The Maestro’s Blog

Classical Podcasts

Musical Discoveries of the Third Kind

You may recall the motion picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind that centers about a groundbreaking encounter with extraterrestrials. If groundbreaking classical music discoveries are what you seek, you…

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Danse Macabre and Other Works for Solo Piano, Camille Saint-Saens

Halloween Candy

Sometime before Halloween, The Discovery Orchestra will post a photo on Facebook that purports to have me in the picture. It does, in fact, have a nine-year-old George Marriner Maull…

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West Side Story, Sharks and Jets

“When You’re a Jet. . .”

“When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way / From your first cigarette to your last dyin’ day.” This lyric from West Side Story appeared in Jonathan Cott’s…

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Right Size!

Some good friends of mine are fond of using the words ‘right size.’ And by this they are describing a state of mind in which we perceive our real place…

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Bank of America Classical Series

The Joys of Life

We all have joys of life – those people, occasions and activities that especially delight us. For me, one of the great joys is presenting the Bank of America Classical…

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Claude Debussy Songs, 1880-1904

The ‘Art Song’ Challenge

The term ‘art song’ has always disturbed me a little bit. What song is not a work of art, and therefore not an ‘art song?’ Are ‘art songs’ in the…

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This has been an incredible series. I could take in SO much more than I could at the beginning ones. You have really trained my ears!!! I have been enjoying classical music for more than 60 years (as a child my parents played classical music at dinner and we guessed the composer) but I NEVER knew how to listen before!

— Attendee of NJPAC Classical Conversations with Maestro Maull