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Unanswered Question

Joe Horowitz on music

You can now pre-order my new Mahler novel (and get 20 % off)

March 7, 2023 by Joe Horowitz Leave a Comment

My forthcoming Mahler novel is now available for pre-order with a 20 per cent discount. Related events: April 4: “Mahler in New York.” A concert with film and readings (I’m reading from my book): Argento New Music Project, Dimenna Center, 7:30 pm April 23: Colorado Mahlerfest webcast, 6 pm ET – I’ll be talking about why I have fictionalized the story of the Mahlers in … [Read more...] about You can now pre-order my new Mahler novel (and get 20 % off)

Shostakovich in South Dakota

February 22, 2023 by Joe Horowitz

I’m in Sioux Falls, where the South Dakota Symphony – to my knowledge, the most genuinely innovative American orchestra – is performing Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony Saturday night at 7:30 pm Central Time. A 30-minute preamble (which I’ve scripted) explores the extraordinary context of this work. It’s all being livestreamed … [Read more...] about Shostakovich in South Dakota

“The Gershwin Moment” on NPR

February 13, 2023 by Joe Horowitz

To close my recent National Public Radio documentary “The Gershwin Moment,” I pose the following hypothetical: What if George Gershwin, a contemporary of Aaron Copland, had lived as long as Copland did – and died in 1988 at the age of 90 rather than in 1937 at the age of 38? I then turn to the music historian Mark Clague, who heads the Gershwin Initiative at the University of … [Read more...] about “The Gershwin Moment” on NPR

Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony, and William Dawson

January 29, 2023 by Joe Horowitz

The death of Michael Morgan, last August 20, was a heartbreaking loss to American music. As music director of the Oakland Symphony since 1991, he was a singularly impactful conductor. The evidence, as I discovered Friday night at an Oakland Symphony concert that in many respects invoked his memory, is a symphonic audience unique in my experience. “Diversity” is a term so … [Read more...] about Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony, and William Dawson

“George Shirley: A Life in Music” on NPR

January 17, 2023 by Joe Horowitz

Harry Burleigh, who turned spirituals into concert songs sung by Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, wrote in 1917 that “the voice is not nearly so important as the spirit” in performing his historic arrangements. George Shirley, still singing at the age of eighty-nine, is an artist who today gloriously affirms Burleigh’s claim. In 1961, Shirley became the first Black … [Read more...] about “George Shirley: A Life in Music” on NPR

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About Joe Horowitz

I am a cultural historian specializing in the American arts. I pursue parallel careers as a scholar/writer and concert producer. The most recent of my eleven books is Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music (winner of a 2022 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award). It links to six “Dvorak’s … [more] about Joseph Horowitz

About Unanswered Question

When a few years ago Doug McLennan invited me to write an ArtsJournal blog, I thought about it and said no. Having been born as long ago as 1948, I remain somewhat a stranger to the internet. And, as I am always writing a book (a form of therapy) when I am not producing concerts, I felt I didn't … [more] about The Unanswered Question

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