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Astoria Symphony
The Astoria Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of professional musicians based in Astoria, Queens, in New York City. The orchestra performs at least six programs annually. The Astoria Symphony is the only semi-professional orchestra that regularly serves western Queens. The orchestra was founded by conductor Silas Nathaniel Huff in 2002, and performed fifteen concerts in its inaugural season. The Astoria Symphony's first performance in September 2003 under Huff's baton included Felix Mendelssohn's '' The Hebrides'', Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 1, and Haydn's Symphony No. 103 ("Drumroll"). Since then, the orchestra has performed a wide range of repertoire including Vivaldi's Gloria, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Debussy's '' Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun'' (reduced orchestration), Brahms' '' A German Requiem'', Beethoven's ''Choral Fantasy'', Symphonies No. 8 and 9, Piano Concertos 3 and 5, and ''Egmont Overture'', Stravinsky's '' Firebird'', Ives' ''The Unan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astoria Symphony Logo
Astoria is a placename, ultimately named for businessman John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), in the 1840s the wealthiest person in the United States and, as a hotel name, his great-grandson William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919). The name was first used for Fort Astoria, built in 1811 at the mouth of the Columbia River (in what is now Oregon) for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. Places United States * Astoria, Illinois (1837) ** Astoria Township, Fulton County, Illinois * Astoria, Missouri (1844) * Astoria, Queens, neighborhood in New York City (1839) * Astoria, Oregon, named for Fort Astoria (1811) * Astoria, South Dakota (1900, named for Astoria, Oregon) Other places * Astoria, Budapest, a major junction in central Budapest, named after the Astoria Grand Hotel at its corner ** Astoria (Budapest Metro) * Astoria Boulevard, a boulevard in New York City ** Astoria Boulevard (BMT Astoria Line), a subway stop along the boulevard * Astoria Canyon, a submarine abyss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A German Requiem (Brahms)
''A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures'', Op. 45 (german: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift, links=no) by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest composition. ''A German Requiem'' is sacred but non-liturgical, and unlike a long tradition of the Latin Requiem, ''A German Requiem'', as its title states, is a ''Requiem'' in the German language. History Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well have inspired ''Ein deutsches Requiem''. Brahms's lingering feelings over Robert Schumann's death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain. His original conception was for a work of six movements; according to their eventual places in the final version, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riverside Church
Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and across from Grant's Tomb. It is associated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. The church was conceived by philanthropist businessman and Baptist John D. Rockefeller Jr. in conjunction with Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fosdick as a large, interdenominational church in Morningside Heights, which is surrounded by academic institutions. The original building opened in 1930; it was designed by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens in the Neo-Gothic style. It contains a nave consisting of five architectural bays; a chancel at the front of the nave; a 22-story, tower above the nave; a narthex and chapel; and a cloistered passageway that connects to the eastern entrance on Claremont Av ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West Side is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen to the south, Columbus Circle to the southeast, and Morningside Heights to the north. Like the Upper East Side opposite Central Park, the Upper West Side is an affluent, primarily residential area with many of its residents working in commercial areas of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Similarly to the Museum Mile district on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side is considered one of Manhattan's cultural and intellectual hubs, with Columbia University and Barnard College located just to the north of the neighborhood, the American Museum of Natural History located near its center, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School located at the sout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony Space
Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Peter Norton Symphony Space) or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings. In addition, Symphony Space provides literacy programs and the Curriculum Arts Project, which integrates performing arts into social studies curricula in New York City Public Schools. Symphony Space traces its beginnings to a free marathon concert, Wall to Wall Bach, held on January 9, 1978, organized by Isaiah Sheffer and Alan Miller. From 1978 to 2001, the theater hosted all of the New York productions by the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. As of 2010, Symphony Space hosts 600 or more events annually, including an annual free music Wall to Wall marathon; Bloomsday on Broadway (celebrating James Joy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former congressman and New York City mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. The college offers associate degrees in the arts, sciences, and applied sciences, as well as continuing education programs. History LaGuardia Community College was founded on January 22, 1967, by a resolution of the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York, a New York State agency which was the precursor to the board of trustees of the City University of New York.Fitzpatrick, John"City University of New York"''U.S. History Encyclopedia'' The new college, originally designated "Community College Number Nine", was to be comprehensive: "The college will be oriented to the needs and interests of the community in which it is located, providing cultural activities, special services, continuing education and ski ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with Julius Goldstein erfordin Berlin at the age of six. His parents were Hilde (Schindler) and the philosopher and scholar Martin Foss. He moved with his family to Paris in 1933, where he studied piano with Lazare Lévy, composition with Noël Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes, and flute with Marcel Moyse. In 1937 he moved with his parents and brother to the United States, where his father (on advice from the Quakers who had taken the family in upon arrival in Philadelphia) changed the family name to Foss. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with Isabelle Vengerova (piano), Rosario Scalero (composition) and Fritz Reiner (conducting). At Curtis, Foss began a lifelong friendship with classmate Leonard Bernstein, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Unanswered Question
''The Unanswered Question'' is a musical work by American composer Charles Ives. Originally paired with ''Central Park in the Dark'' as ''Two Contemplations'' in 1908, ''The Unanswered Question'' was revised by Ives in 1930–1935. As with many of Ives' works, it was largely unknown until much later in his life, and was not performed until 1946. Against a background of slow, quiet strings representing "The Silence of the Druids", a solo trumpet poses "The Perennial Question of Existence", to which a woodwind quartet of "Fighting Answerers" tries vainly to provide an answer, growing more frustrated and dissonant until they give up. The three groups of instruments perform in independent tempos and are placed separately on the stage—the strings offstage. Composition The score of ''The Unanswered Question'' printed by Southern Music Publishing in 1953 lists the following three instrumental groups: * A woodwind quartet. The foreword to the score states "If a large string orches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized through the efforts of contemporaries like Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". He was also among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century. Hence, he is often regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the 20th century. Sources of Ives's tonal imagery included hymn tunes and traditional songs; he also incorporated melodies of the tow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Firebird
''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois on a scenario based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. It was first performed at the Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910 and was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece. Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes; ''L'Oiseau de feu'' was the first such major project. The success of the ballet was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913). The last transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase", which continued with works such as '' Renard'', ''L'Histoire du soldat,'' and ''Les noces'', was followed in the 1920s by a period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egmont (Beethoven)
''Egmont'', Op. 84 by Ludwig van Beethoven, is a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of an overture followed by a sequence of nine pieces for soprano, male narrator, and full symphony orchestra. The male narrator is optional; he is not used in the play and does not appear in some recordings of the complete incidental music. Beethoven wrote it between October 1809 and June 1810, and it was premiered on 15 June 1810. The subject of the music and dramatic narrative is the life and heroism of 16th-century nobleman Lamoral, Count of Egmont from the Low Countries. It was composed during the Napoleonic Wars when the First French Empire had extended its domination over vast swathes of Europe. Beethoven had famously expressed his great outrage over Napoleon Bonaparte's decision to crown himself Emperor in 1804, furiously scratching out his name in the dedication of the ''Eroica Symphony''. In the music fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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