Friday, June 5, 2009

Scott Joplin, Thomas Wiggins & Michael Abels On WETA 90.9 FM In June



[Michael Abels]

Classical WETA 90.9 FM is an NPR affiliate located in Arlington, Virginia and serving Washington. D.C.
WETA.org
“This Month's Focus: American Music
A vast richness of expression is found in American music for the concert and recital halls, and Classical WETA 90.9 FM invites listeners to explore it with us from June through the Independence Day holiday, including Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 9 p.m. when we’ll air works not usually heard on Classical WETA — and on our weekly Sunday night 9 p.m. broadcast Choral Showcase.

“When Antonin Dvorák was in the United States for a few years late in the 19th century (to head up the National Conservatory of Music in New York), he said that what American classical music needed was its own voice — that we shouldn’t simply imitate European music of the time.” “American composers such as Scott Joplin and Thomas Wiggins helped stretch our musical vocabulary during Dvorák’s time — Joplin, for example, with ragtime including his masterpiece, the opera Treemonisha, and Wiggins, with descriptive piano pieces about slavery and the Civil War. They and others blazed the trail for many more to come, including Gershwin, who would integrate jazz into the symphony orchestra, Aaron Copland and Charles Ives who included many American sounds in their music, and Leonard Bernstein, who combined absolutely everything American and made it fit together perfectly.

“From June through July 4, we’ve scheduled works by John Corigliano, John Adams and Michael Abels, plus Joplin and Wiggins and Ives and Copland, Alan Hovhaness, David Diamond, and Roy Harris symphonies, and works for singers (on Classical WETA’s Choral Showcase) by Bernstein, Randall Thompson and William Schuman.” Each day's “Theme Month Selections” are found at the WETA website. [Scott Joplin and Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins are profiled at AfriClassical.com, while Michael Abels has been featured on AfriClassical for Delight and Dances, which was premiered last October]

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