Tomorrow 2012 arrives. Here are the major anniversaries for composers:

2012 Classical Composer Anniversaries Gabrieli 400th anniversary of his death on 12 August Delius 150th birthday on 29 January Debussy 150th anniversary of his birth on 22 Auguust 1812 John Cage centenary of birth on 5 September Massenet centenary of his death on 13 August John Ireland 50th anniversary of his death on 12 June You can find a far more comprehensive list of anniversaries at classical-composers.org

St Hildegard of Bingen

Here is my portrait of the first female classical composer - Blessed Hildegard von Bingen. One of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages.
The central image is a photoetching and the border is a collagraph. 
I have just uploaded a profile of her on my website at 52composers.com

There is an increasing interest in her music and there is plenty to see on YouTube. There is an interesting BBC documentary available on DVD at Amazon and a full length German biopic 'Vision'.

November Anniversaries of Classical Composers

November Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

3/11/1801 Bellini born 4/11/1847 Mendelssohn died 4/11/1924 Fauré died 6/11/1854 Sousa born 6/11/1893 Tchaikovsky died 8/11/1890 César Franck died 12/11/833 Borodin born 13/11/1868 Rossini died 14/11/1805 Fanny Mendelssohn born 14/11/1900 Copland born 15/11/1787 Gluck died 18/11/1786 Weber born 19/11/1828 Schubert died 20/11/1894 A.Rubinstein died 21/11/1695 Purcell died 22/11/1900 A.Sullivan died 22/11/1913 Britten born 23/11/1585 Thomas Tallis died 24/11/1868 Scott Joplin born 28/11/1829 A.Rubinstein born 29/11/1643 Monteverdi died 29/11/1797 Donizetti born 29/11/1924 Puccini died

Classical Music Calendars

It's October. Time to start publishing my new  classical music calendars.

This year I am making them available again on Zazzle. (click to see them)

In addition I am selling them on Etsy (click to see them). The first one uploaded today.

The Zazzle ones are printed in the USA and therefore for North American buyers it makes sense to order from them to avoid any postage delays and customs duties.

The Etsy one instead are printed by myself here in London and therefore is recommended for UK and European buyers, again to avoid postage delays, VAT and customs duty.

Opera composers uploaded to Etsy today.  It is already on Zazzle.

October classical composer anniversaries

October Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

1/10/1865 Paul Dukas born 2/10/1920 Max Bruch died 3/10/1931 Carl Nielsen died 5/10/1880 Offenbach died 9/10/1813 Verdi born 9/10/1835 Saint-Saëns born 11/10/1896 Bruckner died 12/10/1872 Vaughan Williams born 14/10/1990 Bernstein died 17/10/1849 Chopin died 18/10/1893 Gounod died 20/10/1874 Charles Ives born 22/11/1811 Liszt born 24/10/1725 A Scarlatti died 25/11/1825 J Strauss Jr born 25/11/1838 Bizet born 26/11/1685 D Scarlatti born 27/11/1782 Paganini born

September classical composer anniversaries

September already. Summer almost finished. Here are this month's birthdays and death anniversaries of the great classical composers:

September Great Classical Composer        Anniversaries

4/9/1824 Bruckner born 4/9/1892 Milhaud born 4/9/1907 Grieg died 5/9/1735 J Christian Bach born 5/9/1912 John Cage born 8/9/1813 Gesualdo died 8/9/1841 Dvorak born 8/9/1949 Richard Strauss died 10/9/1659 Purcell born 13/9/1819 Clara Schumann born 13/9/1874 Schoenberg born 17/9/1179 Hildegard von Bingen died 20/9/1957 Sibelius died 21/9/1874 Holst born 23/9/1836 Bellini died 25/9/1906 Shostakovich born 25/9/1849 J Strauss Sr died 26/9/1898 Gershwin born 26/9/1945 Bartok died

Back to school - Great Classical Composers Calendar

Summer is going fast and the shops are full of Back to School promotions which made me think that I should do a calendar starting in September instead of January.
So here it is: September 2011 to August 2012 Great Composers with 12 of my prints:
Sibelius, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Brahms, Grieg, Bach and Shostakovich.
I'll do another version Jan - Dec 2012 later when the Christmas promotions start.

It is available now at Etsy
Click on the above link or on the image.

Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra by Gabriel Prokofiev

Next Saturday's BBC Prom at the Albert Hall will feature a performance of the 'Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra' by Gabriel Prokofiev who just happens to be the grandson of the great Sergio Prokofiev.
I have featured it as Video of the Week on the home page of my 52composers site.
It is an interesting piece combining classical symphonic music with hip-hop.

August anniversaries of classical composers

August Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

Births ?/08/1653 Pachelbel 18/08/1750 Salieri 22/08/1862 Debusssy 22/08/1928 Stockhausen 25/08/1918 Bernstein 31 /08/1834 Ponchielli Deaths 2/08/1945 Mascagni 8/08/1975 Shostakovich 09/08/1919 Leoncavallo 10/08/1928 Janacek 12/08/1992 John Cage 13/08/1912 Massanet 26/08/1958 Vaughan Williams 28/08/1959 Martinu

June Anniversaries for Classical Composers

It's June so here is my list of some composer birthdays and death anniversaries for the month:

June   Great Classical Composer    Anniversaries

01/06/1804 Glinka born 02/06/1857 Elgar born 03/06/1875 Bizet died 03/06/1899 Strauss J died 06/06/1903 Khachaturian born 08/06/1810 Schumann born 21/06/1908 Rimsky Korsakov died 10/06/1934 Delius died 11/06/1864 Strauss R. born 14/06/1671 Albinoni born 15/06/1843 Grieg born 17/06/1818 Gounod born 17/06/1882 Stravinsky born 20/06/1819 Offenbach born 25/06/1767 Telemann died

Films about Composers

Occasionally I get asked if there is a film about a particular composer. There are a lot of feature films and TV documentaries and I have just built a page on my 52composers website on the subject.
The two British directors Ken Russell and Tony Palmer have been prolific with this genre.
Some, notably those by Tony Palmer, are incredibly well researched and true to the facts. Others have varying proportions of fantasy.
Yale University has published a book 'Composers in the Movies' by Prof.John C.Tibbetts and with a forward by Simon Callow. I haven't seen it yet but it looks interesting.

Vivien Noakes 1937 - 2011) - biographer of Edward Lear

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Vivien Noakes, the leading expert on the life and works of Edward Lear, king of nonsense and the limerick.
She wrote his definitive biography and curated the 1985 Lear exhibition at the Royal Academy.
There is a very good obituary in the Guardian.

Some years ago I started an Edward Lear website www.edward-lear.com which I have neglected. I really must get back to it.

Great Composer Anniversaries for March

March Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

?/03/1706 Pachelbel died 1/03/1810 Chopin born 2/03/1824 Smetana born 4/03/1678 Vivaldi born 5/03/1953 Prokofiev died 6/03/1932 Sousa died 7/03/1875 Ravel born 8/03/1566 Gesualdo born 8/03/1803 Berlioz died 8/03/ 1983 Walton died 16/03/1736 Pergolesi died 18/03/1844 Rimsky-Korsakov born 21/03/1685 J S Bach born 21/03/1839 Mussorgsky born 22/03/1687 Lully born 25/03/1881 Bartok born 25/03/1918 Debussy died 26/03/1827 Beethoven died 28/03/1881 Mussorgsky died 28/03/1943 Rachmaninoff died 29/03/1902 Walton born 31/03/1732 Haydn born

Leoncavallo - 1895 item

I found this old photo of Leoncavallo in an old copy of the weekly magazine 'Photos- The Popular Album' dated August 17 1895.
It is accompanied by an amusing text comparing him with Mascagni.

Gallery Rage

This month I went to the huge Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern and last week I went to the Cezanne's Card Players exhibition at the Courtauld Galleries in Somerset House. Both exhibitions close this weekend so I am glad I managed to see them - very worthwhile seeing.
But what a difference in terms of gallery 'experience'. The Gauguin was a true 'blockbuster' with over 120 of his works. It has been the Tate's most successful exhibition ever as far as visitors is concerned. And that is the problem - too many visitors turn it into a frustrating experience. Exhausting.
In contrast the Cezanne exhibition was a delight. Not  crowded, plenty of benches where you can sit and enjoy the works. Not too big an exhibition. No pressure to move on to the next picture. Inspiring.
Interestingly the Observer had an article on just this topic this morning:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/16/gauguin-tate-modern-crowds?

If you missed the exhibitions in London you will be able to see the Gauguin exhibition in Washington DC from February to June and the Cezanne Card Players will be at the Met in New York also from February.

Vivian Maier - the discovery of a wonderful street photographer

I just came across the amazing story of Vivian Maier - nanny and extraordinary amateur street photographer.
In 2007 a Chicago estate agent, John Maloof, went to a furniture and antiques  auction and bought some boxes full of old photos, negatives and rolls of film. This sparked in him an interest in photography and the more he studied it the more he realised how good these photos were. He  managed to buy the rest of the boxes that were at the auction and now has over 100,000 images.
He did some research to find out who the mystery photographer was and found it was a French nanny who lived in Chicago and New York in the fifties and sixties.
Her photos are great. You can see some and read her story on the blog/website at
vivianmaier.com . Watch the Chicago Tonight video you will find there
Other interesting sites/articles:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/little-miss-big-shot-fifties-america-exposed-ndash-by-a-french-nanny-1811040.html (click on the 'more photos' link under the photo for a slideshow)

http://www.kitchensisters.org/girlstories/the-lost-found-photographs-of-vivian-maier/

A feature length documentary 'Finding Vivian Maier' is planned for 2012 more info at Kickstarter

January Classical Composer Anniversaries

January Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

1/1/1782 J C Bach died 2/1/1837 Balakirev born 2/1/1905 M Tippett born 4/1/1710 Pergolesi born 6/1/1838 Max Bruch born 7/1/1899 Poulenc born 8/1/1713 Corelli died 8/1/1990 M Tippett died 11/1/1801 Cimarosa died 16/1/1886 Ponchielli died 16/1/1891 Delibes died 17/1/1751 Albinoni died 18/1/1835 Cesar Cui born 23/1/1981 S.Barber died 27/1/1756 Mozart born 27/1/1813Verdi died 29/1/1862 Delius born 30/1/1963 Poulenc died 31/1/1797 Schubert born

2011 Composer Anniversaries

There are only two major annniversaries in 2011:
Mahler centenary of his death on May 11 1911
Liszt 200th anniversary of his birth on October 22 1811