues to develop and train future violinists. Illness and injury halted her performing career in 2008 but she continued teaching. Her most recent live performance was in London at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2014. VIKTORIA MULLOVA, a Russian – British violinist, was born on November 27, 1959 in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, in Soviet Russia. At the age of four, her father, a physicist and engineer, encouraged Viktoria to begin violin lessons. After studying at the Central Music School of Moscow and the Moscow Conservatory under master violinist, Leonod Kogan, she won First Prize at the 1980 International Sibelius Competition and the Gold Medal at the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Describing her experiences with the Soviet state-sponsored musical education as “a stressful nightmare” Mullova and her lover/accompanist plotted a defection during a concert tour of Finland in 1983. Feigning illness after a concert, they escaped in a rented car  – crossed the border into Sweden and then flew to Stockholm. After spending two days in a safe house under pseudonyms, they applied for political asylum at the American Embassy and shortly after arrived in Washington DC with American visas. Mullova has made many recordings and with her Mullova Chamber Ensemble has toured throughout Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1995, Mullova was nominated for an Emmy for several of her chamber music recordings. Her international career as soloist has included performances with many major orchestras, including, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Mullova currently lives in London with her cellist husband and three children and continues to tour and record. Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German Violinist who music critics have described as a “master of the violin” and “musician of near peerless virtuosity and unimpeachable integrity.”  She was born in 1963 in Rheinfelden, Baden Wurttemberg and started playing violin at age five. Early in her career, she was supported by Herbert von Karajan and made her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977. Mutter gained prominence in the 1970s and 1980s recording over 50 albums and performing as soloist with leading orchestras worldwide, and in recitals. By the 1990s, Mutter had established herself as an international star, transitioning from child prodigy to mature artist. Anne-Sophie Mutter’s repertoire includes works from the Baroque period to the 20th century but she is also an advocate of new music and has had several works composed for her by present-day composers. In the 2000s, Mutter began collaborating with her then-husband, composer and conductor Andre Previn and with other contemporary composers premiering their new works for violin. Throughout her career, Mutter has presented many benefit concerts for needy children and other humanitarian causes.  In 2018, Mutter gave a benefit concert commemorating a liberation concert in May 1945 for Holocaust survivors by Jewish musicians. Since 2022, Mutter has been offering benefit concerts for Ukrainians. In 2008, Mutter founded The Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation supporting young string players by providing scholarships for talented individuals. Mutter herself has received numerous awards and prizes, including: four Grammys and Honor Awards from Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Romania and Japan.  She also holds honorary membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. MIDORI GOTO, a Japanese/American violinist known simply as Midori, was born in Osaka, Japan in 1971. Her lessons on violin began at age 3 with her mother who was a professional violinist. By the age of six, Midori attracted attention by publically performing one of Paganini’s Caprices. Shortly thereafter, Midori and her Mother moved to New York City and she was enrolled in the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School of Music and began studies with the noted teacher, Dorothy Delay, who taught Itzhak Perlman. In 1982, at age 11, Midori made a surprise debut at a New Year’s Eve Gala with the New York Philharmonic, and in 1986 came her legendary Tanglewood performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade – an event that made front-page headlines in the New York Times. In 1987, after four years of study, Midori left Juilliard and embarked on a full-time career as a professional artist. As an adult, she is considered as one of the world’s preeminent violinists and has been honored as an educator for her community endeavors. When she was 21, she established her foundation  “Midori and Friends” to bring music education to young people in underserved communities in New York City and Japan, which has evolved into an organization with worldwide impact. In 2007, Midori was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace.  In that role, she performed in recitals & as soloist with major orchestras internationally. In 2018, Midori joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music and she also is holder of the Jascha Heifetz Chair as a professor at the University of Southern California. Midori has received many accolades & Awards including: the John D. Rockefeller III Award by the Asian Cultural Council, The Avery Fischer Prize, the Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts, and she was an honoree at the Kennedy Center.

Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky on Feb. 14, 1894 in Chicago and grew up in nearby Waukegan. His father was from Poland, and his mother was from Lithuania. His career spanned 63 years until his death in 1974 at the age of 80. He was given his first violin at age 6 and his mother wanted very much that he become a classical violinist. But he hated to practice and stopped practicing when he was 12. He didn’t care for school either, and was thrown out of high school during his freshman year. When he was 17 he began playing violin in local vaudeville theatres playing 4-5 shows a day which was interrupted at age 23 when he joined the navy during WW I playing for the troops. In 1927 he married Sadie Marks, whose name became Mary Livingstone Benny. Mary thought Jack would be perfect for radio and urged him to try the new medium. Jack, was working on Broadway, and wasn’t interested in radio. In fact he considered it to be just a fad that would blow over! Then in 1932 Ed Sullivan invited him to appear on his radio show, and Benny soon had his own radio show which lasted 33 years! His sponsors were Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Chevrolet, General Tire, General Foods, for whom he advertised Jello-O and Grape Nuts. And later, American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike cigarettes. In 1934 The Benny’s adopted 2 week old Joan Benny, who eventually had four children of her own. Jack Benny’s very best friend was George Burns, whom he had known since his vaudeville days. In skits with Burns, Benny did an incredible impersonation of Gracie Allen. During WW II Benny made countless appearances for war bond drives and traveled around the world entertaining troops. He always did more at each show than had been planned and spent hours talking to the military personnel one on one and visited the wounded in hospitals. He’d walk from bed to bed, talking with each patient, and carefully jot down each person’s family’s contact information. When he returned home he very meticulously went through his notebooks and wrote or called each family. After his death his wife found thousands of thank you letters from military personnel and their relatives. He wrote: “I’m prouder of this service than of all the other successes in my career.” A few months after Germany surrendered in 1945, Jack went to occupied Germany entertaining the GI’s, and performed a big show for more than 40,000 soldiers in Nuremberg, at the stadium where Hitler made his initial speech about Nazism from a platform at the top of the stadium. After the show, Jack had to urinate, and the director, Billy Wilder took him up to that very platform to relieve himself there. The violin was Benny’s great love and he regretted having stopped practicing at age 12. In 1944 Benny first appeared with a symphony orchestra, the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in a benefit concert for Greek War Relief. It wasn’t long before he decided to return to the serious study of the violin. He hired a teacher, took two lessons a week and began practicing 2-4 hours every day. His wife couldn’t stand it, so Benny used his bathroom as his practice room. No matter how angry or disturbed he might be, whenever he played the violin, he forgot about his anxieties and completely relaxed. Heifetz told him that he had an excellent tone and a good bow arm. Benny wrote: “The humor of my concerts arises not from my making fun of music, but from the fact that I am really trying, struggling, fighting to play the violin and I can’t quite make it. I started too late in life.” He sometimes performed skits with Mel Blanc playing the role of Benny’s violin teacher, and with Liberace and other famous artists. Benny never charged a fee for his solo appearances with almost 100 symphony orchestras in the U.S., Canada, England and Israel. They were benefit concerts for the orchestras, and he also raised money for The Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, the City of Hope Hospital, Carnegie Hall, the conservatory of music at the Univ. of Hartford, CT, the music center in Lake County, IL, and the Mann auditorium in Israel. His benefit concerts raised $5,901,000 dollars! Benny was the head writer and director of his programs, although he was not credited in either capacity. He had tremendous regard for his writers, always giving them credit for much of the success of his shows, paying them well, and always treating them with courtesy and respect. He worked very hard to make what he did seem casual and spontaneous. Jack, his secretary, and his writers worked meticulously on every script. Benny thought of comedy as a business and worked at it unendingly. He was enormously concerned line by line with whatever he did. He polished and re-polished every sentence. Benny allowed his supporting characters to draw laughs at the expense of his own flaws. He said: “I don’t care who gets the laughs on my show as long as its funny.” As Johnny Carson said: “I learned a very important thing from Jack. If other people on your show are good, it makes you better. The stronger the other performers are, the greater it is for the whole program. And he was the most disciplined performer I ever met. “He was completely unaffected. Whenever we’d walk down the street together in New York or L.A. and he was stopped, Jack always talked with people if they said hello to him. Overall, Jack seemed to be a very secure man. I know of only one area in which he had insecurities. Jack felt that he was not sufficiently well read. He regretted his lack of formal education.” Benny’s life was so filled with show business that he had neither the energy nor the desire to pursue other interests. He was not a member of any political party. He liked to keep slim. He had a personal trainer with whom he jogged several miles every morning, and when he got older, they would do a half hour of calisthenics daily. He walked for miles at a brisk pace, and when he played golf he would hire a caddie and a golf cart, and then walk the 18 holes and let the caddie ride! Eddie Anderson played Benny’s valet and chauffeur, Rochester, a character who often got the better of his vain boss. In his later years Benny wrote: “Today I would never have any character who was as racially delineated along negative lines as was the old Rochester. I developed and learned my trade in vaudeville. Everybody loved ethnic humor during vaudeville. During WW II, attitudes changed. Hitler’s ideology of Aryan supremacy put all ethnic humor in a bad light. It became bad taste to have Jewish jokes, Italian jokes and Negro jokes. When the black man’s fight for equal rights and fair play became an issue after the war, I would no longer allow Rochester to say or do anything that an audience would consider degrading to the dignity of a modern Afro-American.” His manager Irving Fein wrote: “He was a very generous man, He would contribute 25K to the United Jewish Appeal or 25K to the L.A. Music Center without blinking an eye. He donated to the symphony fund, the art museum and scores of other charities. He would think very little of giving $1,000 or $5,000 for any good cause. He greatly encouraged and helped the budding careers of many entertainers, among them, Danny Kaye, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, and Wayne Newton. George Burns said: “All his adult life, Jack used to write at least 50 post cards a week to people.” One of his producer-directors said: “He didn’t act like any other celebrity I’ve ever known. He appreciated things more than others. He was always more surprised. He was happier at someone else’s success. He managed to retain a kind of boyish, naïve enthusiasm and a special joy for day-by-day living.” He was very grateful to his wife, Mary. He said to a friend: “If it wasn’t for her, I’d be a 3rd rate violinist in some little dump. She had the brains, the courage, and the ambition to push me forward. She’s responsible for my success.” One of Benny’s producers said: “To me Jack was a brooding man, a very lonely man in some ways.” Veronica Peck, Gregory Peck’s wife said: “Once he told me quite seriously how much he regretted being such a moody man, because Mary was the one who had to live with him and his moods. I don’t think people who are capable of creating greatness, who are able to reach such high artistic heights, could achieve what they do without the other side of their nature for balance.” His business manager, Myrt Blum said: “Jack gets highs that are much higher than most when he’s exuberant and exhilarated. They can last for days and sometimes weeks. But when he hits a low, and it might be for no reason we know of, he is impossible to talk to.” Jack told Irving Fein, that he had been that way all his life. Fein wrote:“Although he was a mild mannered man on the surface, always the pessimist, quite often Jack would explode. When he would become incensed, it was the anger of a person accustomed to keeping the plug over boiling water. When the plug was pulled, watch out! He was frequently insensitive to the feelings of people around him without realizing it. His lack of delicacy of feeling was unintentional.” His granddaughter Maria recalled: “Everything he did was concentrated on his work. He never thought of money, or material possessions.” Even after becoming a living legend in the business, he never rested on his laurels; he was continuously preoccupied about his performance. Gregory Peck said: “For Jack, comedy was an art. He did it seemingly without effort. Yet behind the scenes, it took years and years of constant work until he refined his art to the point where he could do more with less than anyone in the business.” In 1959 his home town of Waukegan constructed the Jack Benny Junior High School. Benny attended the dedication ceremonies and called it the proudest moment of his life. Towards the end of his life, Benny was very uncomfortable about turning 80. He was frequently nervous, unhappy and experienced stomach pains. Amazingly, his violin playing would alleviate the pain! In 1974 at age 80 Benny died peacefully, while in a coma, from cancer of the pancreas and was never told he had it. His Stradavarius violin was left to the L.A. Philharmonic. Jack and Mary were married for 48 years. After his death, Mary began to receive a delivery of one long-stemmed red rose every day. When she asked the florist who was sending these roses every day, he told her that one day, Jack had been in the shop and said: “If anything should ever happen to me, I want you to send my doll a red rose every day.” Mary then learned that Jack had included a provision for this in his will. One red rose was to be delivered to her every day…for the rest of her life.

By Michael Laster Before the modern American musical existed in its mature form, Broadway was dominated by light opera, known as operettas, written largely by European composers, such as Gilbert and Sullivan, Victor Herbert and Franz Lehar. Another early influence in American musicals were revues, which functioned as vaudevillian variety shows that included dance numbers, comedy sketches, or other forms of entertainment without a central plot. American musicals were also defined by the growing influence of African American music, such as the ragtime rhythms of Scott Joplin at the turn of the century, and the use of bluesy melodies, popularized by composer and cornetist W.C. Handy during the start of WW I. The great migration of Black Americans northward and the sharp increase of Jewish immigrants from Europe made New York City the perfect focal point for this blooming American art form. Jerome Kern was born in 1885 in New York City to Jewish immigrants from Germany and Bohemia. His mother was a piano teacher who gave Kern a head start before getting formal training at the New York College of Music and private lessons in Germany. He started his career writing songs for Broadway and the London stage. In May of 1915, Kern was due to sail from New York to London on board the Lusitania, but having overslept after staying up late playing poker, Kern missed the boat, narrowly escaping the tragic fate of nearly twelve hundred passengers killed by the German torpedo that sunk the ship. Popular songs from his career include Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, A Fine Romance, and All the Things You Are. Films that feature his songs include Till the Clouds Roll By, a biographical film about his life, Roberta, You Were Never Lovelier, and Swing Time, featuring songs like A Fine Romance, and The Way You Look Tonight, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Kern achieved lasting fame as a Broadway composer with his musical Show Boat (1927), which introduced classics like Ol’ Man River and Make Believe. The story, which tackled themes of racism, marital discord, and alcoholism, was groundbreaking in an era when musical comedy was primarily focused on lighthearted escapism. The show was also a major launching point for Kern’s friend, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who would go on to collaborate on other Broadway masterpieces with Richard Rodgers. In the film, Julie LaVerne’s character is played Eva Gardner, but her singing voice was overdubbed by singer Annette Warren. But thanks to the internet, here is the original undubbed clip of Gardner singing Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man. Irving Berlin was born Israel Beilin in Tyumen, Russia in 1888. He and his family immigrated to New York when he was just five. After they settled in New York City, Berlin’s father passed away when Irving was only 13 years old. He left home to earn a living as a singing waiter and performing popular songs in the street for spare change. He first started as a lyricist on Tin Pan Alley, but would soon go on to also write the music of his first hit song, Alexander’s Ragtime Band in 1911. His most successful Broadway musical was in 1946. In his career, Berlin composed over 1,500 songs, including standards like God Bless America, Blue Skies, Cheek To Cheek, Steppin’ Out with My Baby, and Puttin’ on the Ritz. In Hollywood, his songs were featured in films like Blue Skies, Top Hat, Easter Parade, There’s No Business Like Show Business, and the 1942 film Holiday Inn, which includes the classic, White Christmas. George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwine in Brooklyn, New York to Eastern European parents. His Paternal Grandfather’s name was Yakov Gershowitz. He left school at the age of 15 to work as a song plugger on New York City’s Tin Pan Alley. His first major hit was the song Swanee, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, which was soon to be popularized by Al Jolson. In the early 20’s Buddy DeSylva was his main lyricist, but then switched to working extensively with his brother Ira Gershwin on numerous Broadway musicals. Gershwin’s complete Broadway shows haven’t stood the test of time like many of the others on this list, mainly due to his untimely death at 38, and the fact that his musicals were dwarfed by the success of his symphonic music and his masterful opera Porgy and Bess. However, dozens of memorable songs from his musicals have endured – for example, 1924’s Lady Be Good features the title number and Fascinatin’ Rhythm. Oh, Kay! from 1926 includes the classic Someone To Watch Over Me, Strike Up The Band from 1930 includes The Man I Love, and Girl Crazy from the same year includes favorites like I Got Rhythm and Embraceable You. He and Ira also wrote the songs for the Fred Astaire and Gingers Rodgers film Shall We Dance, such as They Can’t Take That Away From Me and Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off. Both his symphonic and songwriting legacy are honored in the 1951 film An American In Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Oscar Levant. Kurt Weill was born in 1900 in Germany to a religious Jewish family, his father being a cantor. He started composing at 13, and started taking private composition lessons two years later. Weil studied with the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni at The Academy of Arts, Berlin. He met the singer and actress Lotte Lenya in the summer of 1924, who he would go on to marry two years later. Weill would compose several works with the playwright and lyricist Bertolt Brecht, many blurring the lines between musical and opera, including The Threepenny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, and The Seven Deadly Sins. Having fled from Nazi Germany to Paris in 1933, he moved to New York City two years later. Weill studied the music of popular American Broadway composers and soon found success with his own musicals, collaborating with playwright Paul Green on the musical Johnny Johnson, and Lady in the Dark, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. He also collaborated with lyricist and playwright Maxwell Anderson on Knickerbocker Holiday and Lost In The Stars, and with Langston Hughes for the opera, Street Scene. His influence lives on through The Threepenny Opera from 1928, one of his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, which included the song Mack the Knife. Even though Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong would perform happy-go-lucky covers of the song, it is actually a darkly ironic opening number to the show about a murderous knife-wielding criminal, possibly inspired by Jack the Ripper. This musical’s biting critique of society, war, and capitalism was completely unprecedented at the time, and was motivated by Bertolt Brecht’s dedication to socialist causes. Frederick Loewe was born in 1901 to Viennese parents Berlin, Germany. He began composing songs at age seven. At 13, he was the youngest piano soloist ever to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1924, his father, an operetta singer, received an offer to appear in New York City, and Loewe traveled there with him, hoping to write for Broadway. After working various odd jobs, it wasn’t until 1942 that he met Alan Jay Lerner, their first collaboration being the musical Life of the Party. They went on to create musicals such as Brigadoon in 1947 and Camelot in 1960. However, My Fair Lady was their biggest success, featuring songs like I Could Have Danced All Night, Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, and On the Street Where You Live. Richard Rodgers was born in 1902 in Queens, New York, and was one of the most successful composers in musical theater history. Taking piano lessons from the age of six, he went on to study at the Institute of Musical Art, now the Juilliard School. A year or so earlier, while studying at Columbia, he met lyricist Lorenz Hart, and in 1925, they wrote their first major hit, Manhattan, from their musical The Garrick Gaieties. They’d follow this nine years later with the standard Blue Moon in 1934, and in 1940 with the classic Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered) from the musical Pal Joey. They collaborated on dozens of other Broadway shows, and songs for musical films, including the 1948 biographical Words and Music, starring Tom Drake as Rodgers and Mickey Rooney as Hart, and Babes In Arms in 1939, which include My Funny Valentine and The Lady Is A Tramp. Due to Hart’s increasing unreliability from depression and alcoholism, Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein, focusing exclusively on Broadway musicals, rather than standalone hits, or songs for films. Together they’d become one of the greatest songwriting teams for musical theater in history, producing enduring masterpieces such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, which includes the timeless song Climb Every Mountain. Rodgers was the first composer to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Jule Styne was born in London to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants on December 31st, 1905. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago, where he began taking piano lessons. Before he was 10 years old, he proved to be a prodigy, performing with several symphony orchestras. He began his career in Hollywood, writing hits like Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! with lyricist Sammy Cahn Styne. He later shifted to Broadway, collaborating with Stephen Sondheim on Gypsy in 1959, which included the songs Everything’s Coming Up Roses, Rose’s Turn, and Small World. Styne also wrote the music for Funny Girl with lyricist Bob Merrill, which include songs like People, and Don’t Rain on My Parade. Films that include songs by Styne are Romance on the High Seas, and My Dream Is Yours, both featuring Jack Carson and Doris Day. Styne also contributed several songs to the 1954 production of Peter Pan. Most of the songs were written by Moose Charlap and lyricist Carolyn Leigh, though Styne worked with Adolph Green and Betty Comden for the lyrics to his contributions. Frank Loesser was born in 1910 in New York City. Although his father Henry was a full-time piano teacher, he never taught his son. In a 1914 letter, Henry wrote that the four-year-old Frank could play by ear “any tune he’s heard and can spend an enormous amount of time at the piano.” After losing his father at the age of 16, and being expelled from high school and college for poor grades, he worked various odd jobs until working as a lyricist in Hollywood. His first major hit he wrote both music and lyrics for was Baby, It’s Cold Outside, which won an Academy Award for its use in the film Neptune’s Daughter. Transitioning to Broadway, he became known for writing both music and lyrics for shows like The Most Happy Fella, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which included the song I Believe in You. However, his most enduring musical was Guys and Dolls, featuring Luck Be a Lady, I’ll Know, More I Cannot Wish You, and Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat. Leonard Bernstein was born in 1918 in Massachusetts, whose career spanned classical music, conducting, music education, film, and Broadway. His first musical was On the Town in 1944, with lyrics and story by Betty Comden and Adolf Green, followed by Peter Pan, which he wrote both music and lyrics for. This 1950 version of Peter Pan was totally separate from Jule Styne’s version with Mary Martin. He collaborated again with Comden and Green for Wonderful Town in 1953, and then with Alan Jay Lerner for the 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. However, most people probably know Bernstein as the composer of West Side Story, and who can blame them? This retelling of Romeo and Juliet was composed in collaboration with lyricist Stephen Sondheim, before Sondheim went on to become a legendary composer in his own right. John Kander was born in 1927, in Missouri, and is the oldest living composer on this list, (age 98 as of March of 2025!) He started writing songs in elementary school, and studied music at Oberlin College, going on to graduate studies at Columbia University. He then served as a rehearsal pianist for Gyspy, where choreographer Jerome Robbins suggested that Kander arrange the dance numbers for the show. In 1962, he met lyricist Fred Ebb, creating hit shows like Cabaret in 1966, and Chicago in 1975. Their song New York, New York became a standard, famously popularized by Liza Minnelli and Frank Sinatra, and often played to mark the New Year for the city’s Time Square celebration. Kander and Ebb’s work is celebrated for its blend of vaudeville-style songs, and sharp social commentary. The song Life Is a Cabaret is from their show Cabaret. While many love this song for its carefree message, those familiar with the show know that Kander and Ebb are actually giving us a warning – if we’re too distracted by decadence and escapism, we’re doomed to overlook who’s actually grabbing power behind the scenes or right out in the open. Jerry Bock was born in 1928 in Connecticut, and studied piano as a child. He was best known for his partnership with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who met each other in 1956. Together, they created the hit musical Fiorello! in 1959, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and She Loves Me in 1963, which one a Tony for its score. However, one year later they would go on to write Fiddler on the Roof in 1964, based on the character Tevye the Milkman, a creation of the author and playwright Sholom Alechim. The show included unforgettable songs like If I Were a Rich Man, Matchmaker, To Life, Tradition, and in the wedding scene, the hauntingly bittersweet song Sunrise, Sunset. Charles Strouse was born in 1928, in New York City, and studied composition at the Eastman School of Music. His teachers included Arthur Berger, David Diamond, Arron Copland, and Nadia Boulanger. He gained fame with his very first musical Bye Bye Birdie in 1960, with lyricist Lee Adams. It was one the first major musicals to have songs inspired by rock music, seven years before Galt MacDermot’s musical Hair, and eleven years before Grease and Jesus Christ Superstar. Strouse also composed for films and television, including the song Those Were The Days, with lyrics by Adams. His biggest success was the musical Annie from 1977, with lyrics by Martin Charnin, featuring the songs Tomorrow, Maybe, New York City, Little Girls, Easy Street, and It’s the Hard Knock Life. Lionel Bart was born in 1930 in London to parents who had escaped the pogroms against Jews by Ukrainian Cossacks. He started his career writing for amateur theater and as a songwriter for various British pop artists like Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele before transitioning to professional musical theater. He is best known for writing the music and lyrics to Oliver! in 1960, based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. It included songs like Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two, Oom-Pah-Pah, and Food, Glorious Food. Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 in New York City. After his parents divorced when he was 10, he was raised by his emotionally abusive mother, taking her frustration of her failed marriage out on him. He befriended his neighbor James Hammerstein, the son of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, with Oscar eventually acting as his surrogate father and musical mentor. While attending Williams College in Massachusetts, his teacher recommended he should go on to study privately with composer Milton Babbitt, who became a close friend. Sondheim would go on to write lyrics for West Side Story in 1957 and Gypsy in 1959 before composing both music and lyrics for several early works including Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Anyone Can Whistle, but his first major hit was in 1970 with the musical Company. He would follow this success with many other beloved musicals including Follies, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in The Park With George, Into The Woods, and Assassins. However, his masterpiece is often considered the 1979 work Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It is often considered operatic in terms of its psychological and musical complexity, weaving together themes of alienation, vengeance, political corruption, poverty, and cannibalism. Tim Burton directed the film adaptation in 2007, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Sacha Baron Cohen. In the song My Friends, Sweeney Todd returns back to his home above Mrs Lovett’s pie shop after years in exile, now remembering his previous life as a successful barber. However, his nostalgia of his former years is now inseparable from his burning desire for revenge. Jerry Herman was born in 1931 in New York City, and developed a love of music and musical theater from a young age, going on to direct many of the musical productions of the Summer camp his parents worked at. At 17, he met Frank Loesser who urged him to continue composing after hearing some of the material the young Herman had written. After graduating from the University of Miami, his first success as composer and lyricist on Broadway was Milk and Honey in 1961, a musical about a group of American widows visiting Israel to find new husbands. His biggest successes on Broadway include Hello, Dolly! in 1964, Mame in 1966, and La Cage aux Folles in 1983, featuring the song I Am What I Am, which went on to become a major anthem of self-affirmation for the gay pride movement, especially in the face of the growing AIDs epidemic. Another major achievement from the musical Hello Dolly! was the title song, with the 1964 recording by Louis Armstrong being the song to break the Beatles’ 3-month streak at #1 on the Billboard charts. Marvin Hamlisch was born in 1944 in New York City, and was quickly recognized as a child prodigy. At the age of six, he was accepted into the Pre-College Division at Juilliard, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Queens College in 1967. He started writing songs in collaboration with Howard Liebling for various artists in the mid-’60s, including The Traveling Life for Liza Minelli, and Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, and California Nights for Leslie Gore. Before writing for Broadway, he composed original music for several Hollywood films, including Ordinary People, Sophie’s Choice, and Woody Allen’s Bananas, and Take The Money and Run. However, his first musical in 1975, A Chorus Line has proved to be his most successful, winning 9 Tony Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In addition to scores for films, he wrote the music to many of their songs, like Nobody Does It Better, performed by Carly Simon for The Spy Who Loved Me, and the title song for The Way We Were, written for Barbara Streisand, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Stephen Schwartz was born in 1948 in New York City, and grew up on Long Island in Nassau County. Like Hamlisch, his talent was recognized at an early age, and was accepted into Juillard’s Pre-College Division to study piano and composition, later earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University.  He wrote his first musical Godspell in 1971, followed by Pippin in 1972, mostly conceived while in college. He is also sought after as a lyricist, working with Leonard Bernstein on the text to his theater piece Mass in 1971, and working with Disney composer Alan Menken on the lyrics for the films Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted. He also wrote the songs to The Prince Of Egypt, which features a score by film composer Hans Zimmer. However, he is best known for the 2003 hit musical Wicked, featuring songs like Defying Gravity, Popular, and For Good. Honorable mentions: Harry Von Tilzer (1872) Jean Schwartz (1878) Louis Hirsch (1887) Harry Ruby/Rubinstein (1895) Harold Arlen (1905) Marc Blitzstein (1905) Richard Adler (1921) Sherman Brothers (1925/28) Mitch Leigh (1928) Burt Bacharach (1928) Cy Coleman (1929) Claude-Michel Schönberg (1944) Alan Menken (1949) Marc Shaiman (1959) Jonathan Larson (1960) Jeanine Tesori (1961) Edwardian Musical Comedy (Not Jewish): Sidney Jones (1861–1946) Ivan Caryll (1861–1921) Lionel Monckton (1861–1924) Leslie Stuart (1863–1928) Howard Talbot (1865–1928) Paul Rubens (1875–1917) Operetta: Oscar Straus (1870)  

Maria Yudina was born to a Jewish family in Russia in 1899. She studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory where one of her classmates was Dmitri Shostakovich. In 1922 she completed studies in theology at after converting to the Orthodox Christian faith. She taught at St. Petersburg Conservatory but was fired because of her religious convictions. After being unemployed and homeless Yudina taught at the Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia and the Moscow Conservatory. She also taught at the Gnessin Institute but was fired because of her religious attitudes and advocacy of modern Western music. And her performances were forbidden to be recorded. Among her friends were Shostakovich and Boris Pasternak whose novel Dr. Zhivago had its first reading at Yudina’s apartment in 1947. During one of her concerts, she read Pasternak’s poetry from the stage as an encore and was then banned from performing for five years. One night in 1944 Stalin phoned the main radio station asking for a copy of a recording of Yudina playing Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto. The recording did not exist. Government officials woke Yudina in the middle of the night, and drove her to a recording studio where a small orchestra had quickly been assembled for her to record the concerto! A single copy was produced and quickly brought to Stalin. When she was awarded the Stalin Prize she donated the money to the Russian Orthodox Church with prayers for Stalin’s sins. It is thought that he was afraid of her, and never ordered her arrest. The recording was found on Stalin’s turntable after he died. She died in Moscow in 1970. Philippa Schuyler was born in Harlem in 1931. She was the only child of a prominent black journalist and a white Texan heiress. Schuyler knew the alphabet at 19 months and was able to read and write at the age of two. At four she was playing the music of Mozart and Schumann and began to compose. Schuyler won her first gold medal at age 4 from the National Guild of Piano Teachers. Her IQ at the age of six was 185. Schuyler won eight consecutive prizes from the New York Philharmonic and won gold medals from the Music Education League and from the city of New York. Schuyler’s radio concerts attracted significant press coverage and the admiration of New York’s mayor Fiorello LaGuardia who declared June 19, 1940, Philippa Duke Schuyler Day at the New York World’s Fair where she performed two concerts. By the age of 14, she had composed 200 compositions. and was touring constantly in the United States and overseas. At 15 she graduated from high school and performed with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium and then continued her studies at Manhattanville College. She became a role model for many children in the United States. In later life, Schuyler grew disillusioned with the racial and gender prejudice she encountered in the United States and chose a voluntary exile of performing in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe. She played at the inauguration of three successive presidents of Haiti and in Africa performed for several heads of state. As a writer 5 of her non-fiction books were published as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles internationally. She spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Although Schuyler engaged a number of affairs she never married. In 1966 she traveled to Vietnam to perform for the troops and various Vietnamese groups. She returned to Vietnam in 1967 as a war correspondent and served as a missionary when she was killed in an army helicopter crash during a mission to evacuate Vietnamese orphans. 2,000 mourners attended her funeral at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Schuyler’s mother was profoundly affected by her death and committed suicide a few days before the second anniversary of her daughter’s death. Annie Fischer was born in Budapest to Jewish parents in 1914 and made her debut at 9. She began studying at the Liszt Academy of Music at age 11 where she studied with Erno Dohnanyi. She made her international debut in Zurich at 15. At 19 she won the International Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest, followed by her first foreign concert tours. At 23 she married the musicologist Aladar Toth, with whom she lived in Sweden during WW II, where she concertized and taught. After the war, she played extensively throughout Europe until her U.S. debut in 1961. She was never popular in the U.S. unlike in Japan and Australia, where she enjoyed wonderful success. She made most of her recordings in the 50s including many of Mozart’s Piano concertos. It took her 15 years to record all of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas because she was continuously editing and re-recording them. Her standards were so high that she was never satisfied with them and refused to permit their publication, though, in her last years, she said that they could be released after her death! She played until 1994 and died in Budapest a year later at age 81. The American pianist, Ruth Laredo was born to a Jewish family in Detroit in 1937 and had her first piano studies with her mother. She continued her training with Rudolph Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, after which she married Bolivian violinist Jaime Laredo. During the next several years both musicians made numerous appearances throughout the world. In 1962, she made her solo debut in New York and then played all over the USA with many orchestras including those of Wash. D.C., Boston, Cleveland, and Indianapolis and began performing throughout the world. She was a regular participant at the Marlboro Festival and was on the faculty of Kent State and Yale Universities, the Curtis Institute, and the Manhattan School of Music. Ruth Laredo won several awards including a Grammy nomination, and was chosen as one of five pianists to perform at Carnegie Hall for its 90th anniversary. She passed away in 2005 in New York City at 69. She particularly identified with the music of Scriabin, whose Ten Sonatas for Piano she recorded, and with the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff which she has also recorded. Jeanne-Marie Darre was born in France in 1905. She studied at the Paris Conservatory with Isidor Phillipp and Marguerite Long and worked with Faure, St. Saens, and Ravel. She made her debut at 14 and her first recordings at 16. When she was 21 she played all five of St. Saens’s piano Concertos in a single concert. She first pursued her career in Europe, only performing in the United States for the first time in 1961, and returned regularly until she retired from performing in the 1980s. Darre was an acclaimed teacher of promising young pianists. She was a professor at the Paris Conservatory and gave master classes at Ithaca College in New York. Jean Marie Darre was made a member of the Legion of Honor and a Knight of Arts and Letters in France. She was married twice but left no immediate family. She died in 1999 at age 93 in France. During her illustrious career, she frequently performed Ravel’s piano concerto which had been written especially for her teacher Marguerite Long. Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati and New Jersey. Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute. She appears frequently in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea and has appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist on National Public Radio. An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019 Ms.Cann served as the Cincinnati Symphony’s Multicultural Awareness Council Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement. She is the recipient of the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing her dual role as both performer and pedagogue, her responsibilities include teaching residencies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association. As a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, she holds the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. A champion of the music of Florence Price, a great, but neglected African American composer of the 20th century, Michelle Caan performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s One Movement Piano Concerto in 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere in 2021. Yuja Wang was born in Beijing in 1987. Her mother is a dancer and her father is a percussionist. She began studying piano at age 6 and at 7 she began studies at the Central Conservatory in Beijing for 7 years. At 15 Wang entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia where she studied for five years with Gary Graffman. By age 21 she was already an internationally recognized concert pianist. A big breakthrough for Wang occurred in 2007 when she replaced Martha Argerich playing Tchaikovsky’s 1st piano concerto with the Boston Symphony. She has since gone on to perform with many orchestras in the United States including those in Boston Chicago Cleveland Los Angeles New York Philadelphia San Francisco Santa Cruz and Washington D.C. Internationally she has performed with top orchestras in Berlin, Hong Kong, China, La Scala, Israel, London, Toronto, Paris, Spain, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Rome. She is a recipient of the Gilmore Young Artist Award, Musical America’s Artist of the Year 2017 the Avery Fisher Career Grant, multiple awards from Gramophone, several Grammy nominations, and competition victories in Germany, Japan and the US. She is one of the most sought-after pianists in the world. On those rare days when she isn’t touring, she lives in NYC. Guiomar Novaes was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1895 and was the 17th of 19 children. At seven she started taking piano lessons from Luigi Chiaffarelli, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. She soon began performing in public and at the age of thirteen, caught the attention of the Brazilian Government, which awarded her a grant for four years of study in Europe. When Novaes auditioned for the Paris Conservatoire, she took first place among 389 candidates. The jury consisted of the legendary musicians, Moskowski, Faure, and Debussy! She studied with Isadore Philipp, who described her as “a true force of Nature. After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire as First Prize Winner in 1911 Guiomar Novaes toured throughout Europe with great success. She made her United States debut in New York in 1915 and subsequently made numerous US tours. In 1956, the Brazilian government awarded her the Order of Merit as a goodwill ambassador to the United States. Guiomar Novaes died in 1979 at age 84. She was especially praised for her interpretations of the music of Robert Schumann. Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires Argentina in 1941 to a Catalan father and a Jewish mother. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. She began kindergarten before she was three and began piano lessons at three. She made her debut at age eight playing piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven. At age 14 the family moved to Europe where she studied with Friederich Gulda in Austria who was one of her major influences. At 16 she won both the Geneva and the Busoni international competitions and at 24 won the prestigious Chopin competition. Argerich is an astounding virtuoso. Argerich has promoted young pianists both through festivals and by judging international competitions. Her aversion to publicity and the press has resulted in her remaining out of the limelight for most of her career. Nevertheless, she is widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists in history. She is quite nervous backstage before a performance, typical of many great artists just before a performance. She is sometimes filled with doubt and depression. Yet she performs brilliantly! She speaks Spanish French Italian German English and Portuguese, has lived in Argentina, Belgium, Switzerland and France, and holds citizenships in Switzerland and Argentina. I have a very special treat for you! In 1990 Argerich was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. After treatment, the cancer went into remission but came back 5 years later, and spread to her lungs and lymph nodes. After an experimental treatment at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, it went back into remission. As of 2024, Argerich was still cancer-free. She has given several performances with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the magnificent orchestra comprised of young Israeli and Arab musicians playing side by side. It was founded by her fellow Argentine, Daniel Barenboim. Argerich is the recipient of several Grammy awards, was voted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center honors.

By Michael Laster           Jewish composers have made a profound impact on film music, contributing to some of the most iconic and memorable scores in cinematic history, thus helping to shape the sound of Hollywood that we’re familiar with.           Before the advent of so-called “talkies,” most silent films were typically accompanied by live music either improvised by a skilled keyboard player or drawn from a selection of works by various composers. One of the first films to feature an original score was D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking yet controversially racist film Birth of a Nation, composed by Joseph Carl Breil. However, original film scores weren’t considered a required component of sound films until the arrival of our programs’ first three composers – Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Alfred Newman, often referred to as the “three godfathers of film music.”           Max Steiner, a Viennese composer born in 1888 to a wealthy theatrical family, was a musical prodigy whose godfather was Richard Strauss and whose teacher was Gustav Mahler. In 1914, he relocated to America, where he began conducting and orchestrating Broadway musicals, including Gershwin’s Lady Be Good. Steiner approached studio founder William Fox with the idea of composing an original score for The Bondman in 1916. As sound films gained popularity, Steiner transitioned to work at RKO Studios and later, starting in 1937, at Warner Brothers. Throughout his career at both studios, he wrote the music for over 300 films and received 24 Oscar nominations, winning three. Notable scores from his time at RKO include King Kong, Little Women, and The Informer, while at Warner Brothers, he provided the music for Jezebel, Now Voyager, Casablanca, and The Searchers. Perhaps his most memorable work is the score he composed for Gone With the Wind in 1939 with lush, romantic orchestral sound that defines classic Hollywood epics.           Born in 1894 in Russia, Dimitri Tiomkin studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Felix Blumenfeld and Alexander Glazunov. While in Saint Petersburg, he supported himself by playing piano for Russian silent films. He continued his studies in Berlin under the composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni. In 1925, he relocated to New York, where he worked as a vaudeville and ballet accompanist while composing for minor films such as Alice in Wonderland from 1933. Although Tiomkin initially aspired to be a concert pianist, an injury in 1937 shifted his focus to full-time composing. His collaboration with director Frank Capra marked a turning point in his career, beginning with Lost Horizon and continuing with classics like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life. Tiomkin’s versatility also led him to score major Westerns, such as John Wayne’s The Alamo and Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. His most renowned work is the theme for High Noon from 1952, a song co-written with “When You Wish Upon A Star” lyricist Ned Washington and performed by Tex Ritter, which opens the film with a poignant ballad instead of the expected dramatic fanfare.           Alfred Newman, the first American composer on our list, was born in 1900. By age eight, he was recognized as a piano prodigy and launched a successful career as an accompanist and performer in the vaudeville circuit and later as a conductor and orchestrator for Broadway musicals. Newman’s first film score was for the 1931 movie Street Scene. In addition to composing over 200 compositions for film, Newman became a sought-after conductor and orchestrator in Hollywood. He is also the patriarch of the Newman dynasty, a notable lineage of film composers and music directors that includes his younger brothers, Lionel and Emil; his daughter, Maria; his sons, David and Thomas; and his nephew, Randy. Alfred Newman’s most memorable contribution to our cultural landscape is the iconic fanfare of the 20th Century Fox logo. Some of his films include Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, How The West Was Won, The Mask of Zoro, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and The Diary of Anne Frank.           Erich Korngold was born in 1897 in what is now the Czech Republic. Recognized as a prodigy by the age of five, he could reproduce any melody he heard on the piano, along with accurate accompaniment. By seven, he was composing original music, and then launched a successful career as an opera and ballet composer, conductor, and arranger, and earned acclaim from major European composers of the time, including Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Puccini. In 1935, Korngold moved to Hollywood, fleeing the political upheaval in Europe and seeking new opportunities in the film industry, particularly through his collaboration with director Max Reinhardt on the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throughout his career, he won Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Anthony Adverse in 1936 and The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1939, along with nominations for Captain Blood in 1935 and The Sea Hawk in 1940. He scored a total of 16 films—the fewest among the film composers listed in this program—largely to focus on his classical compositions.           Franz Waxman was born in 1906 in what is now Poland. After enrolling in the Dresden Music Academy at 16, he worked as a pianist for Weintraub’s Syncopators, a successful German Jazz band. He started working as an orchestrator, and then composer for German cinema starting in 1930. After getting violently assaulted by Nazi sympathizers in Berlin, he first fled with his wife to Paris and then settled in Hollywood in 1934. Waxman’s impressive body of around 150 original scores includes iconic films such as Bride of Frankenstein, Sunset Boulevard, Taras Bulba, A Place In The Sun, The Silver Chalice, Rebecca, and Rear Window, the latter two being directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Despite his success in film scoring, Waxman continued to compose his own concert works.           Miklós Rózsa (originally Rosenberg), was born in 1907 in Budapest. Coming from a cultured family, he began learning the violin and piano as a child and started composing at age eight. His friend, composer Arthur Honegger, suggested that Rózsa supplement his income by composing film scores. In London, he worked on several films for Hungarian directors, including Alexander Korda and Ákos Tolnay. When World War II erupted, these directors relocated to Hollywood, providing Rózsa with new opportunities such as collaborating with Billy Wilder on Double Indemnity and Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound. His impressive filmography also includes scores for The Green Berets, The King of Kings, and El Cid and Ben Hur with Charlton Heston.           Alex North, born Isadore Soifer in 1910, was the son of immigrants who fled the Russian Empire and settled in Pennsylvania. He studied at the Curtis Institute, Juilliard, and the Moscow Conservatory. During World War II, North served as a captain in the U.S. Army Special Services, where he was responsible for creating “self-entertainment” programs in mental hospitals. He also composed music for over twenty-six documentaries for the War Department. His first significant success was with A Streetcar Named Desire, one of the first mainstream films to feature a jazz-infused score. His impressive body of work includes scores for Death of a Salesman, Cleopatra, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? North wrote the iconic song “Unchained Melody,” as a theme for the 1955 film Unchained, which was later recorded by The Righteous Brothers, Elvis Presley, and others. One of his biggest blockbusters was Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas.           Bernard Herrmann was born in 1911 in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants and started to write music at just 13. Herrmann studied composition and orchestration at New York University and Juilliard. By age 20, he had founded the New Chamber Orchestra, which performed his own compositions and music of other composers he admired. Transitioning to radio, Herrmann made a significant impact as both a composer and conductor collaborating with Orson Welles. Among Herrmann’s celebrated scores are The Day the Earth Stood Still, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Fahrenheit 451, and Taxi Driver. Tragically, he passed away in his sleep from an apparent heart attack immediately after completing the recording of Taxi Driver in 1975, leading Martin Scorsese to dedicate the film to his memory. A frequent collaborator with Alfred Hitchcock, Herrmann is perhaps best remembered for his iconic score for Psycho.           Elmer Bernstein was born in 1922 in New York City to European Jewish parents. At twelve Bernstein received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School. And before you ask, no, Elmer Bernsteen is not related to Leonard Bernstein. During World War II, he created musical arrangements for Glenn Miller’s Army Air Forces band. In 1949, he composed music for a United Nations Radio documentary on Israel, which marked the beginning of his successful career in Hollywood. Some of Bernstein’s major films include The Ten Commandments, The Man with the Golden Arm, and My Left Foot. He also made his mark in the comedy genre, scoring films like The Three Amigos, Airplane!, Animal House, Trading Places, To Kill a Mockingbird and Ghostbusters. One of the most iconic Western themes in cinema history is from his score for The Magnificent Seven.           Jerry Goldsmith was born in 1929 to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary, with some Jewish-Romanian ancestry. He began playing the piano at six and studied with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also taught the composers Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, André Previn, and John Williams. Goldsmith started his career at CBS, where he composed the music for several episodes of The Twilight Zone. His first major film success was his score for Planet of the Apes in 1968. His success continued with iconic films such as Patton, Chinatown, Alien, Poltergeist, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and five of the Star Trek films. He also composed the famous Universal Pictures fanfare in 1997. Among his most beloved works is the chilling score for the horror classic The Omen, which earned him his first Academy Award. This score not only solidified Goldsmith’s reputation as a master of film music but also became a touchstone for the horror genre, influencing many composers who followed.           Lalo Schifrin was born in 1932 in Argentina. At the age of six, he began a six-year course of study in piano under the tutelage of Enrique Barenboim, the father of renowned pianist Daniel Barenboim. By age twenty, Schifrin won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatory. In Paris, he spent his evenings performing, arranging, and composing with various jazz ensembles. In the early 1960s, Schifrin gained recognition for his collaborations with the legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. However, Schifrin relocated to Los Angeles in 1963. His most famous film scores include Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon, The Amityville Horror, and the Rush Hour trilogy. During the 1960s and 70s, he became a pioneer in integrating jazz, bossa nova, funk, and rock into film music, appealing to younger audiences. While Schifrin’s film scores are noteworthy, he is perhaps best remembered for his iconic themes for television series such as Mannix, Starsky and Hutch, and, most notably, Mission: Impossible.           Randy Newman was born in 1943 in Los Angeles, a nephew of the legendary film-scoring giant Alfred Newman. He studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles, but left the program just one semester shy of earning his B.A. Newman has been a professional songwriter since the age of 17 and is primarily recognized as a singer-songwriter, known for his unique vocal style, which lends itself to humorous impersonations. Ironically, many of the films he composed the music for feature some of his most beloved songs, such as “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story. Since the 1980s, however, Newman has shifted his focus predominantly to film composition. He has scored nine Disney-Pixar animated films, including all the Toy Story films, A Bug’s Life, both Monsters, Inc. films, and the first and third Cars films. His live-action film scores include Cold Turkey, Ragtime, Awakenings, Meet the Parents, and Marriage Story. Newman’s score for the 1984 film The Natural, starring Robert Redford, has left a lasting mark in the history of classic sports films.           Howard Shore was born in Toronto in 1946, making him the only Canadian on this program—our favorite Canadian! He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he honed his skills as a composer. Shore later joined forces with his childhood friend Lorne Michaels, serving as the musical director for Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980. He is well-known for his frequent collaborations with director David Cronenberg on films such as Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, Naked Lunch, Crash, and Eastern Promises. His work with director Martin Scorsese includes scores for Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Hugo. However, Shore is perhaps best recognized for his monumental achievements with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, which brought his music to an international audience. Other notable films in his repertoire include Big, starring Tom Hanks, The Silence of the Lambs, and the comedy Analyze This., and the 1993 classic, Mrs. Doubtfire starring the great Robin Williams.           James Horner was born in 1953 in Los Angeles to Harry Horner, a successful Hollywood art director and set designer. He spent his early years in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music and studied under the influential composer György Ligeti. After earning his Doctorate degree from UCLA, Horner’s big break came in 1982 when he was asked to score Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. His impressive body of work includes scores for iconic films such as Aliens, Field of Dreams, Glory, Apollo 13, Braveheart, A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm, Apocalypto, and James Cameron’s Titanic. For the latter, Horner collaborated with lyricist Will Jennings to create the unforgettable song “My Heart Will Go On,” sung by Celine Dion. This song won four Grammy Awards, an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and Billboard’s Soundtrack Single of the Year, among other accolades. Known for his innovative and expressive use of woodwinds, Horner frequently featured wooden, tin, or bamboo flutes in his soundtracks. For example, “My Heart Will Go On” opens with an Irish tin whistle, while the score for one of my favorite childhood films, Jumanji, showcases a Japanese bamboo flute called a shakuhachi. Horner’s use of the bamboo flute elicits the innocence and nostalgia of Alan’s childhood memories while underscoring the mysterious and enchanted nature of the story.           Danny Elfman was born in 1953 in Los Angeles. He spent much of his free time as a kid at the local movie theater, discovering classic sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films and first noticing the music of film composers like Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. Unlike most other composers on this list, Elfman never took composition lessons or had any formal training on an instrument. Instead, he gradually picked up the skills required to compose for film through hands-on experimentation and hard work. In the early ’70s, Elfman worked as a performer in The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, an experimental performance troupe founded by his brother, Richard, blending music, cabaret, performance art, and visual spectacle. Elfman eventually transformed the group into the new wave band Oingo Boingo in 1980, serving as its lead singer and songwriter. As fans of Oingo Boingo, director Tim Burton and actor Paul Reubens invited Elfman to write the score for their first feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, in 1985. Initially apprehensive due to his lack of formal training and experience, Elfman completed the score with help from his bandmate Steve Bartek, who studied orchestration at UCLA. Elfman would go on to score 19 of Burton’s 22 major films, including Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and Sleepy Hollow. Other scores by Elfman include the Men In Black trilogy, Good Will Hunting, Red Dragon, Spiderman I and II with Tobey Maguire, Milk, and Fifty Shades of Grey.           Elfman composed a number of television themes, including Tales from the Crypt, Dilbert, Desperate Housewives, and Wednesday, but the most iconic of his TV themes is the unforgettable opening for The Simpsons. It can probably be assumed that he’s the best singer on this list, which came in handy while working with creator Tim Burton on the score for Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Elfman begged to be the singing voice for the role of Jack Skellington, strongly identifying with the character. The film is one of the most visually stunning products of stop-motion animation.           Thomas Newman was born 1955 in Los Angeles, the youngest son of Alfred Newman. He studied at the University of Southern California, and Yale, where he met composer Stephen Sondheim, who became an early mentor. In 1983, John Williams invited Newman to work on Return of the Jedi, letting Thomas orchestrate the scene in which Darth Vader dies. Notable films he scored include Scent of A Woman, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Erin Brockovich, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, The Help, Bridge of Spies, American Beauty and more recently, the WWI film 1917.           Hans Zimmer was born in Frankfurt in 1957. Like Danny Elfman, he is largely self-taught, starting out as a synthesizer programmer and recording engineer in London. He learned much of his craft as an assistant to film composer Stanley Myers. Zimmer’s first major American film score was for Rain Man, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Zimmer went on to score numerous Hollywood films, including Driving Miss Daisy, The Thin Red Line, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, 12 Years a Slave, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Dune. His work became iconic for reshaping the sound of modern action films, known for adrenaline-inducing soundscapes, including the use of anvils and booming use of drums. In his music for the films A World Apart and The Power Of One, both about South African Apartheid, he used African drumming and African choirs. Based on this work, Disney hired him to oversee the music of The Lion King. The 1994 animated classic is the perfect marriage of a top-notch score by Zimmer and a masterful soundtrack of the songs of Elton John and Tim Rice. Honorable mentions: Hugo Reisenfeld Leonard Rosenman James Newton Howard Victor Young Louis Gruenberg Werner Richard Heymann Ernst Toch Hans J. Salter Hanns Eisler Louis Applebaum Saul Chaplin Larry Adler David Raksin Ernest Gold Bronisław Kaper Jerry Fielding Elliot Goldenthal Justin Hurwitz Laura Karpman Mica Levi

Myra Hess was born in London in 1890 to a Jewish family. She began piano lessons at five and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. After her debut in 1907, she began touring throughout Britain, The Netherlands, and France, and following her American debut in 1922, Hess became very popular in the U.S. In World War II during Hitler’s incessant bombing of London, Hess organized lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery. Over a period of 6½ years, she produced 1,698 concerts heard by almost one million people, and she personally played in 150 of them, without ever accepting a fee. For boosting morale, King George VI proclaimed her a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Myra Hess was forced to retire in 1961 after suffering a stroke that left her with permanent brain damage. She passed away in 1965 at the age of 75 from a heart attack. Touched by Hess’s playing and humanitarian efforts Arturo Toscanini invited her to perform Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with him and the NBC Symphony. Isata Kanneh-Mason is a young British pianist who graduated from The London Royal Academy of Music with a Master of Arts in performance and a postgraduate diploma. She has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Royal Philharmonic, the Paris Mozart Orchestra, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zürich, and the Dallas, Baltimore, San Antonio, and Gothenburg symphonies. In 2021 Isata was named young artist in residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. When Isata Kanneh-Mason’s debut album, Romance, was released it hit the UK classical charts at number one. Clara Schumann was married to the composer Robert Schumann, and is historically recognized as one of the first great female composers and pianists of the 19th century. As an homage to Clara Schumann, Isata Kanneh-Mason recorded an entire disk of Clara Schumann compositions on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of her birth. It includes Clara Schumann’s piano concerto recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Holly Mathiason. Nadia Reisenberg was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1904. When Nadia was six, her uncle sent the family a piano and Nadia knew immediately she would be at the keyboard for the rest of her life. Her talent demanded that the family move to Saint Petersburg to study at the Conservatory whose Director was the legendary composer Alexander Glazunov, who took a special interest in the gifted girl. Her primary teacher there was Alexander Nikolayev. By 1918 the aftermath of the October Revolution drove the family out of the country with Nadia and her sister Clara, a Theremin Virtuoso, playing their way through Lithuania and into Poland. There in 1921, Nadia played her first orchestral concert: the Rimsky-Korsakov concerto with the Warsaw Symphony under Artur Rodzinski. Later that year the Reisenbergs were able to get visas to the United States. Nadia began studying with Alexander Lambert and made her American debut in 1922 playing Paderewski’s Polish fantasy with the City Symphony at Carnegie Hall in the presence of the composer. Her reviews were excellent and stated that “among other prominent pianists who have marked her gifts are Rachmaninoff and Hofmann”. Nadia later studied with Joseph Hoffman and eventually became his assistant at the Curtis Institute. In 1939 Reisenberg embarked upon the historic tour de force of playing all of Mozart’s piano Concertos in weekly programs that were nationally broadcast. She was the first pianist to have publicly performed all of the Mozart concertos in sequence. During the 1940s Nadia Reisenberg continued to perform with the New York Philharmonic, throughout the country and abroad. Her solo concerts traversed a variety of repertoire and included many interesting Russian compositions. By the 1950s Nadia Reisenberg had given up most of her touring and focused more on chamber music and teaching. She taught at the Curtis Institute, Queens College, the Mannes College of Music, the Juilliard School, and privately as well. She was also a frequent juror for the Leventritt competition. Miss Reisenberg was a very patient, encouraging, and dedicated teacher who inspired her students to achieve their best. She passed away at 78 at her home in NY on June 10, 1983. Her special interest in achieving a beautiful singing tone on the piano is very evident in her performance of this well-known Chopin Nocturne in E flat, Op. 9. Nadia Reisenberg often stated how much she appreciated the quality and variety of sounds that Rachmaninoff produced. She said, “ I do not try to copy anyone but I must say that the kinds of sounds that Rachmaninoff achieved are always in my mind.” Hazel Scott was born in Trinidad in 1920. At age 4 Scott moved to Harlem with her mother, who was a classically trained pianist and music teacher. As an 8-year-old child prodigy, she received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School. In her teens, she performed with the Count Basie orchestra and on the radio and she was a prominent Jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 40s. By 1945 Scott was earning today’s equivalent of 1.1 million dollars a year. In 1950 she became the first African-American to host her own TV show, the Hazel Scott Show. In 1958, Scott voluntarily appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee. She expressed frustration with the false accusations of entertainers. Her television program was canceled a week later and less than a year after that,  Scott suffered a nervous breakdown. Therefore Scott moved to Paris and performed in Europe for 10 years. She was one of the first Afro-Caribbean women to be cast in respectable roles in major Hollywood movies. Scott also refused to perform in segregated venues. In 1981 Hazel Scott died of cancer in Manhattan at the age of 61. She used her She used her status and influence to improve the representation of African Americans in film and to fight against racial injustice. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys looks up to Scott as her inspiration. In this clip from the 1943 Mae West movie, The Heat’s On, Hazel Scott demonstrated her technical virtuosity by playing one of her famous compositions, “Black & White Are Beautiful”on two pianos simultaneously. Alicia de Larrocha was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain in 1923. Both parents and an aunt were pianists so she was surrounded by music in her early life and began piano lessons at the age of three. Alicia gave her first public performance at the age of five at the International  Exposition in Barcelona,  performed her first full recital at the age of six at the World’s Fair in Seville in 1929, and made her orchestral debut when she was 11. By 1943, her performances were selling out in Spain and in 1947 she began touring internationally. De Larrocha’s first appearances in North America began in 1954 when she toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1969 she played her first of four tours of Southern Africa. After a 76-year widely acclaimed international career, Alicia de Larrocha retired from public performance in 2003 at the age of 80 though she continued to record for several years. She had been in declining health since breaking her hip and died at 86 in Barcelona in 2009. De Larrocha was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century.  Members of the Press often referred to her as the “the greatest Spanish Pianist in History”. Though she equally loved the music of the three giants of Spanish Music, Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz, and Manuel de Falla, she thought that De Falla was the one who really captured the spirit of Gypsy Music such as in his Dance of Terror from the Ballet “El Amor Brujo”. Less than five feet tall and with small hands for a pianist, she was nonetheless able to tackle all the big concertos. De Larrocha’s repertoire covered a wide range of composers and styles, especially Spanish composers. She is best known for her recordings of the music of de Falla, Granados, and Albeniz, for which she won 4 Grammy awards. Gina Bachauer was born in Greece in 1913 of Austrian and Italian heritage. She began playing the piano at age 5 and gave her first concert in Athens at age 8. Gina attended the Athens Conservatory and then studied with Alfred Cortot in Paris. In 1933 she won the medal of honor at the Vienna International Competition. In 1935 Gina Bachauer made her professional debut with the Athens Symphony. During World War II she lived in Egypt and played 630 concerts for the Allied forces in the Middle East. Her repertoire ranged from Mozart to Stravinsky. She made her American debut in New York in 1950 and received unanimous critical acclaim. Like many great women pianists before her Gina Bachauer devoted much time passing on her pianistic and musical insights by teaching and encouraging many gifted young pianists. Her master classes at the Jerusalem Center in Israel served as an important vehicle in the development of future artists such as Yefim Bronfman. Gina Bachauer died in 1976 of a heart attack in Athens. That year the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition was founded in her honor. In 1981 the Greek government honored her by publishing a postage stamp of her image. After a recital in Carnegie Hall Harold Schoenberg declared in the New York Times “Miss Bachauer represents the romantic tradition in piano playing with her enormous technique and her big and penetrating tone. Gina Bachauer continues to be one of the great pianists.” Between 1933 and 1935 she received occasional instruction in France and Switzerland from Rachmaninoff! Helene Grimaud was born in France in 1969 to Jewish parents. She was accepted into the Paris Conservatory at age 13 and won first prize in piano performance three years later. Grimaud studied with Gyorgy Sandor and Leon Fleischer.  In 1987 she made her professional debut in Tokyo. Soon after, the conductor Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform with his Orchestre de Paris launching Grimaud’s career, which includes concerts with most of the world’s major orchestras and celebrated conductors. Her recordings have won several international awards and she has received numerous honor citations from France. Helene Grimaud has lived in Westchester County, NY since 1997 where she established The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem while continuing her very active career as a performing pianist. Helene Grimaud’s repertoire is very extensive and is representative of all major periods of music. On the evening of 9/11, 2001, Helene Grimaud performed Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph Eschenbach on a live, worldwide Broadcast. This special concert was heard by millions of listeners as the world mourned the tragic events of the day.   Dame Mitsuko Uchida was born in 1948 in Atami, Japan, and moved to Vienna with her diplomat parents when she was 12 years old. She enrolled in the Vienna Academy of Music to study with Richard Hauser and later, Wilhelm Kempff. She gave her first Viennese recital at the age of 14. Uchida was awarded prizes in several international competitions, most notably, the Second Prize in the 8th International Chopin Piano Competition. Mitsuko Uchida has recorded all of Mozart’s Sonatas for which she won a Grammy, as well as the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven, and a Schubert piano cycle. From 2002 to 2007 she was artist-in-residence for the Cleveland Orchestra. Uchida has also been the Artistic Director of numerous Music Festivals. In 2012 Mitsuko Uchida was honored by the Royal Philharmonic Society with their Gold Medal. In 2009 she embarked on a 5-year project with the Cleveland Orchestra to record all of Mozart’s Concertos while serving both as Conductor and Piano Soloist. In 2011 Uchida won another Grammy for her dual role in two of the concertos. Olga Kern was born in 1975 in Moscow into a family of musicians with the last name of Pushechnikova. Kern began studying piano at age 5 at the Central Music School of Moscow and gave her first concert in that city when she was 7. She won her first international competition at age 11 and at 17, she won first prize at the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition. Olga continued her education including postgraduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Sergei Dorensky and Boris Petrushansky. She adopted her mother’s surname, Kern, professionally as her international career developed. Olga Kern is one of the leading pianists of her generation and is the winner of many international competitions. Kern has conducted master classes throughout the world and has been a jury member for several international competitions. In 2016, she launched the Olga Kern International Piano Competition. Kern lives in NYC and in 2017, joined the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. Olga Kern attained international prominence when she became the first woman in over thirty years to receive the Gold Medal in the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, which she won jointly with Stanislav Ioudenitch. Co-authors: Cesare Civetta and Dr. Anthony LaMagra

Claudio Monteverdi lived from 1567–1643. He composed some of the first operas in history. Representative of his music is the duet Zefiro Torna was composed in 1632 for 2 tenors. It is set to the words of the 14th century Italian poet, Francis Petrarch, and captures the essence of springtime renewal and love. Monteverdi skillfully conveys the text’s meaning, such as depicting the gentle rustling of leaves with delicate, flowing melodies, while the passionate outpouring of love is expressed through soaring vocal lines and dramatic harmonies. The poet’s words extol the beauty of nature and the power of love. Mira, o Norma is a powerful duet from Bellini’s opera Norma, where Norma confronts her rival, Adalgisa. The scene is filled with intense emotions of jealousy and betrayal, and a glimmer of understanding. It’s a tour de force for both women, requiring them to navigate complex vocal lines and express a wide range of emotions. Giuseppe Verdi was opposed to the catholic church’s financial and political power, and the priesthood’s abuse of its power. Verdi, greatly disturbed by the church’s opposition to Italian unification, composed a 5 hour-long opera about the conflict between church and state portraying the church as a force that stifles individual expression and promotes blind obedience. Set in 16th-century Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, it is based on Schiller’s play Don Carlos. Verdi depicts on stage, the church’s tragic burning at the stake of so-called heretics who were often innocent. The Grand Inquisitor was given power by the pope to decide who would be burned and murdered. Verdi describes this man as being 90 years old and blind. Verdi composed a great scene between King Philip II of Spain and the Grand Inquisitor. After the king’s son, Don Carlo, threatened to stab his father, the king has him arrested, and asks the Grand Inquisitor what he thinks about having his own son murdered. This is so shocking. Yet, the Grand Inquisitor gives him justification saying: “God sacrificed his only son.” This duet for 2 basses! The duet from Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers is filled with nostalgia and bittersweet emotion, as two friends reflect on the sacrifices they’ve made. The duet showcases the power of friendship. Bellini’s I Puritani is about the tragic love story between two star-crossed lovers caught in the turmoil of the English Civil War. Elvira, driven to madness by her love for Arturo, pleads with him to come to her, her voice filled with longing and despair. Arturo responds with tender affection, promising to be with her forever. The duet Vieni, fra queste braccia is a tour de force for both singers, demanding exceptional vocal agility and emotional depth. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is renowned for its captivating tenor-soprano duets, showcasing the emotional depth and vocal virtuosity of the protagonists. In the duet Verranno a te sull’aure Lucia and Edgardo exchange vows of love and devotion against the backdrop of their impending doom. The collaboration between Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano is often considered one of the greatest operatic pairings of all time. Di Stefano was Pavarotti’s favorite tenor. Callas, with her extraordinary vocal range and emotional depth, brought the tragic character of Lucia to life with a heartbreaking intensity. Di Stefano, with his tenderness and fiery intensity was the perfect counterpart to Callas. Time to Say Goodbye was composed by Francesco Sartori and evokes a bittersweet farewell about a love that has reached its end, acknowledging the pain of separation while embracing the hope of future happiness. “It’s a Man’s World” was written by James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome in 1966. It is a celebration of women’s strength and resilience. It reminds us of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the enduring power of music to inspire social change. In 2002, Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown delivered a powerful and unforgettable performance of “It’s a Man’s World” during one of Pavarotti’s “Pavarotti & Friends” concerts. 2 million Euro for Angolan refugees displaced due to the Angolan Civil War. This unlikely pairing resulted in a truly iconic moment in music history. Pavarotti was known for his brilliant voice, his charismatic stage presence, and his humanitarian work. Brown is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century known for his energetic performances, his innovative style, and his social activism. Their friendship and mutual admiration is a testament to the power of music to bring people together. Brown’s raw power and soulful delivery complemented Pavarotti’s classical elegance, resulting in a unique and electrifying performance. The duets from The Barber of Seville demonstrate Rossini’s mastery of comedic timing and musicality. They are a testament to the enduring appeal of this beloved opera, which continues to delight audiences worldwide, including Beethoven! The beautiful duet O soave fanciulla from Puccini’s La Bohème is sung by Rodolfo and Mimì, as they fall deeply in love. It captures Mimì’s youthful innocence and vulnerability, while conveying Rodolfo’s intense love. O Mimì, tu più non torni is another duet from Puccini’s La Bohème where the characters Rodolfo and Marcello, are both heartbroken over their failed relationships with Mimi and Musetta. Si, pel ciel from Verdi’s opera Otello is a dramatic duet that showcases the intense rivalry and betrayal between the title character and his trusted lieutenant, Iago. The duet is one of the most thrilling moments in the entire opera repertoire. It conveys Otello’s emotional turmoil, vulnerability as well as his rage combined with the scheming, magnetic Iago, creates a dramatic and electrifying duet. In Don Carlo Verdi composed one of the most celebrated tenor-baritone duets in all of opera. It’s about the lifelong friendship and loyalty between Don Carlo and Rodrigo. The two friends are reunited after Rodrigo returns from a mission and swear eternal friendship. While Rossini’s Otello may not be as widely performed as Verdi’s, the duet Ah, vieni, nel tuo sangue is a testament to Rossini’s skill in composing emotionally charged and musically captivating scenes. The duet is a tour de force for two tenors, requiring exceptional vocal technique and dramatic intensity. Parigi, o cara is a poignant duet from Verdi’s La Traviata. The lovers dream of escaping their troubles in Paris and starting a new life together. The music is filled with longing, passion, and a touch of melancholy sung by the two lovers who are passionately and deeply in love. The lively drinking song from Verdi’s La Traviata is one of the most beloved and recognizable opera duets and choruses, a joyous celebration of life and love. The music is filled with infectious rhythms, sparkling melodies, and a sense of carefree abandon. 

Showcasing great Jewish classical composers who have enriched the world with their music is a powerful way to combat the false narratives of antisemitism, which often rely on harmful stereotypes about Jewish people. By appreciating the work of Jewish composers who often drew inspiration from their heritage and traditions, we celebrate the richness and diversity of Jewish culture. Antisemitism thrives on dehumanizing Jewish people, while learning about the triumphs and struggles of Jewish composers fosters empathy and understanding. In fact, many Jewish composers suffered persecution and had their works suppressed or banned. By seeking out and appreciating the works of Jewish classical composers, we can play a role in challenging antisemitism and promoting a more just and inclusive world while honoring their memory and ensuring their legacy is not forgotten. Salamone Rossi was a violinist and composer born in Italy in 1570. His collection of Jewish liturgical music from 1623, The Songs of Solomon is the earliest known published collection of liturgical music in Hebrew; there would not be another for two hundred years. Giacomo Meyerbeer was born in Germany in 1791 and was the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century. He studied with Antonio Salieri and Carl Maria von Weber who wore a yellow star when traveling together. He never converted, in contrast to Heine, Mahler, and others who felt it was necessary to get ahead. He influenced Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He also influenced Wagner and helped him in Paris and Germany. Wagner first called him a German messiah and then became jealous of his enormous success and began publicly criticizing him incessantly. Fromental Halévy was born in 1799 in Paris. A professor at the Paris Conservatory, among his students were Bizet and Gounod. He composed some 40 operas. La Juive, The Jewess, composed in 1835 was one of the most popular and admired operas of the 19th century, and was a favorite of tenors such as Enrico Caruso and Richard Tucker. Mahler admired it greatly, stating: “I am absolutely overwhelmed by this wonderful, majestic work. I regard it as one of the greatest operas ever created”. Fanny Mendelssohn, born in 1805, in Hamburg, Germany, was Felix Mendelssohn’s older sister and a talented composer in her own right. Unfortunately, her patriarchal father refused to permit her music to be published under her name. In fact some of her music was actually published under her brother Felix’s name. Despite societal constraints limiting women’s roles in music, she composed over 460 works. Fanny was closely involved in her brother’s career, providing support and critique, and her salon performances were influential in the musical circles of Berlin. Felix Mendelssohn was born in 1809, in Hamburg, Germany, into a wealthy and cultured Jewish family, though he and his sister were baptized as Protestants at a young age. A child prodigy, Mendelssohn was composing music and performing publicly by the age of nine, and his early success led him to become a leading figure during the 1st half of the 19th century. He was not only a prolific composer, but also a concert pianist, organist, conductor, musicologist, music conservatory administrator and painter! It’s astonishing how much he accomplished before his death at the age of 38. Jacques Offenbach, born in 1819, in Cologne, Germany, was a composer and cellist renowned for his operettas and contributions to the development of the comic opera genre. He was a central figure in French musical theater, with works such as Orpheus in the Underworld and La Belle Hélène showcasing his wit. His operettas were marked by their satirical and humorous style, often critiquing contemporary society and politics. His works paved the way for future composers of musical theater and operetta. He is most well known for the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann, and for the Infernal Galop from his opera, Orpheus in the Underworld. Louis Moreau Gottschalk was born in 1829, in New Orleans. His music is influenced by Caribbean and Latin American folk traditions. His career was cut short by his early death at age 40 in 1869. His use of syncopation, predated ragtime composers such as Scott Joplin by decades. Karl Goldmark was a Hungarian composer born in 1830. His most renowned work is the opera The Queen of Sheba. Joseph Joachim was born in Hungary in 1831. A violin virtuoso and composer, he taught Leopold Auer, who in turn taught Mischa Elman, Nathan Milstein and Jascha Heifetz. Joachim also advised and assisted Brahms and Dvorak with the composition of their violin concertos. Henryk Wieniawski was born in Poland in 1835. A violin virtuoso, he was known as the reincarnation of Paganini. Emil Waldteufel was a French composer born in 1837. A prolific composer of galops and waltzes. His most popular work is The Skaters’ Waltz. Ignaz Brüll was born in Moravia in 1846. His most successful composition is his opera, The Golden Cross. Brüll was a close friend of Brahms, whose latest compositions were frequently given their first hearings played by Brüll and Brahms at the piano. Moritz Moszkowski, born in Poland in 1854, was a virtuoso pianist and highly regarded composer. Paderewski said that “after Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano.” Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin in 1860 and was known as the Meyerbeer of Italy. Mussolini’s fascist racial laws resulted in Franchetti’s works being banned from public performance. The great Gustav Mahler was an Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor born in 1860, celebrated for his monumental symphonies and song cycles. He was a leading conductor at the Vienna Court Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic. To navigate the anti-Semitic climate of Vienna, Mahler converted to Catholicism in 1897, although his Jewish heritage remained a significant influence in his life and work. Personal tragedy, including the deaths of several siblings and his daughter Maria, profoundly shaped his music, often infusing it with themes of loss, mortality, and spiritual transcendence. His marriage to Alma Schindler in 1902 was turbulent, marred by his workaholic nature and her frustrations with sidelining her own creative aspirations, which led Mahler to consult Sigmund Freud in 1910 about their marital difficulties. His 8th Symphony is set to a text from Goethe’s play, Faust. It is nicknamed “Symphony of a Thousand” because of the number of performers on stage who Mahler conducted at its premiere: 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists! His close friend and colleague, conductor Bruno Walter, championed Mahler’s music after his death in 1911, even as it was banned by the Nazis. Mahler’s music influenced Schoenberg and Shostakovich and secured his legacy as a pivotal figure in 20th-century music. Paul Dukas, born in 1865, in Paris, was a composer and teacher renowned for his tone poem, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. His music, reflects his skill in creating evocative and programmatic works. Dukas’s contributions to orchestral music and his pedagogical impact have established him as a significant figure in early 20th-century French music. Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia includes Dukas’s tone poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Leopold Godowsky was born in Lithuania in 1870. He composed some of the most difficult piano works ever written and may have influenced Prokofiev and Ravel. Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer and conductor born in 1871, best known as Arnold Schoenberg’s composition teacher and for his friendship with prominent figures such as Gustav Mahler. His operas and orchestral works, blend lush harmonies with complex emotional depth. Arnold Schoenberg was born in 1874 in Vienna. He was a pioneering composer whose early works were rooted in late Romanticism, but he moved towards a new system of composition called 12-tone music, that rejected traditional tonality. Schoenberg is famous for having pushed late romanticism to its breaking point. He made a clean break with what he considered to be the oppressive conventions of harmony, which led to the beginning of the avant-garde of classical music. In his innovative work of 1912, Pierrot Lunaire, Schoenberg calls for Sprechstimme, or “spoken singing” whereby the singer adheres to the written rhythm, and starts on a certain pitch only to abandon it by rising or falling. Schoenberg converted to Lutheranism in 1898 to protect himself against anti-semitism, but after experiencing several instances of bigotry, he converted back to Judaism in 1933. Works centered around Jewish themes include his opera Moses and Aaron, Kol Nidre for chorus and orchestra, and a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, entitled A Survivor from Warsaw. Shortly after his conversion back to Judaism, he fled to Los Angeles the same year, where he lived for the rest of his life, befriending many artists and celebrities in the area, including the next composer. George Gershwin, born in 1898 in Brooklyn, was known for his unique blend of classical and jazz elements, creating a distinctly American sound which established him as a key figure in American music. His opera, tone poems, piano concerto, songs, and scores for musical theatre continue to be favorites among performers and audiences 100 years after they were composed. His untimely death in 1937 at the age of 38 from a brain tumor cut short a brilliant career. Ernest Bloch was born in Geneva in 1880. His is best known for his Sacred Service, Suite hébraïque for viola and orchestra, Baal Shem for violin and piano, and Schelomo for cello and orchestra. He felt that to write music that expressed his Jewish identity was “the only way in which I can produce music of vitality and significance”. Joseph Achron was a violinist and composer, born in Lithuania in 1886.  He was preoccupied with Jewish elements and the desire to develop a Jewish harmonic and contrapuntal idiom. Schoenberg described Achron as “one of the most underrated modern composers”. Darius Milhaud was born in France in 1892. His students included Steve Reich, Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass and Karlheinz Stockhausen. A prolific composer, his music is influenced by Brazilian music and jazz. He was one of the central members of Les Six, a group of modernist French composers influenced by Erik Satie. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, born in 1895, was an Italian composer known for his guitar works, many of which were written for Andrés Segovia. Fleeing fascist persecution, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1939, where he became a significant composer for Hollywood films and a mentor to younger composers like John Williams and André Previn. Erich Korngold was born in 1897 in what is now the Czech Republic. At 12 he played his cantata, Gold, for Mahler, who called him a musical genius. His violin concerto, which was written for Heifetz, and his Passover Psalm are still popular today. Living in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Europe, he was a prolific movie composer for Hollywood. He considered his 1927 opera The Miracle of Helen, to be his masterpiece. Vittorio Rieti was an Italian-American composer born in 1898 in Egypt, blending Italian lyricism with modernist influences. He was particularly famous for his ballets in collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine. Among the major Israeli composers is Marc Lavry, who immigrated to Israel from Latvia in 1936. Paul Ben-Haim and Josef Tal, both originally from Germany, moved to Israel in the 1930s, with Ben-Haim blending European and local influences in his music, while Tal pioneered electronic and avant-garde composition. Shulamit Ran, born in Tel Aviv and later based in the U.S., won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1991 for her orchestral work simply titled, Symphony. Aaron Copland, born in 1900 in Brooklyn, is renowned as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century earned him the nickname “Dean of American Music”. Copland’s music is characterized by its use of American folk themes and a distinctive, accessible style that blends classical techniques with popular and folk elements. Works like “Appalachian Spring,” “Rodeo,” and “Fanfare for the Common Man” exemplify his ability to evoke the American landscape and spirit through music. Copland was also a respected teacher and advocate for new music. Leonard Bernstein, born in 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was a renowned American composer, conductor, and educator whose music spans various genres, including classical, musical theater, and film scores. Iconic works such as “West Side Story” and “Candide” showcase his versatility and creativity. As the music director of the New York Philharmonic and a prolific educator, Bernstein played a significant role in popularizing classical music and engaging audiences with his choreographic conducting style. His innovative ability to communicate complex ideas in accessible ways has left a lasting legacy on American music. György Ligeti, born in 1923, in Transylvania (now Romania), was a Hungarian composer known for his avant-garde and innovative approaches to music. Ligeti’s work, such as “Atmosphères” and “Lux Aeterna,” features complex textures and rhythmic structures, pushing the boundaries of traditional composition. In 1944, Ligeti was sent to a forced labor brigade. His brother Gábor, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz. His mother was the only member of his immediate family that survived the Holocaust. Ligeti is one of the most influential avant-garde composers of the 20th century and his work has had a lasting impact on both classical and experimental music. Milton Babbitt was an American composer and theorist born in 1916, known for his innovations in electronic music. He became famous for his complex compositions that utilized mathematical techniques, and his work composing on the first programmable synthesizer. One of his many students was the famous Broadway composer, Stephen Sondheim. Mieczysław Weinberg was a Polish-Soviet composer born in 1919, whose music often reflects Jewish folk themes and the traumas of war. He survived the Holocaust, but later faced Soviet repression due to his Jewish heritage and his association with Shostakovich, leading to his arrest in 1953. His music frequently conveys the oppression and fear under Stalin’s regime, and profound resilience in the face of adversity. Lukas Foss was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor, an influential figure in 20th-century American music, known for his eclectic style and his experiments with improvisation and aleatory music.  Foss was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922, and fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1933. He was a child prodigy, composing his first work at the age of 15 and winning a Guggenheim Fellowship at the age of 23. Foss was the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, professor of music at Boston University and a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras around the world. His compositions are known for their wide range of styles, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, and contemporary music. André Previn was a German-born American conductor, composer, and pianist, born in 1929. A child prodigy, he was enrolled to the Berlin Conservatory at the age of 6, but in 1938, Previn’s father was told that his son was no longer welcome on the grounds that he was Jewish, despite André receiving a full scholarship for his abilities. They moved to Paris, followed by settling in the US, all in the same year. He is renowned for his versatility across multiple genres, including classical, jazz, and film music. His opera A Streetcar Named Desire (1998) marked a milestone in his career, gaining acclaim for its brilliant adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s famous play. Alfred Schnittke, born in 1934, was another Soviet-Russian composer who became famous by combining elements of classical, avant-garde, and popular music with deep emotional intensity. John Corigliano is an American composer born in 1938 known for his emotionally expressive music, blending contemporary and traditional styles. He gained wide recognition for his symphonies, operas, and film scores, notably winning an Academy Award for the score of “The Red Violin.” Philip Glass and Steve Reich are composers who helped to found the style known as minimalism. Their innovative new approach to organizing music can be understood as being a reaction against the more complex, dissonant style of their teachers. Like Copland, Gershwin, and Bernstein, they wanted to create a distinctly American type of classical music, but instead of borrowing from jazz, blues, or other American folk music, Reich and Glass forged their own sound through simplicity and repetition. Steve Reich, a New Yorker born in 1936, often draws inspiration from diverse sources, including non-Western musical traditions, spoken word, and religious themes. Philip Glass, born in 1937, in Baltimore, Maryland, has brought minimalism into mainstream awareness, and his contributions continue to shape modern music, including film composers like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. Glass’s use of repetition can be suited to slow or fast tempos, the latter being best demonstrated by his music for the film Koyaanisqatsi. Osvaldo Golijov was born in 1960 in Argentina to parents of Eastern European descent. He grew up surrounded by chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer traditions, and the nuevo tango of Ástor Piazzolla. He began studying piano and composition at home before furthering his education in Jerusalem and then Pennsylvania. His celebrated work *La Pasión según San Marcos*, a reimagining of the Passion story with Latin American rhythms, gained him international recognition in 2000. Jonathan Leshnoff, born 1973, is an American composer known for his orchestral and chamber works. Leshnoff was raised observing Conservative Judaism but began to practice Orthodox Judaism while a student at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins. In 2019, he gained significant recognition when the Nashville Symphony commissioned his Fourth Symphony and was nominated for a GRAMMY. It was performed on many instruments that are part of the “Violins of Hope” collection, meaning were once owned by European Jews before and during the Holocaust, and restored by Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein. Cesare Civetta and Michael Laster, co-authors

By Bermathyl Pluviose In the 1910s, technical advancements in tracing, printing, and celluloid sheets led to the commercial success of animated shorts. Animated shorts, also known as cartoons or comics, were drawing in huge audiences during their rise in the early 20th century. Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 is considered the first cartoon to feature an appealing character. Felix the Cat in 1919 is often considered the first animated movie star. Because they were made for theatrical debut and to appeal to wide audiences, their productions had much more studio support and bigger budgets than is common now. Walt Disney Animation Studios was founded in 1923 by brothers, Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney and is currently the longest-running animation studio in the world. Through countless hours of experimentation and innovation, Walt Disney pioneered the art of animation, creating iconic characters like Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney was driven by an unwavering passion for creative storytelling. He believed that music was an essential component of storytelling. He always empowered and supported Carl Stalling, Disney Studio’s first in-house composer, who created scores for the early Silly Symphonies. Stalling’s music not only enhanced the storytelling of the Silly Symphonies but also added a unique and memorable element to these classic animated shorts, making them even more beloved by audiences of all ages. Steamboat Willie, the third Mickey Mouse short made, was Disney’s first cartoon with synchronized sound and was a major success upon its November 1928 debut at the West 57th St. Theatre in New York City. The Mickey Mouse series of sound cartoons quickly became the most popular cartoon series in the United States. Stalling suggested the idea of making a series of musical animated shorts that combined the latest sound technology with storytelling. At first Walt did not seem interested, but when they returned to New York in February to record the sound for The Opry House, the fifth Mickey Mouse cartoon, they also recorded the soundtrack for The Skeleton Dance. A second Disney series of sound cartoons, Silly Symphonies, debuted with 1929’s The Skeleton Dance which was inspired by Camille Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre. Fleischer Studios, Disney’s main rival throughout the 1930’s, produced a series of cartoons with classical music as a backdrop. Brothers Max and Dave Fleischer ran the company from its inception in 1929 until its acquisition in 1941 by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of its films. Max was the animator and the creative force with Dave serving as director for many films. Max brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the rotoscope, the “follow the bouncing ball” technique, and the “stereoptical process”. The incorporation of classical music added a unique dimension to their cartoons, elevating the visual storytelling with the power of timeless melodies. These cartoons continue to be celebrated for their artistic ingenuity and enduring appeal. The “Popeye” series, starring the iconic sailor man, often found him in comical situations accompanied by lively classical pieces. For example, the episode, “The Spinach Overture,” from 1935 utilizes von Suppé’s The Poet and Peasant Overture. The Fleischer brothers created Betty Boop for Paramount. It featured the glamorous character in various musical escapades as a singer and dancer. She was a pop culture icon who embodied the spirit of rebellion and self-expression of the Jazz Age. Betty Boop cartoons were often set to jazz music, which was used to differentiate them from Disney cartoons. The character is based on many vaudeville show acts including Esther Lee Jones, known by her stage name “Baby Esther”, a trained scat singer, dancer, and acrobat who performed regularly at nightclubs in Harlem and all over the United States in the 1920s. In her act, “Baby Esther” danced, made funny faces, rolled her eyes, and—most famously—interpolated wordless phrases such as “Boo-Boo-Boo-Roo”. Paramount had deals with the United States government for propaganda media so there are many instances in which Betty Boop episodes are meant to support a new domestic policy or rally support for the war effort. The Betty Boop episode, The New Deal show from 1937 features the song, “New Deal for Pets” which has a lot of scat lyrics. This is a nod to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives from 1933 to 1938. Franz Von Suppé was a composer who wrote for the theater, including operas, operettas, ballets, and comedies. While most of his works have not survived, several of his overtures have and are often featured in cartoons and movies such as Morning, Noon and Night (1933) starring Betty Boop featuring the overture Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna by Von Suppé. Franz Von Suppé was not only popular with Fleischer Studios cartoons. Disney also featured his compositions such as Mickey Mouse in Symphony Hour from 1942 conducting the Light Cavalry Overture by Franz Von Suppé. Looney Tunes is an American animated franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It began as a series of short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside the related series Merrie Melodies, during the golden age of American animation. Merrie Melodies was an animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures from 1931-1997. It was part of the Looney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters. Looney Tunes was more story-driven and Merrie Melodies remained a vehicle for Warner Brothers musical properties, but over time the two names became virtually interchangeable with Looney Tunes being the banner Warner currently publishes animated content under. Bugs Bunny, a quintessential character in animation history, was created by animators Bob Clampett and Ben “Bugs” Hardaway in 1940. Known for his quick wit, irreverence, and the catchphrase “Eh…what’s up, Doc?”, Bugs Bunny has become a beloved symbol of American pop culture whose episodes introduced generations to classical music. One such episode is Rhapsody Rabbit from 1946. In which Bugs Bunny performs Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. Using recognizable classical pieces of music as a backbone for the shorts and the effort in timing on-screen events with the music garnered huge audiences and awards. As the decades progressed and the general public’s awareness of classical music declined, these cartoons became the vehicle of classical music introduction to younger audiences. Warner Brother’s commitment to classical music has continued to this day with bundles and box sets that encompass classical music. In addition, performances of episodes with live symphony orchestras have been performed countless times worldwide. Gioachino Rossini’s Figaro, from The Barber of Seville (1816), became a recurring theme in Warner Brothers and MGM cartoons, often used to contrast Figaro’s dramatic intentions with the cartoon’s comedic tone. The aria, Largo al Factotum’s intricate melody and grand operatic style provided a humorous counterpoint to the slapstick antics and over-the-top situations. In Rabbit of Seville from 1950, Bugs Bunny cleverly parodies the opera, taking on the role of Figaro and outsmarting Elmer Fudd. The aria’s familiar tune is played over chaotic chase scenes, creating a jarring and amusing juxtaposition. The overture and Largo al Factotum from The Barber of Seville are particularly popular and were used in many episodes and compositions staring Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Woody Woodpecker, and Daffy Duck. One Froggy Evening from 1955 was the debut of Michigan J. Frog, better known as the Warner Brothers’ frog, the company’s mascot. In 1994, it was voted No. 5 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. These episodes demonstrate the Looney Tunes’ ability to use classical music in unexpected ways, creating laughter and delight through the contrast between the serious nature of the compositions and the absurd humor of the cartoons. Tom the Cat and Jerry the Mouse were created  by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera who years later would leave MGM and form Hanna-Barbera known for the Huckleberry Finn Show, The Flinstones, and Scooby-Doo. The Flintstones ran from 1960 to 1966 and was the first animated show to air in prime time. Johann Strauss Jr.’s music found an unexpected home in the zany world of many cartoons. The juxtaposition of his sophisticated, often dramatic music with the characters and their situations creates a humorous and surprising contrast. From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954), The Stupid Cupid of 1944, and Hot Cross Bunny from 1948 feature Frühlingsstimmen, Voices of Spring. and Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl from 1950 features the overture to Die Fledermaus. These episodes demonstrate the versatility of Strauss’s compositions, which could be adapted to fit a wide range of comedic situations. In Hurdy-Gurdy Hare from 1950 includes Johann Strauss Jr.’s Künstlerleben, Artist’s Life; Johann Mouse from 1953 features Wierner Blut, Vienna Blood, the Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, and The Blue Danube Waltz; Herr Meets Hare from 1945 features Die Fledermaus Overture, Wiener Blut; and The Unruly Hare from 1945 features Perpetuum Mobile. A Corny Concerto from 1943 is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies full-length production directed by Bob Clampett starring Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Daffy Duck. The piece parodies classical music with Bugs Bunny’s horsing around serving as a comedic counterpoint to the somber compositions. They perform a parody of Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoon series and specifically his 1940 feature Fantasia. The film uses two of  Johann Strauss Jr.’s best known waltzes, “Tales from the Vienna Woods” and “The Blue Danube”. Tchaikovsky’s grand and dramatic music found an unlikely home in the comedic world of Looney Tunes. The contrast between the absurd lyrics and exaggerated actions of the characters played against the grandeur of the music, creating a comedic masterpiece. Examples are Holiday For Shoestrings from 1946 featuring Tchaikovsky’s Humoresque, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Chinese, Arabian, and Russian Dances from The Nutcracker. The Bowling Alley Cat features the Sleeping Beauty Waltz; and Life with Feathers features Tchaikovsky’s Romance. Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from Fantasia (1940) is a visually stunning and musically enchanting ballet sequence. It features four different dances representing the hours of the day: morning, noon, afternoon, and night. Each dance showcases unique costumes, choreography, and music, creating a captivating and magical spectacle. Also from Fantasia, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, also known as the “Pastorale,” is a more intimate and contemplative work than its predecessor. It features a series of pastoral scenes, including a peaceful countryside, a scene by the brook, a village festival, a thunderstorm, and a shepherd’s song. The music is filled with natural sounds and imagery, creating a sense of tranquility and peace. “Flight of the Whales” from Fantasia 2000 is a breathtaking piece of orchestral music that captures the majesty and power of these magnificent creatures. The music from Respighi’s The Pines of Rome features soaring melodies, rhythmic patterns, and evocative harmonies that evoke the vastness and beauty of the ocean. The piece is a tribute to the whales and their importance to the ecosystem. Two animated shorts featuring a piano concert setting were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Subject in 1946. “Musical Moments from Chopin” is a Musical Miniatures cartoon, co-starring Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker performing a Chopin polonaise on stage. The Cat Concerto from 1947 won the Academy Award. Tom, dressed in a white tie, is playing Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” on the piano while Jerry, who lives inside the piano, disrupts Tom’s performance. That’s all folks!

I thought you might like to read about Bach in preparation for Sunday’s program. Here’s the article I wrote about him: Johann Sebastian Bach, the youngest of 8 children was born in Eisenbach, Germany in 1685. Johann Sebastian’s mother died when he was just nine, and his father, who taught him the rudiments of string playing died less than a year later. Johann Sebastian and his brother Jacob moved in with their older brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist in the city of Ohrdurf, where Johann Sebastian attended school until he was 15, learning theology, Latin and Greek. He gained an expert knowledge of organ building by helping Johann Christoph repair one of the organs there. His brother gave him his first keyboard lessons and introduced him to the music of great composers such as Pachelbel, Lully, and Frescobaldi. He also learned from Italian composers such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and Torelli. It is said that Vivaldi’s music had the strongest single influence on Bach. The legendary cellist and conductor, Pablo Casals was the first to record all of Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello. Casals first came across this music in 1890. He was so in awe of it that it took 10 years of intense study and practice before he performed it in public, and 49 years before he was confident enough to record it. In 1703 at age 18 Bach was hired as a violinist and organist by Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. Several months later Bach was paid to examine the new organ at the New Church in Arnstadt, and then accepted the position of organist there. During his time in Arnstadt Bach asked for four weeks leave to travel to Lübeck to hear the composer and organist Dieterich Buxtehude play and to ask to study with him. He traveled the 200 miles to Lübeck on foot. Bach had told his employer he would only be gone for a few weeks, but ended up staying away for several months. In 1707 Bach became the organist at the Blasius Church in Müllhausen. That year Bach married his second cousin, Maria Barbara, with whom he had 7 children. He began teaching privately and over the years had approximately 80 private students. The following year Bach returned to Weimar as organist and eventually became the director of music at the duke’s court. In 1717 he was hired by the Prince of Anhalt-Köthen as director of music. Having accepted the new job, Bach aggressively demanded to be released from his position in Weimar, which resulted in the Duke having Bach thrown into prison for one month for disobedience until his dismissal in disgrace. In 1720 while Bach was traveling with the prince, his wife suddenly died at age 36. The following year he met and married Anna Magdalena Wilcke, 16 years his junior. They had 13 children. In 1723 he was appointed cantor of the St. Thomas Church and director of music of Leipzig. He held this position in Leipzig for 27 years until his death. His responsibilities included directing the St.Thomas School, teaching singing to its students, and providing 4 of the main churches in Leipzig with music, as well as other aspects of the town’s musical life. Bach also become musical director of the university connected with Saint Paul’s Church. To Bach, being a cantor was a step downwards in social status, and he did not respect his employers, who were the members of the city council. And the council considered Bach a third rate musician, a mediocrity, who refused to teach Latin. What is absolutely staggering is that for the Sunday services in Leipzig he was required to compose, rehearse and perform approximately 30 min. of music each week for the Sunday services. The performers available to him included 16 singers and 18 instrumentalists. Bach simultaneously conducted and played the organ with a boy pumping the air through the organ pipes. His 2 hands and 2 feet played several keyboards at the same time while pulling and pushing knobs and levers and probably turning pages himself. Johann Matthias Gesner wrote: “If you could see Bach singing and playing his own parts, but watching over everything, out of 30 or even 40 musicians, the one with a nod, another by tapping with his foot, the third with a warning finger, and although he is executing the most difficult parts himself, noticing at once whenever and wherever a mistake occurs, holding everyone together, taking precautions everywhere, and repairing any unsteadiness, full of rhythm in every part of his body. In his obituary it is stated “his hearing was so fine that he was able to detect the slightest error even in the largest ensembles.” Bach had 20 children. His music is incredibly dynamic, vibrant and filled with life. Bach had 20 children!!! It is absolutely staggering to imagine his mind gushing forth with all this incredible inspirational music plus having 20 children, raising them, and teaching music, all in the service and glory of God. In his manuscripts he wrote at the end of many of his compositions, the words: To God all glory. The great organ builder Gottfried Silbermann also began building the first pianos in history and Bach proposed alterations in the mechanism, which Silbermann adopted. Part of the recording of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier by Glenn Gould is included in the gold record that was sent on NASA’s Voyager into space. Gould chose Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the music that comprised his very first recording in 1955. 27 years later he re-recorded them. In 1729 Bach became director of the music society, the Collegium Musicum, and was also made Director of Music of the duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels, but was not required to relocate. In 1736 Bach was appointed Composer to the Electoral Saxony and Royal Polish Court. In his last year of life Bach’s health deteriorated. He suffered from motor problems in his right hand and arm and from problems with his eyes, specifically cataracts. Ultimately he became totally blind. Some months before his death in 1750 he had 2 unsuccessful eye surgeries, and died of a stroke at age 65. During his lifetime, people thought of Bach as just an ordinary working musician, though as a virtuoso he acquired almost legendary fame. He was primarily valued as an organist and his keyboard music such as The Well Tempered Clavier was for many years only appreciated for its educational uses. Yet he wrote all kinds of music—for organ and other keyboard instruments, orchestras, choirs, and concertos for many different instrumental combinations. And as a publisher, Bach was involved in the distribution of the music of other composers. Unfortunately approximately 40% of Bach’s sacred cantatas have been lost, and more than half of his secular cantatas have been lost. Much of Bach’s music wasn’t published until long after his death. In fact, out of the hundreds and hundreds of cantatas he composed, only one was published during his lifetime. And because most people didn’t understand that Bach was a genius of a composer, amazingly, after his death some of his cantatas were used as kindling to light fires. Well over 1,000 compositions were eventually published and it’s amazing to learn that, according to his son, the composer, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, his father composed in silence and not at the keyboard. Although Bach’s music was considered to be old-fashioned and was ignored for many years, it underwent a revival thanks to Mendelssohn, who conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion 79 years after his death in 1829 and the St. John Passion in 1833. Bach is now seen as one of the greatest geniuses in music history. Bach’s music had a profound influence on composers such as Haydn and Mozart, and upon many musicians since that time. “Bach” is the German word for a little stream or brook. Beethoven said: “His name should not be Brook, it should be Ocean.” And Brahms said: “Study Bach: there you will find everything.” One eye witness described Bach’s organ playing: “His feet seemed to fly across the pedals as if they were winged, and mighty sounds filled the church’. Bach’s obituary states: ‘His fingers were all of equal strength, all equally able to play with the finest precision. He had invented so comfortable a fingering that he could master the most difficult parts with perfect ease. He was able to accomplish passages on the pedals with his feet which would have given trouble to the fingers of many keyboard players”. Bach was fond of beer and cider. He drank wine regularly, and also enjoyed hot chocolate, coffee and tobacco. Bach is also known to have smoked a pipe, and apparently he really loved coffee. So much so that he wrote a cantata about it and a girl who is addicted to it. It’s affectionately known as the Coffee Cantata and was 1st performed at Zimmerman’s coffee house in Leipzig in 1735. It’s about a coffee-obsessed woman whose father wants her to stop drinking it. Baroque music crops up in some unexpected places. At LaGuardia, Newark and JFK airports, classical music that prominently features Bach is played in the vicinity of the check-in zone. His music is also regularly played in New York City’s Penn Station, and in many stations in the London Underground because it is thought that Baroque music has a calming effect on stressed out travelers. Shopping centers and convenience, store managers occasionally use Baroque music to discourage loitering. Bach often used 14 and 41 in his music because these numbers correspond to the numerical values of the letters in his name, B-A-C-H. B is 2, A is 1, C is 3 and H is 8. The total is 14. 14, and its mirror, 41, were among Bach’s favorite numbers. These numbers are hidden inumerable times within the notes and musical structure of his music. In fact, the first 2 cantatas he composed and began performing at his new job in Leipzig each comprised 14 individual compositions. The Mass in B Minor is a summation of his vocal writing and is sometimes referred to as his most important composition. Bach completed it a year before his death in 1750. On the last page of the manuscript he wrote his customary ‘The end. Glory to God alone.’” Its first complete performance was not until 1870, 120 years after Bach’s death. The great conductor, Robert Shaw said: “It is undoubtedly one of the very few great achievements of the human mind and heart.” Shaw: “Shaw’s last performances of it were in 1998. At pre-concert remarks 9 to 10 months before his death Shaw said: “It may well be true that Bach’s Mass in B minor has become, some 250 years later the most remarkable musical allegory of human existence—its pain, aspiration and promises.” The conductor John Eliot Gardiner wrote: “One of Bach’s monumental achievements was to show that music and language together can do things which neither can do separately. But he also proves that music sometimes surpasses language in its capacity to penetrate to the innermost resources of consciousness and chip away at peoples prejudices and our sometimes toxic patterns of thinking.” In 1962 Robert Shaw brought the Mass in B Minor on a performance tour of the former Soviet Union, climaxing during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Shaw spoke about this historic tour: “What cultural exchange can do is act as a lubricant and a delay-before-harsh-measure-any-old-decision factors. It can gain us time. And it can make us aware of the possibility of getting along with these or other people. A deputy minister of foreign affairs said to our ambassador, ‘All this makes our work somewhat easier, Mr. Ambassador’”.

“The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I have no alternative.”   Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, N.J. in 1898, the son of a slave. He attended Rutgers University on scholarship, where he was the only black student enrolled. He won the debate team contests every year and was awarded fifteen varsity letters in four sports. He was the star of the football team and valedictorian of his class. While at Columbia University’s Law School he played professional football and basketball to help pay for his expenses. After earning his law degree he began working at a law firm, immediately experienced racism, and quickly realized that there were limitations on how far he would be able to advance in the field of law. He therefore decided not to practice law and became enormously successful internationally as a concert singer and as an actor on stage and in films. His portrayal of Shakespeare’s Othello in the U.S. and Great Britain was legendary. After starring in fifteen movies he renounced further film acting in 1942 because of the movie studios’ stereotyped portrayal of black characters common in that era. He was especially popular in Great Britain where he lived in the 1930s and befriended the future leaders of Nigeria, (Nnamdi Azikiwe), Kenya (Jomo Kenyatta), Ghana (Kwame Nkrumah), and India (Jawaharlal Nehru). He was a very outspoken advocate for Indian independence and for the freedom of the African nations then under colonial rule. Robeson also fought for equal rights for the Māori people of New Zealand and the Aborigines of Australia. Robeson was fluent in 14 languages and recorded approximately 300 songs. Although he sang in many languages he decided against singing opera and European classical art songs because they weren’t connected to his heritage. He was the first artist to perform entire concerts comprised of Negro Spirituals. Robeson lived in solidarity with the working peoples of the world, and consistently visited, sang, and spoke to factory workers, miners, construction workers, and members of many other blue-collar labor industries. Robeson greatly encouraged the formation and strengthening of trade unions across the U.S. He fought for justice in solidarity with African Americans and with the people of Africa and its diaspora. At a meeting with President Truman at the White House in 1946 he implored Truman to urge Congress to immediately enact an anti-lynching bill. Truman refused. As of June 2, 2020 lynching is still NOT a federal crime.* Widely speaking out for independence, freedom, and equality for all people he believed that artists should use their talents, exposure, and celebrity to aid causes for justice throughout the world. In 1938 to assist victims of the Spanish Civil War he sang for the Spanish Loyalists including for wounded hospitalized soldiers and even at the battlefront to boost their morale. He often wrote and spoke about the inhumane treatment of blacks in the South calling out the U.S. government’s actions as fascist. In 1950 the State Department canceled Robeson’s passport for eight years because he consistently criticized the U.S. government for its racial policies and spoke out for the end of colonial rule in Africa. The distribution of his recordings and films ceased. He was kept off the radio and had great difficulty finding venues for his concerts. In 1958 his passport was re-issued after eight years, when the Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not deny citizens the right to travel because of their political beliefs or affiliations. In 1956 he was called to appear before Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee. Robeson invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer questions about his political affiliations. This is a fascinating audio recording from that hearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmFjjaFNHKo His son was convinced that in 1961 three weeks before The Bay of Pigs Invasion, as Robeson was preparing to meet with Fidel Castro in Cuba the C.I.A. in cooperation with Britain’s M15 poisoned his father to “neutralize” him through the secret C.I.A. mind control program, MKUltra. Subsequently, Robeson experienced hallucinations, and extreme depression and paranoia. He attempted suicide more than once. For the next two years, he was in and out of hospitals and sanitariums in Russia, East Berlin, London, and New York during which time he was simultaneously given an incredible quantity of drugs and fifty-four electro-shock treatments. The result was that he never fully recovered and spent the next fourteen years withdrawn from public life until his death in 1976. His numerous honors include four streets being named after him in New York City, Princeton, Somerville, and New Brunswick, New Jersey. The U.S. Postal Service issued a Paul Robeson stamp. A mountain in Kazakstan bears his name. He is largely ignored in American textbooks. This is a recording Robeson made of the song, “Joe Hill” about a union organizer and songwriter. In 1914 he was accused of murder, and executed in 1915, even though many people believed he was innocent. His songs are still an inspiration for all kinds of workers. Joe Hill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes *The law making lynching a federal crime finally came into being in 2022.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) The Prolific Young Romantic  Franz Schubert was only 31 when he died after having been very ill for a few years due to syphilis. He was the first freelance composer without a church position nor noble patronage. Schubert was born in 1797 in Vienna, the 12th of 14 children. His mother worked as a maid before her marriage and his father was a schoolmaster, who began giving Franz violin lessons when he was 8. Franz then studied piano, organ and harmony with the organist and choirmaster of the local church and played viola in the family string quartet with 2 of his brothers and father. At 11, Franz won a choir scholarship to the Imperial Seminary, a boarding school for the common folk, where he studied with the composer Antonio Salieri. There he met his lifelong friend, Joseph von Spaun, whose family was well off, and who provided Franz with a steady supply of music manuscript paper. Franz was allowed to conduct the school orchestra several times. When he was 15 , Franz’s mother died. The following year he left the school, moved back home, and underwent teacher training. The following year he began teaching at his father’s school, while giving private music lessons and continued taking private composition lessons with Salieri for 3 years. Schubert’s unhappiness as a school teacher manifested in bouts of depression and throughout his life he suffered from mood swings. Fortunately, his friend, Franz von Schober, invited Schubert to live at his mother’s house. This gave him the freedom to compose as much as he wanted to. While there was no piano in the Schubert home, the Schober family did have a piano, which made a huge difference to the young Schubert. Within a year though, he moved back home, rejoining his father, and reluctantly resumed his teaching duties. The largest land-owners of the Habsburg Empire were members of the Esterhazy family. Schubert spent the summer of his 21st year living with the family in Slovakia, making good money as their music teacher, while still having lots of time to compose. After that summer he began living with his friend Johann Meyerhofer. Beginning in the early 1820s Schubert was part of a group of artists and students who met regularly for social evenings called Schubertiads, during which his chamber music and songs were often performed. Schubert was only slightly taller than 5 feet and was nicknamed “little mushroom”. In early 1820 Schubert and four of his friends were arrested by the Austrian police who were suspicious of any gatherings of youth. They were especially suspicious of potential revolutionary activities in the aftermath of the French Revolution. One of Schubert’s friends was imprisoned for over a year and then banned from Vienna. Schubert and the other three were severely reprimanded for insulting the officials. Schubert composed innumerable sketches before he was satisfied with a composition’s completion. He was incredibly prolific, having composed more than 1,500 compositions before his death at age 31 including 15 string quartets, 9 symphonies, 21 piano sonatas, and many hundreds of other compositions. He even composed several operas and ballets! He would sometimes write four versions of a song before he was satisfied. Unfortunately, having written over 600 songs, he was only recognized as a composer of songs during his lifetime and for many years after his death. Schubert only gave one public concert in his life, 7 months before his death. It consisted entirely of his own music, and unfortunately it received very little press coverage because of the upcoming appearance in Vienna of the legendary violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini. The anticipation of Paganini’s appearance completely overshadowed coverage of Schubert’s concert in the press. Schubert wrote a sonata for piano and arpeggione, an instrument somewhat similar to the cello. Mstislav Rostropovich recorded it with the English composer, Benjamin Britten, as pianist. Rostropovich’s daughters and the cellist Moshe Maisky recall their unique collaboration and friendship. When the recording was played for Rostropovich as he lay in a coma on his deathbed, tears rolled down his face. In the last year of his life, Schubert again lived as a guest in the Schober home. He had 2 1/2 rooms to himself, which was a more comfortable living situation than he ever had before. Several weeks before his death he moved in with his brother’s family. Wanting to improve his ability at composing fugues, he had his first and what turned out to be his only lesson with Simon Sechter two weeks before he died. Schubert was a great admirer of Beethoven. Contrary to the story that some of Schubert’s music was shown to Beethoven when the latter was on his deathbed and that Beethoven said some very nice things about Schubert’s music, Schubert told his life-long friend, Joseph von Spaun, that he had never met, nor spoken to Beethoven. He did visit the composer a week before Beethoven’s death, and he was one of the torchbearers at Beethoven’s funeral. The following year, when Schubert was lying on his deathbed he requested that a string quartet come and play for him Beethoven’s 14th Quartet. He died from syphilis when he was just 31. He may have also had typhoid fever. He wanted to be buried near Beethoven’s grave and he was. Schubert set several texts to music that are based on the Old Testament including Psalms 13, 23 and 92. In fact his very first song written at age 14 is Hagar’s Lament. It’s a biblical story, in which  Abraham’s wife, Sarah, could not bear children, so she allowed Abraham to conceive a child with the slave Hagar, who gave birth to Ishmael. Near the end of his life, Schubert composed Miriam’s Victory based on a story from the Bible in which God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to return to their homeland. Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, celebrated when God closed up the sea, trapping and drowning Pharaoh and his army. Schubert composed the scene for soprano solo, chorus and piano. After Schubert’s death, several composers orchestrated it. In 1821 the Emperor had ennobled nine Jews, and he agreed that a new synagogue be built in Vienna, the first of its kind since 1671. Its cantor, Salomon Sulzer, felt that music by non-Jewish composers might be heard at the Friday night and Saturday services, and invited Schubert to compose for the new synagogue; thus Schubert’s setting of Psalm 92 Tov lehodos for the Sabbath, written just 4 months before his death. Schubert could have set it in German but chose instead to set it in Hebrew for a group of soloists alternating with a chorus and included a baritone solo for Sulzer. There is nothing like this in Schubert’s other choral music, and it is based on the tradition of the cantor singing melodies with a boy soprano and a bass on either side of him, who accompanied his melodies. It is clear that Schubert consulted Sulzer on matters of Hebrew accentuation and meaning. Schubert’s musical genius enabled him to be a link between different cultures and faiths. Referring to the beautiful lyricism of Schubert’s melodies, my teacher, Dr. Anthony LaMagra said: “Everything he wrote was a song.” Schubert had great difficulty earning income. Publishers were very hesitant to publish his music. In fact, he never got to hear much of it performed, and for decades after his death much of his music remained unpublished. What was published during his lifetime were mostly songs, waltzes, and marches because he wasn’t thought of as a serious composer, but rather as just a mere song composer. He actually composed over 600 songs. So his music was only known through his friends, followers, and high society, where people could play these compositions in their homes. In the cycle of 24 songs entitled Die Wintereise, The Winter Journey, Schubert created incomparable scenes of despair, heartbreak, violence, and numbness, in a landscape of snow, ice, and bitter wind. The great soprano, Lotte Lehmann, wrote about Die Wintereise: “The last 12 songs in the cycle show the gloom gathering about him, the infinite sadness which had taken hold of Schubert at the time he composed them.” In Schubert’s own words: “When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.” When Schubert completed Die Wintereise, he played and sang all of its 24 songs for his close friends. Their reaction was not enthusiastic. To that, he said “I like these songs more than all the rest and you will come to like them as well.” What’s tragic about Schubert is that he had great difficulty making a living. By the time people slowly began accepting him as a serious composer, he had contracted syphilis, and his final few years were filled with suffering from various physical ailments. At age 27 he wrote to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser: “I feel myself the most unfortunate, the most miserable being in the world. My peace is gone, my heart is heavy, I find it never, never more… Each night when I go to sleep I hope never again to wake, and each morning merely reminds me of the misery of yesterday. My affairs are going badly, so we never have any money. Now I close, so as not to use too much paper and I and kiss you a thousand times if you would write to me about your own enthusiasms and your life as well, nothing would more greatly please Your faithful friend Franz Schubert”. As his biographer, Maurice Brown wrote: “It is impossible to imagine the contentment and high spirits of the Octet born from this despairing mind.” The Octet and the letter were written in the same month! Schubert’s Octet is his longest chamber composition, lasting more than an hour! It was written for 2 violins, viola, cello, bass, French horn, bassoon and clarinet. One of the greatest songs ever written is An die Musik, To Music. It is Schubert’s setting of his friend, Franz von Schober’s poem, An die Musik. It’s an expression of gratitude to music! Lotte Lehmann was a great, legendary soprano, who sang so expressively, the Viennese called her “the singing soul”. She sang the world premieres of operas by Erich Korngold and Richard Strauss, and sang several times with Toscanini in New York and Salzburg. She wrote about An die Musik: “I always think of this song as a prayer, an expression of deep gratitude to music felt deeply at a time when there is so much suffering elsewhere.” A year before he died Schubert did some local traveling and mountain climbing with his friend Johann Jenger. They were guests at the homes of various friends. In a letter to one of his hosts, Schubert wrote: “I shall never forget the kindly shelter, where I spent the happiest days I have had for a long time.” Decades after his death Schubert’s music was eventually published and several composers and conductors have orchestrated his music for piano, songs, and chamber music.

Mstislav Rostropovich, affectionately known as Slava, (Glory) was born in 1927 in Azerbaijan. His father,  of Polish descent, was a cellist and had been a pupil of Pablo Casals. His mother, a Russian Jew, was a pianist. The earliest photo of him shows him lying in his father’s cello case, which served as his cot. As soon as he could walk he would seize a broom to imitate the gestures of his father playing the cello. Slava began composing at age 4, when he began studying the piano with his mother and began cello lessons with his father at age 8. He began his cello teaching career at 14. He attended the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied cello, piano, and conducting and his composition teacher was Dmitri Shostakovich. Rostropovich composed quite a bit until his 2nd year at the conservatory when he heard the 1st rehearsal of Shostakovich’s  8th Symphony. He was so impressed he decided to give up composition. In 1948 Stalin declared Kathaturian, Prokofiev and Shostakovich to be enemies of the people, resulting in the ban on their music, and Shostokovich losing his teaching positions at the conservatories in Leningrad and Moscow. The 21-year-old Rostropovich quit the conservatory, dropping out in protest. The persecution of Prokoviev and Shostakovich was so horrific that in 1951 neither composer had enough money for food. Rostropovich became a champion of both composers’ music. Rostropovich was a phenomenal virtuoso. At age 23 Rostropovich was the recipient of the highest award in the Soviet Union, the Stalin Prize. In 1955 he married the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, with whom he had two daughters. Any Western influences, even jeans were unavailable and prohibited in the former Soviet Union. When his daughters became teenagers, their mother had purchased them jeans on one of her foreign tours. Slava poured gasoline over them a set them on fire! Rostropovich made his U.S. cello debut in 1956. He was an extremely disciplined musician. He learned and memorized Shostakovich’s 1st Cello Concerto in just 3 days by practicing it 10 hours the 1st day, 10 hours the 2nd day and 8 hours the 3rd day! And his standards were incredibly high. He didn’t record Bach’s 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites until he was 63 because he hadn’t felt he was ready yet. Rostropovich was not only one of the greatest cellists that ever lived, he was also a conductor, and a fine pianist. He had a phenomenal memory, and was able to play all of his repertoire, even new compositions written especially for him in a record, short amount of time. In fact, he accompanied his wife, for 35 years, and he played all those performances from memory as well. She and his student Xavier Phillips explained that he had a way of singing on the cello. He became one of the most honored and treasured artists of the Soviet Union. But the recognition from the government didn’t come easily because he was not a Communist Party member. Slava greatly enlarged the cello repertoire exponentially by commissioning hundreds of new works for the cello. 243 cello compositions were written for him! Among the many composers who wrote cello compositions for him was Benjamin Britten, with whom he was great friends. On his deathbed, when Rostropovich listened to the recording he had made with Britten of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, he was moved to tears of joy. His former teacher and next-door neighbor, Dmitri Shostakovich, wrote 2 cello concertos for him. Rostropovich said of Shostakovich, “He was the most important man in my life, after my father. And 5 months before Rostropovich’s death he created the Shostakovich museum in St. Petersburg by purchasing the apartment where Shostakovich lived as a youth, and donated the museum to the city of St. Petersburg, with the stipulation that its archives be made available to scholars. Rostropovich made his conducting debut in 1961. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1962 novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, describes the life of a Soviet forced labor camp prisoner. In 1945 Solzhenitsyn had criticized Stalin in a letter, and was then arrested and spent 8 years in prisons and labor camps after which he spent three more years in enforced exile. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and helped raise global awareness of its forced labor camp system. In 1969 he was very ill and living in an unheated house. Rostropovich invited Solzhenitsyn to live in the empty caretaker’s apartment in his country home. S was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. Solzhenitsyn was ruthlessly persecuted. He was expelled from the writers’ union, and none of his other writings were published in Russia. Not only did Rostropovich take the courageous action of housing an enemy of the people, the country’s most famous dissident writer, he also fired off an angry, blistering letter to the media attacking the Soviet government’s censorship of the arts, suppression of ideas, and human rights abuses. And it was published by the foreign press. It reads in part: “Why do decisions about our literature and our art so often belong to people who are absolutely incompetent in these fields?…Each human being must have the right to think for himself and to express his opinion without fear.” Slava and Galina were then persecuted. Their passports were confiscated. Their home was put under 24-hour KGB surveillance. His foreign concert tours were cancelled and his performances in all major Russian cities were curtailed. Their home was put under 24 KGB surveillance. His name was removed from all programs and publications. His letters to Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, went unanswered. Virtually the only places he was allowed to perform were in remote parts of the Soviet Union. Rostropovich found his concerts canceled. People were told he was ill. His recordings were suppressed. His concerts in smaller provincial towns were canceled arbitrarily, even after he had arrived or while he was making his way to a town. Frequently there were no notices of his performances in the press and no posters were to be seen, and so he often played to practically empty halls. Sometimes his name disappeared altogether from concert programs, reviews and publicity. He said: “Many times Solzhenitsen told us maybe I go from your house to make life a little bit easier for you, but my wife and I could not accept this. I tell you, if you ask me what I made in my life the best step, I’ll tell you, that’s found in music, but in my life, the best step was only that one-page letter, and since that moment my conscience was clean and clear.” Solzhenitsen was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974. Galina: “It all happened as I predicted like reading from a book. They hurled him from great heights down to the ground. He was banned from playing in big halls. They simply didn’t give him halls to play in. He traveled only to small towns, playing with very bad orchestras. I watched him simply fading away. His shoulders were stooped. His back seemed hunched, Of course, it could have all ended very badly in catastrophe. In Russia you usually drown your sorrows in the bottle, become a vodka addict, and then…” Incredibly some of his musical colleagues began to question his musicianship, both as cellist and conductor. And even more incredibly, Rostropovich began to believe them. In March of 1974 at Galina’s instigation, Slava wrote to Brezhnev, requesting to work abroad for two years. Slava had become terribly depressed. His wife wrote: “He would go quietly into the kitchen and weep. That most intelligent of men, that brilliant artist…was tortured by the realization that they were letting him go so easily.” Just before he left, Slava was rehearsing a new production of Die Fledermaus in Moscow. As Galina remembered: “He was called into the office of the theatre’s artistic director: ‘You know, Slava, I must have a serious talk with you…We can’t let you conduct our orchestra…But, well…how can I put it to you gently? As a musician, you’ve degenerated much too much, and we simply can’t entrust you with a premiere for our theatre. Yes, yes–now don’t take offense–as a musician you’ve gone downhill.’ Slava had only strength enough to walk out of the theatre, cross the street, and hide in the first doorway, where he burst into sobs. Slava’s friends and students came to the airport to see him off…The send-off was more like a funeral.” He left with one suitcase, two cellos and his Newfoundland dog. His wife and daughters joined him two months later. The great irony is that after he was punished and censored in Russia, he settled in the U.S. and in 1977 was appointed chief conductor of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., a position he held for 17 years. When the orchestra went on strike for high wages, he joined the musicians, and wouldn’t cross the picket line. In 1978 Rostropovich and Galina were stripped of their Soviet citizenships. The exile lasted 16 years. It helped make him an international celebrity. In 1989, from his Paris apartment, Slava heard on the radio that crowds of demonstrators had gathered at the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. He immediately traveled there and played an impromptu performance of the Sarabande from Bach’s 2nd Cello Suite. He returned to Russia in 1990 conducting the National Symphony from Washington in Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony, one of the composer’s most tragic compositions, that depicts the terror of the Stalin regime. He also conducted Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony during that visit. When he learned about the attempted coup in August of 1991, he rushed to Moscow by immediately purchasing an airline ticket from Paris to Tokyo, which stopped in Moscow, because he didn’t have a visa. He got off the plane in Moscow and talked his way through passport control. The famous photo of the soldier asleep on Slava’s shoulder while Rostropovich held his rifle, has been published all over the world. In 1993 he returned to Russia with his National Symphony. His piano soloist for the tour was Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s son. Rostropovich conducted Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture in Red Square for an audience of 100,000 to commemorate the centennial of Tchaikovsky’s death. In 1992 he and Galina founded the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation, which led to more than 2 million children being immunized against hepatitis B. The foundation has provided medical equipment for children’s clinics in St. Petersburg, Orienburg and other villages and towns, and also developed a vaccination program for measles, mumps and rubella in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Lithuania. 1997 he founded the Rostropovich Foundation to provide scholarships and grants to hundreds of young Russian musicians of outstanding talent. Additionally, Rostropovich helped an enormous number of people, often quietly and anonymously. Rostropovich was an ambassador for UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He was the recipient of many honorary doctorate degrees, and more than 16 major awards from Russia, the International League of Human Rights, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and top awards and honors from Japan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Belgium, Hungary, Venezuela, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the U.S., Taiwan, Finland, France, Sweden, Ecuador, and Great Britain. The house in Baku Azerbaijan where his family lived in the 1920s is now the Leopold and Mstislav Rostropovich Home-Museum. He was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2006 and died peacefully, less than a year later at age 80.

Victor Borge was born as Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in 1909. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum, were both musicians. His father was a violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra for 35 years, and his mother was an accomplished pianist. Borge began piano lessons with his mother at the age of 2! It was soon apparent that he was a prodigy, giving his first piano recital when he was only eight. When he was 9 he was awarded a full scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music and later, studied in Vienna and Berlin. Among his teachers were Frederic Lamond, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and Egon Petri, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. Borge made his debut as soloist with the Copenhagen Philharmonic when he was 10. When his parents entertained with dinner parties and asked him to play for their guests, Borge would announce that he would play a work of Beethoven or Bach, but would actually play one of his own compositions in the style of Beethoven or Bach. Then he would secretly delight when a guest would exclaim “That’s my favorite Beethoven piece! I’ve never heard that piece played so well!” Although Borge’s piano playing was critically praised, he suffered from debilitating attacks of stage fright. To counteract this problem, Borge started engaging the audience in banter between pieces and presenting comedy routines. And this aspect of his performances came to overshadow his playing.In public recitals, he was a serious musician, but at school, in clubs, and at family gatherings he included humor in his entertainment. After years of study to become a classical concert pianist Borge discovered his flair for comedy and his ability to respect the music while skewering the pomposity that often characterizes the presentation of classical music. After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his stand-up comedy act, with a blend of piano music and jokes. Borge became one of the most successful nightclub acts in Denmark, as well as appearing in six films, commanding the highest salary of any Danish entertainer. Word spread, and by the time he was in his early 20s, Borge’s incredible sense of humor combined with his musical ability had established him as one of the leading film and stage personalities in Scandinavia. He married an American, Elsie Chilton. Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes. Borge, who was Jewish, often satirized Hitler. Borge was blacklisted because of his satirizing of Hitler and the Nazi party. Germany invaded Denmark in 1940. Fortunately, Borge was playing a concert in Sweden at the time, and he escaped with his wife and Scottish Terrier to Finland where they boarded the USS American Legion, which had been sent to evacuate Crown Princess Martha of Norway. The American Legion was the last neutral ship to leave Northern Europe. Disguised as a sailor, Borge managed to return to Denmark once during the Nazi occupation to visit his dying mother. Borge arrived in the U.S. with only $20. He learned English by going to the movies. For 15 cents he could watch a film three times and, by the third showing, would try to repeat every word. Translated into English, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience.Borge transformed his struggle with the English language into one of the most endearing parts of his act. In 1941, after failing to get a job pumping gas because his English wasn’t good enough, he changed his name to Victor Borge and began earning money playing piano at swanky parties in Hollywood. Rudy Vallee met him at one of these parties and invited him to be a warm-up performer for his radio show. Borge was soon hired by Bing Crosby for his radio program for a year-long run performing to 30 million Americans every week. Appearances in nightclubs, on concert stages, and on television followed. Borge won the title of “Best New Radio Performer” in 1942. Soon after he appeared in movies with stars such as Frank Sinatra. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1945. Beginning in 1946 he hosted the Victor Borge Show on NBC radio and appeared on television, especially with his own TV show, and in movies while performing his music comedy act around the world. He also appeared several times on Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan. Throughout his long career, Borge performed with many legendary performers including Dean Martin, Don Rickles, Mary Martin, Salvador Dali, Lucille Ball, and even Kermit the Frog. He became a United States citizen in 1948 and in 1953 starred on stage in the show Comedy and Music in New York which became the longest-running one-man show in history with 849 performances, a record which made the Guinness Book of World Records. For the next four decades there was never a theater season when the name Victor Borge didn’t light up a Broadway marquee. In 1960 he was the highest paid entertainer in the world. His musical sidekick in the 1960s was the pianist, Leonid Hambro. In 1968 the pianist Sahan Arzuni joined him as his straight man. He performed his famous Phonetic Punctuation routine for 60 years, but ‘Phonetic Punctuation’ wasn’t his. The original idea was penned by a Norwegian scriptwriter who eventually sued Borge over its copyright.  Starting in the 1950s, Borge owned a poultry business in Connecticut raising and popularizing Rock Cornish game hens. An expert skipper, Borge said, “With me, the three B’s are Bach, Beethoven, and Boats.” After he and his first wife divorced, he married Sarabel Sanna Scraper in 1953, and they remained married until her death, just 3 months before his own death in 2000. He appeared in the movies, Higher and Higher with Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, a cameo in The King of Comedy directed by Martin Scorsese with Robert DeNiro, Jerry Lewis, and Sandra Bernhard, The Story of Dr. Wassell directed by Cecil B. DeMille with Gary Cooper, and is the voice of Zenith in the animated film The Day Dreamer with Tallulah Bankhead and Patty Duke. Borge appeared often on television. He made several guest appearances on What’s My Line hosted by Groucho Marx. He appeared on The Electric Company, many times on Sesame Street and was a star guest on The Muppet Show. Borge was also in great demand as a guest on Fibber McGee and Molly, Jubilee, Mail Call and Command Performance. He has conducted the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Copenhagen Orchestra, and those of London, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Some orchestras actually had their seasons rescued by a Victor Borge appearance and by his special benefit performances. He is the author of three books: My Favorite Intermissions, My Favorite Comedies in Music, and his autobiography, The Smile is the Shortest Distance, which was only published in Danish. Borge helped start several charity funds. In 1963 he initiated the Thanks to Scandinavia scholarship fund for Scandinavian students in gratitude for the heroic deeds of the Scandinavians, who risked their lives to save thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. The multi-million dollar fund has already brought thousands of students and scientists to the United States and Israel from Scandinavian countries and Bulgaria for study and research. Borge served as its longtime National Chairman. In 1979 Borge founded the American Pianists Association, then called the Beethoven Foundation, to help young Americans enter international competitions and to provide a bridge from the academic to the international concert stage. It produces two major piano competitions. In memory of his parents, he established a special music scholarship, one of the highest study grants in Denmark. It is awarded each summer at a gala ceremony in the Concert Hall of the famous Tivoli Gardens. He also established scholarship grants at the annual Rebild July Fourth Festival in Denmark — a Danish celebration of U.S. independence — and he has given innumerable benefits to help worthy causes. During a career that spanned more than 70 years, Borge received numerous awards. Victor Borge Hall was opened in 2000 as part of the Scandinavia House, New York City’s center for Nordic culture. Victor Borge Square in Copenhagen was created in 2002. A statue was erected there in 2009, and Asteroid 5634 Victorborge is named in his honor. His life was celebrated by the American Scandinavian Foundation in 2009, and a TV special entitled 100 Years of Music and Laughter was broadcast on PBS.  He has been knighted by Iceland, Norway Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, and was honored by both the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. He received an honorary membership from the Royal Danish Orchestra, and honorary degrees from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Butler University, Dana College, the Univ. of Connecticut, and Luther College. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Order of the Dannebrog from Denmark, the Order of Vasa from Sweden, the Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav from Norway, the Order of the White Rose from Finland, and the Order of the Falcon from Iceland, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Affectionately known as “The Great Dane,” Mr. Borge was an ambassador of goodwill for both his native Denmark and his adopted America. Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year at age 90. He died peacefully in his sleep in 2000, in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 91 after more than 75 years of entertaining. In accordance with his wishes, Borge’s ashes are divided between the Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the Western Jewish Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark. Borge fathered five children, 2 with his first wife: Ronald Borge and Janet Crowle, and with his second wife: Sanna Feirstein, Victor Bernhard Jr., and Frederikke  Borge. His son, Ronald, occasionally performed with him onstage. At the time of his death in 2000, Borge left behind nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Borge always said that a smile is the shortest distance between people.   

Robert Shaw was born in 1916, and died in 1999. He was one of the greatest and underestimated conductors of the 20th century. He commissioned and gave the world premieres of compositions by Hindemith and Copland, and was a champion of the choral music of Bartok, Britten and Poulenc. Despite his innate enormous talent, Shaw had no formal musical training. But he hired a great teacher, to tutor him for several years – Julius Herford, a German Jew living in exile in the U.S., having fled the Nazis. When Shaw was just 29, Arturo Toscanini heard Shaw conduct Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, after which the elderly maestro kissed Shaw on both cheeks, and in tears said, “I have been conducting this music for 50 years. This is the first time I heard it truly sung as it should be.” For the remainder of his career, whenever Toscanini scheduled a composition with chorus, he called Shaw. And not just Toscanini. It seems that everyone wanted Shaw to prepare their choruses, including Stravinsky. Koussevitsky invited him to head the choral program at Tanglewood, and William Schumann appointed him to be in charge of the choral department at Juilliard. He was the founder and conductor of the Robert Shaw Chorale, a group of young professional singers, with which he made many, many recordings, and with which he toured throughout the United States, Latin America, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Russia. For 11 years, Shaw was the associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, and for 21 years, was the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus, which he built into first-rate ensembles, and with whom he won 14 Grammy awards! Atlanta even constructed an entire performing arts center for Shaw. Requiems consist of prayers for the dead, set to music by many composers through the centuries.    Robert Shaw had an affinity with choral music, for Johannes Brahms, and especially for his Requiem. He conducted it more than 100 times! Shaw first conducted it in 1942, and continued conducting it with many different choruses and orchestras for the next 57 years – until the final year of his life. In 1947, he conducted the first recording made in the U.S. of the Requiem, and he re-recorded it with his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 1983. In fact, as a young, budding conductor, I was his personal guest in Atlanta for the rehearsals, performances and recording sessions that week, and it was a unique, amazing experience. I have been studying Shaw’s numerous writings on the Requiem, his recordings from 1947 and 1983, and recordings of performances he gave with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in 1990, and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 1992. In the last year of his life, Shaw created his own singable English translation of Brahms’s Requiem, which he was scheduled to record with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Utah Symphony. However, he died a few weeks before, and one of his proteges, Craig Jessop, conducted what turned out to be a beautiful recording. Johannes Brahms was worried about the increasing nationalism, and in 1895 declared to his friends in Vienna: “Anti-Semitism is madness; it is so despicable to me.” The English translation of the original title is A German Requiem, To the Words of the Holy Scriptures. In the words of Brahms: “I must confess that I would gladly prefer to dispense with the term “German”, and simply substitute the word “mankind” instead.” Cory Wikam, in his doctoral dissertation on Shaw and Brahms’s Requiem wrote: “Brahms stated that it was for all humankind. It’s a setting of biblical texts that Brahms selected without regard to any established liturgy. Brahms wishes to address all people, whether Protestant, Catholic or also Jewish, in his avoidance of the name of Jesus Christ, which does not appear at all in the piece, and Brahms also strictly avoided using any scripture that dealt with Christian dogma.” The only reason the Requiem is in German is because Brahms’s bible was a German translation from the original Greek and Hebrew by Martin Luther, and he composed the Requiem in the living language of his time and society. Brahms knew the Bible very well. It contains countless markings and comments in his handwriting. His Requiem derives from 16 passages of scripture. And as a child, Shaw had memorized most of the texts selected by Brahms. Shaw wrote: “Brahms primarily addresses those who are in mourning. From the Robert Shaw Reader, by Robert Blocker: “He referred to it as a human Requiem because he was writing in exploration of a universal human experience. He was more concerned with comforting the hearts of those left to mourn rather than with escorting the departed through the medieval horrors of wrath and judgment. Rather than setting the traditional prayers for the safe journey of the souls of the departed to their heavenly rest, he was concerned with bringing some degree of comfort to the sorrowing who remain.” The conductor Robert Summer wrote that “many of the movements of this Requiem speak of a secure and blissful eternity, and of a resting from the struggles of life in the dwelling place of god. The overall textual and philosophical emphasis is upon man’s acceptance of death which leads to triumph over death. In a letter to his friend Reinthaler, Brahms admitted that he would have preferred calling the work A Human Requiem rather than A German Requiem—a Requiem for all humankind.” Brahms composed it when he was in his early 30s. The death of composer, Robert Schumann, and the death of Brahms’s mother in 1865 may have influenced Brahms’s decision to compose a Requiem. Lasting approximately 75 minutes, it is his longest composition. It consists of 7 movements, or sections. It was written mostly between 1865 and 1866. The central theme of Brahms’s Requiem is: Blessed Are The Living. Because the first movement is about mourning and grieving, Brahms did not include violins in the first movement. It begins with double basses, 2 French horns, violas and cellos. Shaw said that “the way we learn about Brahms’s feelings about the words he chose from scripture is by learning to speak his language as perfectly and as trustingly as we can.” By learning to speak his language, Shaw meant that by accurately performing Brahms’s music, including the notes, pitches, rhythms, dynamics, and speeds exactly as he composed them, we could – through his music – ascertain how he felt about the texts he chose for the Requiem. Wikam wrote: “In addressing his chorus Shaw wrote: ‘As artists – and as human beings – our concern is not with how we feel about death or the textual imagery of the Human Requiem, but how Brahms felt about these things. We have to believe that Brahms has something to say. We have to recognize that we are his voice. We have to realize that he speaks in terms of intonation and tone colors and rhythms, and that we are privileged to be truly the sound of his mind.’” Shaw spoke to his choruses about Brahms’s emphasis on consoling the living, and cautions the chorus members not to color their singing with their own religious beliefs, but to sing what Brahms wrote as accurately as possible, to let Brahms’s beliefs be known through his music. In the second movement, what begins as a death march becomes the victorious march of the redeemed into eternity. The words are from Isaiah: “They shall return with singing unto Zion, coming rejoicing, joyful. Joy everlasting shall crown their heads forever more.” “The grass withers and the flower falls. But the word of God remains.” The second movement starts with these words: “For all flesh is like grass and all the glory of man is like the grass’s flowers. The grass is withered and the flower has fallen off.” This is a metaphor for the life and death of human beings. Brahms set these words to music, first quietly and then very loudly. The 2nd movement contains these words from Isaiah: “They shall possess joy and bliss, and pain and sighing will have to go away.” In the 4th movement, the tenors sing from Psalms: “How lovely are your dwellings, Lord Zabaoth.” The fifth movement contains an ethereal soprano solo. This was the last section Brahms composed, undoubtedly influenced by the recent death of his mother. “You now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice.” The conductor, Helmuth Rilling wrote: “The words are from Isaiah and Sirach: ‘Yea, I will comfort you, as one whom his own mother comforteth… I will see you again.’ These are the most personal words of the Requiem…The most intimate realm of human relationship is being addressed here. She speaks with the voice of a person who has just passed away speaking of the sorrow which her death caused. And then she says ‘but I will see you again’. She sings of the comfort and hope of another world in a very high register. It is Brahms’s vision of a mother who bids farewell in a very personal way.” In choosing these words “For a short time I had labor and sorrow, and have found great consolation”, Brahms may very well have had his own mother in mind, who had recently died, when he composed this. In the 6th movement, the chorus sings about God’s triumph over human death. It ends with a glorious fugue singing God’s praises. The words of the last movement are “Blessed are the dead. Though they rest from their labors,  their works follow after them.” Rilling wrote: “The music describes the cheerfulness of Brahms’s conception of the future enraptured life of the deceased. Brahms conveys a transcendental vision of eternal life and seems to experience the words as a reality full of hope.”  

Jascha Heifetz was born in Lithuania in 1901. At age 3 his father, who was also a violinist, began giving him violin lessons. For many years his father was very, very strict and very critical. He was soon enrolled in the local music academy. The only non-music school he ever attended was the shul. Heifetz studied Hebrew to please his grandfather, who was a rabbi. At one time he could read Hebrew script. At age 6 he performed the Mendelssohn concerto in public. Starting at age 7 he became the breadwinner for his family, who exploited him. As a child prodigy, Heifetz led a sheltered life and grew up on stage instead of among other children. He could do anything he wanted without interference from his parents as long as he practiced to their satisfaction. When he wanted to play after practicing his mother always told him it was not good enough. This became so instilled in him that he told himself it was not good enough millions of times during his life while he practiced. He said: “When I play a piece well I always hope that tomorrow I will play it even better.” At age 9 he moved to St. Petersburg to study with Leopold Auer. There, Jews were confined to ghettos and had to ask for permission to stay within the city gates overnight. In 1917 he made a phenomenally successful Carnegie Hall debut and went on to play in almost every major city in the world. During World War 2 he gave hundreds and hundreds of concerts to the troops all over the world. Heifetz very, very rarely canceled  performances. He was very professional about it unlike Horowitz.  He made several tours of Israel. In 1928 he married Florence Vidor a silent film actress with whom he had two children. In 1947 he married Frances Spielberger with whom he had a son. They were divorced in 1962. Heifetz was very self-critical. When he heard his own records he would invariably comment “too fast.” At age 20 as he became incredibly famous and successful, a music critic wrote about a lack of depth that had begun to creep into his playing. It was the first serious criticism he ever had encountered and it came as a terrible shock. The review thoroughly crushed him and he considered committing suicide. He later wrote the critic a letter of gratitude for bringing him to his senses. Heifetz wanted his playing to be exciting not just beautiful and he watched his audience for the slightest sign that their attention was starting to wane. Heifetz said: “You have to be convinced that whatever you are playing is the greatest piece in the world.” His near-perfect technique and conservative stage demeanor with a minimum of physical gestures created the illusion that his playing was cold. He was actually quite a passionate musician. In fact in his last years he sometimes cried when he made music with his assistant, becoming a little embarrassed about his emotional display. By the 1960s Heifetz pretty much stopped concertizing and spent the last 25 years of his life teaching master classes in Los Angeles. His assistants for the master classes were required to help his students with their financial situations, housing, health problems, and any problems with the United States immigration service concerning student visas and their extensions. They had to help the students with clothing, better food, personal appearance and family problems so that the students could give total dedication to the master classes. The students were not allowed to take courses at the university. They were not allowed to have jobs playing in orchestras nor film studios. For those in financial need, he established two foundations, from which he distributed funds to them without fanfare. Heifetz hated competitions and strictly forbade his students to enter them. “Why would you want to go to a competition? Who will be judging you? And what are THEIR qualifications?” Heifetz began all his concerts with the thought that every performance happens only once. He taught that one should play each performance truly as if one’s life depended on it. If a student was too intellectual and delivered a calculated, cold performance, his favorite statement was “It was wonderful but I didn’t feel anything.” He said “Try not to express your emotions through external means but convey them through your music and let the audience emote.” In a master class on the Finale of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto Heifetz admonished the student to use more of the bow. He said “I assure you that it takes the nerves of a bullfighter the digestion of a peasant the vitality of a night club hostess the tact of a diplomat and the concentration of a Tibetan monk to lead the strenuous life of a virtuoso.” Heifetz had a very complex personality. If someone disagreed with him he interpreted it as a personal rejection. Heifetz was active in the creation of the emergency telephone number 911. In the 60s Heifetz became very concerned about the air pollution in L.A. So he got the idea of converting his car into a battery-driven car, which he spent a fortune on, designing and commissioning. It was the first passenger car like it on the West Coast. It was his contribution to fighting the smog, as he put it “so we can breathe the air, that I think we are entitled to”. It didn’t work too well though, so it remained in his garage! His home in Beverly Hills was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son. He also owned a beach house in Malibu. And as prices increased, he wrote the words “under protest” on the checks he wrote out for the utility and tax bills. And when his property taxes were increased he refused to pay them. He considered property taxes to be against the principles of the Constitution. City Hall put a lien on his property that eventually figured into the settlement of his estate. Ayke Agus studied both violin and piano with Heifetz, was his assistant for the master classes, and in his last years served as his private accompanist and assistant. She wrote that he invited himself for dinner once or twice a week, dictated the time and sometimes the menu. He thought he had a natural gift for interior decorating and insisted that she and her husband should change their furniture around according to his specifications. With Heifetz no one was allowed to discuss politics, religion, nor music! She wrote that in the last years he was frequently depressed, that his mind created groundless suspicions and there were several incidents of near insanity. He said: “I occasionally play works by contemporary composers for two reasons first to discourage the composer from writing anymore and second to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.”  He made 150 transcriptions for violin and piano of short pieces which he liked to call “itsy bitsys”. Many of them were favorite encore pieces. He died in 1987 when he was 86 from a blood clot on his brain followed by a stroke. In his entire career, he only had 1 memory lapse. He was able to continue playing very well even in his 80s. He was the highest-paid violinist of his time, and holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest-ever release devoted to the work of a single instrumentalist 103 CDs.

Watch video: https://youtu.be/AWOWQ_Hhhl0 Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3rd, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany. His mother was Leah Solomon, whose grandfather was one of the most affluent citizens of Berlin as the financial advisor to King Friedrich II of Prussia. Felix’s father was Abraham Mendelssohn, a successful banker. Abraham’s father was the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who was the preeminent Jewish philosopher of the German Enlightenment. He was nicknamed the Jewish Luther, who fought against anti-Semitism in eighteenth-century Prussia. He was a reformer and was nicknamed the father of the Jewish enlightenment, the Haskalah. The family left Hamburg in disguise fearing punishment for the role of the Mendelssohn bank in breaking Napoleon’s continental system blockade. Felix was the second of four children his older sister Fanny was also a brilliant musical prodigy. Felix began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six and made his first public performance as a pianist at the age of 9. Mendelssohn was an incredibly prolific composer of more than 750 compositions. A scholarly edition of all his music totals more than 150 volumes! As an adolescent many of his compositions were performed at home by a private Orchestra for the intellectual Elite of Berlin who were the wealthy friends of his parents. He wrote 12 Symphonies for string orchestra between ages 12 and 14! When he was just 16 he wrote The magnificent Octet for Strings. At age 12 Felix met and played for the legendary writer Goethe who considered Felix’s playing miraculous and compared him to the young Mozart. The two met on several subsequent occasions and Mendelssohn instructed Goethe in music history and even set some of Goethe’s poems to music. At age 17 Mendelssohn began studying at the Humboldt University of Berlin. At 14, his grandmother gifted him a copy of the manuscript of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, which, together with Bach’s Mass in B minor, is considered by many to be the pinnacle not only of Bach’s music, but one of the greatest creations of civilization! When he was just 20 Mendelssohn produced and conducted 3 very successful performances of the St. Matthew passion. Much of Bach’s music had been forgotten after the composer’s death in 1750. This performance marked the first time the work had ever been heard outside of Leipzig. It sparked the Revival of Bach’s music in Germany and eventually throughout Europe and earned Felix widespread acclaim. In Mendelssohn’s own words “To think that it took the son of a Jew to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!” From age 20, M had a busy career as a conductor. His conducting was praised by Hector Berlioz. And one of his innovations as a conductor was his use of a baton. Mendelssohn was a wonderful visual artist. He worked in pencil and watercolor throughout his life. And he wrote many witty letters in German and English, sometimes including humorous sketches and cartoons. Due to the pressures in society with the growing popularity of nationalism and the Prussian reform movement, Felix’s father, Abraham decided to convert to Christianity and to have his children baptized. There was tremendous resistance to the idea of German Jews wanting to succeed in fields other than commerce and finance. Mendelssohn’s great, biblical oratorio Elijah was composed within the context of the emergence of German national identity. The scholar, Jeffrey Sposato wrote this about Mendelssohn: “While under his father’s watchful eye he tried to distance himself from Judaism, often incorporating anti-Semitic imagery into his oratorio texts. But when his father was no longer in the picture he worked to find ways to celebrate his Christian faith in his music without denigrating the Jews in the process.“ Mendelssohn was proud of his Jewish heritage and was especially proud of his grandfather, Moses. In fact, he strongly advocated for the publication of the complete writings of his grandfather. At age 24 he landed his first professional appointment, that of music director of the city of Dusseldorf. While there Mendelssohn conducted a performance of Handel’s oratorio, Israel in Egypt. This led to a revival of Handel’s music in Germany. In fact based on his careful study of the original manuscripts, he edited for publication the first scholarly edition of Handel’s oratorios as well as Bach’s organ music. After 2 years in Dusseldorf, Mendelssohn became the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, which was founded in 1743. He insisted on a high standard of orchestral playing and he also fought for increases in the musicians’ salaries. While in Leipzig, Mendelssohn worked with several of the city’s choral and musical institutions, including the St. Thomas boys choir, of which Bach himself had once been the director. At age 28 he married Cecile and they had 5 children, none of whom were musicians. Cecile died 6 years after her Felix. Mendelssohn was a virtuoso pianist and organist. He concertized throughout his career, and especially championed the music of Beethoven, and von Weber. His performances of Bach’s organ music ignited an appreciation for Bach, who died 59 years before Mendelssohn was born, and whose music had become pretty much forgotten until Mendelssohn began to perform it. And Mendelssohn had a reputation for being an amazing improviser at the keyboard. During Mendelssohn’s time in Leipzig, Wagner sent him his new symphony, which M misplaced. However 11 years after Schubert’s death he conducted the world premiere of Schubert’s 9th Symphony. In 1843 Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory, which is now named after him, and he invited the violinist Joseph Joachim and the composer Robert Schumann to join him on the faculty. And he conducted the world premieres of Schumann’s 1st two symphonies and his piano concerto. Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor prompted Schumann to proclaim: “Mendelssohn is the Mozart of the 19th century.” He was somewhat friendly with Berlioz and Liszt, but considered Liszt’s compositions to be inferior to his playing. And of Berlioz’s Les Francs-Juges overture, he criticized the orchestration and wrote that one ought to wash one’s hands after handling his music! Though he did help with the preparation of Berlioz’s successful concerts in Leipzig. He was a distant cousin to another great, Jewish composer of the 19th century, Giacomo Meyerbeer. When a friend suggested that he and Meyerbeer looked somewhat alike, Felix immediately went to have his hair cut to do away with the resemblance! In 1847 his sister Fanny died. His 6th string quartet was composed as a ‘Requiem for Fanny’. In it one can hear Mendelssohn’s grief, pain, despair and yearning for his sister. Mendelssohn was a very excitable man. On one occasion he became so agitated that he began speaking incoherently, and sometimes would collapse during his fits of temper. 6 months after his sister’s death, Mendelssohn died after a series of strokes. He was just 38 years old. He is buried in Berlin. Mendelssohn died in 1847 and the disgusting anti-Jewish fever that strengthened throughout the 19th century, inhibited the spread of his great music, this despite the enthusiastic praise from von Bulow, Brahms and Max Reger. In 1936 the Nazis banned the publication, performance and broadcasting of Mendelssohn’s music and even asked German composers to rewrite the music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Later that year, precisely in reaction to this, Toscanini inaugurated what is now the Israel Philharmonic, and conducted the Nocturne and Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. When it came to composing, Mendelssohn had incredibly high standards. It took him 13 years to compose and revise his 3rd symphony, known as the Scottish Symphony. And he didn’t permit the publication of his 4th Symphony, nor his 5th symphony, because he was not satisfied with either one of them. In 1934 the Nazis stopped the Mendelssohn scholarship at the Leipzig conservatory. It was reinstated in 1963.  And they destroyed the monuments to Mendelssohn in Leipzig and Dusseldorf in 1936. They were eventually replaced several years ago.  

Once known as the “Black Caruso,” during his 60–year career, Roland Hayes packed concert halls all over Europe, South America, and the United States. At the height of his popularity, he sold out famous venues such as Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Constitution Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Covent Garden and Wigmore Hall in London, and the Hollywood Bowl. He was the first African American musician to perform with a major symphony orchestra in the U.S. He sang for crowned heads of Europe, prime ministers, presidents, and other heads of state. His trail-blazing career carved the path for Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Todd Duncan, Dorothy Maynor, and many others. He was also one of the first concert artists to program spirituals on his recitals. Roland Hayes was born in 1887 in Curryville, Georgia, where his mother, Fannie, had once been enslaved. When Roland was 11, his father died, which resulted in his mother becoming a single parent. She then moved the family to Chattanooga, TN. With his brother Robert, Roland began singing in the Silver-Toned Quartet for nickels, dimes and quarters. At 14, Roland, who only went as far as 5th grade, began working in a metal foundry. One day he got pulled into the machinery by the conveyor belt, and he was brought home in a full–body cast. It took 10 weeks to recuperate. “I could not understand how I had come out of it alive. I quite simply believed that my escape was miraculous. God had spared me, I thought, to work out in me some mission. I have never entirely lost since that time the feeling that I have had a heavenly vocation to fulfill, although I did not know then that I should make a ministry of music.” Hayes began taking two voice lessons a week with organist and choir director, W. Arthur Calhoun. He played young Roland the recordings of Nellie Melba and other great singers, but when he heard a recording of Enrico Caruso singing I Pagliacci, Hayes said: “That opened the heavens for me. The voice of Caruso seemed to me to come from some remote and inaccessible heaven where a kind of light shone. My dormant senses were awakened by Caruso’s matchless tones.” Caruso’s influence is quite evident in his recording of I Pagliacci from 1918. Roland’s decision to become a great singer became his life’s work, and from that point on, he pursued it with missionary zeal. However, Roland’s mother wanted him to become a preacher. She was opposed to his musical aspirations and said: “They tell me Negroes can’t understand good music, and white folks don’t want to hear it from us. So it seems to me you are making a mistake.” Nevertheless, in 1905 – at age 18 – he left home with $50 of his savings and went to Nashville, TN, where he became a student of Jennie Robinson, the head of the music department at Fisk University. While there, Roland worked odd domestic jobs, and formed another vocal quartet to earn extra money. Miss Robinson didn’t approve of his singing outside of school, and after 4 years, kicked him out of Fisk. Roland then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked as a waiter, and did some singing at private dinners and at movie theatres for silent films. He also sang with the Jubilee Singers, who toured extensively in the U.S. and Great Britain to raise money for a new campus for Fisk University. When the group performed in Boston, Roland decided to stay in Boston. While there, he auditioned for 5 voice teachers. Each of them believed that it would be impossible for a Black man to be accepted as a serious artist. “I was determined not to be permanently put down.” He began voice lessons with Arthur Hubbard. However, the lessons took place at Hubbard’s home in the suburbs to avoid embarrassment if Roland were to be seen in his teacher’s studio by his white pupils, many of whom were from the South. While studying voice, Hayes worked as a page boy for the John Hancock Insurance Co., and moved his mother from Chattanooga to live with him in Boston. In 1912, Roland met the baritone and composer, Harry T. Burleigh. They formed a successful vocal quartet that sang in Carnegie Hall at a concert attended by former president Teddy Roosevelt. Roland also sang at various churches, and in 1914, made a concert tour of several Southern states. He also formed the Hayes Trio with William Richardson and William Lawrence, and they toured Pennsylvania’s Chautauqua circuit. Because of racism, Roland couldn’t get a manager, so he continued advertising his services and sang many concert tours, but always lost money after paying the rental fees for the venues, and the fees for his pianists and other performers he appeared with. Finally, Hayes decided to sing a big concert in Boston in 1917, and to rent Symphony Hall, home of the Boston Symphony with a seating capacity of 2,600! This was against the advice of his teacher and most of his friends. In fact, when he asked the wife of the governor of Massachusetts to be a backer, she refused, saying: “I cannot let my name be attached to an enterprise which is bound to be a failure before it begins.”  A music critic wrote negatively about the plan, which resulted in protests from Boston’s music-loving public. Hayes hired a secretary to compile a mailing list of 3,000 people to send flyers to, and Hayes actually used a telephone directory, from which he chose names at random to call and promote the performance to. Roland spent the next 2 years giving concert tours throughout the U.S. to raise the money for the performance. He paid the hall’s $400 rental fee well in advance, saying: “Nothing now could stop me from doing as I pleased.” The result was that the concert was completely sold out, and several hundred people had to be turned away at the door. No record label would give him a contract, so he hired Columbia Graphophone Co., renting their studios and hiring their technicians to create his own recordings, which he then advertised and distributed himself. In 1917 Hayes brought his mother along on a transcontinental tour of the U.S. with the pianist, Lawrence Brown, who later became Paul Robeson’s pianist. The tour lost money, but undeterred, they made another tour the following year. Since no manager would take on a Black artist, Roland negotiated the contracts, and managed all of the promotion and his performance fee collections in each city himself. And he had difficulty getting paid for some of the concerts, which led him to <demand in future contracts that he was to be paid in advance of each performance. In the spiritual Deep River, the words “I want to cross over campground”, over the Jordan River, is a metaphor for the enslaved people in the United States crossing the Ohio River to freedom in the North. In 1920, at age 32, Hayes and Lawrence Brown departed for London. There, he continued managing his own performances, which consistently lost money. After his first important recital at London’s Aeolian Hall, one reviewer wrote that it was “a sacrilege that a black man should sing the love songs of white people.” Roland then decided to give a performance at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. By then, he had secured British managers, but he still had to pay to rent the hall. On the day of the concert, Hayes came down with pneumonia and was running a high fever. His doctor ordered him to cancel the performance, but he refused. Upon arrival at the venue, he was so weak that he had to be carried up the stairs. He wrote about the beginning of the performance: “As I sang, strength came. Perspiration fell from me almost like rain. I sweated out all the pneumonia. At the end of the first group of songs, I walked off the stage alone like a man in a trance. When I returned to the stage for the second group, I had no feeling of sickness or infirmity.” Hayes met the chaplain of the Royal Chapel of the Savoy, who invited a representative from Buckingham Palace to hear one of Roland’s performances. When he sang an unaccompanied rendition of the spiritual “Were You There?”, several of the listeners began to weep. In fact, René Vautier, a French film director, sculpted a bust of Roland with his eyes shut, from a photo taken during this performance. He soon was called upon to give a command performance for the king and queen of England, which led to his associations with Lady Astor, the composer Sir Edward Elgar, and the soprano, Nellie Melba. Hayes was quickly becoming a sensation among the elite. Nellie Melba was ecstatic when she heard Hayes sing “Una furtiva lagrima” from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Roland continued to study, taking lessons from Amanda Aldridge, a pupil of the legendary Jenny Lind, and who was the daughter of the Shakespearean actor, Ira Aldridge. Roland also began studying with George Henschel, a pupil of Brahms, and the founder and first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In Paris, Roland Hayes sang for the rich and famous of Parisian society. He was hosted by, and had the patronage of the Rothschilds, princesses, dukes, duchesses, countesses and baronesses. And he was coached by Gabriel Fauré on the composer’s songs. In Vienna, Roland was coached in the Viennese tradition by Theodore Lierhammer. One Viennese reviewer wrote: “No German could sing Schubert with more serious or unselfish surrender.” Another one wrote: “Do not imagine that it is sufficient to be white to become an artist. Try first to sing as well as this black man did.” This led Roland to write: “I am persuaded that the spirit’s choice of my body to inhabit, has some specific purpose. I am Black for some high purpose in the mind of the spirit. I must work that purpose out.” In 1923, Roland’s mother Fannie died. His mother had repeatedly insisted that he sing with clearly intelligible diction and enunciation. And just in case it wasn’t perfect, he had the lyrics to each song printed in the concert program booklets. Among the last things she wrote to her son was: “Don’t sing yourself out. Stay in bound of reason and don’t let the folks cheer you to death.” Her last words to him were: “Remember this, you are a continuation of my desire. I have always prayed the good Lord that I might do something good through some of my children. Now you go on, remember who you are and reference your heritage.” Roland was unable to attend her funeral, but he requested that his recording of Sit Down be played at the service. As Hayes’s biographer, Dr. Christopher A. Brooks, wrote: “It was Fannie, after all, who had taught the song to her son. Knowing of his mother’s enslaved background, combined with her personal sacrifices, struggles, and losses, Roland saw the repeated phrases throughout the spiritual, ‘Sit down and rest a little while’, as a metaphor for her life. The final phrase, ‘Oh Hallelujah, in my kingdom’ was an equally meaningful metaphor for Fannie Hayes’s death.” Roland returned to Boston near the end of 1923, and became the first African American soloist to appear with a major American orchestra in 3 performances with the Boston Symphony conducted by Pierre Monteux. Hayes now had professional management. He began traveling with a personal assistant, and in the 1920’s was earning 6 figures a year. Not long after the death of his mother, Roland met Countess Bertha Colloredo-Mansfeld in Prague. Starting in 1924, Hayes and the countess began exchanging increasingly passionate letters. She was married with four sons, but fell hopelessly in love with Roland. He wrote: “In preparation for my visits, she would assemble a bibliography of whatever composer we had nominated for studying. She would present me with shelves of books and stacks of music to research and study. I found it so exciting to spend long weeks working together. We read the definitive biographies, and sang and played the music in chronological sequence. We read Goethe, Schiller, and Bismarck for background. In such a way, year after year, we went through Bach, Handel and Mozart, Schubert and Schumann, Beethoven, Brahms and Hugo Wolf, and then the early Italian masters, such as Caccini, Peri, Monteverdi, Lulli, Galuppi, and others.” For 6 years she guided him through the study of composers’ lives and their music. And she accompanied him at the piano as they studied. In letters to the countess, he called her “my revealer of wonders, my guiding star, my divine, my comfort. Oh! What bliss as we work side by side. My being cries out for the safe pillow of your presence.” About the countess, Dr. Brooks wrote: “She believed he was a genius and the representation of the very best of the Black race. For her, having a child with the tenor meant bringing about the blending of the two races, which would enhance, and perhaps save, humanity.” And in fact, they did have a child, a daughter named Maya, who had 6 children of her own. In 1924 Roland made his Berlin debut at the Beethoven Hall. Ads for the upcoming concert were placed in German newspapers featuring his photo, announcing that he would be singing songs of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and Wolf. The Berliners could only associate Black musicians with jazz, and letters to newspaper editors were published denouncing the upcoming performance as a sacrilege. One newspaper called the event scandalous, and stated that the best Hayes could do would be to remind them of the cotton fields of Georgia.” The 1,000 seat Beethoven Hall was sold out, and when Hayes came out on stage, people began to boo and hiss at him. He believed that the demonstration was caused by the Nazi Party. Roland stood there with his eyes closed for several minutes, and then offered this prayer: “God, please blot out Roland Hayes so that the people will see only Thee.” Eventually there was silence. Then Roland and Lawrence Brown performed Schubert’s song, Du bist die Ruh (You are Repose/Peace). When they finished, the audience leapt to their feet, cheering and stomping! Singing the music of their beloved Schubert, Roland put the snobbish Germans in their place. Hayes wrote: “The critical world may have found me perplexing, but said that I had a new kind of vocal instrument, with its own individual color. It meant so much to me to read that I had made the spirituals sound ‘almost as though they have been written by a great master.’” Hearing Roland Hayes sing the spiritual Swing Low Sweet Chariot is a perfect illustration of this. The chariot is a heavenly vehicle to transport people to their home in heaven. But its coded message is a metaphor for abolitionists to come to the South and bring enslaved people home to freedom in the North or to Africa. In 1948, Roland’s book of spirituals was published. Its original title was My Songs: Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged and Interpreted by Roland Hayes. In 2001, it was republished as My Favorite Spirituals: 30 Songs for Voice and Piano Arranged and Interpreted by Roland Hayes. In contains the sheet music to Haye’s arrangements of 30 spirituals, and Roland’s essays on each of them. Dr. Brooks wrote: “He used the term Aframerican in the forward because he saw the term Negro as a misnomer and believed that Aframerican better reflected those Africans transplanted to the United States.” Hayes wrote about his experience with spirituals as a boy: “It became my duty in the church to learn new songs and teach them to the congregation. It was in this oral fashion that the spirituals were handed down amongst Negroes everywhere, and thus they have traveled all over the South. “The slave composers were moved by the same fiery spirit that inspired Bach and Schubert. It is their rare combination of art and spirituality that makes for great music. They approached their God humbly. Even in their music they did not dare to speak to him directly. They spoke to him in quiet melodies adorned with hundreds of delicate little turns which were a part of their instinctive modesty in the presence of the divine spirit they venerated. In such a way they asked for deliverance from their sufferings and peace at the last.” In 1926, Roland traveled back to his ancestral home in Georgia, where his mother had been enslaved. There he met with the elderly Joe Mann, the former owner of his ancestors, who was now poverty– stricken and in failing health. Roland informed the old man that he had purchased the 600 acres of land where his mother, her immediate family, and her ancestors had once been held in bondage, and welcomed Mann and his sickly wife to stay on his land as non-paying residents. The son of the once enslaved mother would become the master of her former captor. However, before Roland could formally take possession of the land, Joe Mann and his wife died. Hayes envisioned the property not only as a functioning farm, but as an artists’ colony. He had a friend create an architectural design that included dormitories, classrooms, a museum, a small hospital, a performing venue, and an elaborate garden for reflection and solitude. He also asked an architect to design a school and an Egyptian–style building to be dedicated to the memory of his mother. Hayes wrote: “I wanted to invite promising Negro boys and girls, painters and poets and musicians to my farm in Georgia, where they could be tested for vocation: exposed to the arts in native and imported forms, and trained in the direction of their several propensities. I thought of making my house in Boston a kind of hostel to which boys and girls from the South could go for their intermediate education. After that, my villa in France was to have been open to the cream of the crop, those young people whose early promise had begun to be realized in Boston.” And he invited the preeminent African American scientist and inventor, George Washington Carver, to visit the farm. Carver responded that Hayes was doing God’s work for humanity: “What you are doing, my beloved friend, is bigger than one race. It is a contribution to all mankind. My prayers will follow you all the way wherever you go.” And he signed it: “Yours with genuine love and admiration, G.W. Carver”. Unfortunately, after the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, Hayes was forced to abandon these plans. In 1932, Roland married his 1st cousin, Alzada. They had a girl, named Afrika, who eventually had two daughters of her own. Once they were married, Roland abruptly ended his relationship in Europe with the countess and their daughter, Maya. In 1938, Roland invited a white Canadian student to come to his farm in Georgia to study voice with him. Soon, white locals made threats against Roland and the boy who was staying in the same living quarters with the Hayes family, because they were violating the norms of the separation of blacks and whites. Roland conceded to local segregation customs, and sent the young man away. In 1947, Roland sold the farm in Georgia, and bought one in Massachusetts. The experience, however, did not dissuade him from his goal of bringing the races closer together. “We all have the same divine spark, whether our skin is white or black or yellow or brown. I want to show that in my singing. Real art that goes to people’s hearts leads to my life’s goal: the end of race hatred, with no difference between the colors of the skin. Peace and brotherhood all over the world.” Touring was often very hard on Hayes. In 1942 he wrote: “I had nearly always been required to pay as indeed I still do at least 50% more than white artists are charged for hotel accommodations and services. In American cities which I’ve visited for the first time, I often found the audiences inquisitive or skeptical, or even hostile. My managers tried to spare me discomfort and humiliation by making travel arrangements for me well in advance, but even so, hotel keepers now and again refused to put me up when the day of my arrival actually rolled around. Once when I was interviewed while I was dining alone in my room in a Duluth, MN hotel, I was asked whether I had been requested to stay out of the public dining room. I admitted that I had been so ordered. Stones have been thrown through the windows of my house in Brookline. I have been refused a bed in a hotel in Tucson, a chair in a Seattle lobby, a meal in a restaurant in Duluth, and once not so long ago, I was beaten and thrown into jail.” By 1942, Hayes had long been one of the most beloved, successful and highest paid classical performers of his time. Yet, that summer, Roland’s wife and daughter had been verbally abused and kicked out of a shoe store in Rome, Georgia. When he confronted the owner of the store, police were called and threw Hayes into the back of a police car, where they brutally beat him so badly that his lip was cut, his jaw was bruised and his eyes were swollen shut. They then locked up Roland and his wife in a prison cell. The incident was widely written about, including in the NY Times, and Time magazine. Lawyers from around the country offered their services pro bono to sue the guilty police. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt spoke out about the incident. The people of Rome, GA were shamed by the negative national and international attention. Roland Hayes’s autobiography was published two months after the incident. It is entitled Angel Mo’ and Her Son, Roland Hayes. “Angel Mo’” is short for Angel Mother. Here is an excerpt from an essay entitled My America that the great Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes published a few months after the incident: “America is the land of where the best of all democracies has been achieved for some people, but in Georgia, Roland Hayes, the world famous singer, is beaten for being colored and nobody is jailed, nor can Mr. Hayes vote in the state where he was born. Yet America is a country where Roland Hayes can come from a log cabin to wealth and fame, in spite of the segment that still wishes to maltreat him physically and spiritually, famous though he is.” Dr. Brooks wrote about “the very savvy and shrewd businessman that Roland was, a man who, with the equivalent of a high school diploma, could negotiate very complex contracts and was on top of every aspect of his career.” Yet, Hayes isn’t well known at all today. Why not? He himself is partially to blame. Once, after making some recordings for a record company, when unable to agree on the terms of distribution, he destroyed the master discs, so that the recordings could never be published. He was opposed to the then–new medium of radio, refusing to broadcast his singing because he felt that his art was not intended for mass distribution through radio. And when Hayes was invited to perform at the White House for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the idea was for him to be paired on a program with a jazz singer to demonstrate the musical versatility of African-Americans. Hayes refused because he didn’t approve of jazz, and considered this sharing of the program to be below his artistic standards! Roland Hayes’s last performance was in 1973 as a fund raiser for the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. He was 86! In his last years, Hayes displayed the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and died in 1977 at 89 from a respiratory complication. His archives comprising more than 75,000 documents are housed at the Detroit Public Library, which established the Roland Hayes Trail Blazers Award to honor African American artists whose careers mirror his high artistic goals. A museum in his honor was established in his home town of Calhoun, Georgia. A school in Chattanooga, Tennessee bears his name, as does a grade school in Saint Alban, West Virginia. The French government awarded him the Palmes Officières d’Académie for his service to French music. He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. The Roland W. Hayes Concert Hall is at the Chattanooga campus of the University of Tennessee. A documentary, The Musical Legacy of Roland Hayes was made in 1990. He was the recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Award, and is the recipient of 8 honorary doctorate degrees. A museum in his honor was established in his home town of Calhoun, Georgia. A school in Chattanooga, Tennessee bears his name, as does a grade school in Saint Alban, West Virginia. The French government awarded him the Palmes Officier d’Academie for his service to French music. He was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. The Roland W. Hayes Concert Hall is at the Chattanooga campus of the Univ. of Tennessee. A documentary, The Musical Legacy of Roland Hayes was made in 1990. He was the recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Award, and is the recipient of 8 honorary doctorate degrees. Several years ago Roland’s American and European families finally met! Through his 2 families he left behind 2 daughters, 8 grand children and many great grand children. His great grandson, Wenceslaus Bogdanoff is a bass singer.

For more than half a century Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States. Known as the first lady of song, she filled concert halls around the world. Her audiences consisted of all races, religions, nationalities, rich and poor, She was known for her phrasing, timing, impeccable diction, purity of tone, infallible intonation, and her phenomenal scat singing. Ella was born in 1917 in Newport News Virginia. Her father and mother separated shortly after her birth, after which Ella and her mother then moved to Yonkers, New York, where they lived in a mixed neighborhood with her mother’s boyfriend, Joe. Eventually her mother gave birth to Ella’s half sister, Frances. They were a poor family. During her childhood she was an active churchgoer, an excellent student, and learned how to read music and play the piano. One of her childhood friends remembered that even from a young age Ella loved to dance and was determined to hit the big time. “She would tell us, ‘Someday you’re going to see me in the headlines. I am going to be famous.’ We’d all laugh, oh yeah, sure!” When Ella was just 15 her mother suddenly passed away from a heart attack and Joe mistreated her, resulting in Ella and Frances being taken in by their mother’s sister, Virginia in Harlem. Soon afterwards Joe also passed away from a heart attack. Ella became unhappy, her grades dropped dramatically, she often played hooky from middle school, and eventually dropped out of school. Ella began running numbers for an illegal lottery run by the Mafia and worked as a lookout for a bordello. She was picked up by the police and was sent first to the Colored Orphan Asylum in the Bronx, and was then moved to a state reformatory for girls a few hours north of New York City where she was beaten by the male caretakers. Fortunately she was able to escape. 15 year-old Ella found herself broke, alone, and living on the streets of Harlem during the Great Depression. She survived by singing outdoors for spare change. She later reflected on these difficult years with appreciation for how they helped her to mature, and felt grateful for her success because she learned early on what it was like to struggle in life. When she was 17 Ella won the opportunity to compete in amateur night at the Apollo theater in Harlem. Ella was shy and reserved, self-conscious about her appearance, and for a while even doubted her abilities. On stage Ella felt at home and had no fear. She said: “Once up there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience. I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life.” She was only 18 when she made her very first recording: Love and Kisses. In 1935 she won the chance to perform for a week at the Harlem Opera house, where Ella first met drummer and band leader Chick Webb. At first he was reluctant to hire her because she was unkept. Fortunately he changed his mind. Chick Webb’s manager said that the first time he saw her “she looked incredible. Her hair disheveled, her clothes terrible. She didn’t use soap and water. She was in bad shape.” Ella always sang in her street clothes because that’s all she had. She taught herself how to sight read music and wrote the lyrics down on flashcards, shuffling them faster and faster until she had the lyrics perfectly memorized. Ella’s musical education came from the band members, who were top-notch jazz musicians. She admired the singing of Bing Crosby and the Boswell sisters and was greatly influenced by Louis Armstrong. One of her early musical mentors was Dizzy Gillespie. She said “I learned a lot from those musicians and by following Dizzy around to these different places. I just tried to do with my voice what I heard the horns in the band doing. I feel that was my education. I am very grateful to him. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie have stimulated me more than I can say.” She often sounded like another instrument in the band. From the very beginning, musicians were impressed by her incredible rhythm. The first recording of hers that became legendary was If you can’t sing it you’ll have to swing it from 1936. The title was later changed to Mr. Paganini and she sang it throughout her career. A-Tisket, A-Tasket was a popular childhood nursery rhyme from the 19th century. Her 1938 recording of it became a major hit on the radio, and one of the biggest selling records of the ‘30s. It eventually became a million seller, and became her theme song all over the world. Because of A-Tisket, A-Tasket and the radio exposure from singing with Chick Webb’s band, at age 21 Ella had become the most popular female vocalist in America, even more so than Billie Holiday and Mildred Bailey. Chick Webb had been afflicted with tuberculosis of the spine from early childhood. In 1939, he died in his mother’s arms from Pott disease. He was only 34. Ella continued singing with his band as its band leader! In 1941 Ella surprised her colleagues when she suddenly married Benny Korngay. Ella’s manager, Moe Gale, was suspicious because Korngay had borrowed money more than once that he didn’t pay back. Private investigators discovered that Korngay had a criminal record, had been convicted of drug charges and had served time. The marriage was annulled. Fitzgerald played herself in the 1957 film St. Louis Blues and also appeared in the films Pete Kelly’s Blues, and Let No Man Write My Epitaph. Her first film was the 1942 Abbott and Costello movie Ride ‘Em Cowboy, singing A-Tisket, A-Tasket. Ella’s 1945 recording of Flying Home was her 1st completely wordless scat recording. An even bigger hit than Flying Home was Ella’s first attempt at Calypso: Stone Cold Dead in De Market, which demonstrated her ability to sing with a Caribbean accent. In 1947 Fitzgerald made her Carnegie Hall debut and performed there every year for the next 44 years! Also in 1947, while performing and touring with Dizzy Gillespie’s band, Ella married the band’s bass player, Ray Brown, who was nine years her junior. They eventually adopted a young boy named Ray Jr., who may have been the illegitimate son of Ella’s sister Frances. Ella and Ray divorced after 6 years, but continued to perform together, and remained friends. Their son was basically raised by Ella’s aunt Virginia because Ella preferred to be on the road performing and was hardly ever home. Ray Jr. was not the most important thing in her life and this became a source of tension between them. As she said, “The only thing better than singing is more singing.” In 1937 Ella allegedly had an abortion. The operation had gone wrong and she would never have children, a cause of great sadness later in life. She said: “My one regret in life is that I loved a little too easily and a little too often.” In 1946 Ella made her first two recordings with Louis Armstrong, for whom she had incredible admiration: You Won’t Be Satisfied and The Frim Fram Sauce. Ella always suffered from performance anxiety before going on stage and no matter how famous and beloved she was, she always had self doubt. Ella never turned to drugs nor alcohol to relieve stress; she turned to food. Ella gained a lot of weight and it was a problem that she battled throughout her life, alternately dieting and going on eating binges. The most important thing to her was music and performing. Her contracts were signed by her agent, who had power of attorney. In this way, her approach to life resembled that of Louis Armstrong, who was only interested in playing the trumpet, and left all the mundane tasks of his personal and business life to others. In 1946 Fitzgerald recorded one of the biggest hits of her entire career, Lady be good. Between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald recorded her incredibly popular songbook series, which included songs by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwin’s, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rogers and Hart. Her legendary album, The George and Ira Gershwin Songbook includes 53 Gershwin songs. Even though it is a 5-record set, it sold more than 100,000 copies in its first 60 days. Ira Gershwin said: “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.” In 1953 Ella made a cross country tour of North America and Hawaii, and then sang 24 concerts in Japan. It was the first time an American jazz ensemble performed for civilian audiences in Japan. The Japanese were so enthusiastic that a ticker-tape reception was given for her in Tokyo! A recording of one of the performances includes Frim Fram Sauce featuring Ella’s incredible impersonation of Louis Armstrong. She was a favorite and frequent guest on many TV shows including the Bing Crosby Show, the Dinah Shore Show, the Frank Sinatra Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show, the Nat King Cole Show, the Andy Williams Show, and the Dean Martin Show. Despite all her success and popularity, towards the end of the 1950s Ella felt alone and vulnerable. She had no one to share her life with. She said, “I want to get married again. I’m still looking. Everybody needs companionship.” By 1954 she had sold 22 million records and that year recorded the album, Lullabies of Birdland that includes some phenomenal scatting in the song, Later. What pianist, Paul Smith said was echoed by several other musicians: “Music, singing is her life. It was the time she came alive, when she went on that stage. The rest of her life, well, she didn’t have any family to speak of.” Pianist Ray Bryant remembered that she got very nervous before a show, and this continued throughout her career. Paul Smith commented: “No matter how successful she was, and I don’t think anyone could be more successful, she always had that little anxiety before she went on stage about whether people would like her. She’d look around the curtain and say ‘I hope they like me’. I’d say how can they not like you! “The best thing I can say about Ella is that she is an accompanist’s dream. Ella was always very consistent in what she did. She never speeded up. She never did anything that wasn’t very musical. You knew where she was going to hold a note and where she was going; a lot of singers aren’t like that. You don’t know where the heck they’re going. They’re going to do it one way in rehearsal, and then they do it another way on stage. Ella was so musical; she made it very easy to play for her. She wasn’t always the same, but the general continuity was always very easy to follow.” Ella’s 1958 performance in Rome was published as the album, Ella in Rome. Pianist, Lou Levy recalled: “God! We were swinging our cans off. It was just great! So much spirit and drive on it. You could never get it if you went into a studio. We were on tour; you do it every night, and you’re in great shape. You’re like a sporting team, the more you play, the better it gets. It’s just got to be at fever pitch.” Ella’s manager, Norman Granz, felt very strongly about civil rights and required equal treatment for his musicians. Granz refused to put up with any type of discrimination at hotels, restaurants, or concert halls, even when they traveled to the Deep South. Interestingly, Ella recalled the assistance she received from Marilyn Monroe. “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the 50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman, a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.” In 1960 Ella performed for an audience of 12 thousand in Berlin. During Mack the Knife, she forgot the words and made the most out of the situation with fast thinking, humor and her impression of Louis Armstrong! She followed that song with How High the Moon. The recording of the concert was one of her best selling albums, Ella in Berlin, for which she won 2 Grammys! In 1961 Ella sang at the inauguration of President Kennedy. Soon after that, she performed again in Berlin and the recording of that concert, the album, Ella Returns to Berlin features some of her best performances. She went on to sing in Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, where she sang for the Israeli army. Also in 1961 Ella had a one-year-long affair with a Danish young man, with whom she lived in a house she purchased in Denmark. In 1962 she sang a 46-week European tour with very little time off. The pianist Paul Smith said “We could never understand how she did it. She had done it for years before, and she did it for years afterward. That’s when she comes alive, when she goes on stage. When the show was over, she usually went back to her hotel with her maid. It was kind of a lonely life.” A close associate who traveled the world with Ella remembered: “She was working her ass off. Sometimes she was double booked in two different cities on the same night. She loved to sing as many performances as possible. It was not unusual for her to sing a 7 pm show in one city, and then race to the airport to fly to another city and sing another show at 11 pm. She always did two shows a night. At dinner, she’d be talking about songs, trying them this way and that, worrying that the show wasn’t good enough, that the audience didn’t like her. She wasn’t a doper, she wasn’t a big drinker. Her traveling companions made sure she got where she needed to go, would get her back to the hotel, put her to bed, get her up in the morning, and off we’d go to the airport and onto the next show. No shopping, no movies, no television, no friends, and no contact with family, unless they needed money, just hard, hard work until she dropped. Don’t get me wrong, she loved it, but everyone deserves to have a life.” In 1963 she recorded the album Ella and Basie with Count Basie. It’s one of her greatest albums. She also recorded an entire album of classic blues called These Are the Blues. Her version of W.C. Handy’s song St. Louis Blues on this album is perhaps closest to Handy’s original.                                                                

Arthur Rubinstein was born on Jan 28, 1887 in Lodz, Poland. He was certainly one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Many regarded him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time. He played in public for more than 80 years! Rubinstein’s autobiography is so long and detailed that it comprises two volumes. He played throughout the world, and was loved on every continent! He was very much an extravert and took a big bite out of life! He said: “I have never missed a concert in my whole life, not through my fault, never.” All of his RCA recordings have been released on CD and total over 107 hours of music. He was the youngest of seven children and his father owned a small textile factory. At the age of two, Rubinstein demonstrated perfect pitch and a fascination with the piano, while observing his elder sister’s piano lessons. By age four, he was recognized as a child prodigy. His father had a predilection for the violin and offered Rubinstein a violin; but because he preferred the piano, Rubinstein smashed it to pieces, for which he was promptly beaten by his parents. 
He made his debut at age 7! At the age of ten, Rubinstein moved to Berlin to continue his studies, and gave his first performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1900, at the age of 13.
When he was 17 Rubinstein moved to Paris to launch his career in earnest, where he met the composers Maurice Ravel and Paul Dukas and became friends with the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. He also played Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in the presence of the composer. Rubinstein made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 1906. He was not well received in the United States. In 1908, Rubinstein was destitute and desperate, was hounded by creditors, and threatened with being evicted from his hotel room. He tried to hang himself but was not successful. He said that afterwards, he felt “reborn” and endowed with an unconditional love of life. In 1912, he made his London debut, and found a home there in company with Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Casals, and Pierre Monteux. During World War I, Rubinstein stayed in London, worked as a translator and gave recitals and accompanied the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. He was disgusted by Germany’s conduct during the first world war and never played there again. His last performance in Germany was in 1914. In 1916 and 1917, he made his first tours in Spain and South America where he was wildly acclaimed. It was during those tours that he developed a lifelong enthusiasm for the music of Enrique Granados, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, who dedicated his Rudepoêma to him. Stravinsky dedicated his Three movements from Petrouchka to him. In his youth Rubinstein practiced as little as possible. He was able to learn new pieces quickly and relied on his personal charm to conceal the lack of finish in his playing. Amazingly, Rubinstein was a clever faker in the earlier years of his career. He didn’t like to practice! In an interview he explained and demonstrated how convincing he was at faking a passage of Chopin’s A minor Etude with his right hand! Although he was already very successful, when he heard Vladimir Horowitz play, he was stunned, and decided to do something about his own lackadaisical attitude towards his piano technique. He started doing some very serious practicing in the early thirties. Rubinstein withdrew from performing for several months of intensive study and practice.
”I buckled down back to work—six hours, eight hours, nine hours a day.” “And a strange thing happened… I began to discover new meaning, new qualities, new possibilities in music that I had been regularly playing for more than 30 years.” He believed in some spontaneity in concert. 
“At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen…It’s like making love. The act is always the same, but each time it’s different.” Rubinstein toured the United States again in 1937, and his career became centered here during World War II when he lived in Brentwood, California. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1946.
During his time in California, Rubinstein provided the piano soundtrack for several films, including Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn. He appeared, as himself, in the films Carnegie Hall and Of Men and Music. 
Although best known as a recitalist and concerto soloist, Rubinstein was also an outstanding chamber musician, partnering with Jascha Heifetz, Pablo Casals, Gregor Piatigorsky and the Guarneri Quartet. 
He was one of the earliest champions of Spanish and South American composers, as well as French composers of the early 20th century such as Debussy and Ravel. Rubinstein also promoted the music of his compatriot Karol Szymanowski. At one point Rubinstein said that Brahms was his favorite composer. By the mid-1970s, Rubinstein’s eyesight had begun to deteriorate. He retired from the stage at age eighty-nine in 1976. Rubinstein was fluent in eight languages and held much of the repertoire, not only that of the piano in his photographic memory. It was so amazing that he could even visualize a coffee stain on a page of music. His memory was sometimes put to the test by Rubinstein’s friends, who would randomly pick excerpts from opera and symphonic scores and ask him to play them from memory. Rubinstein had a great affinity for Chopin, who was also Polish. There’s video clip of him at age 90 recalling an fascinating incident whereby the opera singer Emmy Destinn asked him how Chopin himself played the piano. Of course Chopin died before Rubinstein was even born, but he suddenly found himself at the piano playing one of Chopin’s compositions, which he had never performed before. At the age of 45, in 1932, Rubinstein married Nela, (Aniela) a 24-year-old Polish ballerina. Her father was the co-founder and director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, Emil Mlynarski, who conducted Rubinstein’s first concert there, and later that’s how he met Nela. They had five children. Before and during his marriage, Rubinstein carried on a series of affairs with women with whom he had at least one child.
”It is said of me that when I was young I divided my time impartially among wine, women and song. I deny this categorically. Ninety percent of my interests were women.”  Though he and his wife never divorced, in 1977, at age 90, he left her for 33 year old Annabella Whitestone, with whom he lived until his death at age 95. She was 57 years his junior! Rubinstein was very proud of his Jewish heritage. He was a great friend of Israel, which he visited several times with his wife and children. He played many concerts with the Israel Philharmonic, and played recitals, and master classes at the Jerusalem Music Center. Rubinstein lost several family members in the Holocaust. In 1949, along with other prominent musicians including Horowitz and Heifetz, he announced that he would not appear with the Chicago Symphony if it engaged the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who had continued conducting in Germany during the 2nd W.W. Rubinstein was active in supporting charities throughout his life. In 1961, he performed ten recitals in Carnegie Hall to raise approximately $100,000 for charities including Big Brothers, the United Jewish Appeal, Polish Assistance, the Musicians Emergency fund, the National Association for Mental Health, and the Legal Defense Fund of the National Advancement of Colored People. He donated 100K to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, 50K to the Israel-America Cultural Foundation, and in his will he left 500K to the city of Jerusalem, stipulating that the money be used by the Jerusalem Foundation for cultural purposes. In 1974, Jan Jacob Bistritzky established the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, held every three years in Israel, to promote the careers of young outstanding pianists. The Rubinstein Competition also commissions works by Israeli composers. Around age 70 Rubinstein began offering critical musical advice to pianists, who played for him. He received many honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Legion of Honour, and the Kennedy Center Honors. He won several Grammy awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was voted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame in 2012. Rubinstein died in his sleep, at his home in Geneva, Switzerland in 1982, at the age of 95, and his body was cremated. On the first anniversary of his death, an urn holding his ashes was buried in Jerusalem—as specified in his will—in a dedicated plot now called “Rubinstein Forest” overlooking the Jerusalem Forest. In 2007, his family donated to the Juilliard School an extensive collection of his music that had been seized from his home in Paris by the Germans during World War II. Seventy-one items were returned to his children, marking the first time that Jewish property kept in the Berlin State Library was returned to the legal heirs. Throughout his life, Rubinstein was deeply attached to Poland. At the inauguration of the UN in 1945, Rubinstein showed his Polish patriotism at a concert for the delegates. He began the concert by stating his deep disappointment that the conference did not have a delegation from Poland, and angrily pointed out the absence of the Polish flag. He then sat down and played the Polish national anthem loudly and slowly, repeating the final part in a great thunderous climax. When he finished, the audience rose to their feet and gave him a great ovation. He played Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise in A flat major as an encore during one of his triumphant returns to Poland.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was born into an aristocratic family in Oneg, Russia on April 2, 1873. He was one of 6 children. Sergei began taking piano lessons at age 4 and because of his huge talent, a piano teacher was hired to live with the family to begin his formal training. At age 10 the family moved to St. Petersburg and he began studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. That year one of Sergei’s sisters died of diptheria and his father left the family. Sergei’s maternal grandmother helped raise the children. She frequently brought him to Russian Orthodox Church services, where he heard liturgical chants and church bells, both of which he later incorporated into his music. 2 years later, Sergei’s older sister died at the age of 18 from anemia. It was she who had introduced Sergei to Tchaikovsky’s music, which he loved. As a result of her death, the boy slacked off and failed his exams that year. His mother therefore transferred him to the Moscow Conservatory. He lived with 2 other students at the home of his new teacher, Nikolai Zverev. The training was strict; piano practicing began at 6 o’clock each morning. During this period that he became friends with the composer Alexander Scriabin. After 4 years Sergei moved in with an aunt and uncle, and spent summers at their country estate, Ivanovka, which he later owned. As a student he composed several works at Ivanovka, including his 1st Piano Concerto in 1891. After graduating from the conservatory, Rachmaninoff composed one of his most popular compositions: the Prelude in C# minor. He played it at his professional debut in 1892 and later lamented that he was repeatedly asked to play it as an encore everywhere he performed. That same year Rachmaninoff wrote his 1st opera in 17 days: Aleko based on Pushkin’s poem, The Gypsies. It was given its 1st performance at the Bolshoi Theatre, and was praised by Tchaikovsky, who went to the rehearsals and the performance. In fact, Tchaikovsky planned to conduct Rachmaninoff’s tone poem, The Rock on a European tour. Before that could happen, Tchaikovsky suddenly died, and when Rachmaninoff found out, he expressed his grief by beginning to compose the Trio Elegiaque No. 2 for piano, violin and cello, as a tribute to Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff became very depressed after the deaths of his grandmother and Tchaikovsky. During this period he did some performing and gave piano lessons. In 1895, Rachmaninoff composed his 1st Symphony, which was given its world premiere 2 years later. He blamed the conductor, Alexander Glazunov for the negative reaction to the symphony, claiming that Glazunov conducted it while drunk. The composer Cesar Cui compared it to a depiction of the 10 plagues of Egypt, and wrote that it would be admired by inmates of a conservatory in hell. It was not performed again during R’s lifetime. As a result of the critical failure of his 1st Symphony, Rachmaninoff fell into a depression for more than 3 years. He continued giving piano lessons but hardly did any composing. He was then engaged as a conductor at the Private Russian Opera Co. where he formed a life-long friendship with the bass Feodor Chaliapin, who was singing there. During this period of depression he composed the song Fate, which is only one of almost 100 songs he composed. Rachmaninoff was very sensitive and highly strung. In an attempt to alleviate the depression, his aunt arranged for Rachmaninoff to visit the writer, Leo Tolstoy, who was a living legend and greatly admired by Rachmaninoff. However the visit did nothing to encourage the young composer. He became very self-critical and was suffering from writer’s block. His aunt then suggested he receive treatment from Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who administered daily hypnosis and psychotherapy sessions for several months. It worked! And he began to compose his 2nd Piano Concerto, which he completed in 1901, and dedicated it to Dr. Dahl. In 1902 Rachmaninoff married one of his 1st cousins, Natalia Satina. They had 2 daughters, Irina and Tatiana. During those years R taught music at St. Catherine’s Women’s College and at The Elizabeth Institute. In 1904 he became conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. He was strict as a conductor, insisting on high artistic standards. Like Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy, Rachmaninoff implemented the design of an orchestra pit, thus ensuring that the instrumentalists would not be visible and therefore not be distracting to the audience. It also allowed for a better balance between the singers and the orchestra because up until the end of the 19th century there were no orchestra pits. Orchestras used to be placed on the ground floor between the front row and the stage, resulting in the players often drowning out the singers. He also stood on his feet to conduct, another innovation of the time. His 2nd and 3rd operas, The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini had their world premieres at the Bolshoi with Rachmaninoff conducting. Both operas received great acclaim. Apparently he was an excellent conductor. In his memoirs, the composer, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote: “In the early days of autumn I attended the premiere of my opera Pan Voyevoda, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The conductor was Sergei Rachmaninoff, a musician of rare talent. With the exception of two of the singers who lacked in vocal power, the performance was superb. The orchestra and chorus performed with great excellence.” After conducting 89 performances at the Bolshoi during his 2 years there, Rachmaninoff quit his position, due to the social and political tensions of the 1905 Revolution. He and his family moved to Dresden, Germany for a few years where his freed up schedule allowed him to compose. He was inspired by a black and white print photograph of Arnold Böcklin’s painting The Isle of the Dead, which he viewed in an art gallery in Leipzig. After seeing this print, Rachmaninoff composed his orchestral tone poem The Isle of the Dead. Years later when he saw one of Böcklin’s 5 color versions of the painting, he stated, that had he seen the color versions 1st, he would not have composed this music. Although he still experienced periods of depression, apathy, and a lack of confidence in his compositions, Rachmaninoff began composing his 2nd Symphony while in Dresden, and completed it as he returned to Russia. Its world premiere in 1908 was a great success. In 1909 Rachmaninoff made his U.S. debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its conductor, Max Fiedler, the father of Arthur Fiedler. He performed as conductor and as pianist at Smith College, and in Cambridge, Boston, NY, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. Rachmaninoff composed his 3rd piano concerto especially for this 1st American tour. He played the world premiere with the NY Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch and again 7 weeks later with the NY Philharmonic conducted by Gustav Mahler. Not wanting to leave Russia, Rachmaninoff turned down an offer to become the conductor of the Boston Symphony. In 1910 he became the vice president of the Imperial Russian Musical Society. And he resigned in protest when a musician was dismissed for being Jewish. In 1912 he completed his choral symphony, The Bells, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Bells. During WW I Rachmaninoff gave concerts for wounded soldiers and for the relief of hungry, homeless refugees. In a 2 week period he composed his All Night Vigil for a chorus of boys and men. Performances of it to aid victims of the war was very enthusiastically received. Rachmaninoff stated that he wanted the section, Now let thy servant depart, to be heard at his funeral. That year his teacher Sergei Taneyev died and even more impactful to Rachmaninoff was the death of his friend, the composer Alexander Scriabin, at age 43 from blood poisoning. Rachmaninoff immediately began a concert tour playing S’s music to raise money for the composer’s widow. It was after these two deaths that Rachmaninoff composed his Vocalise for soprano and orchestra. He composed another version for orchestra only, which he conducted in a recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As the Revolution of 1917 raged on, Rachmaninoff’s country home Ivanovka was seized by members of the Social Revolution Party and soon after was confiscated by communist authorities. The old order based on the absolute rule of the all-powerful Czar broke down along with that of the Russian aristocracy, which was being run over by the peasants who demanded bread and power. At the end of 1917 Rachmaninoff left Russia with his family, taking with them whatever they could pack into their small suitcases. They went first to Finland, then Sweden, and finally settled in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rachmaninoff was 44 and broke. He decided to concertize full time. This meant he had to buckle down studying and practicing to learn much of the solo piano repertoire for the first time! Rachmaninoff had an amazing memory. He could hear any piece of music and play it from memory the next day, the next year, or ten years later. Rachmaninoff was offered the conductorship of the Cincinnati Symphony, and received an offer to conduct 119 concerts with the Boston Symphony, and another offer to give 25 piano recitals in the U.S. He turned down these offers, but finally decided to move to America because he realized that the U.S. was more financially advantageous. He was warmly welcomed upon arrival and immediately began performing solo piano recitals throughout the U.S. and purchased an apartment on Riverside Drive overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan. In 1919 Rachmaninoff made some recordings for Thomas Edison, who was rather deaf and didn’t like classical music. So the following year he signed a contract with the company that became RCA records for which he made many recordings. He also recorded many piano rolls, which have been reproduced and recorded in stereo on today’s pianos, notably the Bosesendorfer piano. How wonderful it is that we can hear just how Rachmaninoff actually played!

In 1924 Rachmaninoff established a music publishing company specializing in compositions by himself and those of other Russian composers. Beginning in 1928 he became close friends with the pianist Vladimir Horowitz. When Horowitz sunk into one of his bouts of paralyzing depression, it was Rachmaninoff who comforted him. And about Horowitz’s playing of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd piano concerto, the composer said: “This is the way I always dreamed my concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that way on Earth.” In 1930 Rachmaninoff built a summer home in Switzerland at Lake Lucerne. He loved to drive his boat on the lake. He named the home Senar. The s & e are the 1st 2 letter s of Rachmaninoff’s first name, Sergei. The N & A are the 1st 2 letters of his wife’s name, Natalia, and the R stands for Rachmaninoff. He also utilized the rhythm of his last name, Rachmaninoff, as an ending to many of his compositions: “Rachmaninoff”. It was at Senar that he composed his 3rd Symphony and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rachmaninoff’s final concert in Europe was at the Lucerne International Music Festival in 1939. He then returned to the U.S. and performed many concerts to benefit the Red Army in support of Russia’s role in the war against Nazi Germany. His last composition, Symphonic Dances was composed in 1940. As he aged Rachmaninoff suffered from arthritis, sclerosis, high blood pressure, headaches, pain in his lower back, nerve pain, and extreme fatigue, so the Rachmaninoff’s moved to Beverly Hills, CA to be in a better climate. He decided that he’d make one last concert tour during the 1942-43 season in order to then be able to devote himself full time to composing. He became too ill to complete the tour and his last performance was at the Univ. of Tennessee in Knoxville. He returned to CA, was immediately hospitalized and was diagnosed with an advanced form of skin cancer. He died a month later in his home just 4 days before his 70th birthday. He was buried in Valhalla, NY. A statue marked: Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert was erected in Knoxville. A music conservatory in Paris bears his name, as do streets in Veliky Novgorod and Tambov, Russia. The Moscow Conservatory of Music named an auditorium after him, monuments to Rachmaninoff stand in Moscow and Veliky Novgorod, near his birthplace. And the Russian Federation issued a commemorative Rachmaninoff coin. The legendary pianist, Arthur Rubinstein wrote: “He had the secret of the golden, living tone which comes from the heart…I was always under the spell of his glorious and inimitable tone…There was always the irresistible sensuous charm.”

Vladimir Horowitz was born in Ukraine in 1903. He was a great musical genius and a child prodigy. As a teenager he knew all of Gotterdammerung, by heart! In St. Petersburg he performed a marathon of 22 concerts with 11 different programs at age 20, causing a sensation. His early partner was Nathan Milstein who spoke about the economy of motion Horowitz used when he played. His colleague Rudolf Serkin recalled the 1st time he heard Horowitz play. “I nearly fell off my chair, it was so amazing. The white heat of his playing, the fir and passion were incredible, and my hair stood on end. I have never in all my life heard a performance like that and I will never forget it.” And his colleague Artur Rubinstein remembered: “I shall never forget it. There was much more than sheer brilliance and technique. There was an easy elegance, that magical something which defies description…He brought his own arrangement of the dance from Carmen to a shattering climax which made me jump. We were all flabbergasted by him. When he played his final encore, in a high state of excitement I rushed with the others to see him backstage.” He made his U.S. debut in 1928 with the NY Philharmonic. Rachmaninoff said: “Until I heard Horowitz I did not realize the possibilities of the piano.” Horowitz said: “When I was young I spent much time playing operas. I was in love with opera and with singing. I didn’t play Bach. I didn’t play Mozart or Scarlatti at that time. Operas only. When I was 12, 13 I was playing operas of Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Wagner. I was collecting records of singers, never of pianists. I was interested in Battistini and Caruso, and on the piano I would try to imitate the singers. That is still true of me today. The most important thing on the keyboard is color and singing. I would much rather go to the opera than to piano recitals. At piano recitals I was bored. I wanted to sing at the piano and I listened to those bel canto singers from morning to night. This was a major influence on everything. I never met Battistini but I got every record of his I could find. He was the greatest of the bel canto baritones and very free in his style. He was always sliding from one note to another. I have never heard a singer with such a portamento. I loved it. I try to do it on the piano. You can do it with the pedals. I do it all the time.” His romantic interest in other men was common knowledge among his friends. However in 1933 he married Arturo Toscanini’s daughter, Wanda. Toscanini was at that time THE most famous musician in the world. In those days the pressure to get married was tremendous. He needed someone to take care of him. And she was very much in love with him. Rubinstein told Horowitz’s biographer Glenn Plaskin, that “everyone knew and accepted him as a homosexual and everyone was therefore astonished when he married Wanda Toscanini.” Horowitz was the highest paid pianist in the world! He said: “The public who knows nothing of what is required, knows nothing of the hell of the work required. The tears. I’ve torn out many pieces of hair when I was young. There is almost always a gap, sometimes a big gap between the intention and the realization of what you are trying to achieve. It is that gap which is so painful. The critic criticizing the concert doesn’t know that you had worked forever building up a crescendo and that you didn’t succeed in making it come out.  Each time you go out on stage you have to outdo yourself. You have to do better. It’s my character. I cannot change myself.” Horowitz had a very difficult life. One of his brothers died in the Russian revolution; another brother hanged himself. his daughter died of an apparent suicide. His father died in a Russian concentration camp and his mother died of neglected appendicitis. In 1936 Horowitz became convinced that he should have HIS appendix removed. and even though every doctor he consulted told him not to have his removed because there was nothing wrong with his appendix…he had it removed. After the operation he then contracted phlebitis. He was always incredibly nervous before a performance, always bothered by cramps, a nervous stomach and chronic diarrhea. 1936 until 1939 marked the first of four periods of his life that he refused to perform in public. He later admitted that he had suffered a nervous breakdown, and it was actually Rachmaninoff who gently encouraged him on a daily basis. It was a very stormy marriage. His valet recalled that if he had a problem with his manager, an experience with a bad piano, a bad concert hall, or a bad review: “He would yell and scream and take it all out on Wanda. She would gently pacify him. She tried to make his life as comfortable as possible, and was an incredible caretaker. They were married for 56 years. The conflict between his sexual orientation and his marriage was an enormous stress. At one point he even saw a psychiatrist who was trying to change his sexual orientation. His valet reported: I would be with him backstage just before the concert. He was always extremely tense and perspiring. I tried in every way I know to relax and comfort him but he was like a man about to jump into the rapids. He would grit his teeth as he went onto the stage.” Horowitz said: “I was exhausted and felt like my heart was going to burst. My stomach was tight and it felt like it was coming up into my mouth. The tension was unbelievable and I actually felt I might drop dead before I finished.” In 1949 he began living in hotels, away from his wife. That is until 1953, when he suffered a complete collapse. His valet reported that when he went to visit him he was just like a vegetable, totally incoherent, just blabbering away, speaking nonsense. The second absence from the stage lasted 12 yrs from 1953 until 1965, when he made a historic comeback at Carnegie Hall. People waited online throughout the night to buy tickets. The concert was sold out within 2 hours. Beginning in the 1960’s and again in the seventies he was treated for depression with electro shock therapy at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. In 1969 he stopped playing in public for the third time. He was often tired and depressed. This lasted 5 yrs until 1974. By then when he traveled on tour he would take along his valet, his manager, his wife, sometimes her sister, his piano tuner, the truck driver for his piano, his cook, a water purifier, blackout curtains, and it was stipulated in his contracts that fresh Dover sole had to be flown in to each city he performed in. He said to his manager: “Playing the piano is the easiest thing in the world, it is all the things around playing the piano that drive me crazy. I said to myself, my God! I can earn big enough money with recordings, why should I perform? I don’t have stage fright but nervous anticipation, yes. I want to give the best I can. I’m only nervous to play the conception I have in my head. I am nervous to know if it will come out from me or not. The tragedy of the performer is to have to be at your best at a certain day and time. What a horrible fate! Your best might have been two days before or after. Maybe I will have a cramp. I’m only a human being. The problem is that at exactly four o’clock on Sunday I have to be on top, and if at that moment I am not… I don’t have the right to play. That’s what is difficult, the timing of things.” He had a very sophisticated sensitivity to the acoustics of concert halls. He studied the acoustical properties of each hall before a concert. He knew every crack in the wall. He spent hours finding the optimum position for the placement of the piano on the stage of each hall. if the piano was moved a few inches his acoustical equilibrium could be fatally disturbed. He said: “I have my integrity; I won’t play in a bad hall for a million dollars.” Horowitz liked to go for a walk every day: 30-40 blocks. If it rained he wouldn’t take the walk, which meant he couldn’t get his exercise. Also if it was humid, the action of his piano would be affected. That meant he couldn’t practice. And these things would throw him into a depression. Horowitz was enormously self critical. “Sometimes I hear records that I made around 1930, 1940 and I hardly like one note that I play. I am very critical about myself.I listened to the radio and there was some pianist. It was the Liszt B minor Ballade. I listened and said to Wanda, it is horrible. Tempi too slow and tempi too fast. I said it’s probably somebody good and I don’t like it. It turned out to be Vladimir Horowitz. I hated this performance. It was horrible. I would not play one note like that today.” A fourth absence from the stage was between 1983-85. His biographer Glenn Plaskin said: “24 years total away from public concerts created a mystique. He took advantage of it very cleverly and received tremendous attention in the press.” In 1986 Horowitz returned for the first time to the former Soviet Union, for which the Presidential Medal of Freedom was bestowed upon him by Ronald Reagan. He said: “You see, the world is full of prejudice and hatred. In a way I work to fill that gap a little. I feel that if I can create beauty and emotion and sometimes a little perfection, then I am helping to close up the terrible gap where ignorance lives.” When asked why he was going to Russia, he responded: “To make peace between countries so that people won’t kill each other.” After hearing Horowitz play his 3rd Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff said: “This is the way I have always dreamed that my concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that way on earth.”    

“Humor preserves our sanity. Because of humor, we are less overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life.” Charlie Chaplin was born in England in 1889. His parents were music hall entertainers. When Charlie was 2 his parents separated, and his father did not give any financial support. Chaplin’s mother was unable to support herself and her two sons and at 7 Chaplin and his brother were placed in an institution for destitute children. At age 9 his mother was committed to a mental asylum. His father, an alcoholic, died 2 years later from cirrhosis of the liver. Chaplin began performing on stage at age 5 and left school at 13, supporting himself with odd jobs. His great ambition was to be an actor. The young comedian was successful touring England and the U.S. in vaudeville shows. At that time he was said to be unsociable, shy and moody. At 24 he was invited by Keystone Studios to make his first movies. He soon created the character of the little tramp and began directing his own films. He went on to create 81 movies! The Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda has written about Chaplin’s appreciation for his mother, who taught her son the art of pantomime. Ikeda wrote: “She played a major role in his becoming an actor and comedian. No matter how famous he became, Charlie always had a sense of appreciation toward his mother.” “If I have amounted to anything, or ever do amount to anything, it will be due to my mother.” When his mother’s health deteriorated into a state of dementia he brought her to California, where he was living. There, Chaplin ensured his mother received round-the-clock care in the new home he had found for her. Seven years later she died with Charlie at her side. He soon hired 20-year-old Edna Purviance as his leading lady, with whom he had an affair. They made 35 films together. At the end of that first year his movies were so popular that he was offered the equivalent in 2016 of 30K a week and a bonus of 240K! In Dec. of 1915 he was offered 10K a week the equivalent of 240K per week today. At age 26 Chaplin was making the 2016 equivalent of 16 million dollars. Chaplin had literally become the most famous man in the world! He was given his own studio and later referred to his years there as the happiest period of his career. Chaplin personally edited all his films and composed the music that accompanies them. The song Smile is his best known composition. Chaplin played the violin, cello and piano, as a teenager, practiced 4-6 hours a day and had great ambitions to be a concert artist, but gave up when he realized he couldn’t achieve excellence as an instrumentalist. Chaplin was also a conductor. In 1917, Chaplin purchased 5 acres in Los Angeles on which he built his own studio and gained complete control over every aspect of filmmaking. He soon created United Artists with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford and quietly married his first wife, Mildred Harris, a 17-year-old actress he believed he had impregnated. It turns out she wasn’t pregnant at that time, but a year later, a son was born deformed and died after 3 days. They divorced the following year. A month after the death of his son, Chaplin began filming The Kid, co-starring 4-year-old Jackie Coogan who Chaplin discovered. It’s a serious film about an abandoned baby the tramp finds and raises on his own. The film is a reflection of Chaplin’s childhood. Chaplin was the most incredibly versatile actor. In the film A Woman, It’s hard to believe that it’s actually him. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. Comic actor, Stan Laurel said “He just absolutely refused to do anything but the best. To get the best he worked harder than anyone I know.” In The Adventurer the chase scene is one of Chaplin’s masterful achievements. Chaplin was a perfectionist and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a movie. He took longer to shoot a movie than any other filmmaker at that time. It was common for him to film 50 or more takes for every finished take he used in a film. Chaplin said that he would shoot 20 hours of film for a movie that lasted only 40 min. Nijinsky told Chaplin that his comedy was balletic, and that he was a dancer. For most of his movies there was no written script. He improvised as he went along, filming all the rehearsals of a scene. When he ran out of ideas, he would stop filming, sometimes for days, keeping the studio and his employees standing by until the inspiration returned. When asked how he got ideas, he responded: “By sheer perseverance to the point of madness. One must have the capacity to suffer anguish, and sustain enthusiasm over a long period of time. “At the completion of a picture I would be left depressed and exhausted, so that I would have to rest in bed for a day.” This relentless pursuit of perfection caused severe mental anguish, was extremely costly, and Chaplin would become very agitated, lashing out at the actors and crew. Chaplin was not only an athlete, a dancer, an acrobat and a mime; he was also a virtuoso skater. In The Rink the meticulous, perfectly timed choreography is amazing! In 1924 and 25 Chaplin spent a million dollars filming the movie he said he wanted to be remembered by: The Gold Rush. In one scene Charlie and his friend are stranded in a cabin high up on a mountain during a blizzard. They’ve run out of food and Chaplin prepares a gourmet meal consisting of his shoe. He savors the shoelaces as if he were eating spaghetti! During the production of the Gold Rush he began an affair with his 2nd wife, Lita Grey, a 15-year-old who became pregnant with their son Charles. They were secretly married in Mexico and their 2nd son, Sydney was born a year later. A bitter divorce settlement that year and a claim by the IRS that he owed a million dollars in back taxes resulted in Chaplin experiencing a nervous breakdown and he attempted to jump out of a window of his attorney’s apartment. The courts ordered him to pay a divorce settlement of 825K including support for his 2 sons. Chaplin was worried that his creative powers might become damaged. “My ability as an actor is very frail–you don’t know whether the spark will die.” His next great film, City Lights, took over 2 years to make. Chaplin said that he had “worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection.” In fact he made 342 takes just of the opening scene before he was satisfied! City Lights became his personal favorite. In it, the tramp falls in love with a blind girl. He manages to raise the money to pay for an operation which cures her of her blindness. She thinks it is a millionaire that has helped her. In the film’s final scene, Chaplin meets the girl again, and when she holds his hand, she recognizes his touch. It is only then that she realizes it was the tramp that paid for her surgery. The girl was played by 20-year-old Virginia Cherrill. Chaplin experienced great highs and devastating lows. At times he had tremendous pride in his achievements, at other times he had terrible doubts: No one will laugh. I’ll be ruined.” In 1932 he met his 3rd wife, the 21-year-old actress, Paulette Goddard whose original name was Marion Levy, and in 1936 cast her in his next film, Modern Times, which he described as “a satire on our industrial life”. He feared that machinery in the workplace would increase the dire unemployment levels of the Great Depression. Modern Times has an unbelievable skating scene which Chaplin performs blindfolded! Goddard also starred in his next movie, The Great Dictator and divorced him in 1942. Chaplin’s affair with Joan Barry in 1941 and ’42 and her fraudulent paternity suit became the source of a sensational smear campaign against him by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and gossip columnists. Hoover’s surveillance of c dates as far back as 1922. During this scandalous controversy Chaplin, then 54, married playwright Eugene O’Neill’s daughter, Oona, resulting in Eugene O’Neill disowning his daughter. They had become a couple when she was 17, they had 8 children together, and remained married for 34 years until Chaplin’s death. In 1952 the Chaplin family traveled to England for the world premiere of his film Limelight. The day after leaving the U.S. his re-entry permit was revoked based on his political views and moral behavior. Even though Chaplin had lived and worked in the U.S. for 40 years he never became an American citizen. Accused of being a communist, Chaplin said: “My sin was and still is, being a nonconformist. Although I am not a communist, I refused to fall in line by hating them. I am what you call a peace monger.”He considered himself a citizen of the world. Chaplin sold his home and film studio in California and purchased a 16 room mansion on a 37 acre estate in Switzerland overlooking Lake Geneva, where he lived until his death. Chaplin died in his sleep on Christmas day, 1977. He was 88. Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator is an incredible tour de force. Chaplin made Hitler an object of ridicule and showed how comedy could be a potent weapon and an excellent morale builder. “For me the funniest thing in the world is to ridicule imposters and conceited people in high places and it would be harder to find a bigger imposter than Hitler. He was the best target in the world for satire and mockery.” Costa-Gravas, film director and producer said: “After doing research on the period, I realized how deeply historical and deeply intelligent the film is.” The Globe scene has been called the greatest scene in all of cinema. Chaplin’s films were banned by the Nazis because they considered Chaplin to be the very embodiment of the Jew. When asked in 1915 if it was true that he was Jewish, he responded, “I have not that good fortune.” The Nazis published a pamphlet of photos of Jews including one of Chaplin with a caption that read “The little Jewish tumbler, as disgusting as he is boring.” Chaplin responded by playing a Jew in The Great Dictator and announced, “I did this film for the Jews of the world.” The European profits from the film went to a fund created by c to support the tens of thousands of German Jews trying to escape Nazi persecution. c was dubbed the 20th century Moses and he never tried to dispel the misunderstanding concerning his roots. He told one journalist “I never protested when someone said I was a Jew because I would have been proud to be one.” Costa–Gravas said: “What’s incredible is that he wrote the script in ’37 & ’38. What’s surprising today is the silence around Hitler at that time. Hitler and Mussolini were then at the peak of their glory and were regarded with great admiration. Hitler had saved Germany from communism and had totally revived the economy. All the big companies saw Germany as a country with which they could do a lot of business, so Hitler wasn’t to be meddled with. “Whereas Chaplin looked into history and saw the future, the great spiritual and political leaders of the world couldn’t see it and remained on Hitler’s side. But Chaplin was a visionary. He saw what was going to happen later. “In The Great Dictator the actor who plays Goering says ‘I’ve just discovered a poison gas that will kill everybody.’ So in the film there’s indirect talk of zyclon as early as 1938. “Knowing now what they didn’t know then you realize Chaplin had been right. He was a visionary.” He also mocked Mussolini. It took remarkable insight and courage to make a strongly anti Nazi film. The Hollywood bosses didn’t want to adversely affect the distribution of their films in Germany and Italy. The reactions in Hollywood were hostile and malicious. Chaplin received death threats and was warned that there was a good chance that the film would be banned in certain countries resulting in a major financial loss. Despite additional pressure from the diplomatic sphere, Chaplin made up his mind to go ahead with the picture, and during the Great Depression spent 2 million dollars of his own money to make the film. In fact he said he would rent his own halls to show the movie if he couldn’t get it into theatres. He wanted to warn people about the terrible danger of Hitler and persuade America to take the right stand, and his only weapon, his absolute weapon would be laughter. Chaplin later stated “Had I known the actual horrors of the German concentration camps I could not have made The Great Dictator.” Chaplin began shooting the film on 9/9/39 six days after Hitler began W.W. II by invading Poland. Chaplin also played the role of the dictator’s double, a Jewish barber. The legendary shaving scene is brilliantly choreographed to Brahms’s 5th Hungarian Dance. During production Chaplin had 2nd thoughts about finishing The Great Dictator, but President Roosevelt indicated that he wanted to see the film completed. It opened in New York City in Oct. 1940. It opened 2 months later in London where it lifted people’s spirits during Hitler’s aerial bombings of England. The ending of the movie is a 6 minute speech given by the barber who is mistaken for the dictator. It was filmed 1 week after the fall of France. Chaplin shot this scene last, rewriting, and reshooting for a full three months. And it’s the first film in which Chaplin’s voice was heard speaking! In 1972 Chaplin returned to the U.S. for the 1st time in 20 years to be honored by the film industry. “I’ve been through a hell of a lot.” Watch the preview: https://youtu.be/MpisBD_90as

Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany and lived 57 years until 1827. His earlier style was right out of the 18th century. It’s somewhat similar to the styles of Haydn and Mozart, but is still his own unique personality. There is an incredible variety in the types of music he composed, and he was quite prolific. There are numerous compositions he wrote as a student, many compositions for piano solo, organ solo, and many songs for voice and piano. In fact he wrote over 100 songs, in many different styles, with texts in many different languages including settings of English, Irish and Welsh folk songs, two masses, several cantatas, 2 oratorios, and several large arias for different voice types with orchestral accompaniment. He wrote all kinds of chamber music, including string trios, piano trios, 16 string quartets, piano quartets, piano quintets, wind trios, sextets, septets, octets, all kinds of duet combinations such as for mandolin and harpsichord, three duets for clarinet and bassoon, several piano duets and other duet combinations, 10 sonatas for violin and piano, 6 sonatas for cello and piano, one of them doubling as the great French horn sonata, 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano and orchestra, several works for violin and orchestra, 13 overtures, dramatic music for the theatre, wind band music, such as marches, various dances for string orchestra, his one opera, Fidelio, and a lot of music for piano solo, including 32 piano sonatas. The piano was his main instrument, upon which he was a famous virtuoso. In fact, Beethoven was particularly great at the art of improvising at the piano. Therefore much of his music was never written down! Beethoven loved nature, and everyday went for a walk in the woods. It was there that many melodies and fragments of melodies occurred to him, and he would immediately pull his notebook out from his pocket and jot them down. Beethoven’s method of composing was difficult. He would work on sketches for years before utilizing them, only to then rewrite, revise, and revise again over and over before he felt satisfied. He composed 4 different overtures for his opera Fidelio until he was satisfied. Happily many notebooks and sketchbooks have survived and we can get a glimpse at his creative activity by following the evolution of a work through its many revisions. When he was 31 Beethoven wrote in a letter to a friend: “My art shall be exhibited only in the service of the poor. Oh happy moment, how fortunate I am to be able to further, if not to create such a moment.” My mentor, the Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda, wrote: “He felt that his art should be dedicated to the poor–an extremely revolutionary way of thinking for a musician in those days. And it was an attitude and way of life that brought him much financial hardship.” The finale of his 9th String Quartet is very indicative of his rebellious, revolutionary nature, and the exhilaration of his spiritual victory over his physical deformity. This is why Beethoven is my hero. Beethoven started out with perfect hearing. However, when he was 27 he began to experience a gradual hearing loss that got worse and worse.  The primitive hearing aids he used were called ear trumpets, and they helped for a while. But he eventually became completely deaf. When he realized that his hearing would never return, he became incredibly depressed and thought of committing suicide. 

He wrote: My ears whistle and buzz continuously, day and night. I am living a truly wretched life; for two years I have avoided all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people: ‘I am deaf.’ How great was the humiliation when one who stood beside me heard the distant sound of a shepherd’s pipe, and I heard nothing; or heard the shepherd singing, and I heard nothing. Such experiences brought me to the verge of despair;–A little more and I would have put an end to my life. Art, art alone deterred me. I shall seize fate by the throat!” Although Beethoven was subsidized by members of the aristocracy and royalty, he never intended his music to be for their exclusive enjoyment. He meant his music to be for everyone. In fact, when he was invited to visit the palaces and courts of Vienna he rebelled against the ritualistic protocol of behavior that he was expected to observe. In the last years of his life, during the composing of his great Missa Solemnis, Solemn Mass, in which he set to music the words of the Roman Catholic Mass, a visitor arrived at his apartment, entered the outer room, and described the sounds he heard coming from Beethoven’s studio through closed doors: Beethoven banging on the piano, parts of the Credo, singing at the top of his lungs, screaming the choral parts, his feet stomping on the floor. Beethoven was not exactly considerate to his neighbors. He was very much a slob! His hair grew long and wild, and was usually uncombed. Because he kept firing servants, his dirty dishes accumulated for days without washing them. When he bathed, he splashed the water all over the room. After composing for several hours, he loved to take a break, by pouring cold water over his head. This water leaked through the floorboards to the apartment below so he was often in trouble with his landlords, and frequently changed apartments often moving every several months! Accounts of his conducting describe him crouching down below the music stand during very quiet passages, and then as the music increased in volume, rising to the tip of his toes, his arms above his head, shouting at the top of his voice as the music reached its loudest part. Referring to his gradual hearing loss, Beethoven is said to have said that the famous melody at the beginning of his 5th symphony symbolizes “fate knocking at the door”. By the finale of the symphony, the music is blazes forth triumphantly. Daisaku Ikeda wrote: “The clouds of torment and anguish could not obscure the vast blue skies of his inner spirit.” The reason I love his music so much is because Beethoven so clearly revealed his innermost thoughts and feelings in his music. In fact, in his Missa Solemnis, he demonstrates what a master he was of setting words to music. At the beginning of the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven wrote “From the heart, may it go again to the heart.” Near the end of the work Beethoven depicts the sounds of war using trumpets and kettledrums, and wrote an incredible double fugue, as the music depicting war returns, and the singers call to god for peace. Beethoven’s grave is in Vienna’s central cemetery. The white marble tombstone is in the shape of a metronome, a device that was invented during Beethoven’s lifetime to measure the speed music is played at, which he made great use of. As you may know, Beethoven’s final symphony, the 9th, is the first time in history that voices appear as part of a symphony. It’s twice as long as other symphonies written up until that time, lasting a full hour. In the finale, he set to music Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy. Daisaku Ikeda wrote: 
”The 9th Symphony is a tribute to the triumph of spirit that expresses Beethoven’s whole stormy life; it is a hymn to the sanctity of the human spirit. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the roar of the spirit of that great musical genius, who proclaimed: ‘At the end of suffering, there is joy!”‘ And at the concluding moments of the symphony the words are: ‘Love toward countless millions swelling blows one kiss to all the world!’ Here are brief excerpts from the program Beethoven, My Hero: https://youtu.be/LJJgBWT0XZY        

Jackie Mason was born Yakov Moshe Maza in 1928 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth son in a family of six children of strict Orthodox Jews. Mason came from a long line of rabbis, which included his three older brothers, his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his great-great-great-grandfather. His parents were born in Minsk, and emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. When Mason was five, his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan so that he and his siblings could have a yeshiva education. His parents and their friends all spoke Yiddish. He wrote “for 65 cents you could go to the Paramount theater and see a movie and then, out of the ground, an orchestra would rise up! Out of nowhere. I can still hear the announcer’s voice “and now, ladies and gentlemen, Benny Goodman and his Orchestra. Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller. I couldn’t believe the band rising out of the ground, the music so thrilling, so wonderful; it made your hair stand on end. Once, Eddie Cantor paid a visit to my high school. What an event! The police had to bring him in. Thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse. Eddie Cantor was a great hero on the Lower East Side. One of our own. You couldn’t imagine. I began to hang out with the boys on the corner already by the time I was 11. I was hiding the yarmulke in my pocket so I should appear American because I would hear them say “here comes the rabbi’s son”. “Learn!” my father would say. The more he said it, the less I studied. I was hanging around street corners, shooting pool and learning about politics and boxing. Finally, he blew his top, he said, “Sit down, learn”. I said, “I learned enough.” He said, “Do you want to learn yes or no?” I said, “I don’t.” He was flabbergasted. “You don’t? Why not?” I told him, “I’m not interested.” He couldn’t understand, he said, “you’re not interested in learning? This is the only thing we’re on this earth for; this is the only reason for life; this is why God made us with a brain. You are saying that everything in life that means anything to me and your family for generations, the scholarship of our people, the learning, you’re rejecting it? You’re telling me you’re rejecting the whole history of our people, you’re not going to be a rabbi, a scholar? You’re going to be a bum? God means nothing to you?” And then he started to pinch me, to bump me. I was a kid. 12. But I could feel his fury, his rage. “I’ll teach you that you’ll never say that to me again!” He was hitting me by now. I was screaming in pain and agony because he was hurting me. “I’ll teach you! You’ll never say that again! You lowlife! You bum! You common bum, filthy animal!” And he belted me and hacked me and banged me and I was choking with tears. I was gagging from crying so much and pleading for mercy and screaming but it didn’t stop my father. He kept doing it, intense, intense, intense. Hits in the mouth, banging over the head. He had hit me before but nothing like this. This was a violent, crazy, insane type of beating. And then at the end of it he told me “sit down and learn! You’re going to learn whether you like it or not. For the rest of your life. No son of mine is going to be a traitor to God and holiness.” I remember looking at him and saying to myself “this man will never get away with this. He’ll never make me learn!” As a teenager, Mason worked at resorts in the Borscht Belt of New York’s Catskill Mountains as a busboy, lifeguard, and activities director. In 1953 Mason graduated with a bachelor of arts degree with a double major in English and sociology from the City College of New York. At age 18 he became a cantor, and at age 25 he was ordained as a rabbi. He led congregations in North Carolina and in Pennsylvania. In 1959 Jackie’s father died. Jackie was 31 and was overcome with guilt. While all the other members of the family sat Shiva, Jackie withdrew into his room. He stayed there for more than a week, refusing to come out and refusing to display his grief. Finally at the end of the period of mourning he emerged pale and trembling, having buried his father in his own way. But it didn’t work. Rabbi Eli Maza, wagging that accusatory finger would remain with his son forever. Three years after the death of his father Mason resigned from his job as a rabbi to be a comedian. Mason wrote most of his own material. He performed at New York City nightclubs and made his first national TV appearance in 1962 on the Steve Allen show, then the Tonight show, the Perry Como show, the Dean Martin show, and the Gary Moore show. When Mason got his first opportunity to appear on TV, his agents wanted him to shed his heavy Yiddish accent. “We advise you that it is our opinion that you should not appear on this program. We think that you have a very bright future, you are a very funny man, but you are not ready for national television. We implore you to take speech lessons and learn the techniques of how to reach an American audience first. Mason wrote: “I looked at the signature. Sure enough, a Jew. The idea that a Jew, not a gentile, led the attack was maddening. Always the Jews with the same excuse: ‘the Gentiles won’t get it.’ Always the Jews were terrified of the reaction of inviting attention to their Jewishness.” Once Jackie became successful and was earning good money, he set up one sister’s husband in a cleaning store, he opened a kosher deli for another, and when that failed when that failed, a real estate office. He bought everyone in the family television sets and sent $200 a week home for expenses. He planted seed money for each of his nephews’ education. He rented an apartment for his mother in Forest Hills, Queens and paid for his mother’s trip to Israel; she went with one of her daughters. One night, in a Tel Aviv hotel room she died of a heart attack. He refused to attend his mother’s funeral. It was that mental quirk: if he didn’t see it maybe it didn’t happen. In 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show, Sullivan was letting Mason know by holding up two fingers that he had only two minutes left. Mason began to make fun of the situation and pointed towards Sullivan with an index finger and thumb but not, as Sullivan mistakenly believed, his middle finger. Sullivan banned Mason from future appearances, worth the equivalent of $393,000 in 2021. To clear his name Mason filed a libel suit at the New York Supreme Court on the grounds that Sullivan had defamed him. Mason was banned from the show for two years until Sullivan publicly apologized. Mason later appeared on the show five times, but the damage was done. It took Mason the next 20 years to regain the upward momentum of his career because people were afraid that he was unpredictable and could cause trouble. As a child Mason had helped contribute to the blue and white collection boxes spread around in Jewish communities to buy land in Palestine for a Jewish national homeland. There stirred in every Jewish heart a flutter of pride when that fragment of land became a nation. And that pride exploded when, despite all forecasts that they would be hurled into the sea, the tiny nation defeated five Arab armies. The Israelis lived under the unsheathed sword of sworn enemies. In 1967 during the Six-Day War Jackie decided to travel to Israel to encourage the troops. Jackie could not sit idly by, making jokes while Israel was at war. When his manager asked “What about Caesars Palace in Las Vegas? You’re supposed to appear. You’re getting 12 1/2 thousand a week; it’s the most you’ve ever made.” Jackie replied, “Are you kidding me? Jews are dying over there. Do you believe that I am that despicable a character that I would for a second consider the consequences to my own career when the fate of my people hangs in the balance by a slim thread? Volunteers who wanted to fight were clamoring with great difficulty to get into Israel but they were turned away from Israeli consulates and embassies around the world. Jackie and his manager were finally able to travel to Israel. When they landed and looked out the window Jackie could see the name of the airport in Hebrew. He wrote “People tell you what it feels like to land in a Jewish country, a whole country of Jews! But there is no way to explain the feeling. You see on the buildings Hebrew letters. Hebrew! Letters that I learned as a boy on the Lower East Side in Hebrew school. Here they are on official buildings, on military aircraft. Not something you have to hide from the goyim so they won’t beat you up on the way home from school. Official Hebrew letters! Nothing prepares you for that. We sat there in the airplane looking out the window and our hearts were in our throats. We couldn’t speak. We could hardly breathe.” On the way to his performance they were in a jeep on the road to Hebron. They could see smoke in the distance. The area was not safe. There were still mines and snipers. Mason said “My heart was in my throat but I didn’t want to show fear, not after what these boys have been going through. Here was death and sacrifice.” They put on the show in the captured barracks of the Trans Jordan troops in Nabulus. The exhausted soldiers stood, holding their automatic weapons, their faces smeared with the smoke and grime of battle, their eyes still looking at death. They were the paratroopers, the elite, the soldiers who took back the Wailing Wall. What would his father think now? What would he say if he could see Jackie standing there on that sacred soil bringing comfort to the soldiers of Zion? They were big, big soldiers with red berets. They had just destroyed seven armies and liberated Jerusalem. In 1991 during the Gulf War an Iraqi-launched SCUD missile landed in Israel. Mason closed his one-man show and the next day flew to Israel to show support for the embattled troops. Jackie tried so hard for so many years to advance his career beyond the Catskills, Miami Beach and Las Vegas. There were talk show pilots that he couldn’t sell, sitcoms that never got further than a lunch date with a network underling, movies that never got released, concerts that went half sold, and plays that opened and closed after one performance. He fired managers and nagged agents and questioned people everywhere about what they would like to see, what he should do with himself. Jackie was like a scientist possessed, trying one experiment after another tirelessly. He wanted what he could never have: his father’s approval. 1974 Jackie met Jyll Rosenfeld. He was 46, she was 20. They eventually married and remained together until Jackie’s death. It wasn’t long before she rolled up her sleeves and got involved in Jackie’s business. Gradually, Jyll began helping more and more with his career. She needed him like the father she never had. She accepted the other women and the unequal terms. She adored him and simply wanted to be around him. And she made herself indispensable, becoming in charge of his money, attending to his appointments, and reading his contracts. She needed someone to care for and he needed care. Mason wrote: “I was frustrated and anxious and very depressed. Everything I tried went nowhere. I was tired and I didn’t have the spirit to do everything by myself anymore. She got right into it seeing if she could overcome my sub-star problem. And she was amazing, making 40 calls in an hour to tax accountants and lawyers, to organizations and managers.” And even with Jyll working as hard as possible, the failures continued to occur one by one. He was struggling and working hard and getting nowhere. He was 50 years old and he could not see the breakthrough coming. With time running out he knew that he had to succeed. To draw 400 or 500 people a night was not enough to mitigate turning his back on his father. At night he had nightmares in which he saw himself alone at a table with no audience at all. It was Jyll’s idea for Jackie to do a one-man show: Jackie Mason’s The World According to Me! He began performing the show first in a theater in a seedy part of Hollywood, then Beverly Hills, and finally starting in 1986, he performed six one-man shows on Broadway, which earned him a special Tony award, an Outer Critics Circle award, an Ace award, an Emmy award, and a Grammy nomination, a Drama Desk nomination, and a nomination for a Lawrence Olivier award for best entertainment for its run in London. Mason also won a prime time Emmy award for his voiceover as Rabbi Hyman Krutofski on the Simpsons TV show in which he appeared in eight episodes. He holds the record for the longest-running one-man show in Broadway history and the longest-running standup show in the history of London’s West End. Mason appeared in over 200 self-written videos on YouTube, in which he gives his opinions on current events and politics. His daughter, Sheba Mason, was born in 1985 and is also a comedian. Mason died in 2021 at the age of 93.

When conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim joined philosopher Edward Said to establish the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, combining Israeli and Arab musicians, they knew it would be no magical bringer of peace. Instead, it was intended as a project against ignorance, giving space for opposing sides to understand one another and to disagree without “resort to knives”. For 24 years its achievement has been to show that mutual cooperation and respect can produce grace and beauty in a world too often defined by bloodshed and cruelty. Students from the Middle East come to Berlin to study music with the star conductor Daniel Barenboim. Now the Israel-Hamas war is testing their ideals. Mr. Barenboim, who has been scaling back his appearances, made time to rehearse and perform with the academy’s students this fall. It was a recent afternoon at the Barenboim-Said Academy, a sleekly modern music conservatory in Berlin founded by the renowned Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim with the intention of bringing together students from across the Middle East, and the musicians were wrestling with the Israel-Hamas conflict and their raw emotions. An Israeli music student described the trauma of the Hamas attacks. A Palestinian spoke of feeling voiceless and vulnerable. An Iranian described fears that violence could spread across the entire region. “It takes courage for you to be here,” Mr. Barenboim, 80, who has worked almost 25 years in pursuit of the elusive goal of Middle East peace, said from the podium. “We have to listen to each other,” he declared, giving voice to what might be the academy’s unofficial credo, both for music-making and politics. The academy, like other peace projects, has long had to deal with the volatility of the Middle East, navigating bursts of violence, unrest and shifting politics. But the Israel-Hamas war has tested these efforts in new ways, as became clear during a visit to the academy earlier this month when Mr. Barenboim and the students were preparing for their first concert together since the fighting began. The scale of the conflict, the rapid spread of images of death and destruction on social media and the ubiquity of misinformation have made it harder to promote civil debate and to find common ground. In an environment where Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians, Syrians, Egyptians, Lebanese and others study and live together, the war has prompted a reckoning. Some students, after heated debates with classmates over who is to blame for the carnage, have questioned whether they should even play music together in a time of war. Others say that music has brought them closer. “We will not bring peace, and we will not solve the world’s problems, as much as we might want to,” said Katia Abdel Kader, 23, a Palestinian violinist from Ramallah who is in her fourth year at the academy, which offers music degrees and courses in the humanities. “But we create a space, and that’s what is missing in the world, not only in the Middle East. Places for people to be accepted by the other.” Itamar Carmeli, 22, a pianist from Tel Aviv who is in his third year, said it was impossible to escape the conflict because “our families are there and our childhood is there.” He said he had learned to accept his classmates’ views even if he disagreed with them, partly because music had taught him to listen more deeply. “There is no harmony,” he said, “without dissonance.” The current conflict has even tested the idealism of the school’s founder, Mr. Barenboim, who founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999 to bring Israeli and Arab musicians together. The academy, which is rooted in the same principles as the Divan, now has 78 students — about 70 percent from the Middle East and North Africa — who study in a well-appointed building in the heart of Berlin that opened in 2016; its concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Mr. Barenboim, a titan of classical music who led the Berlin State Opera for three decades before stepping down this year, has drastically reduced his commitments because of a serious neurological condition. But he has made a special effort to be with the students in recent weeks for rehearsals and discussions. The academy, which opened in 2016, has quotes about peace by the philosopher Baruch Spinoza on its glass doors; practice rooms; and a vibrant humanities program. In an interview after a recent rehearsal, Mr. Barenboim said he worried the latest war could morph into a “world catastrophe” in the absence of more efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together. “There’s no use saying, ‘We the Jews have suffered more than anybody else,’ or the Palestinians’ saying, ‘We suffered more than all of you,’” he said. “This has been a very difficult century with little rest. I think we have to keep going, and forget our own positions, and get along with a sense of equality.” The school year at the Barenboim-Said Academy began this month with the usual orientation sessions on Israeli-Palestinian tensions, how to respect differences and ways to see beyond stereotypes. Then came the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing Israeli strikes on Gaza. Many students, their phones buzzing with frantic messages from friends and relatives and displaying images of devastation, were too disturbed to practice their instruments. The school’s leaders, including Regula Rapp, the rector, and Mr. Barenboim’s son, Michael, who serves as dean, brought in counselors fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. The students made a point of checking in with each other, and they organized meetings to try to work through some of their differences. Unsure of what to say, they sometimes offered only hugs. At one point, they gathered for a start-of-the-semester dinner, sharing homemade dishes: hummus, baba ghanouj, labneh and bulgur salad. Their conversations were sometimes tense, as musicians from Israel spoke of losing a sense of security and the Palestinians described life under the suffocating blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza for 16 years. The conversations were also deeply personal, with some students sharing stories of losing loved ones during decades of violence in the Middle East. The students tried to support each other as they faced new difficulties in German society; the authorities banned many pro- Palestinian gatherings, and a synagogue in Berlin was attacked with firebombs. They met at their dorms or went out for beer and cigarettes and talked about how they felt guilty being away from their families. Roshanak Rafani, 29, a percussionist from Tehran who is a member of the student government, said the tumult in the region could be shattering; she has at times contemplated abandoning her studies. “Imagine that people are dying, and now I’m just practicing to see which hand I should put here or there,” she said. “We all feel this inner conflict.” She added that the young musicians had gotten beyond their differences by embracing the idea that “we’re all students, and there is no side now for us here.” “We’ve all accepted the fact that we cannot really convince each other about many things,” she said. “People talk and raise their voices and yell and cry, but two hours later, they are hugging each other.” The war has hung over classroom discussions as well. In a recent philosophy class, the topic was Plato’s allegory of the cave, a metaphor for contemplating the divide between ignorance and enlightenment. Mr. Barenboim’s efforts have not been without controversy. His projects have been denounced by Israelis and Arabs alike, and musicians in the Divan sometimes face displeasure from their families. But Mr. Barenboim, who has described his work as not political but as a “project against ignorance,” said he was confident that the Divan orchestra and the other programs would endure, even if he was no longer at the helm. “No question,” he said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it. But it’s not easy.” Mr. Barenboim is visibly weaker now. But there are still flashes of his spirited self at the podium, as when he chastised the students the other day for fumbling a bit of Beethoven: “Do you want me to buy a metronome for everybody?” Or his rejoinder to a horn player who complained that he was tired: “At your age, you’re tired? I’m 80 years old, and I would never say in company like this, ‘I’m tired.’” In the days leading up to the academy concert last week, the strains of the war were evident. Some Palestinian students were having doubts about performing, concerned that they would project an aura of harmony at a time of deep division and suffering. But after prolonged debate, they decided it was important to embrace the spirit of the institution, announcing their decision to Mr. Barenboim at rehearsal. At the concert, the student body released a statement making clear that they all had felt the impact of the war. “Our hearts are heavy; our minds are elsewhere with every single person affected by the devastating situation in Palestine and Israel,” the students said in the statement. “May our music bring us together, may it heal a little piece of our hearts.” When Mr. Barenboim took the stage to lead works by Prokofiev, Wagner and Beethoven, he praised how “wonderfully and generously” the musicians played together before asking for a minute of silence. “The situation is inexplicable, and my words cannot change it,” he said. “But we are happy to perform for all of you today.” After their performance, and a standing ovation, the students embraced onstage. (A few days later the war would enter a new phase, with Israel beginning its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.) Mr. Carmeli, the Israeli pianist, recalled before the concert that he had not spoken to Ms. Abdel Kader, the Palestinian violinist, for 18 months after joining the academy. But when he heard her play, he approached her and discovered that they had once lived only about 20 minutes apart. “The landscapes and the smells and the tastes and the flavors that we grew up on is all shared,” he said. Ms. Abdel Kader said the experience of getting support in a difficult time from “the other side — the side you learned to hate” had moved her. “Now is the time to remove the walls and look at each other,” she said. “The moment you just look in someone’s eyes and you understand we’re just the same — that’s what matters for me.” Based on articles by Stephen Pritchard (the Guardian) and Javier C. Hernández (New York Times)  

Pavarotti: “I believe women generally have keener sensitivities than men. For an artist that is important. Women are quick to understand. They know what is on your mind without you having to tell them. Women also protect you. When they see that you need protection, they protect you like crazy. Women won’t let anyone get at you or hurt you.” Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy in 1935. His father was a baker and amateur tenor, his mother, a cigar factory worker. His father had a fine tenor voice but rejected the possibility of a singing career because of nervousness. 
Pavarotti began the serious study of music in 1954 at age 19. The first six years of study resulted in only a few recitals, all in small towns and without pay. When a nodule developed on his vocal cords, causing a “disastrous” concert in Ferrara, he decided to give up singing. “In those early years of struggle, I often thought of giving up, and going into teaching or selling insurance.” Pavarotti worked first as an elementary school teacher for 2 years and then as an insurance salesman. He was a member of the Corale Rossini: an all male amateur choir from Modena. He made his debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in Reggio Emilia in April 1961 and made his first international appearance in La Traviata in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In 1963, he debuted at the Vienna State Opera in the same role. That same year was his Royal Opera House debut in London, where he replaced an indisposed Giuseppe Di Stefano in La Bohème. Giuseppe De Stefano was his favorite tenor. In 
1963 he was invited to tour Australia with Joan Sutherland. They gave 40 performances in 2 months. Pavarotti credited Sutherland for the breathing technique that sustained him throughout his career. Two years later when Joan Sutherland was singing Lucia at the Miami Opera, the tenor that was scheduled to sing canceled at the last minute. Despite Joan Sutherland and her husband conductor, Richard Boynge’s best efforts at recommending Pavarotti, the opera company wouldn’t engage him, because no one had ever heard of him. It was only because every other tenor they asked turned them down, that he was given the opportunity and made his American debut in Miami in 1965. 
Also that year Pavarotti made his La Scala debut in the famous Franco Zeffirelli production of La Bohème, with his childhood friend Mirella Freni and Herbert von Karajan conducting. Karajan had requested the singer’s engagement. His major breakthrough in the United States came in 1972, in a production of The Daughter of the Regiment at the Met. He drove the crowd into a frenzy in his aria with nine effortless high Cs. He achieved a record seventeen curtain calls. Pavarotti sang La Bohème in the first Live from the Met telecast in 1977, which attracted one of the largest audiences ever for a televised opera. There were more than 20 live opera performances taped for television between 1978 and 1994, most of them with the Metropolitan Opera. About the mammoth outdoor concert he sang in Atlantic City Pavarotti wrote: “After my performances I always try to greet anyone who wants to come backstage to see me. That night I signed programs in my dressing room for over three hours. His manager, Herbert Breslin wrote: “Luciano, come on” I’d say, shifting from foot to foot. “This is ridiculous. It’s twelve-thirty in the morning! Let’s go home! “Calmati, P would reply. “Calm down. We are not going to leave until I have seen the last person.” His manager recalled: “Some big name singers tried to get out of singing the Metropolitan Opera’s annual national tour, when the company used to go on the road to present opera in smaller cities around the country. It was a big hassle and it wasn’t as prestigious as appearing at the Met itself. Luciano, however, was willing to go on those tours. He understood the importance of reaching out to his public. And they loved him for it.” He won many Grammy awards and platinum and gold discs. In 1979, he was profiled in a cover story in Time magazine. In 1990 he sang the hugely successful Three Tenors concert, held on the eve of the World Cup final in Rome with fellow tenors Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and conductor Zubin Mehta. The recording of this concert became the biggest selling classical record of all time selling over 11 million copies. His televised concert in London’s Hyde Park, drew a record attendance of 150,000. In June 1993, more than 500,000 listeners gathered for his free performance in New York’s Central Park, while millions more around the world watched on TV. That year in Paris, he sang for a crowd of 300,000. Additional Three Tenors concerts were held during the World Cups: in Los Angeles in 1994, in Paris in 1998, and in Yokohama in 2002. Over a billion people watched the 1994 3 tenors concert live. His manager wrote: “In his prime he approached every performance with one determination. It was ‘I will bring them to their feet.’ And he knew how to do it. He knew how to reach people and get them so excited they would jump up and scream when he was done. That was one of the big, big secrets of his success.” Here he is at the Metropolitan Opera singing his favorite encore, the aria Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s final opera, Turandot. Pavarotti wrote: “As a singer’s reputation gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more difficult to meet those expectations. It is not enough to sing well. You must somehow give the audience the thrill that justifies the big reputation. You must not disappoint them. I am always afraid. In fact, I think the only way to be continuously successful is to be a little scared all the time. If you are not scared it means you think something is easy. If you think something is easy, you won’t work as hard and you will not be as good as you can be. I concentrated on doing better than I had done the day before and stopped worrying about what other singers were doing.” He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as the earthquake that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia in 1988. He was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales. Together they raised money for the elimination of land mines worldwide. In 1998, he was appointed the United Nations Messenger of Peace, using his fame to raise awareness of UN issues, including the Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS, child rights, urban slums and poverty. In 1999, Pavarotti performed a charity benefit concert in Beirut, to mark Lebanon’s reemergence on the world stage after a brutal 15 year civil war. It was attended by 20,000 people. In 2000 Pavarotti agreed to pay the Italian government more than $7.6 million in back taxes and penalties as a result of tax evasion charges that dated from 1989 to 1995. In 2003, at age 68, he married his former personal assistant, Nicoletta Mantovani (born 1969), 34 years younger with whom he already had a daughter. He had three other daughters by his first wife Adua, to whom he was married for 34 years. Pavarotti annually hosted the Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts in his home town of Modena, to raise money for several UN causes joining with singers including Andrea Bocelli, Jon Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Bono, James Brown, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Céline Dion, Elton John, Sting, the Spice Girls Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen. Concerts were held for War Child, and victims of war and civil unrest in Bosnia, Guatemala, Kosovo and Iraq. After the war in Bosnia, he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center to offer Bosnia’s artists the opportunity to develop their skills. For these contributions, the city of Sarajevo named him an honorary citizen in 2006. In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UN High Commission for Refugees for his efforts raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide. Other honors he received include the “Freedom of London Award” and The Red Cross “Award for Services to Humanity”, and the 1998 “MusiCares Person of the Year”, given to humanitarian heroes by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He set two Guiness book of world records, one for receiving the most curtain calls, 165 of them. Through benefit concerts and volunteer work, he has raised more money than any other individual. Here he is with Charlie Rose explaining why he expanded his repertoire to include pop music and the advantages of performing in large stadium concerts. He wrote: “One of my biggest goals as a performer and a vocal artist is to make people happy. I frequently get letters from people telling me how depressed, miserable, and even suicidal they were. Then they heard me sing on television and felt better. For maybe a few minutes they felt good about life. After my Central Park concert in 1993 the NY Times wrote that all of the 500,000 people who saw the concert had forgotten their problems by the time they left the park. Maybe for only a short time they were happy. No one can imagine how happy this makes me.” He recorded over 30 complete operas and appeared in 37 roles. His final performance was singing “Nessun Dorma” at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July of 2006. He died the following year at age 71 at his home in Modena. His estate was valued at $474.2 million dollars.  

Puccini often suffered from depression and never tried to hide it. He said he was born carrying a heavy burden of melancholy. Puccini biographer, Mosco Carner wrote: “Far from considering himself an outstanding artist who enjoyed his world fame and material fortune, Puccini was a self-divided, neurotic personality, fundamentally unhappy, and lonely.” One of his librettists and friends, Giuseppe Adami, who Puccini said knew him better than anyone else wrote: “His natural shyness often isolated him during long periods of contemplative solitude. This free and contemplative life was always necessary to his inspiration. It was discontent with little things, which, to the sensitive temperament of an artist can be a source of more misery than great troubles. As he grew older he saw life rushing on, which his eternally young spirit could not accept.” He was worshipped in Vienna and wrote from Berlin: “They treat me here is if I were the Kaiser or the Crown Prince.” Yet, he preferred to be at his home at Torre del Lago, a tiny village in Tuscany on the banks of Lake Massaciuccoli. “I am longing to creep into my lair again, among my pines.” From Paris, where Puccini was overseeing the rehearsals of La Boheme, he wrote: “I am not very happy here. I should like to be away now for the sake of my work. I cannot work here. I am suffering too much nervous excitement, and don’t have peace of mind, which to me is necessary. An invitation to dinner makes me ill for a week. I wasn’t born for a life of drawing rooms and parties.” And after he became loved and honored in Paris he wrote: “I am sick of Paris! I am panting for the fragrant woods, for the free movement of my belly in wide trousers and no waistcoat; I pant after the wind that blows free and fragrant from the sea. I hate pavements! I hate capitals! I hate columns! I love the beautiful column of the poplar and the fir; I love the blackbird, the blackcap, the woodpecker! I hate the steamer, the top-hat, and the dress coat! I love the green expanse of cool shelter in forests old or young.” There were months and years of attempts at finding stories to create operas about, which frequently resulted in nothing. His misery increased as time passed while he composed nothing. There were projects which sprang up, matured, and were suddenly destroyed. “If I touch the piano my hands get covered with dust. Music? Useless, if I have no libretto. I want a libretto which can move the world!” Once a story was chosen, he became fanatically concerned with the words, and made life difficult for his librettists. Before he could set words to music, it was essential that the words would fire his spirit as if they were his own creation. Puccini was very close to his mother. He was 26 when she died. 6 years later his younger brother Michele died from yellow fever. After the death of his mother Puccini began an affair with Elvira Manfredi. She was married with a daughter, but because she had fallen in love with Puccini, she abandoned her husband and had a son with Puccini. She was given a very hard time by the residents of Torre del Lago, the little village where she lived with Puccini. They knew her as an adulteress, who they believed had the evil eye and who had laid a curse on them. Eventually they married, but it was a marriage filled with difficulty. Elvira was intensely jealous and suspicious of Puccini, who was not faithful to her. She regularly opened his mail, went through his pockets, and convinced her self that Puccini was cheating on her even when he wasn’t! After Puccini was seriously injured in a car crash, he spent months at home recuperating and he and Elvira hired a 15-year-old young woman to help with the household chores. She remained employed by them for six years. Elvira was absolutely convinced that the young woman and Puccini were having an affair and spread this rumor throughout the village incessantly. Eventually the girl moved back in with her parents but Puccini’s wife continued spreading this lie until the girl could no longer leave her home. Eventually the pressure became intolerable and she committed suicide. An autopsy then revealed that she had been a virgin. Puccini was so enraged with his wife that he left her for several years. When the popularity of his operas made him a wealthy man he spent freely: 6 homes, 14 cars, and 5 motor boats including an expensive yacht. Puccini was self-centered, and his principal interests outside his music appear to have been sex, fast cars, and the shooting of birds. Puccini liked to cook. He sent a letter to Ricordi that included his recipe for beans which he was sending as a gift to the publisher. “I am sending you a small quantity of beans and two boxes of grapes. These beans are very special ones and must be cooked in this way: Put them on the fire in cold water, which should be a moderate amount—neither too much nor too little. Boil for two hours on a slow fire and when they are cooked there should be no more than three or four spoonfuls of liquid. Ergo, be careful of the quantity of water. When you put them on to cook add four or five leaves of sage, two or three heads of garlic, salt and pepper, and when the beans are half cooked, add a little oil to boil with them.” Adami wrote: “Terrifying doubts would plunge him into desolate periods of inertia. It was distrust of his own work which returned continually to torment him.” And in writing about his last opera, Turandot, “I have finished the orchestration. The result is beautiful. Or is it possible that I am mistaken in thinking so?” Adami continues: “These doubts sometimes assumed agonizing proportions, when he thought that he had not given enough, had not given everything. ‘I am going to sleep so as not to torture myself with thinking. I am sad and find no consolation. Here there is sunshine and fresh greenery, but in my heart blackness. I am a poor, unhappy man, discouraged, old, abject, nothing! I live in torment. If the fever abates it ends by disappearing altogether. And without fever there is no creation. For emotional art is a kind of malady, an abnormal mental state, accompanied by over-excitation of every fiber and every adam of one’s being. I live in torment because I do not feel the throbbing life that is essential to the creation of a theatrical work which is to endure and hold.’” His letters are filled with this endless searching and craving, this continual fight against the dull and the lifeless. A poem he wrote about 18 months before his death states. ‘I have no friends. I feel alone. Even music makes me sad. When death comes to find me I shall be happy to rest. Oh how hard my life is, though to many I seem happy, but my successes? They pass, and leave so little. They are ephemeral things. Life runs on toward the abyss. He who lives and is young finds the world enjoyable but who is aware of all this? Youth passes so quickly, and the eye contemplates eternity. I am truly stranded. I cannot get clear. Work! Work! There is no better medicine than work for making one’s existence less miserable’ Carter wrote: “He was by nature shy and almost timid, hypersensitive, and highly vulnerable.” He wrote of Puccini’s “unpredictable and constantly changing moods, his sudden enthusiasm for a subject one day and its complete rejection the next. In his own words, he had more heart than intellect. Carner also wrote of Puccini’s “strange conviction that there was no one in the whole world who really loved him. This was, in fact, a projection of what Puccini felt about the world: it was he was never capable of loving.” A life-long smoker, Puccini had diabetes, and how ironic it is that the man who composed some eternally gorgeous melodies developed cancer of the esophagus. Before he could complete his final opera, Turandot, he died in 1924 in Brussels, soon after a surgery to plant radiation needles in his throat. He was only 65. After he finished composing the death scene at the end of the opera, Puccini wept uncontrollably. He said: “It was as though I had seen my own child die.”

Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy in 1858. He came from a long line of composers dating back to the 18th century. Scenes de la vie de Bohème (Scenes from Bohemian life) was written by French writer Henry Murger when he was 25, and was published as a series of short stories in installments between 1845-1848. It depicts the world of young artists in Paris around 1830. Much of La Bohème was composed when Puccini was 37, and is based on incidents in his own life. Puccini was almost exclusively a composer of operas. He wrote: “If only I could be a purely symphonic writer! Almighty God touched me with his little finger and said: ‘Write for the theatre, and only for the theatre.‘ And I have obeyed the supreme command.” Puccini had to have the librettos (texts) to his operas finalized before he would compose the music. He was fanatically concerned with the words. Before he could set words to music, it was essential that the words would fire his spirit as if they were his own creation. There were months and years of attempts to find a story that he wanted to make into an opera which frequently resulted in nothing. His misery increased as time passed while he composed nothing. There were projects which sprang up, matured, and were suddenly abandoned. “If I touch the piano my hands get covered with dust. Music? Useless, if I have no libretto. I want a libretto which can move the world!” Puccini worked with two librettists to transform Murger’s novel into the opera’s libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. It took 2 years of arguing, disagreements, pleading, controlling, and wrangling with his two librettists before he began setting the libretto to music. Puccini was incredibly demanding. Throughout his career Puccini was obsessed with the dramatic pacing of each scene and each act. He repeatedly sent scenes of the opera back to the librettists to revise and shorten. His publisher, Giulio Ricordi, who was also a composer, assisted in the process, coordinated the communication between the 3 and sometimes refereed their arguments. It was very stressful working with Puccini, who often changed his mind. And after 6 months of working on the libretto, Giacosa resigned from the project though Ricordi was able to persuade him to continue. But 21 months later Giacosa had had enough of the constant pressure and dissatisfaction from Puccini and wrote to Ricordi: “I swear to you that I can’t go on revising everything 20 times. I’m tired to death of this constant remaking, retouching, adding, correcting, cutting, piecing together, extending on the one hand and reducing on the other. I have written this damn libretto from beginning to end three times and certain sections 4 and 5 times. I am sick to death. Curse the libretto! How am I supposed to finish at that rate? I swear to you they’ll never trap me into doing librettos again! Tomorrow I’m installing myself all alone in some quiet hotel. And there, I will have finished in a few days. But will it be finished then? Or will we have to start all over from the beginning?” Once Puccini had finally approved the libretto, it took him less than a year to write the music for La Bohème. Most of it was composed at his home in Torre del Lago, where Puccini had befriended a small group of painters with whom he formed the Bohème Club, who met in an old hut to eat, drink and play cards. The audience at the world premiere included royalty, noble families, and several important composers including Mascagni. One local critic wrote: “Bohème failure. It won’t make the rounds.” Others wrote that they didn’t think the opera would become a popular favorite. Another wrote “La Bohème will leave no large imprint on the history of our lyric stage, and it will be well if the composer will persuade himself that this has been a brief detour in the road of art.” Or this review: “You have today conceived the whim of forcing the public to applaud you where and when you will. For the future, turn back to the great and difficult battles of art.” Another critic wrote: “We ask ourselves what has pushed Puccini along this deplorable road of Bohème.” And another: “Let us await better things from the strong endowment of this composer.” Another could not forgive Puccini “for composing his music hurriedly. It is music which can delight but rarely move. Even the finale of the opera seems to me deficient in musical form and color. God forgive him!” Then there was this one: “The music of La Bohème is real music, made for immediate pleasure, intuitive music. And that is precisely for this reason that we must praise and condemn it.” And finally: “On the whole, melodic invention is extremely scanty.” Toscanini himself wrote: “Puccini took it very badly; and left him like a rag.” In the end it is always the judgment of the public that counts. At its conclusion the audience jumped to its feet with great enthusiasm. Throughout the evening they called Puccini out on stage a total of 15 times. In fact, in the weeks following the world premiere in Turin, La Bohème was so popular that it was performed there 24 times, and each performance sold-out! It was then performed in Rome, Trent, Brescia, Bologna, Naples, and Milan’s La Scala. In Florence, Puccini was called on to take some 40 curtain calls! Queen Margarita attended the second performance in Rome and Puccini was nominated Commander of the Italian Kingdom. The Sicilians loved it so much at its first performance in Palermo that at its conclusion they continued applauding, bringing Puccini onstage for 45 curtain calls, prolonging the performance until one in the morning. And when the audience refused to leave, the last scene had to be repeated, even though some of the orchestra had already left and the singers had changed into their street clothes! It quickly began to be performed internationally: in Alexandria, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Algiers, Lisbon, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico, The Hague, Prague, Barcelona, Athens, Chile, Malta, Warsaw, Zagreb, Helsinki, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Brussels, Los Angeles, New York, Vienna, where it was conducted by Gustav Mahler, and in Buenos Aires where it was conducted by Toscanini. It has become one of the most popular and often performed operas. Debussy said: “If one did not keep a grip on oneself one would be swept away by the sheer verve of the music. I know of no one who has described the Paris of that time as well as Puccini in La Bohème.”

Maria Callas was born in NYC in 1923. Her parents were Greek immigrants and they lived in Washington Heights. Her mother returned to Greece with Maria and her sister when Callas was 13, and there she studied at the Athens Conservatory with Elvira de Hidalgo, a Spanish coloratura soprano who sang with Caruso and Chaliapin. Hidalgo: “When I started teaching her she was the laughing stock of the whole conservatory…she was frightfully clumsy, fat, and ungainly…She was a glutton for advice and suggestions, and made every effort to take it all in and act on it as far as she could. The results were pitiful at first, but little by little she did begin to improve.” To release her nervous tension, Callas worked harder than ever, spending most of each day at the conservatory or at Hidalgo’s apartment. She went to her teacher at 10 am for her lesson and stayed, listening to all the other voice students until eight pm. “I loved to listen to all those different voices: light soprano, lyric soprano, and the men too because I always believed that even the poorest voice can teach you something.” Hidalgo remembered: “Always silent, almost scowling, she would sit in a corner and stay there until I had finished, in other words until the evening. She was there watching and listening while I took all my other lessons, and she learned all there was to be learned.” Callas was happy to do exercises to train the agility of her voice to sing coloratura music. The soprano, Renata Tebaldi said that it was an incredible experience to hear Callas scale down her great big, huge voice to sing coloratura repertoire. Hidalgo: “She put such force, such sentiment, such wonderful interpretation into all she sang. She would want to sing all the most difficult coloraturas, scales, and trills. Even as a child her willpower was terrific. She had a phenomenal memory and could learn the most difficult opera in eight days.” Callas sang Norma more times than any other opera. She said: “Bellini’s opera Norma was used by Hidalgo as an exercise. So I remember I started learning Norma at the very early years of my schooling in music, many, many years before I sang it on stage.” Hidalgo spoke about how near sighted Callas was, and that she couldn’t wear her eyeglasses on stage: “Maria Callas performed over 40 operas on stage without being able to see the conductor. In order not to miss her entries she memorized each of the entire operas, the parts of the tenor, the baritone, the bass, the chorus, everything. When she came to me at the conservatory she was already in the habit of learning the entire opera by heart.” In fact Callas trained her memory so well that she was able to practice without the music. “I learned for instance Norma and La Gioconda, so I could rehearse them in my mind, on top of a bus or walking in the street. There is a great deal to be done in the mind: you don’t always require a piano, nor to open your mouth. The poets talk of the mind’s eye: there is also the mind’s ear.” She was an exceptionally quick learner. She considered solfeggio, the skill of being able to perform music at first sight, to be a singer’s most important training asset. She would pick up her part and devour it, and almost immediately sing it note for note. But the greatest of all her qualities, even then, was the expressive power she put into her singing. Callas said: “It is so much hard work, so much love and so much devotion, but other people around you don’t see that, they think everything around you is just given to you. “In Greece during the war it took six months of rehearsal to get an opera ready for the stage…how many sacrifices…at least you were well prepared. Whereas nowadays young singers are thrown out onto the stage just as they are without preparation, without knowing the opera well. After a few engagements they don’t take time to reflect: they immediately think they are great and famous, and that’s the beginning of the end.” “I continued studying voice and piano with a kind of fury.” 
A friend remarked: “She practiced so hard and so intensively…that she would often spend more than ten hours a day practicing, which left her dead tired.” Her mother recalled: “She practiced day and night and sometimes forgot to eat. Maria would refuse to leave her piano for meals, and I would bring them to her in her room. She would put the plate in her lap and go on working,” Particularly impressive was her uncompromising self-critical approach to her work, remarkable in one so young. The conductor Yorgos Vokos stated that she was stricter with herself than her teacher was. “As a young girl she worked on her voice interminably, taking care over every detail. “She had a brilliant ear. Whatever exercise her first teacher, Maria Trivella, played for her on the piano, she sang it almost right at the first go. We would hear Maria doing her vocal acrobatics—trills, runs, phrases, legati, staccato, scales—and every so often Trivella’s voice exclaiming, ‘Well done, Maria, well done!’ ‘But my passagework was terrible, my trills were only half there, my legati were awful. ‘But Maria…’ ‘No, no, I must do it again from the beginning! I’ve got to satisfy myself too. I’m sorry.’ So once more from the beginning, until Maria gave it her OK.” At age 24 Callas said: “Everything I do, I am convinced I am doing it badly, and then I start feeling nervous and discouraged. Sometimes I get to the point of wanting death to release me from the torments and the anguish that constantly afflict me. I would like to give much more to everything I do.” Callas first sang Tosca when she was only 18. She attended all of the orchestra rehearsals, and in this way studied the orchestration. She also requested private rehearsals with the conductor, who recalled: “You have no idea what a nitpicker she is! She drives you up the wall, always pestering you about the most trivial details. ‘Shall we go through it once more, Maestro?’ Whether you like it or not she makes you do it all over again! Whereas with the others you only have to mention the word “rehearsal” and they start looking at their watches!” At age 20, having been cast in the role of Marta in the opera Tiefland, Maria shut herself in her room to study the role, and refused to open the door to anyone. From time to time her mother had gone in to bring her a drink or something to eat, and often found her asleep on the floor with the pages of the opera scattered around her. She showed up at the production’s first rehearsal with the entire opera memorized. She worked frantically to prepare herself, asked for extra rehearsals and begged the conductor to go through her part with her privately. When asked what the word luxury meant to her, Maria said: “To me it means having a conductor who undertakes any number of rehearsals to produce a performance of high quality, and having musicians who work hard, without fixed hours. That’s the way people used to work once upon a time.” Maria’s total dedication to her ambition of becoming a great singer was the one thing to which she clung desperately. “My life was my work and my work was my life.” A friend remembered: “When we chatted on the way home, practically the only subjects we talked about were music and our future careers. She didn’t join in personal conversations. She was eternally absorbed in singing: nothing else interested her.” Another friend said: “As if she could see a vision of her future, she paced nervously to and fro, saying over and over again with deep conviction, ‘Some day I’m going to make the big time! I’m going to get to the top.’” She once said to her mother: “I’m going to be the greatest opera singer of them all. The whole world will be talking about me.” A friend recalled “One day we were waiting for her in the living room while she got dressed in her room, and was singing something that reverberated throughout the apartment. Her mother shouted: ‘For heaven sake’s, stop! We’ve had enough, our heads are spinning; we can’t hear ourselves think!’ Defiantly, Maria answered from her room, ‘Mother, I’m going to be the greatest prima donna in the world!’ ‘Oh get lost!’ her mother retorted. When she began singing with the National Theatre in Greece at age 17, some of her colleagues were jealous and felt threatened by her talent. They began trying to find ways to prevent her from appearing. “That American bitch that’s come in, what right has she got to be here, the fat cow, taking our performances away from us? Kick the American out! A foreigner’s got no business in our opera company. She’ll ruin the performances with her accent.” They stood in the wings while she was singing, laughing and pointing their fingers at her, keeping up a flow of loud whispers, including remarks about her fat legs, until she couldn’t go on singing. Callas would sob and cry in her dressing room. An older colleague advised her friends; “Tell her to give up the theatre! After all, the poor girl’s never going to get anywhere.” Remembering what it was like in 1944 at the Greek National Opera, Maria said: “I got on my colleagues’ nerves. They were older people. I was young, they couldn’t understand why I was chosen for certain roles. I was always ready. I just studied and was ready, which is always my weapon, always being prepared. It’s a conscientiousness and love of my work.” Hidalgo: “The attacks of her colleagues not only made her work harder, but taught her to be a warrior. She learned to be a fighter and survivor, not a victim.” “I won’t let anyone stand in my way. If anyone tries, I’ll smash them, and I don’t care who they are!” The jealousy of her classmates only confirmed her belief in her ability and made her feel strong and optimistic. She worked harder and more consistently than any of her fellow singers, with a fierce dedication and persistence. Through her faith in herself and her indomitable persistence, she survived the various trials and tribulations of those early years in Greece. During an eight year period in Greece she sang 56 performances of seven leading roles “Everything I have achieved, I achieved by hard work.” During her early years in Greece one conductor didn’t think Callas sang the opera Fidelio well. She said to him: “One day you’ll be groveling to conduct me!” Callas said to a conductor of the Athens Radio orchestra: “In a few years you will be begging me!” She also said this to the general manager of the Greek National Opera, to the general manager of the San Francisco Opera, and to the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. At 22 Callas returned to New York. She intended to sing at the Met. One of her colleagues asked: “What if they don’t give you an audition?” “Oh, then I’ll go there every day and sit on the doorstep. One day they will get fed up with me and give me an audition.” “In 1946 in America I went from one movie house to another, not to see the films, but so as not to go out of my mind from torturous thoughts about my uncertain future.” Finally she was invited to make her Italian debut in La Gioconda at the ancient amphitheatre in Verona. Even though her performances there were successful, she couldn’t get a job afterwards!!! No one in Italy would hire her, despite the most intensive efforts at promotion, including a recording she made of her best arias. Callas was frustrated. Finally Tulio Serafin, who had conducted her at the arena in Verona, hired her in Venice to sing first Tristan und Isolde, and then a year later, Die Walküre. In the midst of the series of performances of Die Walkure, the soprano who was to sing Bellini’s bel canto opera, I Puritani became ill and Serafin decided that Callas would replace her, despite the completely different kind of voice required for the role. Amazingly, Callas learned Puritani in just one week while she continued performing Die Walkure! This feat earned her a ton of publicity and people have been marveling at her accomplishment ever since. Her colleague, the soprano, Renata Tebaldi said that the most fascinating thing was to hear how Callas was able to scale down her enormous voice to sing bel canto repertoire. In fact, when she auditioned for Toscanini, he wanted very much to cast her as Lady Macbeth, because of the size and particular quality of her voice. Unfortunately, he retired soon thereafter and they never collaborated. Callas said: “Conductors for us, once upon a time especially, were gods. We went to the theatre on tiptoes—it’s like going to church, really. That’s how we were brought up.” Tulio Serafin had played viola in the La Scala orchestra under Toscanini in the early part of the 20th century and went on to conduct all over the world. He was an early mentor of Callas. She spoke about what she learned from Serafin: “I drank all I could from this man. He was the first maestro for me, and I am afraid he is the last man of his kind. Today they don’t take the trouble, they don’t have that much experience, they start too young and don’t have enough humility towards music. What I learned from Serafin is that you must serve music; it is our first and main duty.” Callas observed how awkwardly many singers moved on stage, and swore that that would never happen to her. She bought a big mirror in which she would watch herself practicing, scrutinizing her every movement from head to toe and making sure she did not overact. Callas married a successful Italian businessman, Giovanni Battista Meneghini in 1949. He was 28 yrs older than her. Meneghini gave up his interests in his family’s business to invest in and manage her budding career full time. Callas wanted to do dramatic justice to the roles she played, so she decided to lose weight. When Callas saw Audrey Hepurn in Roman Holiday, she decided that that was her standard. She lost eighty pounds in less than a year. Suddenly she became glamorous! As her career became that of a super star, she attracted the attention of the billionaire, Aristotle Onasis. They fell in love she left her husband of ten years, and began a widely publicized affair with Onassis, who was also married. He was 23 years her senior. The Law of cause and effect is very strict, because nine years later, Onassis left her and married Jackie Kennedy. 8 years before her death Callas said to a close friend: “I started dying when I met this man and gave up music.” The last role she sang onstage was Tosca. Not long after this Callas’s voice deteriorated to the point where she had to stop singing in public. She tried acting in a movie. She tried stage directing. She gave the master classes at Juilliard. After several years, she tried to get her voice back and in 1973 and ’74 Callas sang a world concert tour with her long time friend and colleague, tenor, Giuseppe DiStefano, but her voice was only a shadow of what it once had been. Having stopped singing in public, and with no one to share her love, Callas became incredibly depressed. She became addicted to sleeping pills, and during her last years, isolated herself, living with two servants in her Paris apartment. She could no longer sustain her interest in living. The last time she saw DiStefano she said to him “Everyday is one day less”. Her last public performance was in Tokyo, on the world tour with DiStefano. Three years later she died of a heart attack at the young age of 53.      

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Romania. His mother and father, Sara and Shlomo had 4 children of which Elie was the 3rd, and the only boy. His mother encouraged him to study the Torah. His father ran a small grocery store and was frequently sought out by many of the town’s inhabitants for advice. His father influenced Elie through his humanistic behavior. And as Elie put it, his father “forced” him to learn modern Hebrew. The family spoke mostly Yiddish, and also German, Hungarian, and Romanian. Since his childhood Elie was a voracious reader. Rather than playing outside as a boy, he spent most of his time in the schoolroom or in the synagogue. “When I travel, I am always afraid of running out of books. If I had to describe hell, it would be as a place without books.” As a boy he also studied the violin and played chess. In May of 1944, the entire Jewish community in his hometown of Sighet was deported to Auschwitz where 90% of them were exterminated upon arrival, including Elie’s younger sister, Tzipora, his mother, and his grandmother. Elie was 15. His father was 50. Upon arrival at Auschwitz a prisoner advised them to lie about their ages and state that they were 18 and 40, so they would be put to work. Eventually, Elie and his father were brought to Buchenwald concentration camp. His father died 10 weeks before the liberation by the U.S. 3rd army. Germany surrendered 3 1/2 weeks later on May 7, 1945. Elie was 16. This photo of Elie in the barracks at Buchenwald was taken just after the liberation. Elie is circled in yellow. After the war Elie lived in an orphanage in France run by the Children’s Aid Agency. He quickly learned French and in 1947 entered Sorbonne Univ. in Paris, where he studied literature, philosophy, and psychology. Elie attended lectures by the philosophers Martin Buber and Jean-Paul Sartre and studied the writings of Dostoyevsky, Kafka, and Thomas Mann. At age 19 he began working for French and Israeli newspapers as a journalist. He also taught Hebrew, and assembled and conducted a choir. Elie decided not to speak or write about his experiences in the concentration camps for 10 years. An S.S. officer had said to a young Jew: “Even if you survive, even if you tell, no one will believe you.” In 1954 Elie interviewed Francois Mauriac, a Nobel Prize recipient in literature, who convinced Elie to begin writing about his experiences. In 1955 he began writing his account of the Holocaust. It was a 900-page manuscript in Yiddish entitled Un di Velt hot geshveegin And The World Remained Silent. This origignal 900-page version was never published. An abridged version was published in Buenos Aires. He re-wrote it as a shorter version in French entitled La Nuit, published in 1958. And in 1960 the English translation, Night, was published. Eventually it was translated into 30 languages and has sold more than 7 million copies. Wiesel turned down an offer from Orson Welles to make Night into a feature film. He wrote: “The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future. To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” In 1956 he moved to New York and worked as a foreign correspondent for an Israeli daily newspaper. His salary was only $175 per month, and there were days when he couldn’t afford food. He soon got a job in the U.N. pressroom. In 1965 he began traveling to the former Soviet Union to report on the conditions of the 3 million Soviet Jews. They were discriminated against, persecuted and prohibited from practicing their religion. The series of articles he wrote were compiled and published in 1966 in the book The Jews of Silence, about the Soviet Jews and the massacre at Babi Yar in Ukraine. Wiesel called on the American Jewish community to provide support and aid to Russian Jews. This helped to change what had been only a small number of Jews being allowed to leave Russia, to a huge mass exodus. Since the 1970’s over 1.1 million Jews have emigrated out of Russia. Wiesel called his efforts for this cause “a turning point” in his life. In 1969 he married his Austrian wife, Marion. They had one child in 1972, Shlomo Eleesha, named after Wiesel’s father. In 1975 Wiesel and the Jewish activist, Leonard Fein, founded the independent magazine, Moment, to provide a voice for American Jews. Wiesel taught at the City Univ. of New York from 1972-1976 and then at Boston Univ., which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He also taught at Yale Univ. and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fl. in 1982. From 1997-1999 he taught at Barnard College of Columbia Univ. And he began a 5-year appointment teaching at Chapman Univ. in Orange, CA. in 2010. In 1979 he wrote the book and play The Trial of God based on his experience of witnessing three Jews in Auschwitz who, close to death, conduct a trial against god, under the accusation that god has been oppressive of the Jewish people. Wiesel was asked by Pres. Carter to spearhead the construction of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. He was the Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. 
At Wiesel’s suggestion, the first Day of Remembrance was held on April 24, 1979 in Washington. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism. In his acceptance speech he explained that silence only encourages the tormentor, stating: “I have tried to keep memory alive, I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices. The world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation…Whenever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must–at that moment–become the center of the universe. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours.” When he traveled to Oslo to accept the Nobel Prize, he encountered groups of Holocaust deniers, who had gathered in Norway to protest. With the money from the Nobel award, Elie and his wife Marion immediately founded the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Its mission is to fight against indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs. He wrote more than 60 books including 2 volumes of memoirs, the 1st: All Rivers Run to the Sea, recounts his life up to 1969, and the 2nd is entitled And The Sea is Never Full, and is about his life between 1969-1999. Wiesel adhered to the same daily work schedule for his entire career. He wrote from 6-10 each morning, working on 2 projects simultaneously, one fiction, and one non-fiction. After writing for 4 hours he then conducted research on the topics he was writing about. He wrote with a photo of his hometown of Sighet in full view. He often wrote 3 drafts of each book, and then cut and edited to achieve a concise result. He said: Why do I write? To help the dead vanquish death. To forget would be the enemy’s final triumph. Wiesel is the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Grand Officer and Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor, an honorary knighthood from the United Kingdom, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was the recipient of more than 100 honorary degrees. Wiesel advocated for the victims of apartheid in South Africa, the plight of Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, Argentina’s Desapare-cidos, the Kurds, Bosnian victims of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, and he protested against human rights violations in Iran, the Balkans, Rwanda, and Ireland. 
In the mid-1990’s soon after thousands of Ethiopian Jews were rescued from violence and persecution in Africa, Elie and his wife, Marion, created two educational centers in Israel to provide academic and vocational training to Ethiopian-Jewish children. The centers are a model for other schools. He has championed the causes of Cambodian refugees in Vietnam, and indigenous peoples in Latin and South America including Nicaragua’s Miskito Indians. In his speeches and writings he repeatedly pointed out the existence of so many victims of terror and bloodshed in places such as Rwanda and Chechnya. And he urged Pres. Clinton to intervene in the genocide in Bosnia. In 2003 he discovered and publicized that over 280,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews and other groups were massacred in Romanian-run death camps. In 2006 he appeared with actor George Clooney at the U.N. Security Council to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. That year he accompanied Oprah Winfrey on a televised visit to Auschwitz. In 2007 his foundation issued a letter condemning the denial of the Armenian genocide. The letter was signed by 53 Nobel winners. 2009 he accompanied Barack Obama and German chancellor, Angela Merkel on a tour of the Buchenwald concentration camp. That year he announced his support of the persecuted Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. Wiesel was active in trying to prevent Iran from manufacturing nuclear weapons. He said: “The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions.” He also ran ads in several large newspapers, in which he condemned Hamas for the use of children as human shields in 2014. Wiesel criticized Pres. Obama for pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu to halt Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem. He stated: “Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than 600 times in Scripture–and not a single time in the Koran. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city.” 
In 2012 Wiesel protested against the whitewashing of Hungary’s involvement in the Holocaust and returned the Great Cross Award he had received from the Hungarian government. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1986 he said: “I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land.” In 2012 he spoke out against the unauthorized Mormon practice of performing posthumous baptisms of Jews by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This was after such a baptism was performed for Simon Wiesenthal’s parents and upon learning that Wiesel himself was being considered for a proxy baptism. Wiesel suffered from heart disease, and died on July 2, 2016 in his home in Manhattan. He was 87. In June of 2017 the southwest corner of West 84th St. and Central Park West was named Elie Wiesel Way. It was on that block where he had his first home and family since losing both to the Holocaust. He explained: “What is the Sabbath? Everything is different. When the poor don’t feel their poverty. Even the sick forget their sickness because of the Sabbath. Sabbath is not only a change of behavior; it’s a change of time. The time of Sabbath. And therefore actually at the end of any meal in the Sabbath what we sing is a song that we love to sing with our friends when we are sharing a meal for the Shabbat, and it’s the Harachaman. He wrote: “None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our obligation to denounce it and expose it in all its hideousness. War leaves no victors, only victims.”    

Giuseppe Verdi was born in Roncole in northern Italy in 1813. He composed 28 operas. While in his 20s Verdi experienced the death of his 1st wife and the deaths of his 2 infant children. This threw him into a terrible depression. And he refused to continue composing, until he read the libretto of Nabucco. He was twenty-eight when he composed Nabucco. Its world premiere was at Milan’s La Scala opera house. In Verdi’s day, the country of Italy didn’t yet exist. The Italian peninsula was divided into 10 political units consisting of 2 kingdoms, 3 republics, 4 duchies and a theocracy known as the Vatican. Most of these were dominated by the Austrian Empire. Nabucco broke all box office records at La Scala up until that time. And it was not long before Verdi became a symbol of the Risorgimento, the movement for the unification of Italy. The Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda wrote: “The cries for liberty it inspired in the Italian people spread from heart to heart like wildfire… Filled with pride, they all began singing Verdi’s melodies. After Nabucco Verdi produced a succession of operas to inspire and encourage the people. He composed always and solely for the people. That is where his greatness lies.” Nabucco takes place in 586 B.C. and is based on the biblical story of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nabucco, the king of Babylon, who ordered the Jews to be taken from Judea as prisoners, and led by chains to the foreign land of Babylon. Act I is set in Jerusalem, at the temple of Solomon Each of the 4 acts is preceded by a quote from the book of Jeremiah. Act I: “Thus saith the Lord: behold I shall deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.” Jeremiah 21:10 Its overture is one of the most exciting in all of opera. The Babylonian army has defeated the Israelite army and is advancing towards the city of Jerusalem. At the temple of Solomon everyone is lamenting their defeat and praying to God to spare the temple. The Hebrew prophet and high priest Zaccaria enters with Nabucco’s daughter, Fenena, as a hostage. Zaccaria sings: “Have faith in God…As our hostage she can secure peace for us.” Ismaele enters with a group of Hebrew soldiers. He is the king of Jerusalem’s nephew. Zaccaria entrusts Fenena to Ismael. Zaccaria sings: “Come down and fight with us, mighty God of Abraham. Fenena and Ismaele sing of their love for each other. Abagaille is has been raised as Nabucco’s other daughter, but is actually the daughter of a slave. She enters with Babylonian soldiers disguised as Israelites. She announces the capture of the temple and threatens Ismaele and Fenena with death AND declares her love for Ismaele. She curses them vowing revenge. She sings: “My love is a raging fury. It can give you life or death. Ah, if you love me, I could still save your people! Ismaele. sings that he can not return her love. Fenena feels the power of the true God of Israel. Hebrew men and women, Zaccaria’s sister, Anna, old men, and Levites all enter singing that Nabucco is approaching. Hebrew soldiers enter who also sing that Nabucco is coming. Nabucco enters with Babylonian soldiers. Zaccaria stops him at the entrance to the temple singing: “How dare you! This is the house of God.” Zaccaria threatens to kill Nabucco’s daughter, Fenena if Nabucco attacks the temple. Nabucco replies: “Wicked Zion must flow in a sea of blood amid tears and groans. Zaccaria holds a knife to Fenena’s throat but Ismaele seizes the knife and Fenena runs to Nabucco, who sings: “Your God fears me, you fools. He didn’t even appear on the battle field.” He orders his soldiers to plunder and burn the temple. Abagaille sings: “This accursed people will be be wiped from the face of the earth. If my heart’s affection can not be satisfied, then at least my hate will be!” The Israelites curse Ismaele for being a traitor. ACT II The Wicked Man “Behold…! The whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth and will fall upon the head of the wicked man.” Jeremiah 30:23 Scene 1 takes place in Abagaille’s residence in Nabucco’s royal palace in Babylon The Jews have been led captive into Babylon. Nabucco is away at war, and while he continues his battle against the Israelites, he has appointed Fenena as ruler and as guardian of the Israelite prisoners. Abagaille enters hastily and triumphant holding a parchment scroll and venting her bitterness and desire for revenge. Jealous of her sister and dying to know whether or not she is Nabucco’s daughter or as rumor has it only a slave, she finds a document that proves she is the daughter of slaves. She is bitter that Nabucco has refused to allow her to participate in the war against the Israelites. The role of Abagaille requires a soprano that has a hefty sized voice, who has the agility to singing rapid notes, high Cs, and powerful low notes as well. The soprano who sang the world premiere of Nabucco, Giuseppina Strepponi later become Verdi’s 2nd wife. When Nabucco premiered she was already experiencing difficulties with her voice, and singing the role of Abagaille seems to have killed what remained of her singing voice. Verdi wrote music for the part of Abagaille that is incredibly aggressive and fiendishly strenuous on the voice. When she sings about her own anger, her music climbs to a high C and then abruptly drops down to a low C, something singers are never asked to do. She rages in fury but then remembers her love for Ismaele. The high priest of Baal, who is the Babylonian God enters with soothsayers informing Abagaille that Fen is setting the Jewish prisoners free. They urge her to seize the power of the throne and inform her that they have already spread the rumor that Nabucco has been killed in battle. Abagaille sings: “I’m already ascending the bloodstained seat of that golden throne. I know very well how to unleash my revenge from that seat.” They sing: “Yes, Baal’s revenge will thunder forth with your vengeance.” Scene 2 takes place at nighttime in a hall in N’s palace Zaccaria enters the royal apartment with a Levite carrying the tablets of the Law. The Hebrews are gathered together. To the accompaniment of a cello sextet Zaccaria prays to God for guidance. He then goes with the Levite to summon Fenena. Ismaele enters with the Levites, who accuse Ismaele of treachery. Zaccaria’s sister Anna enters with Zaccaria, Fenena and the Levite announcing that Ismaele has saved Fenena, who has converted to Judaism and urges them to forgive Ismaele. One of Nabucco’s long time officers enters out of breath with the news of Nabucco’s death. He urges Fenena to flee and warns of the rebellion that Abagaille has started and conveys that the people now call for Abagaille as their queen. The high priest of Baal, an enemy of the Hebrew God, enters with Abagaille, the soothsayers and their assistants. Abagaille orders Fenena to give her the crown. Fenena refuses. Nabucco enters, grabs the crown and places it on his own head! He defies Abagaille to take it from him. He orders everyone to bow their faces to the ground and worship him as their God. Fenena sings that she has converted to Judaism. Nabucco declares that he is no longer king and that he is God. Suddenly there is a crash of lightning and thunder over his head. Terrified, Nabucco feels the crown being lifted from his head by a supernatural force and he loses his mind. What follows is a wonderful 5 part canon where everyone sings about the approaching moments of a fatal rage with thunderbolts preparing to open their wings. Nabucco then sings a magnificent mad scene. Zaccaria sings that heaven has punished the boaster. Abagaille picks up the crown and sings: “But may the splendor of Baal’s people not be extinguished.” Act III The Prophecy “The wild beasts of the desert shall dwell in Babylon and the owls and hoopoe birds shall dwell therein.” Jeremiah 50:39 Scene 1 takes place at he hanging gardens of Babylon Abagaille is now the Queen of Babylon. The high priest of Baal hands her a document to sign. It is the death warrant for the execution of the Hebrews, including her sister, Fenena. Nabucco wanders in still insane. What follows is an incredible duet between father and daughter in which Abagaille commands Nabucco to sign the death warrant, which he does. He then suddenly remembers his daughter Fenena and angrily tells Abagaille that she is actually a slave, whereupon Abagaille shows Nabucco her birth certificate and tears it up before his eyes. Soldiers take Nabucco into custody and lead him away. Scene 2 takes place on the banks of the Euphrates river We then hear the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves where the Jews are in captivity in Babylon resting after a long day of forced labor. They lament their unhappy fate as prisoners, singing: Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate… Go, thought, on golden wings… The thought is of their beloved homeland. They sing: “Oh, my country so beautiful and lost!” They yearn for their homeland. To Verdi, the suffering of the biblical Jews was similar to the anguish of the Italians under foreign domination. It is the struggle of an oppressed people for freedom. Dr. Ikeda wrote: “It was as if the Italian people’s own subjugation by another country was mirrored back to them. The opera provided ‘wings of hope’ upon which the hearts of those who aspired for Italy’s freedom could majestically soar.” Zaccaria prophesies God’s destruction of Babylon. Act IV The broken Idol “Baal is confounded; his statue is broken into pieces.” Jeremiah 50:2 Scene 1 takes place in an apartment in Nabucco’s palace Nabucco wakes up from a nap and realizes that he is now a prisoner. His mind is still confused and raving. He prays to the Hebrew God for forgiveness and to spare Fenena. And he promises to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Nabucco’s sanity instantly returns. Nabucco and his soldiers depart to rescue Fenena. Scene 2 is at the hanging gardens: the place of execution A funeral march is played as Fenena and the Israelites enter. They pray as they prepare for death. Nabucco and his soldiers enter. He raises his sword and the statue of Baal shatters into pieces. He tells the Jews that they are free and everyone sings praises to mighty Jehovah. This incredible scene is one of the most solemn and majestic compositions for vocal soloists and chorus only, with no instruments. Abagaille enters after she has drunk poison and begs for forgiveness from Fenena, prays for God’s mercy, and dies. Zaccaria sings to Nabucco: “As Jehovah’s servant you shall be a king of kings.”                                      

Toscanini was born in Parma in 1867. His career spanned an incredible 69 years. Beginning in 1898 he was the artistic director of La Scala for several years, from 1908-1915 the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the artistic director of La Scala during the 1920s, music director of the New York Philharmonic in the ’20s and ’30s, and for 17 years the principal conductor of the NBC Symphony. He conducted the world premieres of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, I Pagliacci, La Boheme, The Girl of the Golden West, Turandot, the American premieres of Boris Godunov, and Ravel’s Bolero, and the Italian premieres of Salome and Pelleas et Melisande. Toscanini had a photographic memory. He performed and rehearsed over 600 compositions from memory. He died in 1957 in New York at the age of almost 90. When I was a teenager I interviewed 50 of the artists who knew and worked with Toscanini, and broadcast these interviews on a radio show I produced called The Toscanini Legacy. That’s me at the radio station, and yes, that is all my own hair! The musicians were in their 70s and 80s when I interviewed them, and were quite young when they worked with Toscanini, who in those years was in HIS 70’s and 80’s. These interviews with the musicians are a direct link to the 19th century. I was struck by the vividness of their recollections and the enthusiasm with which they recalled events they had participated in thirty to forty years before. Toscanini recalled: “The first impression I received of Wagner’s music goes back to 1878 when I was 11 and heard the Tannhäuser Overture at a concert in Parma and I was bewildered.” In 1884, while a student at Parma’s Royal Conservatory of Music, the 17 year-old Toscanini played cello in a production of Lohengrin at Parma’s Teatro Regio, and was so moved that he wept. He wrote: “It was then that I first acquired a great, marvelous awareness of Wagner’s genius. From the first rehearsal, or rather from the first bars of the Prelude, I was overwhelmed by magical, supernatural feelings; the celestial harmonies revealed a new world to me, a world whose existence no one had even the slightest intuition until Wagner’s transcendent spirit discovered it.” The conservatory’s director, Giusto Dacci believed that Mendelssohn had reached the limits of harmonic expression, and the students were discouraged from studying Wagner. Therefore the young Toscanini secretly studied whatever music of Wagner he was able to find. He wrote about the Prelude to Lohengrin: “…When Wagner set down this simple A major chord for the Violins and Woodwinds, I’ve always imagined that at a moment of great, sublime inspiration he disappeared from the earth, went up to heaven for a time, and came back down bringing that magical chord, of whose existence no one before him had dreamt…” In 1888, at age 21, Toscanini was in Bologna listening to the first performance in Italy of Tristan und Isolde. By the end of the second act he decided to abandon his ambition to be a composer, even though several of his compositions had already been published. In 1895 Toscanini began his first artistic directorship: in Turin. He opened the season with Götterdämmerung, sung in Italian, as all operas were at that time in Italy. Amazingly it had a run of 22 performances! Toscanini’s first rehearsal at the Metropolitan Opera was in 1908 with Götterdämmerung, which he led from memory. Amazingly, he heard and corrected mistakes in the orchestra parts, which for decades, none of the well-known German conductors had noticed. In 1926 Toscanini conducted the New York Philharmonic for the first time, and he included Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music from Gotterdammerung. For his last appearance with the New York Philharmonic Toscanini included Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music. 1932 he wrote: “Among operas, I value those of Wagner and Verdi above all. It is difficult to state a preference for one of Wagner’s operas. I have noticed that if I am conducting one or another of Wagner’s operas, or playing it at the piano, whichever one it happens to be takes possession of my heart. And yet, every time I glance at the score of Parsifal, I say to myself: This is the sublime one.” The timing of Parsifal conducted by Toscanini is by far the slowest ever recorded in Bayreuth’s archives going all the way back to its first production in 1882! Alan Shulman remembered: “At a dress rehearsal of an all Wagner program. We did the prelude to Parsifal. When we finished he said, ‘Thank you, see you at the concert tonight.’ And my stand partner and I sat there three or four minutes. We were so moved by the magnificence of the man’s concept, that we just couldn’t pack our instruments away, and head for home, and rest before the concert. It was an incredible experience.” The Viennese photographer Robert Hupka took over 1,500 photographs of Toscanini at rehearsals and recording sessions. Hupka was very excited about the publication of my
book, The Real Toscanini: Musicians Reveal the Maestro, because it is based on 50 interviews I recorded with musicians who knew and worked with the maestro. Fred Zimmermann, who played bass with Toscanini said: “Wagner with him was deeply stirring, deeply spiritual; and being part of it was a transcendent experience. After the concert I just couldn’t bear to go into the subway; and so I walked for blocks and blocks to my home with the sounds of the performance ringing in my mind. Toscanini conducted the first ever symphony concert on TV in 1948. For this historic occasion he chose an all-Wagner program and he conducted a second televised all-Wagner concert in 1951. Toscanini conducted the Forest Murmers from Siegfried on both of his televised all-Wagner concerts. He conducted more performances of Die Meistersinger than any other Wagner opera. And the three works he conducted the most frequently in symphonic concerts were Debussy’s La Mer, Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, and the Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger. Hugo Burghauser, the chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic in the 30s recalled Toscanini conducting Die Meistersinger at the Salzburg Festivals in 1936 and ’37. “I had heard Die Meistersinger for 25 years; but this second act was an entirely new experience for me. In sound and dynamics, in clarity, in expression–this was the ultimate. And afterwards, when we ran up to Toscanini’s dressing room, I never saw him as he was then. He said: ‘Com’un sogno. Like a dream.’ 20 years later, somebody played for him a recording made from the broadcast of one of his Meistersinger performances in Salzburg. When he heard the second act he was touched…and said: ‘It’s a heavenly dream.’ He was moved to tears– such was the power of his own conducting. And of course for all of us also.” Marcia Davenport, a writer and friend of Toscanini recalled: “We who heard that rehearsal and saw it…were overwhelmed with emotion. But when the curtain fell on the finale, and then went up again as curtains do at rehearsals…there stood the entire company on stage, every one of them in tears. The Maestro himself stood motionless in his place with his right hand covering his eyes.” Lotte Lehmann who sang Eva in 1936 recalled the effect Toscanini had on the baritone singing Hans Sachs: Hermann Nissen. According to Lehmann, Nissen had a calm personality and was not easily carried away by emotion. “Even this man was stirred to his very depths by the great Maestro. I can still see him, his eyes overflowing with tears, as he turned around after the ‘Wach auf’ chorus in the general rehearsal saying, ‘My God, how shall I be able to sing now? This damned demon down there has absolutely devastated me with his fire.’” After the first performance Toscanini wrote: ” I was in a daze for two days! I was dead tired. It was a moving performance. I don’t think I’ve ever obtained a better performance of Meistersinger. Can you imagine that the singers were crying at the end of the opera? Bruno Walter came back after the 2nd act; he told me that we had brought off a miracle! I’m so happy to tell you this…But I was quite frightened…” And after the second performance he wrote: “Yesterday evening, after Die Meistersinger…I was exhausted…as if I’d done battle against forces greater than my own…When I’m working I don’t have time to feel joy; on the contrary, I suffer without interruption, and I feel that I’m going through all the pain and suffering of a woman giving birth…” Toscanini conducted Die Meistersinger again at Salzburg the following summer with Maria Reining as Eva. Late at night, after the first performance he wrote: “After the first act, Eva Chamberlain (Wagner’s second daughter) came with tears in her eyes and said to me, “‘My dear friend, I feel as if I were hearing Die Meistersinger for the first time. Never, not even in Bayreuth’s early days, has it made so great an impression as this evening.’ And she kissed my hands, bathing them with her tears, which seemed unending… I foresee and predict a sleepless night. My nerves are still tense; as I write, I have to stop every once in a while, because my hand jerks, as if from epilepsy…” In 1898 Toscanini chose Die Meistersinger to begin his tenure as artistic director of La Scala. The last performance Toscanini conducted at La Scala was an all-Wagner concert. And his last performance ever was in Carnegie Hall with an all-Wagner program. In 1899 Toscanini visited Bayreuth. He sent his brother-in-law, a postcard of Wagner’s grave, and wrote: “Here is the tomb of the greatest composer of the century.” Siegfried Wagner, the composer’s son, was astounded when he heard Toscanini conduct Tristan und Isolde at La Scala in 1901 and wanted to invite him to conduct at Bayreuth but was met with strong opposition to engaging a non-German-school conductor. Siegfried told Toscanini that the production excelled even those of Munich and Berlin, and reported to his mother, Cosima Wagner, about the excellence of the production. She wrote the maestro a letter of gratitude. Toscanini had presided over the installation of what was then the most modern stage lighting system in Europe, and German theatre managers all sent representatives to observe it. In 1930 Siegfried Wagner finally succeeded in bringing Toscanini to Bayreuth where he conducted five performances of Tannhäuser and three performances of Tristan und Isolde both staged by Siegfried. Toscanini returned to Bayreuth in 1931 and conducted five performances of Tannhäuser and five performances of Parsifal. He was the first non-German-school conductor to perform at Bayreuth, which the maestro considered to be a great shrine of art and therefore refused any compensation. The violist, Nicholas Moldavan, remembered that the musicians had resented the intrusion of an Italian in this shrine of German art until Toscanini’s first rehearsal of the orchestra, when he reduced them to stunned silence. Conducting as always, from memory, he detected in their playing mistake after mistake in the orchestral parts that had gone undetected for half a century by the German conductors. At a rehearsal of Tristan, Toscanini asked why no one was playing the cymbal part at the end of Act I. He was told that there were no cymbal notes in the parts. The maestro insisted that the manuscript be consulted, where, to the Germans’ surprise the cymbal notes were found, clearly notated! Lauritz Melchior who sang Tristan and Tannhauser that summer, recalled Toscanini saying: “What Wagner meant is very clear. Just examine the score. You will find everything there.” Alexander Kipnis, who sang the role of King Marke recalled: “He objected to the fact that the singers gave more importance and emphasis to pronouncing the word than to singing the music… The chief characteristic of Toscanini’s Tristan was its lyricism, which the typical German conductor doesn’t bring to the work…I always loved the lyrical approach to Tristan, which I heard many times from other conductors, but never in such a degree as from Toscanini. I would say his Tristan was like an Italian opera; and curiously enough, some time before Toscanini came to Bayreuth, Siegfried Wagner said Tristan should be sung like an Italian opera…That’s the way Tristan should be sung, because it was not a Teutonic opera.” Ernest Newman, born in 1868, was the leading British music critic of his generation and the author of more than ten books on Wagner. Hearing Toscanini conduct Tristan at Bayreuth he wrote: “I thought I knew that work from end to end and from outside to inside; but I was amazed to find, here and there, a passage coming on me as a new revelation and going through me like a dagger stroke…The total effect was indescribable: I shall remember it and thrill to it to my dying day…” In 1930, Toscanini’s first summer at Bayreuth, he also conducted a new production of Tannhauser. Melchior remembered that the first rehearsal had taken place while Siegfried was hospitalized, and that Toscanini wept through it. Siegfried suffered a heart attack and died during the 1930 festival. Kipnis recalled the concert in the Festspielhaus a few days after the burial. “On the program was the Siegfried-Idyll conducted by Toscanini: it was the most beautiful I have ever heard in my life; and everyone in the audience had tears in his eyes from the sound of this music. Toscanini’s Tannhäuser was different. His approach to every phrase was very soft…It was lyrical.” Daniela Thode was Cosima Wagner’s daughter with Hans von Bülow. She and her half brother, Siegfried planned a gradual light change from the Venusberg to the Wartburg In Tannhäuser. Toscanini insisted that the composer’s instructions for a sudden light change be followed. And in a letter to her he quoted Wagner’s words: “The great transformation scene takes place all at once…the valley bathed in midday sunlight at its brightest.” The cellist and conductor Alfred Wallenstein remembered: “During a rehearsal of Tannhäuser, when Elizabeth entered for Dich, teure Halle, the stage was darkened. Maestro stopped and asked: ‘Why is the stage so dark?’ And Siegfried Wagner said: ‘That’s what Father wanted.’ And Maestro said: ‘Father wanted?! You have the writings of Father?’ They had, of course at Villa Wahnfried…so they went straight into the library, and he took down the particular volume he wanted, turned to the exact page and said: ‘Here! Read!’ And Wagner [wrote] that for Elizabeth’s entrance there should be the brightest lights possible.” Toscanini returned to conduct the following year at the 1931 Bayreuth Festival. He was the favorite of the Wagner family. There was no Bayreuth festival in 1932. In 1933, Toscanini agreed to conduct five performances of Parsifal and eight of Die Meistersinger. However at the end of January 1933, Hitler became chancellor and immediately began destroying democracy in Germany. Toscanini was greatly alarmed and on April 1st sent a telegram to Hitler protesting the boycott of Jewish musicians and the dictator’s racist policy. This was published on the front page of the NY Times. Two days later Hitler wrote to Toscanini, inviting him to Bayreuth that summer and expressing how much he was looking forward to personally greeting him. Toscanini responded indicating that this was not likely to happen, and a month later he informed the Wagner family that he would not be returning to Bayreuth. Several years later he referred to giving up Bayreuth as the deepest sorrow of his life. Siegfried’s daughter, Friedelind Wagner, was strongly influenced by Toscanini’s anti-Fascist and antiracist attitudes and soon became an anti-Nazi renegade in her family. During World War II, Toscanini helped her immigrate to the United States and supported her for a long time. She considered herself to be an honorary stepdaughter of Toscanini and said: “I have yet to meet a great artist whose character is as wonderful as his artistry–except when his name is Toscanini.” In 1936 and ’37 the maestro traveled to Tel-Aviv and trained and conducted the first concerts of a special orchestra comprised of Jewish refugee musicians escaping Nazi persecution. When he returned in 1938, he insisted on conducting the 2 Lohengrin Preludes. This orchestra is now known as the Israel Philharmonic. My mentor, the Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda wrote:”Toscanini was not able to separate art from daily life. For him, pretending not to see injustice was not only stifling to his humanity but fatal to his art. As he said: ‘When one’s spirit is twisted, one’s backbone is twisted as well.’ It was Toscanini’s solid conviction that his daily actions must reflect his conscience.”

Anthony Dominic Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926 in Queens New York. His mother was a seamstress and his father was an Italian immigrant who worked as a grocer and instilled in his son a love of art, literature, and compassion for human suffering. He died when Tony was just 10 years old. That year Tony sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. He began singing professionally at age 13 performing as a singing waiter at several Italian restaurants in Queens. He attended the New York School of Industrial Art studying painting and music but dropped out at the age of 16 to help support his family working several low-skilled low low-paying jobs. He fought in World War II in the US Army as an infantry rifleman. In March 1945 he joined the front line in what he later described as a front-row seat in hell. He experienced bitter fighting in cold winter conditions often hunkering down in foxholes as the Germans fired on them. Bennett and his company entered Germany engaging in dangerous house-to-house fighting in town after town to clean out German soldiers. Bennett narrowly escaped death several times. The experience made him a pacifist. He wrote “Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn’t gone through one, and later said it was a nightmare that’s permanent. “I just said this is not life this is not life.” At the war’s conclusion, he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg. His first number-one song was Because of You in 1951. Rags to Riches and Stranger in Paradise followed in 1953. And in 1962 Bennett recorded his signature song I Left My Heart in San Francisco, which won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. Frank Sinatra said “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what a composer has in mind, and probably a little more.” A firm believer in the civil rights movement Bennett participated in the march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery AL in 1965. He also refused to perform in apartheid South Africa. His career and personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. By the end of the 1970s, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was performing few concerts outside of Las Vegas. He had developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and the IRS was intending to seize his Los Angeles home. In 1979 after a near-fatal cocaine overdose, Bennett called his two sons for help saying: look I’m lost here. it seems like people don’t want to hear the music I make.” His son Danny then became his father’s manager and succeeded in getting his father’s expenses under control, moved him back to New Yor,k and began booking him in colleges and small theaters. He also began a successful plan to pay back the IRS and began to regularly book his father on late night with David Letterman, on late night with Conan O’Brien, the Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs. Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 90s. Bennett has so frequently donated his time to charitable causes that he is sometimes nicknamed Tony Benefit. In 2010 Bennett sang on the We Are the World 25 for Haiti to raise aid after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He has received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees humanitarian award. He wrote: “There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country. My life experiences ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King made me a lifelong humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior. In 2011 Columbia Records released a 73-CD set which is not even complete! In 2012 Bennett performed I Left My Heart in San Francisco in front of more than 100,000 fans commemorating the 2012 World Series victory by the San Francisco Giants. That year he published another memoir, Life Is a Gift: the Zen of Bennett, and a documentary was produced by his son Danny also entitled The Zen of Bennett. In 2016 at the age of 90 Bennett was honored by the unveiling of a statue of his likeness in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco where he first sang I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1961. In 2018 after almost 69 years, he re-recorded Gershwin’s song Fascinating Rhythm which according to Guinness World Records earned him the title of longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist. Bennett was commissioned by the United Nations to do two paintings including one for its 50th anniversary. His painting Central Park is housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC. Each of his paintings and drawings sells for as much as $80,000! Many of his works were published in the art books Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen and Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art and Music. Regarding his choices of repertoire he stated I’m not staying contemporary for the big record companies I don’t follow the latest fashions I never sing a song that’s badly written. In the 1920s and 30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic renaissance. Cole Porter Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. these are classics and finally, they’re not being treated as light entertainment. this is classical music.” He is a recipient of New York City’s Bronze Medallion, the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has been honored by the Art Institute of Boston, Roosevelt University’s Musical College George Washington University, the Cleveland Institute of music, the Juilliard School, Fordham University, and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Berkeley College of music. He has received 19 Grammy awards including a lifetime achievement award and 2 PrimeTime family awards. He was named a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center honoree. Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide, several of them have gone gold and platinum. As the New York Times put it “Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises.” His duet with the Jewish pop singer, Amy Winehouse on Body and Soul was the last recording she made before her death. He has attracted acclaim for his collaborations with Lady Gaga starting with the album Cheek to Cheek in 2014 and the release of their second album Love for Sale in 2021. The Cheek to Cheek album earned him the Guinness world record for the oldest person to reach number one on the US album chart with a newly recorded album at the age of 88 years and 69 days. In 2014 Bennett performed for the first time in Israel in Tel Aviv and with Lady Gaga at Hayarkon Park. Bennett broke the individual record for the longest span of top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist. He also broke the Guinness world record for the oldest person to release an album of new material at the age of 95 and 60 days. Bennett’s final televised performance was with Lady Gaga on December 16, 2021, on MTV Unplugged. The special had been filmed five months before. He had no intention of retiring saying about Pablo Casals, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire: “Right up to the day they died they were performing. if you are creative you get busier as you get older.” Bennett continued to record and tour steadily doing 100 shows a year by the end of the 90s. The Good Life: the Autobiography of Tony Bennett was published in 1998 and he has sold over 50 million records worldwide. In February of 2021, his family revealed that Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. Due to the slow progression of his illness, he continued to record, tour, and perform. In August of 2021 at the age of 95 he performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City with Lady Gaga. A week later his son announced his retirement stating that though his father remained a capable singer he was becoming physically frail and risked a major fall if he were to continue touring. Bennett died in New York in 2023. He was 96 years young.                  

George Gershwin was born on Sept. 26, 1898 in Brooklyn. He was named after his grandfather Jacob Gershovitz. His father was from St. Petersburg, Russia, and his mother was from Vilnius, Lithuania. His brother Ira, originally named Israel, was born 2 years earlier. They had a younger brother, Arthur, and a younger sister, Frances, and grew up on the Lower East Side in the Yiddish theatre district. George’s favorite past time was roller skating. He always had poor grades, and dropped out of high school his freshman year. At age 12, his mother had a used upright piano brought into their home, and he immediately demonstrated a great passion for the instrument. He studied with several piano teachers, each time requiring more advanced instruction because his pianistic skills developed quite rapidly. He also took private lessons in music theory, harmony, orchestration and composition. As a young teen, Gershwin began attending concerts of the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra, and when he returned home he would recall the music he heard, both in his mind, and as best as he could at the piano. At 15 he got his first job, working as a pianist for a music publisher. His task was to advertise popular songs of the day with the intent to sell the sheet music to these songs. There was no radio in those days, no movies with sound, and the machines with the large horns upon which records were played were not yet commonly owned, so the way people experienced music was either by attending vaudeville shows in a theatre or by purchasing sheet music to play and sing at home. Gershwin played and sang these songs in music stores, dept. stores, cafes, bars, at silent movie theatres, and between events in sports arenas. Because he was such a piano virtuoso, he was quite successful at making any song sound very attractive to the prospective buyers of the sheet music. His rhythms had a striking impact, and his use of harmony was way ahead of his time. He wanted very much to compose his own songs, and became disinterested in plugging other people’s songs. After a few years he abruptly quit his job and then worked as a freelance pianist in vaudeville theatres, as an accompanist to singers, and as a rehearsal pianist for Broadway shows. He loved Irving Berlin and called him America’s Schubert. Irving Berlin thought about hiring him as an assistant and secretary, but then instead, encouraged George to continue on his own path. When he was 18, one of the most popular vaudeville stars of the time, Sophie Tucker, heard his song “When you want ‘em you can’t get ‘em; when you get ‘em, you don’t want ‘em. Based on her recommendation it became his first song that was ever published. Then Jerome Kern’s publisher, Max Drefus, who believed in the young man’s talent and potential, offered Gershwin $35 a week, basically subsidizing him, with the expectation that his hunch would pay off. Gradually more of Gershwin’s songs were published. In 1919 he composed Swanee with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Al Jolson requested to sing it. Within a year a million copies of the sheet music, and 2,250,000 recordings of it were sold. It was Gershwin’s all time biggest commercial success. One of his jobs was recording songs on piano rolls. He actually recorded 140 piano rolls including Swanee In 1922 Gershwin composed a one act jazz opera performed at the Globe Theatre, called Blue Monday, set in Harlem, with an all black cast. It’s about a jealous woman who has been led to believe her lover is cheating on her. When a telegram for him arrives, she assumes it’s from the other woman and demands to see it. Her lover refuses and she shoots him. Then he reads it and discovers that it’s actually a telegram informing him about his mother’s death. His lover asks to be forgiven, which he does, and the curtain comes down as he sings about going to heaven to be united with his mother. I’m struck by its great lyrical beauty. One critic wrote: “The most dismal, stupid and incredible black-face sketch that has probably ever been perpetrated.” The conductor of the opera was none other than Paul Whiteman, known then as the “King of Jazz”. He loved it and asked Gershwin to compose a jazz piano concerto. The result, in 1924, was Rhapsody in Blue! In the audience for the world premiere played by Gershwin with Whiteman conducting were Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, the conductors Walter Damrosch and Leopold Stokowski, the composers Victor Herbert, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff! Gershwin recorded it in the 20s! Gershwin played the famous melody much faster than we always hear it played by others. It was an enormous success at its world premiere inspiring an instantaneous standing ovation at its conclusion. It has become the most frequently played concert work by an American composer, and at age 26 made George Gershwin a rich man and the most famous composer in the U.S. Among excerpts from the reviews we find these statements: “How sentimental and vapid the harmonic treatment.” Another critic: “It runs off into empty passage work and meaningless repetition.” Another called it “crude.” And another wrote: “weeping over the lifelessness of its melody and harmony, so derivative, so static, so inexpressive.” Gershwin wanted to write truly great music. He wanted to continue to develop and go deeper. He had obstacles though: It was very easy for him to write a new pop song, which would earn him a lot of money in royalties. He had a need to be the center of attention. And the roaring 20s were a time of superficiality. Gershwin kept in good shape by doing calisthenics, and was a good dancer and athlete. In his home he had a punching bag, a rowing machine, and he loved ping pong. Those who knew him best said that the smiling, handsome young man surrounded by friends and acquaintances at parties was really a very lonely young man and that he may have used music to fill an emptiness in his life. In 1925 Walter Damrosch invited George to compose a piano concerto, which had its world premiere in Carnegie Hall with the NY Philharmonic and then was repeated in Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was an enormous success; the audience gave it a standing ovation. Arturo Toscanini conducted it with Gershwin’s close friend, Oscar Levant. The 1st movement, passages of great lyricism. Toscanini liked Gershwin very much as a composer and as a person. And one area of common ground was their love of music that sang. Toscanini really got the musicians to sing on their instruments. After the world premiere one critic called the concerto conventional, trite, at its worst a little dull. Another wrote that it was “fragmentary, uncertain in form” and another wrote “much less interesting than the Rhapsody in Blue.” Walter Damrocsh commissioned Gershwin to compose another work for the NY Philharmonic. While visiting Paris, Gershwin soaked up the sights and sounds of the bubbling city and while there, asked to study with the Queen of composition teachers, Nadia Boulanger. He also wanted to study with Ravel. Both declined to teach him, advising him to continue on his own individual path. In fact both of Ravel’s piano concertos may very well have been influenced by Gershwin. The composition he wrote for Damrosch was An American in Paris, and it was another instant success at its world premiere in 1928. It’s interesting that many critics wrote that Toscanini didn’t have an affinity for this music. Yet, when compared to the recording made with Gershwin’s participation, the tempi are identical. The beginning of the piece includes real taxi horns that Gershwin brought back from Paris with him. Again, Toscanini got a beautiful singing quality out of the NBC Symphony. The music fully captures the rhythms and spirit of Paris in 1928. Among the critic’s reviews after the world premiere were “Nauseous claptrap…patchy, thin, vulgar, long-winded and inane’ Blunt brutality—ballyhoo vulgarity.” Gershwin thrived on being worshipped. A friend said: “George needed praise and admiration.” In 1930 Gershwin auditioned Ethel Merman for the show Girl Crazy. She was then unknown. He was so impressed that he asked her if she wanted him to make any changes in the songs for the new show. In 1932 Gershwin vacationed in Cuba, and was immediately taken by the rhythms and many percussion instruments he was encountering for the first time. When he retuned home he composed his Cuban Overture. Unlike his brother Ira, George was very extroverted, and frequently went to parties, where he often played the piano for hours. People just couldn’t get enough of his dynamic playing! I’ve got another surprise for you! In 1934 Gershwin was even given his own radio show. He was very wealthy, and very popular with audiences here and in Europe. He constantly attracted and was attracted to beautiful women. Yet, he still wasn’t artistically fulfilled. He felt there was more music he wanted to compose, of a more serious nature. He had frequent stomach problems, and would become depressed. He complained to his friends; “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t fall in love.” Actually the one woman he did fall in love with was Paulette Goddard, but she was married to Charlie Chaplin. No matter. George asked her to leave Chaplin and marry him, which she refused to do. In 1930 Otto Kahn, a philanthropist and arts patron, commissioned Gershwin to write an opera for the Metropolitan Opera. Gershwin decided to base his opera, Porgy and Bess, on the best selling novel of Dubose Heyward. It is set in Charleston, South Carolina, and calls for an all black cast. Gershwin said it was going to be “a labor of love.” He spent the summer of 1934 living on Folly Island, near Charleston, where he soaked up the local music and did a lot of composing and painting. Dubose worked on the libretto, and Ira joined them on the project. George called it a folk opera. When it was completed the following summer the piano vocal score was 560 pages long. The orchestra score was 700 pages. It was more than 4 hours of music! Being a practical man of the theatre, Gershwin made many cuts to shorten the enormous length. The Met decided not to produce it, since they didn’t have any black singers on their roster and Gershwin insisted it be sung by a black cast. The world premiere was given on Sept. 30th 1935 in Boston, and opened on Broadway 10 days later. One critic wrote: “It does not utilize all the resources of the operatic composer.” Another wrote: “The song hits which he has scattered through the score mar it. They are cardinal weaknesses.” A third wrote: “Porgy is falsely conceived and rather clumsily executed.” And another wrote: “The score sustains no mood. There is neither a progressive nor an enduring tension to it.” It was a commercial failure and Gershwin lost the money he had invested in it. Next Ira and George were asked to create the music for 2 movies: A Damsel in Distress and Shall We Dance? With Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. George was becoming an increasingly lonely man. He was frustrated with writing music for Hollywood. He told his friends that he had a compete string quartet in his head, which he never got the time to write down. His third and unfinished movie was The Goldwyn Follies. At a concert during which he was playing his Piano Concerto, he thought at one point the lights had completely gone out, and he suddenly smelled the stench of burning rubber. He soon lost his usual energy, and began experiencing violent headaches. Then he lost his coordination. While eating, a knife would fall from his grasp, he would spill water on himself when drinking from a glass, bright lights hurt his eyes, and the smell of burning rubber continued. He became depressed, and when he consulted doctors, he was told that it was because of nerves. On July 9, 1937 he collapsed in the bathroom and fell into a coma from which he never recovered. He died 2 days later from a brain tumor that had gone undiagnosed until his coma. By then it was too late. He was 38. About all those negative reviews: Gershwin said: “I am one of those people who honestly believe that the majority has much better taste and understanding, not only of music, but of any of the arts than it is credited with having.”                        

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939 in a village in Tennessee called Nutbush. Her family lived in a 2-room sharecroppers’ shack. When she was 10, Tina’s mother left the family, and her father left two years later. She was shuffled around from relative to relative and felt she didn’t belong anywhere. As a pre-teen she was employed as a domestic worker for a white family. At 16 she went to live with her sister and mother in St. Louis, Missouri. After high school Tina worked as a nurse’s aid at a hospital. She soon met Ike Turner, who was a popular musician in St. Louis, the leader of the Kings of Rhythm Band. She began singing with his band, and soon became its featured performer. What started out as a platonic relationship changed into something else through Ike’s force. When Tina rejected him he beat her. She thought: “You have really gotten yourself into something.” Many of he words that I quote from Tina Turner are from her autobiography: I, Tina. “After I gave birth to our son he insisted that I sing two days later for an engagement in Oakland. I bled a lot when I hit the high notes that night. “It was constant hard work: if we weren’t on stage we were on the road to the next show. If we weren’t on the road we were in the studio; in every city no matter where we were, he’d find a studio to work at. If we weren’t recording we were rehearsing, running down songs, and working out steps. It was nothing to drive 700 miles from one show to the next, Ike sitting in the backseat with his guitar and us singing and practicing new tunes all the way; it never stopped. “Out of nowhere he would leap up from a couch and walk right up to you and pow! and you’d go: what did I do? What’s wrong? And he’d hit me again. It was insane. It got to be that I always had a black eye and a busted lip. He would beat me with shoes and shoe trees. Then he would have sex with me; it was torture. I always had a cut on my head somewhere, always had bruises, and later I’d be on stage trying to sing through these cuts and swollen lips. “One night Ike said do you want to marry me? I said yeah because if you said no to Ike you were just going to get beat up. I knew that I didn’t want to marry him. I didn’t want to be another one of the five hundred women he had around him, but I was scared. Sometimes I’d see him fooling around with one of the Ikettes or picking up women from the audience, sending me home early. He started renting party rooms at the hotels we stayed at just for him and the band and the women they’d bring back from the show. I was never allowed in there. Later on, the party rooms became party suites. I was jealous, but I couldn’t say anything to Ike because you never knew what he’d do.” Ike’s business manager, Ann Cain said: “One time in Dallas I saw him stick a lit cigarette up her nose and he would beat her with clothes hangers for no reason. One night I could hear him beating her up in their dressing room and I went in the room just as the fight ended. Tina was covered in blood and Ike had fractured her ribs but Tina stayed because of the children.” Rhonda Graham was the group’s manager and later managed Tina when she started out on her own. She said “You lived in fear; you wanted to get out but you were afraid to, just like Tina, and if somebody did leave, Ike would always track them down.” Tina wrote “I knew I needed something to help me deal with what my life had become, to help me find the way out but I knew that drugs weren’t it.” One of the Ikettes said “She taught me how to be a woman and how to carry myself as a lady, always told me you can’t work and party too, and she lived by that, never drank never smoked always went to bed after every show. She was so strong.” Tina wrote: “When Ann Cain became his mistress Ike set her up in a separate room at our house. I was trapped in the sadistic little cult, totally ashamed and totally without hope. Ike never let me have money; once I asked him for $5 a week just as an allowance and he had said no. The first time I left him I borrowed some money from the Ikettes and my sister and I got on a bus to St Louis to go back to my mother. Well Ike tracked down the bus. I had to get off the bus and go back with him and boy I remember that was the first time I got it with the wire hangers. It was like a horror movie. “After he began abusing cocaine that made him worse. Everything came quicker: getting mad, the fighting, the impatience; it got so you were so scared to say a word to him never knowing how he would react. If I thought it was bad before, the cocaine started making him evil. “One night he threw boiling hot coffee in my face; he said I wasn’t singing the way he wanted. When the coffee hit me it felt like ice and then it started burning and I started screaming. I grabbed my neck where most of it had hit and the skin just peeled right off. I had 3rd degree burns on my face. That scared Ike and you know what he did? He started beating me. My left eye pretty much stayed black and my nose was always swollen. It got so if I happened to roll away from him in bed at night– because he always had to lie in the crook of my arm– and he woke up and noticed, he would start punching me in my sleep. It was like living in hell’s domain.” “I tried leaving him a few more times but he always found me brought me back and beat me. When we were on the road he would always have his mistress, Ann Thomas, in a room right next to ours. One time he got out of our bed, walked through the doors connecting the two rooms, didn’t even bother to close them and got in bed with her, had sex and then came back to bed with me. When I found out that she was pregnant by Ike, I lost all feeling for him as my husband.” 

Tina was becoming a familiar battered face at the local hospital. Nathan Schulsinger, an emergency room nurse at a nearby hospital remembers Tina well. “She would come in pretty bad shape all beat up and bruised face, swollen bloody noses, hematoma on the eyes all puffed out and black.” 

Tina wrote: “It got to the point where I was ready to die. Ike was beating me with phones, with shoes, with the hangers, choking me, punching me. One time right before a show he punched me in the face and broke my jaw and I had to go on and sing anyway with the blood just gushing in my mouth. I felt like I could not take anymore.” Tina went to her doctor and got a prescription for 50 valium pills; she took all 50 of them. She was rushed to the hospital and her life was saved. “As soon as I got out of the hospital Ike made me go right back to work; he forced me; I went on stage trying to sing and hurting so bad. And when I came off I was coughing and throwing up; I didn’t even make it back to the dressing room. I was standing in the hallway all sick and choking and he came up and said ‘It serves you right. You want to die? Then die.’” In Tina’s words: “I was really seeking a change and I knew that it had to come from the inside out, that I had to understand myself and accept myself before anything else could be accomplished.” After years of abuse she desperately needed an change escape from her misery. Then in 1971 she found solace when she was introduced her to Buddhism and chanting. “I found a way to deal without without being so frustrated.” While chanting gave Tina a feeling of inner peace and tranquility it frightened Ike. 

This is the chant she does: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, the Law of the universe, the Law of cause and effect. Tina continues: “After I was introduced to the chanting by a new secretary Ike had hired, I set up an altar in an empty room we had, and when Ike was out I would do the chant and read  the prayer book book. I could feel myself becoming stronger becoming less and less afraid. Then Ike discovered the altar and he blew up and forced me to get rid of it because it scared him a lot. It really scared him for some reason. I thought he was going to faint so I had to get rid of it but that didn’t stop me from chanting whenever I could. Now I could feel the power deep inside me stirring up after all these years. And I would think about Ike’s face and how funny it was to finally see him scared, to know at last that he wasn’t all powerful, and that I could be set free. That’s when I really started chanting.” Tina was chanting more than ever, growing stronger and coming into her own. On the verge of age 36 she felt that a massive transition was at hand, an end to all the old things and the beginning of the new. All the years of fear had left her finally fearless. “I knew I was going somewhere. By now my determination was outweighing my fear of this man. What did I have to lose anymore? By 1976 we had our last fight. I fought back I didn’t care what he did because I was flying. I knew I was gone; that’s when I left him for good. I’m gone and I’m not going back was the attitude.” When Tina left Ike, she only had 36 cents and a gas station credit card with her. In her words: “I moved from place to place for 2 months working my way at each one housekeeping and cleaning. I moved junk stored stuff away, put out the trash, cleaned the cupboards, washed dishes and scrubbed stoves, because that was the only way I could repay these people. I didn’t have any money so I paid my rent by cleaning for them and organizing their closets. I finally had my freedom; god how I dreamed about it for 16 years. My women friends were into the rhythm of chanting. I was chanting up to four hours every day. The chant brings you into harmony with the hum of the universe, that kind of subtle buzz at the center of all being. My friend Anna Maria had a Buddhist altar, so I stayed indoors all day and just chanted and chanted building up my spirit for the trials I knew still lay ahead.” Ike Next Ike sent all four of the children to live with Tina. She continues: “One night all the windows of Rhonda’s house had been blown out with a shotgun. Another night all the windows on my car had been blown out and the car belonging to my son’s girlfriend was set on fire.” To haggle with him over the terms of the divorce, she knew would be to remain tied to the man for as long as he could manage to stall and stymie her. Thus her only ultimate non-negotiable demand, she informed her lawyer, was her freedom. She told him that she wanted to walk away from everything because her life was more important. “What was it like when I walked out and left Ike? Yeah, I was afraid but sometimes you’ve got to let everything go–purge yourself. I did that. I had nothing, but I had my freedom.” Because Tina walked out of the marriage during a concert tour, she was legally responsible for the $500,000 in debts incurred to the concert promoters of the canceled tour and a heavy IRS lien. The Ike and Tina Turner name was now mud with promoters and as a solo act Tina was an unknown commodity. At the age of nearly 37 she found herself starting over at the bottom of the business. “I knew I had talent but what I didn’t have was the backing to get me back into work. I said I don’t have this yet but I’m going to get it. Buddhism changed my old patterns of thought; it taught me to be a positive thinker and helped me stop saying what I can’t do and what I don’t have and start saying what I am going to do. “I never gave in to alcohol, never gave into drugs not even to smoking. I am very proud of how I came up. The whole thing is about earning your way and you don’t really get there until you earn it; that’s the real truth.” In 1988 Tina made the Guinness World Record when she performed in front of the largest paying audience to see a solo performer. 184,000 fans in Rio de Janeiro. And in 2000 Guinness World Records announced that she had sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in music history. Well into her 50s, Tina was paid 10 million dollars to wear and endorse Hanes pantyhose. Her amazing youthful appearance has been the envy of many. Tina Turner lived in Europe for almost three decades. In 2013, Tina married the German music executive, Erwin Bach, after a 27 year romantic partnership. He was 16 years her junior. That same year she gave up her American citizenship and was issued a Swiss passport. She divided her time between her homes in the mountains of Switzerland and her villa on the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France. It has breathtaking views of the French Riviera, a spectacular pool and all the comforts one could imagine. Mike Wallace: “You feel like you deserve all this?” Tina: “I deserve more! HAHAHA!” 
And on the 2nd floor, a Buddhist altar. Tina Turner credits Buddhism for giving her the strength she needed to get through her rough times and she continues to chant every day. 

Tina wrote: “The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself—something that’s in all of us, just waiting to be discovered.” At age 73 she became the oldest person in the world to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. “If I look in the mirror in the morning and don’t like what I see I don’t accept it’s because I’m an old woman. I do whatever I can at the moment to bring myself back to life: perhaps a facial mask, a massage, sauna, whatever I can do naturally to return the glow to my face. As long as you’re alive why not keep living as beautifully as you can.” And these words of Tina’s are particularly revealing:
“If I want something I go for it and really push until I get it, and I don’t give up.” In 2013 she had a stroke. Then in 2016 she had intestinal cancer and kidney failure. She received a kidney transplant from her husband. However, her body rejected the new kidney. “‘And I said yes, but darling you’re young and I am already old. I don’t mind.’ In Buddhism you’re taught that you live when you die. It’s something that’s accepted. And so after Irwin said that, I said ‘OK darling if you’re willing to give up a kidney, then fine.’” In 2018 her son Craig took his own life. “I think Craig was lonely. That’s what I think really got him more than anything else. I have pictures al all around of him smiling and I think I’m sensing that he’s in a good place. I really do.” In December of 2022 her son, Ronnie died of colon cancer. In her book, Happiness Becomes You, Tina wrote “I was never shaken, at least not for long. I mustered all my resilience and I know that my ability to smoothly navigate the healing process came from my spiritual training. Throughout many hospital visits and many surgeries I kept this empowering message in mind from Nichiren, the 13th century religious reformer and philosopher. ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is like the roar of a lion. What illness can therefore be an obstacle?’ Remembering this call to courage I summoned my inner lion and roared. I roared and roared and kept roaring until I overcame every health challenge just like I’d overcome every challenge that came before.” In 2019 the very successful musical, Tina, about her life opened in England, Germany and on Broadway. When she turned 80 in 2019 she had this to say: “Yes, I am 80. What did I think, how did I think I would be at 80? How is this? Oh! Well, I look great. Ha Ha Ha Ha! I feel good. I’ve gone through very serious sicknesses that I am overcoming. So it’s like having a second chance of life. I am happy to be an 80 year old woman. I have everything. When I sit at the lake Zürich in the house that I have, I am so serene, no problems. I had a very hard life but I didn’t put blame on anything or anyone. I got through it. I lived through it with no blame and I’m a happy person.” Gayle King: “Here’s to you! You earned it.” Turner: “Cheers!” After a long illness, Tina Turner died in 2023 at her home in Switzerland at 83.  

Scott Joplin was born in Northeast Texas in 1868 and grew up in Texarkana. His father an ex-slave worked as a laborer for the railroad and played violin. His mother was a maid, played the banjo and sang. After the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, African Americans were blamed for what their former slave owners lost economically. Therefore there was tremendous opposition to schools for African Americans. The few that existed were frequently attacked and burned. Teachers were whipped and beaten. It was considered the lowest position for a white person to be a teacher of Blacks. However, the Joplin children received private tutoring, paid for with food. By age 7 Scott Joplin became proficient on the banjo and began accompanying his mother to the home of a white family, where she did domestic work, and where he was allowed to play their piano. Scott was a child prodigy. He had perfect pitch and his talent was noticed by some of the local music teachers, who gave him lessons for little or no pay. His parents didn’t get along, and his father left the family when Scott was 12. As a boy, he spent the money he earned doing errands and odd jobs on popular sheet music. Joplin kept to himself and practiced. A family friend recalled: “Scott was earnest. When a bunch of boys got together one night and asked Scott to go with them, he said ‘No sir. I won’t have anything to do with such foolishness. I’m going to make a man out of myself.’” He soon attracted the attention of Julius Weiss, a German Jewish immigrant who had been hired to tutor the children of a wealthy landowner. Weiss taught Joplin for free from age 11 to age 16. He tutored him in folk music, sight-reading, harmony, composition and the music of classical composers. He also helped Joplin’s mother buy a used piano for the boy to practice on at home. Joplin never forgot him, and later in life, sent Prof. Weiss money when he became old and sick until his teacher’s death. Joplin played at church gatherings, taught guitar and mandolin, and at 16 formed a vocal quartet. He was a quiet, introverted person, yet he had a magnetic personality that attracted people to him. One of his friends recalled “Scott worked on his music all the time. He was a musical genius. He did not have to play anyone else’s music. He made up his own, and it was beautiful. He just got his music out of the air.” Around age 20 he quit his job with the railroad, where he had been working as a laborer and became a traveling musician. He found steady employment in the brothels of the red light districts throughout the mid-south. In 1890 he moved to St. Louis, then known as “The Gateway to the West”. It was filled with saloons, gambling houses and bordellos, where musicians were in constant demand. In 1893 he visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a huge world’s fair, where he formed his 1st band, playing cornet, and piano, and made orchestrations for the band. Ragtime music originally derived from spirituals and minstrel songs. By 1893 people wanted to break free from the restraints of traditional, Victorian culture. It was a racy alternative to the stuffy, respectable Victorian parlor music. Instead of Victorian genteel self control, ragtime’s rhythmic exuberance created an irresistible urge to dance. Its syncopated rhythm was an exciting departure from the usual order and regularity of waltzes, marches, hymns and dreamy ballads. But its popularity was controversial. At first Ragtime was not considered suitable for polite society. It was associated with lowlifes, saloons and bordellos. It was called “a disease, an epidemic, a rapidly increasing mania, and the source of physical and mental disturbances such as a frenzied mind, and abnormal heart action!” The criticisms were due to the vulgar lyrics of the songs, which Joplin deplored. Most of his rags are purely instrumental, without words. In order to promote Joplin’s music to respectable middle class families, his publisher advertised Joplin’s music as “classic rags…that have lifted Ragtime from its low estate and lined it up with Beethoven and Bach.” In the 1890s piano manufacturers began making inexpensive pianos. By the end of the century there were 400 companies in the U.S. manufacturing 150,000 pianos a year, and many middle class families purchased pianos for their homes, which created the demand for ragtime sheet music. In 1894 Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, where he played 2nd cornet in the Queen City Concert Band, taught piano, sang in choirs, and worked as a piano accompanist. He composed Victorian songs, piano pieces, marches and waltzes. He performed at Black clubs and sang and conducted a male vocal octet called the Texas Medley Quartet with which he toured for 3 years. He also enrolled at the George R. Smith College for Negroes in the mid 1880s where he studied advanced harmony, theory and composition. Joplin’s colleagues recalled that he was always ready to help a fellow composer and never uttered a word of jealousy or condemnation. It was in Sedalia that Joplin’s dramatic rise to fame occurred and he became known as the King of Ragtime. In 1899 he met John Stark, a local music storeowner and publisher. After hearing Joplin play his Maple Leaf Rag at the Maple Leaf Club, Stark decided to publish it and sold it for 50 cents per copy. He paid Joplin no money up front and only a royalty of 1 cent per copy sold. Thus began one of the legendary relationships in the history of American music based on mutual respect between a white businessman and a black composer. The Maple Leaf Rag only sold 400 copies the 1st year. Commenting on the fact that his music was not appreciated, Joplin said: “Maybe 50 years after I am dead it will be.” Not long after the publication of the Maple Leaf Rag, Joplin composed The Ragtime Dance, a dramatic Ragtime folk ballet of 10 pieces with a vocal introduction and narration. He established the Scott Joplin Drama Company, and rented the Woods Opera House to put on 1 performance. Scott played the piano and conducted the orchestra. His publisher, John Stark was there, but the sales of the Maple Leaf Rag hadn’t begun to take off yet and Stark wouldn’t publish the ballet. Joplin was disappointed and it became a source of tension in their relationship. Three years later Joplin again produced a private performance of the Ragtime Dance, and this time Stark published it, but it didn’t sell well. Also in 1899 Scott began a common law marriage with Belle Jones and they soon moved to a house in St. Louis where he composed and was a respected teacher. To supplement their income, Belle rented out several of the rooms transforming it into a boarding house. Their relationship was difficult, one reason being that Belle had no interest in music. They had a baby daughter, who died only a few months after birth. They soon separated, and a few years later Belle died. In the fall of 1903 Joplin established the Scott Joplin Ragtime Opera Company, with which he produced his first opera: A Guest of Honor, and took it on tour. During the tour, the box office proceeds were stolen and the company was forced to abandon the remainder of the tour. The opera was never published and the music was lost. It has never been found. He returned to St. Louis after the tour, and then moved back to Sedalia in 1904. That year Scott married Freddie Alexander. She caught a cold that progressed into pneumonia and died at the age of 20, just 10 weeks after their wedding. Following her funeral, Scott left Sedalia and never returned. 1905 was a very non-productive period for Joplin. Though Joplin’s ballet and opera didn’t spark any interest, his shorter compositions did. The Ragtime waltzes, 2 steps, and Slow Drags were very popular. By 1900 Ragtime was becoming a national craze. Sales of the music of the Maple Leaf Rag exploded! It has been played and recorded more than any other Ragtime piece. His rags are very difficult to play. Therefore the public demanded a simpler form of ragtime music. In response, composers came up with a less complicated and more commercial style. Talented pianists began to play the rags faster and faster, showing off their virtuoso techniques and delighting and exciting the listeners. New York was a large, busy city, where faster and more nervous speeds of musical performance became the norm. The resulting tinny sound is where the name Tin Pan Alley came from. It was the genre of these New York City ragtime musicians. Tin Pan Alley was characterized by an underground, bohemian lifestyle: fast paced and lots of alcohol and drugs. Deaths from drug overdose and syphilis were common. Joplin’s music was meant as a serious genre, not the music of a carnival atmosphere. Therefore his performances were less flashy than those of the virtuoso pianists and he often included these instructions on page 1 of his compositions: “Do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play Ragtime fast.” In 1908 he wrote and published an instructional manual consisting of exercises in the correct way to play Ragtime. It’s called School of Ragtime–6 Exercises for Piano. In 1909 Joplin met and married Lottie Stokes. They moved into a house in New York City on W. 47th St., which Lottie ran as a theatrical boarding house, and where Scott gave violin and piano lessons. After a few years they moved to W.138th St. in Harlem. They later moved to W. 131st St. where Lottie rented out rooms to boarders and prostitutes. He gradually performed less frequently, and devoted his time to composing and teaching. Sadly, some of Scott’s friends began deserting him and he was unable to penetrate the circle of black entertainers in Harlem. Amazingly, as Ragtime became the nations favorite music, The King of Ragtime got lost in the shuffle. This period also marked the development of the mechanical player piano—the pianola. These pianos used a paper roll, on which pianists made recordings, which then reproduced their performances on player pianos in homes. This resulted in fewer people purchasing the difficult sheet music of Joplin’s compositions. His 2nd opera, Treemonisha, is a folk opera that takes place on a plantation in Arkansas in 1884. A married couple desires to have a child whom they would educate to grow up and teach their people to discard their beliefs in superstition. Their desire comes to fruition and they name their daughter Treemonisha. The opera deals with the birth and rise of a female black leader who leads her people out of ignorance and superstition, teaching the concepts of self-determination and self-government. Joplin worked on Treemonisha for 15 years, creating a thoroughly American opera. He was an optimist with a mission. In 1911 Joplin tried unsuccessfully to find a publisher for Treemonisha. He therefore published it himself and then orchestrated it. It consists of 27 musical numbers. After searching for two years for a backer to produce the opera, the manager of the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem decided to stage it. However, the theatre then changed management, and the new manager decided not to produce it. For 2 more years Scott tried to interest backers. Finally, in 1915 he rented the Lincoln Theatre in Harlem and put on a concert version performance for an invited audience with himself at the piano, with the aim of attracting financial backers. The performance was a failure. No one was interested. The finale: Marching Onward implies that education, hard work, and morality will translate into progress for Americans. Its fundamental message was that education was essential for freedom. However, NewYork’s African American cultural leaders couldn’t identify with its message because they had had excellent formal education; they were not from the South, and knew very little about the oppressive plantation life. Scott was heart broken, and plunged into despair, suffering a breakdown. He was bankrupt, discouraged and worn out. For several weeks he was inconsolable. His wife stated after his death: “He was a great man, a great man! He wanted to be a real leader. He wanted to free his people from poverty and ignorance, and superstition, just like the heroine of his opera Treemonisha. That’s why he was so ambitious; that’s why he tackled major projects. In fact, that’s why he was so far ahead of his time…” At the end of his life Joplin was working on his 1st Symphony. But he began suffering from the effects of syphilis. Sometimes, when he tried to compose, his mind went blank. He would sit at the piano and not be able to remember his own music. A few months before his death he burned most of the manuscripts of his unfinished compositions. He experienced deep depressions, lost his physical coordination, and eventually lost his sanity. In 1917 he was taken to the Manhattan State Hospital for mental illness on Ward’s Island where he died two months later at the young age of 49. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Queens, New York that remained unmarked for 57 years. Then in 1970 Knocky Parker recorded a 2 record set of Joplin’s music for Audiophile Records. That same year Joshua Rifkin recorded an album of Joplin’s piano rags for the Nonesuch classical label. It sold 100,000 copies in its 1st year and became Nonesuch’s 1st million-selling record. Scott Joplin was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1971 the New York Public Library published 2 volumes of Joplin’s music and excerpts from Treemonisha were performed at the Lincoln Center Library with piano accompaniment. In 1972 Robert Shaw conducted the world premiere of Treemonisha with the Atlanta Symphony and singers from Morehouse College. It was 61 years since Joplin had published it. In 1973 Gunther Schuller arranged and conducted an album of Joplin’s rags with the New England Ragtime Ensemble, which won a Grammy award and became Billboard Magazine’s Top Classical Album of 1974. That year London’s Royal Ballet produced a ballet of Joplin’s music called Elite Syncopations and the Los Angeles Ballet produced a ballet of Joplin’s rags entitled Red Back Book. ‘The Sting’ starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1974. Marvin Hamlisch adopted Joplin’s music for its sound track, for which he won an academy award. In 1975 Treemonisha was staged by the Houston Grand Opera, and after going on tour, ran for 8 weeks at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. Soprano Kathleen Battle sang the title role and an original Broadway cast recording was produced. In 1976 Joplin was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize. In 1983 Joplin received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame and his St. Louis home, is now a National Historic Landmark. That year the U.S. Postal Service issued its Scott Joplin stamp.            

Giuseppe Verdi was born in Roncole in northern Italy in 1813. He composed 28 operas. While in his 20s Verdi experienced the death of his 1st wife and the deaths of his infant children. This threw him into a terrible depression. And he refused to continue composing, until he read the libretto of Nabucco. He was twenty-eight when he composed Nabucco.  Its world premiere was at Milan’s La Scala opera house. In Verdi’s day, the country of Italy didn’t yet exist. The Italian peninsula was divided into 10 political units consisting of 2 kingdoms, 3 republics, 4 duchies and a theocracy known as the Vatican. Most of these were dominated by the Austrian Empire. Nabucco broke all box office records at La Scala up until that time. And it was not long before Verdi became a symbol of the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian unification. The Buddhist philosopher, Daisaku Ikeda wrote: “The cries for liberty it inspired in the Italian people spread from heart to heart like wildfire… Filled with pride, they all began singing Verdi’s melodies. After Nabucco Verdi produced a succession of operas to inspire and encourage the people. He composed always and solely for the people. That is where his greatness lies.” Nabucco is based on a story from the bible. The Jews were taken as prisoners, and led by chains to the foreign land of Babylon. In the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco this scene shows the Jews in captivity in Babylon resting after a long day of forced labor. They lament their unhappy fate as prisoners, singing: Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate… Go, thought, on golden wings… The thought is of their beloved homeland. They sing: “Oh, my country so beautiful and lost!” They yearn for their homeland. To Verdi, the suffering of the biblical Jews was similar to the anguish of the Italians under foreign domination. It is the struggle of an oppressed people for freedom. Dr. Ikeda wrote: “It was as if the Italian people’s own subjugation by another country was mirrored back to them. The opera provided ‘wings of hope’ upon which the hearts of those who aspired for Italy’s freedom could majestically soar.” Verdi’s next opera, I Lombardi created a frenzy. It’s about the Lombards on a crusade to the Holy Land. The tenor sings: ‘The Holy Land today will be ours’, to which the chorus and the audience replied, ‘Yes! War! War!’ Pandemonium broke out in the theatres. The choruses from I Lombardi and Nabucco became popular hymns of the revolt in Lombardy and are still taught as patriotic anthems in the elementary schools of northern Italy. Even today Va Pensiero is thought of as Italy’s second national anthem. At most performances, the audiences demanded that it be repeated, despite police prohibitions against encores! In his opera Attila, which is about Attila the Hun, the audiences were electrified by the line ‘You may have the universe, but leave Italy to me’ This quickly became an anti Austrian slogan. His opera La Battaglia di Legnano is about the battle of Legnano, when Italian cities united to defeat the German invader, Frederick Barbarossa in 1176. It was the first Italian victory over a German emperor. Its world premiere took place in Rome. When Verdi was in Rome for the rehearsals, crowds gathered around him whenever he was spotted on the street. At the dress rehearsal a crowd of people broke into the theatre, packing it full, and called Verdi to the stage 20 times. It was illegal for people to gather publically, but going to the opera offered them a way to defy the authorities. Opera was the main form of entertainment. The house lights were kept on, because during performances, the audience would leave their boxes to socialize with each other. These patriotic operas were a weapon against the occupying forces. At the world premiere of La Battaglia di Legnano, pandemonium broke out when the audience heard the opening chorus: “Long live Italy! A sacred pact unites all its children!” The audience became delirious and came close to starting a riot. La Battaglia di Legnano became so popular that at every performance the entire 4th act had to be repeated. The pope had fled the city and 10 days later the Roman republic was established. However this didn’t last very long, and Verdi expressed his frustration to a close friend: “Let us not talk about Rome!! What good would it do? Force still rules the world! And Justice? What can Justice accomplish against bayonets? We can only weep over our misfortunes and curse those who are responsible for so many disasters…I have an inferno in my heart.” Verdi himself stage directed his operas, demonstrating to the singers how to stand, fall, embrace and address each other throughout a 4-6 week period. He rehearsed the singers and the orchestra and conducted the first three performances of almost all of his 28 operas. He was described at rehearsals: “shouting like a mad man, stamping his feet so much that he looked like he was playing the organ, while sweating profusely. He is music from head to foot, fighting for his own ideals, pouring his artistic genius into those men, those women, searing them with his own flame, which burns him, too; running upstage, and stopping the choristers to correct something.” During these early years, Verdi composed an average of 2 operas per year composing from early morning until midnight, usually with one break! His favorite drink was very strong coffee. Verdi referred to this period in his life as his “years of slavery.” As early as age 31 he announced his decision to retire. And when he was 46, he announced that he was definitely retired. In fact this is how he signed one letter “A deputy of central Italy who was stupid enough to write music for many years. G. Verdi” He also wrote: “I cannot wait for these next three years to pass. I have to write six operas, then addio to everything.” But within 2 ½ years the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia commissioned him to write a new opera and he began composing La Forza del Destino, The Force of Destiny. Verdi was a great symphonist. The Preludes and overtures to his operas are phenomenal. Italians began to use Verdi’s name as a political slogan, which expressed their secret support for a new potential king: Vittorio Emanuele. Vittorio Emanuele King of Italy (in Italian): Vittorio Emanuele Re D’ Italia  (abbreviated): V. E. R. D. I. “VIVA VERDI!” (literally): Long Live Vittorio Emanuele King of Italy! “Viva Verdi!” was scratched on walls and shouted in the streets. Verdi became a member of Italy’s first Parliament. Back to Nabucco! The soprano who sang the world premiere of Nabucco was Giuseppina Strepponi. Before meeting Verdi she had had 3 or 4 illegitimate children from different men. They were given to foster homes, and her “reputation” in the opera world was well known. She and Verdi soon became lovers and lived together for 16 years before marrying. She was 2 years younger than him. They both suffered on and off from depression, and the relationship had its ups and downs. From her diaries, we learn that at times Verdi became very angry with her and with their servants, and was unable to control his bad temper. When he was 59 Verdi began an affair with Teresa Stolz, who was the soprano in many of his operas. She was 21 years younger than Verdi. His wife insisted that he end the affair, but Verdi threatened to kill himself. His wife actually befriended the younger woman, and suffered through the affair for years. Nevertheless, Verdi and his wife spent 54 years together and he outlived her by 3 years. Verdi living with Giuseppina Strepponi in the small town of Busetto, caused quite a scandal, and they were terribly mistreated. To get away from everyone, Verdi purchased a home in the country outside the village of St. Agata. When he was 38, Verdi legally separated himself from his parents. His mother died six months later. That same year, Verdi and Giuseppina moved into their new home, and he gradually built it into a grand country estate surrounded by acres of plants and trees. Verdi employed up to 10 house servants and 18 gardeners, even in the winter! As a landlord he sometimes greatly reduced the rent payments, or did not collect them. He also purchased and operated several farms and employed 200 farm laborers whom he personally supervised! He even supervised the construction of a complex irrigation system for his gardens and fields. Verdi’s wife wrote that “His love for the country has become a mania, madness, rage, fury, everything exaggerated. He gets up almost at dawn, to go look at the wheat, the corn, the grapevines, etc. He comes back dropping with fatigue.” He soon had an abundance of farm animals, and loved the physical labor of gardening, and tramping about in the fields. He marked his career by planting selected trees: a sycamore tree for Rigoletto, an oak for Il Trovatore, and a weeping willow for La Traviata! Verdi sold his operas to his publisher, who then leased the operas to various theatres for each performance, and paid Verdi a percentage of these rental fees. For 25 years Verdi prohibited the performances of his operas at La Scala because he found the standard of performances there to be unacceptable. In fact, he had a clause in his contracts that gave him the right to decide which theatres would be allowed to present his operas. In this letter to a close friend, he complains about the theatre in Naples during rehearsals for Aida. “I knew how disorganized this theatre was, but neither I nor anyone else could have imagined it to be like this. The ignorance, the inertia, the apathy, the disorder, the indifference of everyone to everything, is indescribable, and unbelievable. If I hadn’t been such an imbecile as to give my word…I would have gone off even in the middle of the night, to dig my fields and completely forget about music and theatres.” 
He also frequently complained about the Paris Opera Theatre. He wrote to his French publisher that a performance must have “fire, spirit, muscle, enthusiasm; all these are lacking at the Operà.” And he hated when singers or conductors changed his music. His contracts included a clause that called for the publisher to pay him a huge penalty fee if theatres performed his music with cuts, transpositions, or other changes. In another letter he wrote: “I never succeed in producing those sweet words, those phrases that send everybody into raptures. No, I shall never, for instance, know how to say to a singer, ‘What talent! What expression! It couldn’t have been sung better! What a divine voice! What a baritone, there never has been anything like it for fifty years…What a chorus! What an orchestra!…Time and time again I have heard them say in Milan… ‘La Scala is the world’s leading theatre’. In Naples, ‘The San Carlo is the world’s leading theatre’. In St. Petersburg, ‘the world’s leading theatre’. In Vienna, ‘the world’s leading theatre’ (but in their case, it’s true). In Paris they think the Opéra is the leading theatre of two or three worlds. And I end by saying that one second-leading theatre would be better than all these ‘leading’ ones.” To the father of a young playwright he wrote: “…He should imitate no one…Let him put his hand on his heart, and listen to it. He shouldn’t become conceited by praise nor depressed by criticism. He should not fear the darkness that surrounds him. Let him go straight on, and if sometimes, he stumbles and falls, he must get up, and go straight on.” Once a libretto was completed, Verdi memorized it, and then developed his musical ideas slowly, walking around his farm brooding on it until the concept of the whole fell into place. Then he would quickly write it all down in the heat of inspiration. It didn’t take Verdi long to orchestrate his operas. The music came to him in a complete package, both the vocal and orchestral parts. He said: “The thought presents itself whole…The difficulty is always in writing it down fast enough to express the musical thought in its entirety, precisely as it came into my mind.” As a child Verdi had been an altar boy. One day at church when he was 7, he became distracted by the music and wasn’t paying attention to the priest’s instructions. The priest pushed Verdi, and he fell. Humiliated, the young boy cursed the priest, saying: “May god strike you with lightning!” Eight years later, the priest was struck by lightning and killed. In his old age, Verdi’s advice to a young relative was: “Sta lontan dai pret!” Stay far away from priests! In a letter to his friend, Countess Maffei he wrote: “I don’t raise my hat to counts, marquesses, or to anyone.” Verdi was opposed to the catholic church’s financial and political power, and the priesthood’s abuse of its power. In 1864 the pope issued a document called the Syllabus of Errors in which he listed what he called the 80 “errors of our time”. These included freedom of conscience, religious toleration, freedom of discussion, and freedom of the press. It was a reactionary attack on everything that was progressive in the 19th century. And three years later the pope proclaimed the dogma of the “infallibility of the pope”. This quickly led to the final step in the independence and unification of Italy. It was around this time that Verdi, greatly disturbed by the church’s opposition to Italian unification, composed a 5 hour long opera about the conflict between church and state. Verdi’s Don Carlos is based on Schiller’s play Don Carlos, which takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. Verdi depicts on stage, the tragic burning at the stake of so-called heretics by the church. These unfortunate people were often innocent. There is a scene between King Philip II of Spain and the Grand Inquisitor, who was given power by the pope to decide the fate of these unfortunate people: who would be burned and murdered? Verdi describes this man as being 90 years old and blind. He’s a symbol of the forceful negativity of the church. The Grand Inquisitor is someone who just plows through, unseeing, and uncaring for the idealism of youth, insisting on tradition. Verdi’s musical characterization of him is incredible. You feel the tremendous weight of the church. After the king’s son, Don Carlos, threatened to stab his father, the king has him arrested, and asks the GI what he thinks about having his own son murdered. This is so shocking. Yet, the Grand Inquisitor gives him justification saying: “god sacrificed his only son.” Verdi’s wife commented on his anticlergy attitude and refusal to believe in god or any higher power. “I won’t say he is an ‘atheist’, but certainly a very doubtful believer.” When Countess Maffei’s lover died, he wrote her a month later: “There are no words that can bring comfort during this kind of misfortune…Something else is needed. You will find comfort only in the strength of your soul and in the firmness of your mind.” Verdi’s gods were Dante and Shakespeare, and his saint was Manzoni, whose novel I promessi sposi was a milestone in unifying the Italian language and a symbol of the Risorgimento. His enemies were hypocrisy, mediocrity, pretentiousness, and the priests. He wrote to his protégé, Emanuele Muzio: “Respect yourself and make others respect you: never a moment of weakness: treat men of the highest rank just as you treat those of the lowest: don’t favor anyone; don’t have likes and dislikes; and don’t be afraid to swear occasionally.” During the wars of Italian independence, Verdi launched an appeal for contributions “to help the wounded and the poor families of those who died for our country.” And in the spring of 1879, when the Po river flooded the provinces of Piacenza, Parma, Mantua and Ferrara, Verdi wrote: “This winter there will be famine and people dying of hunger…At the same time the government is thinking of raising taxes…It really is a slap in the face.” Verdi organized a relief concert for the flood victims at La Scala where he conducted his Requiem. Because there was no hospital near Verdi’s estate, he decided to buy a parcel of land, and personally financed the construction of a hospital for his 200 farm laborers and their families. The mayor wanted to name it after Verdi, but he refused, and insisted that the only word inscribed on the façade should be “Hospital” Ospedale. After his death his name was added to the building’s facade. Verdi personally supervised the construction and paid the workers himself every Saturday. Verdi kept two copies of Shakespeare’s works next to his bed, and created 3 operas from Shakespeare’s plays: Macbeth, Otello, and Falstaff, which is based on the Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV. He also wanted to write operas based on Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, but never did. When he was 74, Verdi decided to compose Otello with Arrigo Boito as librettist. After Boito completed the libretto, Verdi began composing Otello, but then stopped. His wife, his publisher, and the director of La Scala, all tried to get him to continue. But Verdi was completely engrossed in farming and wrote that he was “surrounded by cows, oxen, horses, working like a peasant, bricklayer, carpenter…master stonemason, and blacksmith” repairing many of the tenant houses and building new ones. He wrote that he had “said goodbye to books and music” And he completely forgot about composing Otello! His protégé, Muzio, told him that he ought to finish the opera, and that it was a great way to cover the expense of the hospital he wanted to build, and even of providing it with an endowment. That’s what got him to continue composing Otello! Verdi wrote: “When I am alone and am wrestling with my notes, then my heart pounds, tears stream from my eyes, and the emotions and joys are beyond description.” One of his conditions for the world premiere of Otello at La Scala was that the poster advertising Otello would not indicate the date of the first performance! He had the right to cancel it even after the dress rehearsal, if he was not pleased with the rehearsals. And if anyone attempted to produce the opera, his publisher would have to pay him a fine of 100,000 lire! When rehearsing with one of his singers he said: “I’ll never stop urging you to study closely the dramatic situation and the words; the music will come by itself. In a word, I would be happier if you served the poet rather than the composer…Keep the dramatic situation well in mind.” During his lifetime, it was said that Verdi had begun imitating Wagner, a remark that he hated, and denied. He did admire Wagner’s music, however, and had this to say about Tristan und Isolde: “I still cannot quite comprehend that that it was conceived and written by a human being. I consider the second act to be one of the finest creations that ever issued from a human mind. This second act is wonderful, wonderful…quite wonderful!” Verdi’s opera, Aida, was written for a commission from Egypt and had its premiere in Cairo. It was the first opera Toscanini ever conducted, in 1886. He knew Verdi personally, and received the composer’s praise for his interpretation of his music. At the end of his life Verdi bought a piece of land in Milan and financed the construction of a Rest Home for Old Musicians. Its capacity is for 100 residents. He wanted to provide a place where professional instrumentalists and singers would be able to live out their sunset years with great dignity. After composing 28 operas and other compositions, he said that his most beautiful work was the Rest Home. Verdi died in 1901, at the age of 87. One month before his death, he arranged for all of his compositions from his youth to be burned! At his death Verdi’s net worth was approximately 35 million dollars. In his will, he left money to day care centers, the childrens’ rickets hospitals, and the hospitals for the deaf, mute, and blind of Genoa. He left money to each of his servants. He left 9 farms to his hospital, and stipulated that part of the income from these farms was to go to the nursery school in Cortemaggiore. The hospital was also to give money to 100 poor people in Villanova each year, and each year give money to 50 poor people in Roncole, the town of his birth. To the Rest Home he left money, stocks, bonds, and his author’s rights and global royalties from all his operas. As a result, I am delighted to say that over 100 years later, these two institutions are still functioning. The will also included his strong wish to be buried with his wife in the chapel of the Rest Home. Several weeks after his death, a quarter of a million people lined the black-draped streets of Milan as his coffin was transferred from the cemetery to the Verdi Rest Home. Daisaku Ikeda wrote: “In later years, he is said to have remarked, ‘I am nothing but a peasant.’ And it was with this recognition of being from humble origins that, as a friend of the people, Verdi devoted his life to composing operas out of his love for music and his love for Italy.” View short video: https://youtu.be/qRcmRuADyUA