The NEH Music Unwound consortium, which most recently brought Dvorak’s New World Symphony to an Indian reservation, has been re-funded by the Endowment with a $400,000 grant, bringing the total NEH investment to $1 million since the inception of Music Unwound in 2010. The consortium has quickly evolved into a major opportunity and challenge for American orchestras to rethink … [Read more...] about $1 Million for Music Unwound
Search Results for: music unwound
“Music Unwound” — The NEH and the Music Education Crisis
Processing a terrific performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet at this summer’s Brevard Music Festival, I found myself pondering both musical and extra-musical paths of engagement. Elgar, born in 1857, became Britain’s most famous concert composer, an iconic embodiment of the fin-de-siecle Edwardian moment. From its … [Read more...] about “Music Unwound” — The NEH and the Music Education Crisis
A Revelatory Visual Rendering of an American Musical Masterpiece
Of the masterpieces of American classical music, among the least appreciated and least performed is Three Places in New England by Charles Ives. There is an obvious reason: the piece fails in live performance unless it’s contextualized. In particular, the first movement – “The 'St. Gaudens' in Boston Common” – makes little impression unless an audience gleans its … [Read more...] about A Revelatory Visual Rendering of an American Musical Masterpiece
“Shostakovich in South Dakota — A Manifesto for the Future of American Classical Music”
My “manifesto for the future of American classical music,” in the current issue of The American Scholar, attempts in 7,000 words to present a viable blueprint for change. My main point of reference is a contextualized performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony last February by the South Dakota Symphony – which I write “may plausibly be considered the most … [Read more...] about “Shostakovich in South Dakota — A Manifesto for the Future of American Classical Music”
Teaching Music Across the Curriculum
Cross-disciplinary education is in fashion right now, but I have the impression it’s more honored in the breach than the observance, at least insofar as music is concerned. My vantage point is limited but informative. As readers of this blog know, I have for years espoused using the story of Dvorak in America to sneak the humanities into Social Studies and History classrooms … [Read more...] about Teaching Music Across the Curriculum