How one of the giants of jazz composed a hymn for Black-Jewish unity
Dave Brubeck's 1969 opus ‘Gates of Justice’ is on its way to UCLA
Dave Brubeck's 1969 opus ‘Gates of Justice’ is on its way to UCLA
In its first appearance abroad since 2019, the New York Philharmonic performed at a German music festival located in a former Nazi munitions factory.
Read this article in Yiddish. This week marks the 250th anniversary of what is believed to be the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most influential composers of all time, and a favorite among the Jews in Eastern Europe. Beethoven’s popular “Moonlight Sonata,” for example, is the topic of a wonderful children’s tale…
When Lewis Kaplan emailed Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s family, asking if she wanted to take part in a pandemic-era music festival, he didn’t know what would happen. What he didn’t expect was an immediate response from the justice’s daughter, Jane Ginsburg, telling him that the Notorious RBG was all in. No, this isn’t an exposé of…
Editor’s note: Arnold Schoenberg was born on this day in 1874. 145 years later, we look back at the genius of the Austrian Jewish composer. What happens in the mind of a genius? Mozart’s mind was puerile; if his extraordinary sophistication with music extended to other aspects of his psyche, he didn’t show it. Van…
What happens in the mind of a genius? Mozart’s mind was puerile; if his extraordinary sophistication with music extended to other aspects of his psyche, he didn’t show it. Van Gogh was subject to psychotic episodes, a struggle that may have impacted his work, although we can only speculate. Bits of Einstein’s brain are preserved…
In her essay, “The Aesthetics of Silence,” Susan Sontag writes that “the artist who creates silence or emptiness must produce something dialectical: a full void, an enriching emptiness, a resonating or eloquent silence.” Though Sontag never mentions the work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (of whom she could hardly have been aware at the time),…
Starting today, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will begin a five day performance run one of the all time great “lost works” of music – Igor Stravinsky’s “Chant Funebre” (Funeral Song). The piece, a short orchestral work, was written in 1908 on the occasion of the death of Stravinsky’s mentor Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. As the story goes,…