by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: organist Ralph Holzhauser makes a noon-time visit to Church of the Covenant
•Announcement: applications open for Assembly for the Arts’ Creative Impact Fund
•In the news: Met ordered to pay $200K to Netrebko, and a look at the “Violin Capital of China”
•Almanac: electronic music composer Ruth Anderson and one brilliant, funny sound collage
HAPPENING TODAY:
Today’s Tuesday Noon Organ Plus Concert from Church of the Covenant features organist Ralph Holzhauser, who will play music by J.S. Bach (Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547), Florence Price (Elf on a Moonbeam), Charles-Marie Widor (Final from Symphony No. 8), George Shearing (I Love Thee, Lord and There is a Happy Land), and Marcel Dupré (Prelude and Fugue in B, Op. 7, No. 3). A freewill offering will be taken up.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Applications are now open for Assembly for the Arts’ Creative Impact Fund, which will be awarded to sixteen artists, art collectives, or informal groups. The grant aims to support “the investment and growth of transformative arts projects with a focus in redlined communities that lack arts investment” as well as “developing areas of significant arts activity” and “promoting increased walkability.” Applications are due May 7. Learn more here.
IN THE NEWS:
According to a report by Javier C. Hernández for The New York Times, “The Metropolitan Opera has been ordered by an arbitrator to pay the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko more than $200,000 for performances it canceled last year after she declined to denounce President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.” The reasoning: “a contractual agreement known as ‘pay or play,’ which requires institutions to pay performers even if they later decide not to engage them.” Read the article here.
INTERESTING READ:
And for something more on the human-interest side, Ludwig Van has a story about the “Violin Capital of China” — the small city of Huangqiao Town, which produces over 950,000 violins per year or “about 30 percent of the global supply, according to local officials.” Read the article by Anya Wassenberg here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Sharing a birthday on March 21st are 19th-century Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) and — our focus today — the late American composer, flutist, and orchestrator Ruth Anderson (1928-2019).
A native of Kalispell, Montana, Anderson is best known for her forward-thinking electronic music, and for founding an electronic music studio at Hunter College, where she taught for over 20 years.
Despite her status as a pioneer in her field, there are few available recordings of Anderson’s work. One of them is the album Here, which she was putting together in the months leading up to her passing, and which was released the following year.
The album includes a sampling of her most famous works, including the 1974 sound collage SUM (State of the Union Message), a seven-minute mash-up of sound clips from TV advertisements that is simultaneously political, nonsensical, jarring, and perhaps most of all, just plain funny. That entire album is available for streaming and download on Bandcamp.
To learn more about Anderson, ready her obituary in The New York Times.
Anderson photo by Manny Albam.