by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the forty days of Lent for Western Christian communities. Click here to watch a service of Choral Evensong from Atlantic Canada (including the famous setting of Psalm 51 by Gregorio Allegri) sung by the University of King’s College Chapel Choir, directed by Paul Halley, in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Today at 12 Noon, Trinity Cathedral’s Brownbag Concert Series hosts the Cleveland Celtic Ensemble in Trinity Cathedral Hall.
This evening at 6 pm, The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Chamber Music in the Atrium Series presents Oberlin’s annual Danenberg Honors Recital honorees, and at 7:30 in Gartner Auditorium, its Performing Arts Series presents Makaya McCraven, drums, Junius Paul, bass, and Marquis Hill, trumpet, in Jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music from Chicago.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
by Mike Telin
Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos was born on this date in 1896 in Athens.
The young Dimitri exhibited musical talents at an early age and by his early teens hosted Saturday afternoon concerts at his home.
He studied at the Athens Conservatory as well as in Brussels and Berlin, where his teachers included Ferruccio Busoni. During the early to mid ‘20s he assisted Erich Kleiber at the Berlin State Opera.
The conductor made his U.S. debut with the Boston Symphony in 1936, and from 1937 to 1949 he was principal conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra). In 1949 he became co-conductor — with Leopold Stokowski — of the New York Philharmonic and in 1951 was named the Orchestra’s music director.
In addition to making numerous recordings for Columbia Records, Mitropoulos and the Philharmonic sought out new audiences by making appearances on television and giving performances at the Roxy Theatre.
During his tenure, he expanded the Philharmonic’s repertoire by commissioning new works and championing the symphonies of Mahler. Upon his departure in 1958, he was succeeded by his protégé, Leonard Bernstein. Click here to listen to Mitropoulos conduct the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
