(photo by Christian Steiner)

Pianist Orli Shaham will join Philharmonic Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski and the National Philharmonic Orchestra in performing one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s greatest compositions, his sublime Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor. The National Philharmonic Orchestra will also perform the Overture to Il Re Pastore (The Shepherd King), Mozart’s last symphony, as well as the majestic Jupiter, or Symphony no. 41 in C.

Shaham recently released a recording of the Piano Concertos 17 & 24 by Mozart with the St. Louis Symphony on the Canary Classics label.  This is the first installment of a multi-year Mozart recording project for the pianist. 

In addition, Shaham is also the artistic director for the interactive children's concert series, Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard (formerly Baby Got Bach), which she founded in 2010. The concert programs provide hands-on activities with musical instruments, concepts, and concert performances that promote good listening skills, and feature chamber music performances by professional musicians with Shaham as host and pianist. Bach Yard shows are presented in New York, Princeton, and Rochester in 2019–2020. In addition to her activities on stage, Shaham is on the faculty at The Juilliard School, and has served on the jury of numerous piano competitions, including the Cliburn International Junior, New York International, Sydney International, Virginia Waring International, and Hilton Head International piano competitions.  She is also currently serving as a guest host for the public radio program From the Top which features talented young classical musicians from around the country.

Her concerts with the National Philharmonic will take place Jan. 18 & 19 at Strathmore. More details can be found here.

The British Medical Journal (the BMJ) has just published the results of a longitudinal study of adults 50 and over, following them for an average of 12 years, and found that engagement with the arts could be predicitive of a longer life-span--simply put, those who regularly engage with the arts tend to live longer.

​A summary of the results can be found here, and the actual study can be read here.

When I began this site, one of the first posts I made was a review of Robert Freeman's book The Crisis of Classical Music in America.  Freeman, now retired, had been director of the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas in Austin.  He certainly had the knowledge to write that text, which was thoughtful, accurate, and needed.

His second book takes a different path.  Entitled Woof! A Love Story of Dogs, Music, and Life, it's a memoir of the life he had with his wife Carol, and the many dogs they brought into their family over four decades.  Over the course of their marriage, the Freemans had seventeen "tenured" dogs--dogs that were permanent parts of the family--as well as a number of other dogs that stayed with them for shorter periods. For me, one of the more enjoyable aspects of their story is the musical connections with the dogs, ranging from the names given to them to the various little songs they made up to apply to the pets--all of them based on classical melodies with words relevant to each dog's personality and character. 

Both humorous and touching, this book illuminates the personal life of a talented musician and administrator, and is sure to warm the heart of anyone who loves both dogs and music.

On a sad note, Freeman's wife Carol passed away in July of 2018. To our knowledge, Robert is still cared for by one (or more) loving canine.
 

I've just discovered this company that produces music instructional programs for the visually impaired.  They have programs for quite a few instruments.

Their courses are not free, and I have no idea about their quality, but thought it might be worth mentioning.  (And BTW, I do not have any financial interest should you make a purchase).

You can read more here.

World famous mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has bee announced as the new head of Monte-Carlo Opera.

​The official notice can be seen here.

There have been efforts to utilize computers to create/compose music in the style of the great composers for years.  One notable effort was named Emily Howell--but to my ear, those efforts sounded far from anything any self-respecting composer would have written.

But now as artificial intelligence continues to develop, so do efforts to imitate the great composers.  Just in time for Beethoven's 250th birthday, a team of musicologists and programmers are attempting to use AI to develop Beethoven's Symphony no. 10 (he only composed 9, of course) based on a few musical fragments he left behind.

You can read more about their efforts here.