by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: BW faculty play Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
•Announcements: David Byrd-Marrow (pictured) appointed horn professor at Oberlin, Transformative Arts Fund holds information sessions this month
•In Memoriam: Guitar Society pays tribute to Kathleen Mylecraine & Rhonda Harrell
•Almanac: Roy Harris, Emile Waldteufel, Henri Duparc, and George Antheil
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 7:00 pm in Gamble Auditorium, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory faculty members Steve Sang Koh (violin), Khari Joyner (cello), Daniel McKelway (clarinet), and Sungeun Kim (piano) will perform Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. It’s free.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
David Byrd-Marrow has been appointed to the tenure-track position of horn professor at Oberlin Conservatory. Previously the assistant professor of horn at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, Byrd-Marrow is also a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble and The Knights, and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Read the announcement here.
Information sessions about Cleveland’s Transformative Arts Fund will be held virtually on six days this month: the 13th (4:30-6:00 pm), 15th (6:00-7:30 pm), 17th (9:00-10:30 am), 20th (6:00-7:30 pm), 21st (12:00-1:00 pm), and 26th (12:00-1:00 pm). Sign up for a session here, and find out more about this program dedicated to public art initiatives here.
IN MEMORIAM:
The latest newsletter from the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society contains a tribute to former board president Kathleen Mylecraine and longtime partner teacher Rhonda Harrell, who both passed away in December. As Executive Director Erik Mann writes:
“Kathleen was part of a small group working to help start the Education Program when it was still a crazy idea by a tiny organization. She knew that we could do this, even as others thought it to be impossible. Her belief in other people was magical; in fact she often believed in me more than I believed in myself. Rhonda, meanwhile, was perhaps the first partner teacher who showed me how we could create a great program that benefited everyone. For her, it was not just about the music, but about inspiring kids to become the best versions of themselves. Both made a decision to live their best lives in spite of decades of health challenges, and to work for a better world. Rhonda and Kathleen, you will be missed.”
Read more about Mylecraine and Harrell here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Daniel Hathaway
Only four figures to raise up today: American composer Roy Harris, born in 1898 in Chandler, Oklahoma; French composer, conductor, and pianist Emile Waldteufel, who died in 1915 in Paris; French composer Henri Duparc, who died in Mont-de-Marsan in 1933; and American composer and inventor George Antheil, who died in New York in 1959.
As we wrote in a previous Diary entry marking Harris’ death, “Born in rural Oklahoma, with the help of Aaron Copland he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and went on to write numerous works on American themes. His big breakthrough was his Third Symphony, captured here in a live performance by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in 2010.”
Waldteufel’s principal claim to fame is as the composer of the Skater’s Waltz, known in French as Les Patineurs and less elegantly in German as Die Schlittschuhkläufer.
Beset by increasing blindness, Duparc destroyed all but some 40 of his works. The best-known that survived are his 17 Mélodies or art songs, a number of which can be enjoyed here in performances by such singers as Measha Bruggergosman, Susan Graham, Natalie Dessay, Régine Crespin, Jessye Norman, Lawrence Brownlee, and Renée Fleming.
And George Antheil is simply an American original. His Wikipedia biography includes vivid descriptions of his music, concerts, and inventions, one of which was a radio-controlled torpedo he developed with the actress Hedy Lamarr during World War II. The article is well worth a read, and you can watch his Ballet méchanique here.