From the category archives:

Music and Politics

World Cup Music: Shostakovich’s Soccer Match

July 11, 2010

Don’t underestimate the power of either sports or music when it comes to exciting a crowd. Even as a tormented composer writing under the harsh restrictions and demands of Communism, in his 1929 ballet  The Golden Age big-time soccer fan and sometime soccer referee Shostakovich recreated a soccer match. In this ballet, a communist soccer team [...]

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Arts & Language Requirement for High School Graduation at Risk in California: Fight Back!

June 6, 2010

These are hard times, especially in nearly bankrupt California. But are we content to see the California legislature gut the heart (i.e., the arts) out of education? The arts and foreign languages are fundamental to education, especially in the world we live in today. If creative thinking and global communications were ever needed in this [...]

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King Henry VIII: Better Musician Than Husband

May 10, 2010

King Henry VIII, famous for his marriages on the rocks (and the blocks), is lesser known for his talent as a musician and composer. Tall, handsome, and charming in his youth, he played several musical instruments, and was a skilled singer and dancer. Some of his musical compositions are still performed today.

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Terror on Broadway: The Show Must (not) Go On

May 2, 2010

The scene was straight out of Hollywood. As my husband Jim and I left our small hotel room on 49th Street we had only 20 minutes to go before the curtains rose at Broadway theaters throughout the district. I had only 30 minutes earlier purchased tickets at TKTS (the half-price ticket booth on Times Square—see [...]

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MAO’S LAST DANCER: Autobiography, Children’s Books, & Movie

December 15, 2009
Mao's Last Dancer

11-yr.-old Li Cunxin is taken from his family to train at the Beijing Ballet Academy during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He dances his way to freedom and international acclaim when he courageously defects to the USA. 3 versions of this incredible true story: for adults, young readers, and children.

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Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy’s Story of Survival 1941-46

December 8, 2009
Hiding in the Spotlight

A gifted 14-yr.-old Ukrainian pianist adopts a new identity after escaping from a Nazi death march, but fears informants and the enemy officers who force her to entertain them. A terrifying and true story with a triumphant message of hope.

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Orchestras at risk from loss of IRA Charitable Rollover

December 7, 2009
IRA

Non-profit music and arts groups will suffer big losses in charitable donations if Congress fails to extend the IRA Charitable Rollover by the end of 2009. Act now to help save the arts.

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Ben Stevenson: Texas Ballet’s Big Gun

December 5, 2009
Ben Stevenson

Ben Stevenson, celebrating a 40-year career as one of the most acclaimed figures in American ballet, continues to supercharge the Texas Ballet, after turning the Houston Ballet into a worldclass company.

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On the Transmigration of Souls: A Musical Response to 9/11

November 30, 2009
John Adams

John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work combines orchestra, chorus, & children’s choir with recorded sounds of 9/11, including victims names and cell phone calls.

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Should School Kids Sing Praise Songs to the Prez?

September 26, 2009
Thumbnail image for Should School Kids Sing Praise Songs to the Prez?

How far is an elementary school entitled to go in bringing politics into the classroom?

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Battle to Keep Fine Arts in Schools: We won!

June 6, 2009
Music in the schools

Thanks to the support of all who called their state representatives and senators, the fine arts amendments to the Texas education bill were retained!

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