Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition by the American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which synthesizes elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. The composition was commissioned at the request of bandleader Paul Whiteman. The piece received its premiere in the concert, "An Experiment in Modern Music," which was held on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City, by Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano. The work was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé several times, including the original 1924 scoring, the 1926 "theater orchestra" setting, and the 1942 symphony orchestra scoring.
Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, known as Ferde Grofé was an American composer, arranger, pianist and instrumentalist. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement tone poem, Grand Canyon Suite.
The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".
Antal Doráti was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943.
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about music. As a composer he was prolific: the list of his works totals more than 700, mostly compositions of his own, but a substantial minority of orchestrations and arrangements of other composers' works. Those whose music he orchestrated range from William Byrd to Edward Elgar to Noël Coward.
Classical Baby is a 2005 American television series for young children and families directed by Amy Schatz and produced by HBO. The animation was created and designed by Maciek Albrecht and MaGiK World Animation. Classical Baby is designed to introduce young children to masterpieces from the worlds of music, art, dance, poetry, lullaby 1, lullaby 2, symphony, safety, circus, holiday 1 and holiday 2. This series first aired on HBO Family on May 14, 2005.
Andre Kostelanetz was a Russian-born American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orchestra music.
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music.
Nadine Dana Suesse was an American musician, composer and lyricist.
The Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra, was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between June and October 1884. It was premiered in Moscow on 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1885, with Sergei Taneyev as soloist and Max Erdmannsdörfer conducting. The Concert Fantasia received many performances in the first 20 years of its existence. It then disappeared from the repertoire and lay virtually unperformed for many years, but underwent a revival in the latter part of the 20th century.
Carol Rosenberger is a classical pianist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenberger studied in the U.S. with Webster Aitken and Katja Andy; in Paris with Nadia Boulanger; and in Vienna with harpsichordist/ Baroque scholar Eta Harich-Schneider and Schenker theorist Franz Eibner. In 1976, Rosenberger was chosen to represent America's women concert artists by the President's National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. She has been on the faculties of the University of Southern California, California State University, Northridge and Immaculate Heart College. She has given performance workshops for young musicians on campuses nationwide. Rosenberger recorded over 30 albums on the Delos Productions, Inc. recording label. Rosenberger's memoir, To Play Again: A Memoir of Musical Survival was published in 2018 by She Writes Press.
Wild Swans is a ballet by Meryl Tankard with score by Soviet-born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.
While the contributions of the Russian nationalistic group The Five were important in their own right in developing an independent Russian voice and consciousness in classical music, the compositions of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky became dominant in 19th century Russia, with Tchaikovsky becoming known both in and outside Russia as its greatest musical talent. His formal conservatory training allowed him to write works with Western-oriented attitudes and techniques, showcasing a wide range and breadth of technique from a poised "Classical" form simulating 18th century Rococo elegance to a style more characteristic of Russian nationalists or a musical idiom expressly to channel his own overwrought emotions.
Daniil Olegovich Trifonov is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by The Globe and Mail as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by The Times as "without question the most astounding pianist of our age", Trifonov's honors include a Grammy Award win in 2018 and the Gramophone Classical Music Awards' Artist of the Year Award in 2016. The New York Times has noted that "few artists have burst onto the classical music scene in recent years with the incandescence" of Trifonov. He has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic, and has given solo recitals in such venues as Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berliner Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw, and the Seoul Arts Center.
Opus is the eighth studio album of the music project Schiller created by the German electronic musician Christopher Von Deylen. The album was announced on July 1, 2013 and was released on August 30, 2013. On this album Schiller has collaborated with Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko, French pianist Hélène Grimaud and German classical oboist Albrecht Mayer. Opus is the first release of the new label "Panorama" by Deutsche Grammophon. The album reached in its first week number 1 of the German albums chart and number 6 in Switzerland and number 10 in Austria. These are the highest entries of Schiller in Austria and Switzerland and the fourth number-1-album of Schiller in Germany. Schiller has received a Gold award in Germany in December 2013 for 100.000 sold albums of Opus. In 2014 there will be a reedition of the album: Opus - White Album.
Steven Richman is an American conductor and writer. He is music director of Harmonie Ensemble/New York, which he founded in 1979, and the Dvořák Festival Orchestra of New York.
Harmonie Ensemble/New York is a musical organization based in New York City that performs and records an eclectic repertoire ranging from classical to jazz. Founded in 1979 by its conductor, Steven Richman, HE/NY has performed orchestra, chamber orchestra, symphonic jazz, big band, chamber, and wind ensemble works in virtually all of New York's concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, and St. Peter's Church, and throughout the United States under Columbia Artists Management. It also appears on radio and television. HE/NY has won numerous awards, including the Classical Recording Foundation Award in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Community Arts Project, and the WQXR Action for the Arts Award, as well as a Grammy nomination.
