Veronika Dudarova
Article date: 5/02/09 | Last edited: 9/02/09
Veronika Dudarova
The first female orchestral conductor Veronika Dudarova has died on Thursday, 16th of January 2009 in Moscow at the age of 91.
Veronika Borisovna Dudarova was born on December 5, 1916, in Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan state). Ms. Dudarova got her primary music education at the Baku music school for gifted children. From 1933 - 37 she studied piano at the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Conservatory’s Music College and from 1939 to 1947 was a conducting student of the Moscow Conservatory. 1944 - 1947 Conductor Moscow’s Children Theatre and assistant conductor of the Moscow Conservatory’s Opera Studio. 1947 - 1989 Principal Conductor of Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. 1991 - 2009 Founding Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Russia. [Read More]
Documentary About Shostakovich
Article date: 30/11/08 | Last edited: 30/11/08
“Dmitri Shostakovich - Sonata For Viola”: The deeply moving story about the life and fate of Dmitri Shostakovich goes far beyond a mere biography. This is the first and only film created by Alexander Sokurov, co-authored with another director, a great master of Soviet cinema, Semen Aranovich. The film’s main material has been artistically selected by 29-year-old Sokurov from news reels dating throughout the whole period of the composer’s life (1906 - 1975). This visual, terrible and unforgettable historical background of the Viola Sonata shows how the joy of creativity becomes a higher social disaster of historical turmoil and fragility of the individual. The film captures the composer in unique pictures of domestic war and postwar years that have been preserved in the archives. There are excerpts of his operas The Nose and Katerina Ismailova, songs, and fragments of the first, fifth, seventh, eighth and eleventh symphonies. The film includes a telephone conversation between Dmitry Shostakovich and David Oystrah, as well as unique footage of the funeral of Anna Akhmatova… Immediately after the creation of the film in 1981, it was seized by the KGB and lost. Alexander Sokurov was able to save a copy of the film, and returned it to the public in 1987. [Read More]
Color Hearing
Article date: 18/11/08 | Last edited: 6/12/08
This post is to follow up on a comment I made on youngmusician.com.au. I also hope that it will add more fuel to the discussion started by Brendan. Many years ago I copied the following in my notebook: [Read More]
Circular Breathing for Wind Players
Article date: 5/11/08 | Last edited: 21/12/08
Circular breathing can produce spectacular effects in contemporary Western music, but players have used its techniques for centuries. Technically, circular breathing is the production of a continuous sound by using the cheeks as an air sac and breathing through the nose while forcing air from the mouth into the instrument. [Read More]
Notes for Private Music Teacher
Article date: 20/01/08 | Last edited: 10/01/09
Hello dear music teaching colleagues,
Today my good friend (and brilliant musician) Rodney Haynes found an old J. A. & S. Print, 1980 publication “NOTES for PRIVATE MUSIC TEACHERS” by the Federation of Australian Music Teachers Associations. It doesn’t have any copyright restrictions, so I’ve decided to save you the $2 Rod spent on it and print it here. You never know when you may need something like this. Enjoy: [Read More]
Unanswered Question
Article date: 15/01/08 | Last edited: 24/12/08
Leonard Bernstein - A highly regarded composer of both Classical and Broadway, an accomplished pianist, a great conductor, and an eloquent musicologist. Noam Chomsky - Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [Read More]
Brahms and His World
Article date: 13/01/08 | Last edited: 21/12/08
Unlike some recent volumes on Brahms, which have served mainly to bring together miscellaneous papers read at conferences, this collection seeks to locate the composer more directly in the context of his personal, professional, and musical environment. The volume consists of three parts. [Read More]
Talking with Composers
Article date: 6/01/08 | Last edited: 13/01/09
About Viola Sonata.
Article date: 16/12/07 | Last edited: 5/02/09
Boris Tishenko
I was asked to translate this letter by a music student of the University of Queensland some time ago. I am not a professional translator so I was wondering if you may have any suggestions for improvement. The Russian text of the letter was located in the first couple of pages of the viola sonata. Unfortunately I do not remember nor can I locate the publisher. Maybe you could help with this too?
Also, I found an old Russian documentary directed by Alexander Sokurov about the composer Dmitri Shostakovich “Dmitri Shostakovich Sonata for Viola”
“Letter from Leningrad”
By: Boris Tishenko
Notes and Translation by: Sergei V. Korschmin [Read More]
