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Florence Wightman
Florence Wightman was an American harpist of the 20th century. She began her orchestral career in Philadelphia theaters, and then served as Principal Harp for the Cleveland Orchestra, making her the first woman to hold a principal position in the USA, though for only one season. She departed Cleveland to serve as Principal Harp for the Roxy Theater Orchestra in New York City. She later played for the NBC Radio Symphony Orchestra, and served as Principal Harp for the Metropolitan Opera, while simultaneously performing weekly solo recital programs on several national radio networks. After an early retirement from the Metropolitan Opera, she continued performing for several opera companies, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, in Montreal under Leonard Pelletier, and in Bogota. She was recorded performing in ''Wonder Tidings,'' a Christmas work by the composer John LaMontaine for solo harp, choir and narrator. There are also historic recordings of her playing in the library of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpist
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or concerts. Its most common form is triangular in shape and made of wood. Some have multiple rows of strings and pedal attachments. Ancient depictions of harps were recorded in Current-day Iraq (Mesopotamia), Iran (Persia), and Egypt, and later in India and China. By medieval times harps had spread across Europe. Harps were found across the Americas where it was a popular folk tradition in some areas. Distinct designs also emerged from the African continent. Harps have symbolic political traditions and are often used in logos, including in Ireland. History Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa, and Europe, dating back at least as early as 3000 BCE. The instrument had great popularity in Europe during t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall. As of 2021, the incumbent music director is Franz Welser-Möst. In October 2020 ''The New York Times'' called it "America's finest rchestra still", and in 2012 ''Gramophone Magazine'' ranked the Cleveland Orchestra number 7 on its list of the world's greatest orchestras. History Founding and early history (1918–1945) The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 by music-aficionado Adella Prentiss Hughes, businessman John L. Severance, Father John Powers, music critic Archie Bell, and Russian-American violinist and conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, who would become the Orchestra’s first music director. A former pianist, Hughes served as a local music promoter and sponsored a series of “Symphony Orchestra Concerts” designed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roxy Theatre (New York City)
The Roxy Theatre was a 5,920 seat movie palace at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It was one of the largest movie theatres ever built in North America. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film ''The Love of Sunya'' starring Gloria Swanson. It was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and also noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and was demolished in 1960. Early history The theater was conceived by film producer Herbert Lubin in mid-1925 as the world's largest and finest movie palace. To realize his dream, Lubin brought in the successful and innovative theater operator Samuel L. Rothafel, aka "Roxy", enticing him with a large salary, a percentage of the profits and stock options, and even offering to name the theatre after him. It was intended as the first of six Roxy Theatres in the New York area. Roxy was determined to make the theater the summit of his career, realizing all of his theatric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in ''Norma''. The company was re-organized by Fox in 1956 under its present name and, after her 1981 departure, it has continued to be of one of the major opera companies in the United States. The Lyric is housed in a theater and related spaces in the Civic Opera Building. These spaces are now owned by the Lyric. Opera in Chicago 1850–1954 The first opera to be performed in Chicago was Bellini's ''La sonnambula'', presented by a traveling opera company on 29 July 1850. Chicago's first opera house opened in 1865 but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871. The second opera house, the Chicago Auditorium, opened in 1889. In 1929 the current Civic Opera House on 20 North Wacker Drive was opened, though ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Harp Society
The American Harp Society, Inc. (AHS) is a non-profit organization. Founded in 1962, the AHS is an organization of harpists with more than 3,000 members from all 50 states and 20 countries. The organization is currently led by President Lynne Aspnes, Chairman of the Board Elaine Litster, and Executive Director Kathryn McManus. The Library of Congress is home to the AHS Repository and the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University is home to the International Harp Archives which contains the AHS Archives, AHS Lending Library and Interview Series. National Events Every summer the American Harp Society hosts national gatherings. The National Conference, held in even-numbered years, features concerts by artists from around the world, workshops on wide-ranging topics, master classes with teachers, and scholarly lectures, as well as an exhibit hall with an array of harps and related items. The Summer Institute, held in odd-numbered years, focuses on the student harpist with work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his work with the International Composers' Guild. His many harp students performed in prominent orchestras. Salzedo started studying at the Paris Conservatory at age nine and won the ''premier prix'' in harp and piano when he was just 16. He started his solo recital career at age 18, and moved to the United States of America six years later, playing harp with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He toured extensively with the Trio de Lutèce, where he played harp with Georges Barrère on flute and Paul Kéfer on cello. After being drafted into the French Army during World War I, Salzedo returned to the United States and continued touring with the trio. He developed a method of using gestures in his harp method, inspired by dancer Vas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curtis Institute Of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. History The Curtis Institute of Music was founded in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok. She named the new school for her father, publishing magnate Cyrus Curtis. Early faculty at the institute included conductor Leopold Stokowski and the pianist Josef Hofmann. The institute has not charged tuition since 1928; it provides full scholarship to all admitted students. In 2020, following credible allegations of abuse at the hands of past faculty, the school ended its practice of keeping students enrolled "at the discretion of their major instrument teacher". In accepting the findings of an independent investigation of abuse allegations that found the practice was a "real threat" a student "could be dismissed for any reason at any time", Curtis pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edna Phillips
Edna Phillips (January 7, 1907 – December 2, 2003), later Edna Phillips Rosenbaum (though she never changed her professional name and was still known as "Miss Phillips"), was an American harpist long associated with the Philadelphia Orchestra and a teacher at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Her most lasting contribution to the instrument was a body of works she commissioned as a soloist, including the concertos of Alberto Ginastera, Nicolai Berezowsky, Ernst Krenek, and Ernst von Dohnányi. Early life Edna Phillips was born on January 7, 1907, in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she learned to play the piano and the violin. At the age of seventeen she began harp study with Florence Wightman. Miss Wightman was a student of Carlos Salzedo at the recently established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was his teaching assistant as well. When Edna moved to Philadelphia two years later, she continued her private lessons with Miss Wightman, and audited lessons and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Classical Harpists
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
