by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Farewells to Miss Olga (pictured) and Joey DeFrancsco
. Following orchestras on tour in Europe
. Musicology — dangerous profession?
TODAY’S EVENTS:
Ho-hum — there are no live events to note in Northeast Ohio on this, the last day of August.
R.I.P., MISS OLGA:
We note the passing of longtime Cleveland Institute of Music piano faculty Olga Radosavljevich-Gradojevich, who retired in 2019 after teaching at the Institute for 59 years. In 2017 on the occasion of her 80th birthday, Youngstown State piano professor Cicilia Yudha — one of her many devoted students — wrote an appreciation for ClevelandClassical.com. Read the article here.
DEPARTURES:
Jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco has died at the age of 51. “A prodigy whose playing had drawn raves since he was a teenager, he helped bring the Hammond B3 back into the jazz lineup.” Read the New York Times obituary by Neil Gentzlinger here.
ON THE ROAD WITH ORCHESTRAS IN EUROPE:
The Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony have simultaneously resumed European tours. Jeremy Reynolds, who has served as a ClevelandClassical.com Young Writer Fellow, is tagging along with the Pittsburgh band and writing daily front page dispatches from the road. And Cleveland Orchestra photographer Roger Mastroianni is sending beautiful photos, beginning with a set from Hamburg.
INTERESTING READ:
At the age of 75, composer John Adams has written “an Old Hollywood-inflected production of Antony and Cleopatra, which will debut at San Francisco Opera on September 10 and then move to the Metropolitan Opera. He confesses that he’s a bit nervous even after his many accomplishments in the field. “When you get to be my age, you’re not compared to other composers. You’re compared to your earlier works.” Read a New York Times article by Joshua Barone here
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1910, French musicologist Pierre Aubry (perhaps the first to use the term musicologie) died in Dieppe. Known for his important editions of 13th century monody, he became embroiled in a scholarly controversy over the application of modal rhythms to trouvère and troubadour songs that led to a plagiarism trial (he lost) and a duel (he lost again), which some accounts claim was actually a subtly disguised suicide. You can’t make this up.