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Stephen Simon
Stephen Anthony Simon (May 3, 1937 – January 20, 2013) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger. He was a noted proponent of the music of George Frederic Handel, serving as music director of the Handel Society of New York and recording several of Handel's operas and oratorios for the RCA label. Simon also became known for his pioneering programming of works for orchestra and narrator for young people, including his own Casey at the Bat and The Tortoise and the Hare. Life and career Simon was the son of Leo and Esther Annenberg Simon and the nephew of the publishing magnate and philanthropist Walter Annenberg. He was born and grew up in New York City, attending Dalton and Riverdale Schools. After one year at Oberlin College, Simon transferred to Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1960. He went on to study independently with Josef Krips. According to ''The Washington Post'', Simon was a jazz enthusiast in college and found it had a similar "e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Annenberg
Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', ''TV Guide'', the ''Daily Racing Form'' and ''Seventeen'' magazine. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served from 1969 to 1974. Annenberg was born in Milwaukee and raised in New York. He attended the Wharton School, the business school at the University of Pennsylvania, though he dropped out to pursue a career as a businessman and stock investor. His father, Moses Annenberg, was convicted of tax evasion and incarcerated for two years. During that time, and following his father's death in 1942, Annenberg took control of the ''Inquirer'', expanding its influence and his own. He built up his family's magazine business with great success, extending it into parts of the med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judas Maccabaeus (Handel)
''Judas Maccabaeus'' ( HWV 63) is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746). Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxii; and HHA 1/24. Synopsis Morell's libretto is based on the deuterocanonical (or apocryphal) book 1 Maccabees (2–8), with motives added from the ''Antiquitates Judaicae'' by Flavius Josephus. The events depicted in the oratorio are from the period 170–160 BC when Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire which undertook to destroy the Jewish religion. Being ordered to worship Zeus, many Jews obeyed under the threat of persecution; however, some did not. One who defied was the elderly priest Mattathias who killed a fellow Jew who was about to offer a pagan sacrifice. After tearing down a pagan altar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-known work is the orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas), ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' (''L'apprenti sorcier''), the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works. Among these are the opera ''Ariane et Barbe-bleue'', his Symphony in C (Dukas), Symphony in C and Piano Sonata (Dukas), Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, the ''Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau'' (for solo piano), and a ballet, ''La Péri (Dukas), La Péri''. At a time when French musicians were divided into conservative and progressive factions, Dukas adhered to neither but retained the admiration of both. His compositions were influenced by composers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Berlioz, César ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)
''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' (french: L'Apprenti sorcier) is a symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas, completed in 1897. Subtitled "Scherzo after a ballad by Goethe", the piece was based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 poem of the same name. By far the most performed and recorded of Dukas' works, its notable appearance in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film ''Fantasia'' has led to the piece becoming widely known to audiences outside the classical concert hall. Its first performance was given in Paris on May 18, 1897. The composer himself was its conductor. Analysis Description Inspired by the Goethe poem, Dukas's work is part of the larger Romantic genre of programmatic music, which composers like Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius and Richard Strauss increasingly explored as an alternative to earlier symphonic forms. Unlike other tone poems, such as '' La mer'' by Debussy or ''Finlandia'' by Sibelius, Dukas's work is, like works such as ''Till Eulens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rinaldo (opera)
''Rinaldo'' ( HWV 7) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, composed in 1711, and was the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage. The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill, and the work was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in London's Haymarket on 24 February 1711. The story of love, war and redemption, set at the time of the First Crusade, is loosely based on Torquato Tasso's epic poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ("Jerusalem Delivered"), and its staging involved many original and vivid effects. It was a great success with the public, despite negative reactions from literary critics hostile to the contemporary trend towards Italian entertainment in English theatres. Handel composed ''Rinaldo'' quickly, borrowing and adapting music from operas and other works that he had composed during a long stay in Italy in the years 1706–10, during which he established a considerable reputation. In the years followi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariodante
''Ariodante'' ( HWV 33) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 4, 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's ''Orlando Furioso''. Each act contains opportunities for dance, originally composed for dancer Marie Sallé and her company. The opera was first performed in the Covent Garden Theatre, London, on 8 January 1735. ''Ariodante'' opened Handel's first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, of the Princess Royal. The opera received 11 performances during its premiere season at Covent Garden. Like Handel's other works in the ''opera seria'' genre, ''Ariodante'', despite its initial success, fell into oblivion for nearly two hundred years. An edition of the score was published in the early 1960s, from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lili Kraus
Lili Kraus (3 April 19036 November 1986) was a Hungarian-born pianist. Biography Lili Kraus was born in Budapest in 1903. Her father was from Czech Lands, and her mother from an assimilated Jewish Hungarian family. She enrolled at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and at the age of 17 entered the Budapest Conservatory where she studied with Zoltán Kodály, and Béla Bartók. In the 1930s, she continued her studies with Severin Eisenberger, Eduard Steuermann in Vienna and Artur Schnabel in Berlin, who focused her interest in the classical tradition. Lili Kraus soon became known as a specialist in Mozart and Beethoven. Her early chamber music performances and recording with violinist Szymon Goldberg helped gain the critical acclaim that launched her international career. In the 1930s, she toured Europe, Japan, Australia and South Africa. In 1940, Kraus embarked on a tour of Asia where, while in Java, she and her family were captured and interned in a concentration camp by the J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Of The Resurrection (Manhattan)
The Church of the Resurrection, located at 119 East 74th Street, Manhattan, New York City, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in the Episcopal Church. It is the oldest church structure on the Upper East Side. The church is Anglo-Catholic in doctrine and style, and has an extensive music program. The services are in traditional language and reflect the Anglican and Western Catholic traditions of liturgy and music. In 2021, it reported 105 members, average attendance of 60, and $124,260 in plate and pledge income. History The Church of the Resurrection was founded in 1868 as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by a group of Episcopalians. An armory for the 7th New York Militia was built nearby, and its chaplain, the Reverend James Tuttle Smith, became the first rector. The building was completed in 1869, and was designed by James Renwick Jr., who had earlier built Grace Church in Manhattan, and went on to design the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and St. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Falmouth ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferries to Martha's Vineyard is located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth. Woods Hole also contains several scientific organizations such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), the Woodwell Climate Research Center, NOAA's Woods Hole Science Aquarium, and the scientific institutions' various museums. For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Falmouth, please see the articles on East Falmouth, Falmouth Village, North Falmouth, Teaticket, West Falmouth, and Woods Hole. Falmouth also encompasses the villages of Hatchville and Waquoit, which are not census-designated places and fall within the village of East Falmouth based on postal service. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras. The founders' ambition was to build an orchestra the equal of any European or American rival. Between 1932 and the Second World War the LPO was widely judged to have succeeded in this regard. After the outbreak of war, the orchestra's private backers withdrew and the players reconstituted the LPO as a self-governing cooperative. In the post-war years, the orchestra faced challenges from two new rivals; the Philharmonia and the Royal Philharmonic, founded respectively in 1946 and 1947, achieved a quality of playing not matched by the older orchestras, including the LPO. By the 1960s the LPO had regained its earlier standards, and in 1964 it secured a valuable engagement to play in the Glyndebourne Festival during the summer mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, orchestras, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music. Authorized by the 1958 National Cultural Center Act of Congress, which requires that its programming be sustained through private funds, the center represents a public–private partnership. Its activities include educational and outreach initiatives, almost entirely funded through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations. The original building, designed by architect was constructed by Philadelphia contractor John McShain, and is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington Chamber Symphony
The Washington Chamber Symphony (WCS) was an American chamber orchestra based in Washington, D.C. which was active during the last quarter of the 20th century. Founded in 1976 by conductor Stephen Simon, the orchestra was originally titled the Handel Festival Orchestra. Initially the orchestra was essentially the resident ensemble for the annual Handel Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. However, as time went on the orchestra began to expand its repertoire beyond Handel into a broad range of works from a variety of musical periods, including contemporary works. When the Kennedy Center's Handel Festival ceased in 1987, the orchestra changed its name to the Washington Chamber Symphony and continued to offer an annual concert series at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The orchestra disbanded suddenly in July 2002, citing post 9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
