Archive for Newsletters

Newsletter: September 2022

Welcome to the September 2022 chapter newsletter.  Autumn is a time of transformation. As such, please listen to William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2 in G minor, a standout entry in that quintessentially American genre of jazz-influenced classical music. Alternatively titled “Song of a New Race,” this symphony was composed to represent the African-American experience […]

Newsletter: July-August 2022

Welcome to the July–August 2022 chapter newsletter.  As summer days become summer nights, let us pause and reflect on all that we are – and all that we could be. This month’s musical recommendation is the Nocturne from Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Op. 61). Following the Dionysian antics of Nick […]

Newsletter-June 2022

Welcome to the June 2022 chapter newsletter.  It’s summertime. And, all things considered, the living is easy. Please, if you’re inclined, checkout this recording of Gershwin’s Summertime by The Academy of St. Martin in the FieldsChamber Ensemble. Like many Gershwin compositions, Summertime occupies a dual existence: sometimes catchy jazz tune; other times swelling orchestral arrangement. […]

Newsletter-May 2022

Welcome to the May 2022 chapter newsletter.  For May’s musical selection, I’ll resist the cliché of Vivaldi’s “Spring,” as it’s probably the most ubiquitous and overplayed classical piece in history. Try instead Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances. These are two sets of light musical pieces I discovered by accident one spring evening in Portland, as they […]

Newsletter-April 2022

Welcome to the April 2022 chapter newsletter.  April, quite unexpectedly, is a month of mystery. Though it derives from the Latin Aprilis, the root of the name is unclear. It may come from aperio – “to open”, in reference to the blooming of April flowers. Or, so says Ovid, April is the month of Aphrodite, […]