AHA moment

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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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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A Day in the Life of a Pair of Violists

As some of you may know, I began my musical career as a violist. I was very fortunate to be able to begin playing professionally in a symphony orchestra before…

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You are like the music teacher I never had! I devour your lessons. Thank you! {Refering to chat video Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo & Juliet Overture-Fantasy”, Part 1}

— Jethro Gómez Rodriguez, Australia