Aweigh in A Major

A composer's thoughts about music and musicians

“I needed to hear someone singing tonight”

0 Comments

Listening to Anna Tivel don't remember how I discovered the songs of the Portland-based folk-singer Anna Tivel. It was probably through Folk Alley, an internet radio station that keeps me company while I’m doing computer work. I admired the...

Addio Argento

2 Comments

One month ago, on February 20, 2019, we lost master composer Dominick Argento. The affection I felt for the man and the respect I had for his art can’t be neatly summarized, but here is an appreciation adapted from words at a concert of his music at Hill House in...

Remembering Poet Donald Hall

0 Comments

I had been thinking about Donald Hall, wondering how he was getting on. That usually means: pay attention. Twenty years ago, I wrote a song cycle for soprano and piano based on Hall’s baseball writings. In the Country of Baseball, a title I borrowed from one of Hall's...

Young Man with a Cross

0 Comments

In two recent and marvelous Schubert Club International Artist Series recitals with harpsichordist Richard Egarr, cellist Steven Isserlis played Bach’s 5th Cello Suite, BWV 1011. That work includes a singular sarabande, shown here in in Anna Magdalena Bach's hand: The...

That Sweet Man, John Clare

0 Comments

Jeremy Huw Williams and Paula Fan Present Clare Cycle October 30, 2017 6 PM Ultan Recital Hall, University of Minnesota Acclaimed Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams (Welsh National Opera) and pianist Paula Fan (University of Arizona) will present a recital of...

“Estrellita,” Heifetz’s Little Star

3 Comments

When Augustin Hadelich and Joyce Yang played Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita” as an encore at a Schubert Club International Artist Series recital in Saint Paul last week, I remembered that the song had also graced Renée Fleming’s IAS recital in October. In that program...