February 8th will mark the 51st annual Grammy Awards, in which musicians from all over the world will be competing in 31 different categories. One of the contestants in the category of best instrumental solo performance is Cameron Carpenter, a 27-year-old New Yorker who has invented a twenty-first century version of the venerable pipe organ, using electronic equipment and techniques to create the sounds of the instrument at a fraction of the cost of the original.
You can read Roseanne Skirble's story on this enterprising young artist, and listen to excerpts of her interview with him (and see a YouTube video of his performance, including some most extraordinary footwork) on the VOA Website.
You can also read a brief profile of Carpenter in the 15 December issue of one of America's most distinguished weekly magazines, the New Yorker, and hear him in an October National Public Radio feature (the Web page of which includes an interesting series of comments).
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Musical events during President Barack Obama's inauguration
Music was featured prominently in the inaugural celebrations for Barack Obama as the 44th American President, as noted in the following VOA reports:
The opening event in the inaugural celebrations was on Sunday night, with an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial, with appearances by superstars Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bono, Garth Brooks, James Taylor, Beyoncé, and John Mellencamp, among others. VOA's Michael Bowman reports on the President-elect's speech on this occasion. More details on the concert itself can be found in an article from the New York Times. The concert was broadcast live to an audience of millions on HBO, and included a special guest appearance by America's greatest living folk singer, Pete Seeger, mentioned often in previous entries in my VOA World Music blog.
Monday was of course a national holiday, Martin Luther King Day, with two night-time concerts at the Kennedy Center. "Let Freedom Ring" featured "The Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin (who also sang in the inaugural ceremony itself--see below). Listen to the curtain-raiser by VOA's Peter Clottey on the similarly titled "Let Freedom Swing," (which began an hour after the earlier concert), a jazz celebration organized by trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis. On this page you can also hear Clottey's interview with Ghanaian master drummer Yacub Addy, who collaborated with Marsalis in the composition of the two-hour suite "Congo Square," a portion of which was performed in the program.
From the parade preceding the actual inauguration of the new President, see Chung-wei Hsu's compelling report (in print and video) on the University marching band, which was one of some 80 bands selected from the more than 1,400 who applied to participate, and Carolyn Weaver's lively television feature on the Brooklyn "Steppers" Marching Band.
Ceremonial music for the inauguration itself was provided, as always, by the United States Marine Band. The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus together sang "America the Beautiful", "An American Hymn", and the "Hymn to Freedom;" and the United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters” chorus concluded the event with the U.S. National Anthem.
Other musical highlights included an inspired version of"My Country 'Tis of Thee" by Aretha Franklin, and the premier of an original arrangement by John Williams of "Air and Simple Gifts," featuring Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano, and Anthony McGill on clarinet. In actuality, it was subsequently reported by the New York Times that the latter "performance" was in fact pre-recorded, since the musicians felt that it would be impossible to perform live in tune, given the near-freezing tempuratures--a fact that has given rise to some controversy, as noted in an NPR piece by Anya Grundmann, which also includes audio clips of some of the above performances. The controversy is similar to, though much less intense than the furor surrounding the lip-synched performance by the young Chinese girl in the opening ceremony of the 2007 Beijing Olympics (see my first entry in my VOA World Music blog).
Finally, though not directly referenced to the inauguration itself, and completed three days before the event, listen to Adam Phillips' fine radio feature on Yo-Yo Ma.
The opening event in the inaugural celebrations was on Sunday night, with an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial, with appearances by superstars Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bono, Garth Brooks, James Taylor, Beyoncé, and John Mellencamp, among others. VOA's Michael Bowman reports on the President-elect's speech on this occasion. More details on the concert itself can be found in an article from the New York Times. The concert was broadcast live to an audience of millions on HBO, and included a special guest appearance by America's greatest living folk singer, Pete Seeger, mentioned often in previous entries in my VOA World Music blog.
Monday was of course a national holiday, Martin Luther King Day, with two night-time concerts at the Kennedy Center. "Let Freedom Ring" featured "The Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin (who also sang in the inaugural ceremony itself--see below). Listen to the curtain-raiser by VOA's Peter Clottey on the similarly titled "Let Freedom Swing," (which began an hour after the earlier concert), a jazz celebration organized by trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis. On this page you can also hear Clottey's interview with Ghanaian master drummer Yacub Addy, who collaborated with Marsalis in the composition of the two-hour suite "Congo Square," a portion of which was performed in the program.
From the parade preceding the actual inauguration of the new President, see Chung-wei Hsu's compelling report (in print and video) on the University marching band, which was one of some 80 bands selected from the more than 1,400 who applied to participate, and Carolyn Weaver's lively television feature on the Brooklyn "Steppers" Marching Band.
Ceremonial music for the inauguration itself was provided, as always, by the United States Marine Band. The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus together sang "America the Beautiful", "An American Hymn", and the "Hymn to Freedom;" and the United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters” chorus concluded the event with the U.S. National Anthem.
Other musical highlights included an inspired version of"My Country 'Tis of Thee" by Aretha Franklin, and the premier of an original arrangement by John Williams of "Air and Simple Gifts," featuring Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano, and Anthony McGill on clarinet. In actuality, it was subsequently reported by the New York Times that the latter "performance" was in fact pre-recorded, since the musicians felt that it would be impossible to perform live in tune, given the near-freezing tempuratures--a fact that has given rise to some controversy, as noted in an NPR piece by Anya Grundmann, which also includes audio clips of some of the above performances. The controversy is similar to, though much less intense than the furor surrounding the lip-synched performance by the young Chinese girl in the opening ceremony of the 2007 Beijing Olympics (see my first entry in my VOA World Music blog).
Finally, though not directly referenced to the inauguration itself, and completed three days before the event, listen to Adam Phillips' fine radio feature on Yo-Yo Ma.
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