Nicholas Maw; brought 'Sophie's Choice' to stage May 23, 2009
He attended a progressive Quaker boarding school, where a teacher introduced him to the works of Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, and Maurice Ravel. After studying at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Maw won a scholarship in 1958 to study in Paris with the composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger. (Boston Globe)
Show centers on Eastern Europe May 10, 2009
Hungarian composers Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly and especially Czech composer Antonin Dvorak got him interested in the Eastern European sound. In 2001, he invited the Prague Hlahol Choral Society to present a joint concert at UGA with the Trinity Community Choir, which is based at Athens' Trinity Lutheran Church. (Athens Banner-Herald)
Athens collective remixes recordings from Indonesia Apr 17, 2009
On his Web site, he notes it's music that has influenced the likes of John Cage, Phillip Glass, Debussy, Steve Reich and Bela Bartok. "There's a really high degree of invention you can create within these simple frameworks," he says. (Athens Banner-Herald)
Critic's picks - pop music Apr 12, 2009
FLORENCIA GONZALEZ BIG BAND The composer, arranger, conductor, and saxophonist, a native of Uruguay, has assembled this 24-piece big band to play her exciting, original music that incorporates classical and jazz influences (Bela Bartok, Duke Ellington, and others) with South American rhythms. 8:30 p.m. April 15. (Boston Globe)
Orchestra salutes composers influenced by folk music Mar 14, 2009
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra takes listeners on a musical history tour Sunday afternoon with "Folklore, Village Life and Nationalism," a salute to late 19th-century composers Bedrich Smetana and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as well as century straddler Bela Bartok. The program, at Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton campus, will be led by guest conductor Julian Kuerti, the Toronto-born assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony, with David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as... (NJ.com -- Times)
Raising voices and funds Feb 28, 2009
It's from Liebeslieder "Love Songs" Waltzes: "Oh women, oh women, how they do delight! I would have become a monk long ago were it not for women!" The music at "Bach, Beethoven and the Boys (Girls, Too)" includes work by Ruth Watson Henderson, George Frideric Handel, Eleanor Daly, Beethoven, Elizabeth Alexander, and Bela Bartok. The nine choirs of kids, ages 7-18, from more than 50 Boston and Boston-area communities, are raising their voices in support of their tuition fund. (Boston Globe)
Guest conductor takes NJSO to 'America and Beyond' Feb 7, 2009
" For Kodaly, the search for folk material was more deliberate. As a young man, in company with his friend Bela Bartok, he went out and collected folk music from towns and villages, catalogued them and incorporated many into his compositions, such as the "Ma rosszek Dances. " Falletta said she included the American and Slavic composers together in one program to illustrate a common bond. "I put the pieces together," she says, "because I have always been fascinated by the similarity in 'folk... (NJ.com -- Times)
