Happy Birthday Leos Janacek

Another birthday this week - this time the Czech composer Leos Janacek, born on 3 July 1854.

Best known for his 9 operas. He was most productive and creative in the last 15 years of his 74 year long life. Credit is often given to his muse Kamila Stösslová, a young married woman 30 years his junior.

For more information click on the title.

Happy Birthday Erik Satie!

July 1 is the birthday of French pianist and composer Erik Satie. I have just set up Satie shops at both Zazzle and at Cafepress using my new portrait of Satie.
There is a good range of giftware.
I am also working on a Satie page on my website 52composers.com with additional content.

2008 CLASSICAL MUSIC CALENDAR

Yesterday I published my Great Composers 2008 Calendar on Zazzle. It looks great. I was flattered to get an email last night telling me that it was selected as one of 'Today's Best on Zazzle'.
I was also astonished to find that within 24 hours it was ranked on the first page of a Google search for Classical Music Calendar. That is truly impressive SEO by Zazzle.
I am getting the hang of Zazzle and I will be putting more work on there soon.

New Wagner Portrait

Here is the portrait of Wagner I have been working on. It is a 2 plate photoetching from my pencil drawing. The coloured surround is a collagraph printed at the same time on Somerset paper. Prints and merchandise are available as follows:
Fine prints (framed or unframed) from Imagekind
Poster from artist-rising.
Giftware from Cafepress

New J S BACH artwork ready
I have finished my new print of JS Bach. I kept putting him off as he was quite a challenge. However I have been asked by an American symphony orchestra if they can use my portraits for a series of educational cards and Bach features in the first, to be published this month. So here he is. It is available as a fine art print from imagekind and will be sold as a poster print from art.com.
I have also added it to my cafepress shop - great presents for Bach lovers!

Grieg's Centenary
Edvard Grieg died on 4 September 1907 aged 64.
I made this etching and collagraph earlier this year. I have just added it to my cafepress shop and uploaded it to art.com. It is already available as a fine print at imagekind.com

Edward Elgar portrait
This week I managed to complete my portrait of Edward Elgar. This year is the 150th anniversary of his birth (2nd June) so there will be a lot of Elgarmania later this year especially at the Proms.
The central portrait is an etching on 2 zinc plates. The Union Jack border is a collagraph print.

Thankfully I have finished jury service so I can get back to 'normal'.
I've been asked to do a portrait of Monteverdi so I have started researching - very interesting - I am looking forward to working on it.

BEETHOVEN print now ready
I have finished the print of dear old Ludwig. He looks rather fierce but then he was a rather grumpy old man.

The 3 dots and a dash of the coloured border recall the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and are also the morse code for the letter V (for Victory) which made it a popular work with the allies during World War II.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Best wishes for a happy and successful 2007 to all.
Today being New Year's Day I have put Johannes Strauss Jr. as Image of the week. On the radio I am listening to the Vienna New Year's Concert. This annual event is broadcast around the world to an estimated audience of 1 billion in 44 countries. It began in 1939. Predominantly music by the Strauss family, it ends with the Blue Danube and the rousing Radetszky March.
While Strauss isn't one of my favourite composers, somehow on New Year's Day with the lively spirit of the audience it takes on another dimension.

I have just published an illustrated list of all my composers on a Squidoo 'lens' (click on the logo to see it).
Squidoo is a fairly new website which enables you to publish single pages on the web. Like single page web sites. It has a wide choice of 'modules' which enable you to add content from Amazon, eBay, Cafepress, Youtube, Flickr, and many many more. It is very simple to use.
I have also made a 'lens' on Stravinsky which illustrates some of the modules. Take a look.
I will be making more lenses and will post here when I publish them.