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