Upside down Christmas

Everything is upside down this Christmas - even the tree!!

Classical Music - 2010 Piano Calendar

Why are there so few calendars with a classical music theme?
There are plenty for pop, rock, hip-hop, jazz etc but hardly any for classical. I have therefore produced four:
Opera, Piano, Great Composers and Russian composers on Zazzle

This one is 12 portraits of great composers for classical piano. They are:

• Bach
• Beethoven
• Brahms
• Chopin
• Debussy
• Haydn
• Mendelssohn
• Liszt
• Rachmaninoff
• Schubert
• Schumann
• Scriabin
  

You can see them at my Zazzle store

Russian Classical Composers - 2010 calendar

A bit late but I have at last published my 2010 calendar of Russian composers. I managed to finish the 12th portrait Balakirev last week.
There is a composer per month:

• Borodin
• Balakirev
• Glinka
• Khachaturian
• Mussorgsky
• Rachmaninoff
• Prokofiev
• Rimsky-Korsakov
• Shostakovich
• Scriabin
• Stravinsky
• and of course Tchaikovsky

You can find it with my other calendars at Zazzle

Happy Birthday Hector!

Today is Berlioz's birthday (born in 1803).

- "Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." (Berlioz)

He is one of the composer portraits featured in my 2010 Opera Calendar

100 PHOTOS THAT CHANGED CANADA

My niece's husband, Mark Reid, is editor of The Beaver - the magazine of Canada's National History Society.
Following the great success of a feature in the magazine '10 Photos that changed Canada' he has put together a book '100 Photos that changed Canada'.
It is a beautiful production - not only fascinating photographs, but also great accompanying text written by some of Canada's best historians, journalists and writers. The book is further enhanced with excellent design and production.
A great Christmas present for anyone with Canadian connections.
Mark and Marianne are currently on a travelling book launch tour. Unfortunately London is not on their schedule (yet!).

November composer anniversaries

3/11/1801 Bellini born
4/11/1924 Fauré died
4/11/1847 Mendelssohn died
6/11/1893 Tchaikovsky died
12/11/1833 Borodin died
13/11/1868 Rossini died
14/11/1900 Copland born
19/11/1828 Schubert died
21/11/1695 Purcell died
22/11/1913 Britten born
29/11/1797 Donizetti born
29/11/1643 Monteverdi died
29/11/1924 Puccini died

Henry Purcell - new postage stamp

The Royal Mail issued a new set of stamps on 8 October. 'Eminent Britons'. Ten 1st class stamps.

Henry Purcell is one of the ten so I have added it to my Purcell webpage at 52composers.com

I was sorry to see that none of the portrait artists or photographers were credited by name. Only the picture agencies holding the copyright were mentioned.