by Daniel Hathaway
ARTICLE LINKS:
Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center (NY Times)
In Memoriam: Remembering the Extraordinary Artists We lost in 2025 (The Violin Channel)
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Mike Telin
Today marks the passing of American composer and conductor Arthur Shepherd (pictured) in 1958 in Cleveland. Born in Idaho on February 19, 1880, Shepherd entered the New England Conservatory at age 12 and upon graduation moved to Salt Lake City, leading a local orchestra for six years. He would later accept a teaching position at his alma mater. After serving as a bandmaster during World War I, at the invitation of Nikolai Sokoloff he was appointed The Cleveland Orchestra’s assistant conductor and program book editor. His tenure with the Orchestra lasted from 1920 until 1928.
As a composer Shepherd wrote over 100 works which included symphonies, string quartets, and songs.
In 1977 he was posthumously awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music. In her tribute, Wilma Salisbury writes:
Arthur Shepherd, like other esteemed composers of his generation, sought to develop a distinctively American musical language. Born in the Mormon village of Paris, Idaho, on February 19, 1880, he celebrated his pioneer heritage in works such as “Horizons,” Symphony no. 1. His most frequently performed work, the large-scale piece incorporates cowboy tunes and paints tone poems of the grand Western landscape.
Read the article here. Listen to a performance of “Horizons” by The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Louis Lane here, and click here to listen to his Triptych for High Voice and String Quartet (1926) performed by soprano Betsy Norden and the Emerson String Quartet.
