Artie Shaw - Beguin The Beguine ( Cole Porter )

Niño Tiro - his music and his life

 

Niño Tiro (*1980)

Niño Tiro's music is anachronistic, eccentric, and outright melodic. Born in Cagayan de

Oro City, Philippines, he started piano lessons at the age of five. During his High-School

days, he then explored Rock and played electric bass in a band. Realizing his passion

for music regardless of genre, he pursued playing the piano for his Bachelor's degree in

music while playing Jazz and Rock during his spare time. He also taught piano in a

family-owned studio while pursuing his Bachelor's degree. After he graduated, he was

faculty of the Lourdes College School of Music for 13 years, where he became a

prestigious piano pedagogue and an avant-garde music teacher. He also plays Jazz,

Blues, and Rock as a professional session player in various local bands. In 2004, his

band's song was a radio hit and was #1 for eight weeks on the local airwaves. He

worked in the United States as The Life Teen Music Director in Santa Barbara Catholic

Church. He is currently pursuing a second Bachelor's degree in Music, majoring in

Composition under the tutelage of Horst-Hans Bäcker. He is presently faculty of The

Conservatory of Music, Theater, and Dance of Liceo de Cagayan University, the

Principal Double bass player of the Cagayan De Oro Symphony Orchestra, continuing his passion for 

teaching  and making music.

"Phantasie für Ludwig"; by Philippine composer Niño Tiro (*1980) is dedicated to Susanne

Kessel.

It is part of Vol. 9 of Susanne Kessel's global composition project "250 piano pieces for

Beethoven".

Susanne Kessel invited 250 composers worldwide to write new piano pieces for Beethoven's

250th anniversary in the year 2020. All pieces refer to Beethoven's music and his life.

Susanne Kessel played the world premieres of all the piano pieces in Beethoven's birth town,

Bonn. There will be more performances also in other cities and countries by the pianist herself.

All pieces are published within a high-quality sheet music edition by EDITIONS MUSICA

FERRUM / London.

The sheet music of this piece will be in Vol. 9 of the project's edition.

All information about the project - and SHOP:

www.250-piano-pieces-for-beethoven.com

"Phantasie für Ludwig"; is a Sturm und Drang piece in A minor based on the Beethoven style of

Classical Romantic composition. There are a few nods here and there from the Meister's

monumental works. The dissonance and melodic and harmonic tension in this piece conveys the

ups and downs of a composer's life and depicts the life of Ludwig succumbing to the frailty of

the human mind and body. The work ends in A, neither major and minor, symbolizing the

continuing struggles that everyone, especially Ludwig, faced in life.

Scientists find the amazing reason your favorite music gives you ‘chills’

Why does music give you 'chills'? Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

Now we know why our favorite music sends shivers down our spine.

Scientists say they have discovered why the melodies we love give us goosebumps.

A team of French researchers found that when we listen to our favourite music, the areas of the brain which handle emotion, movement, and processing music and sound work together to create a surge in dopamine levels – our ‘feel good’ chemical.

According to the study, our brains also try to anticipate what happens next in the song. And when we guess correctly, we get a reward.

Thibault Chabin, a PhD student at the University Burgundy Franche-Comté who led the study, said: “What is most intriguing is that music seems to have no biological benefit to us. However, the implication of dopamine and of the reward system in processing of musical pleasure suggests an ancestral function for music.

“This ancestral function may lie in the period of time we spend in anticipation of the ‘chill-inducing’ part of the music. As we wait, our brains are busy predicting the future and release dopamine.

“Evolutionarily speaking, being able to predict what will happen next is essential for survival.”

Read more: Music takes 13 minutes to ‘release sadness’ and 9 to make you happy >

The team of researchers, whose study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, carried out the experiment on 18 music-lovers with a range of musical abilities, who had all experienced chills when listening to music.

“Participants of our study were able to precisely indicate ‘chill-producing’ moments in the songs, but most musical chills occurred in many parts of the extracts and not only in the predicted moments,” says Chabin.

Side note, interestingly – or tragically, depending on your take! – only about half of people get chills when listening to music. Those who do, are considered to have an “enhanced ability to experience intense emotions”.

For Chabin’s study, the participants were hooked up to machines that record electrical activity in the brain, and they were played 90-second clips of their favourite songs.

While they were listening, the scientists watched what happened in their brains whenever the music gave them ‘chills’.

These regions work together to process music and release the ‘feel-good’ hormone, dopamine. Combined with the anticipation that triggers those pleasurable ‘reward systems’, this produces the tingly chill participants felt while listening.

“This represents a good perspective for musical emotion research,” Chabin said.

“Musical pleasure is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves to be investigated further, in order to understand why music is rewarding and unlock why music is essential in human lives.”

(C) 2020 by ClassicFM London

Fantasia on Smoke on the Water

HORST-HANS BÄCKER born in Bucharest (Romania) in 1959. The composer and conductor Horst-Hans Bäcker took his first piano lessons at the age of five with Tamas Vesmas. In the summer of 1973 Bäcker left Romania with his parents and came to Germany where he studied composition from 1981 with Professor Ludwig Werner Weiand at the conservatory in Wuppertal. 

Bäcker continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he studied composition with Professor Gyula Horvath, ensemble direction with Professor Kurt Prestel and performance practice of early music with Professor Nikolaus Harnoncourt from 1983 to 1986. 

In 1984 Bäcker founded the SALZBURGER VOKALENSEMBEL and directed this chamber choir until his departure from Salzburg. Bäcker completed his training in composition from 1986 to 1989 under Professor Jürg Baur at the Rhineland Academy of Music in Cologne. Since his studies in Cologne Bäcker has been commissioned to compose music by musicians and chamber ensembles from all over the world. 

In addition, he has been commissioned to compose music for special occasion by various European cities. With his composition “From the Depth I Cry Out to You Lord” Bäcker won the prize of the De Profundis Composers Competition in Cologne. 

He completed his formation as a conductor in Master Classes with Jorma Panula. In the year 1996 Horst-Hans Bäcker founded a symphony orchestra, out of which the INTERNATIONALE PHILHARMONIE was founded two years later and for which he was appointed Principal Conductor at the same time. He has been a regular guest conductor for the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Banatul Philharmonic Orchestra in Timisoara, Moldova Philharmonic Orchestra in Iasi, and Oradea, Sibiu and Craiova Philharmonic Orchestras in Romania, the Northern Hungarian Symphony Orchestra in Hungary and for the choir and orchestra of Camerata Antiqua de Curitiba (Brazil).

 Among the numerous soloists he has worked with, Bäcker has established some long-term musical partnerships, among others with the panpipes players Gheorghe Zamfir and Matthias Schlubeck, with the violinists Christina Anghelescu, Bogdan Dragus, Sophie Moser and Sebastian Casleanu, with the Canadian guitarist Dale Kavanagh, the German-Canadian Amadeus Guitar Duo and the British Eden-Stell Guitar Duo, as well as with the pianists Katja Huhn, Ekaterina Litvintseva, Mihai Ungureanu and Tamas Vesmas. 

Since 2003 Horst-Hans Bäcker is permanent guest conductor of Arad State Philharmonic Orchestra and the State Philharmonic Orchestra “Oltenia” in Craiova. Since 2006 he is also permanent guest conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra “Banat” in Timisoara and was commissioned by the orchestra to compose a work for Choir and Orchestra for the Celebration of 60 years as Romanian State Orchestra. 

The composition “Rapsodia Timisoreana” including tribute to the most important Romanian Composer George Enescu and the most important Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu, was enthusiastically received by the members of the choir and the orchestra as well as by the audience. Horst-Hans Bäcker’s first CD SPANISH NIGHT including Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concertos for 1, 2 and 4 Guitars and Orchestra was enthusiastically received by the critics. Also the following recordings SPANISH NIGHT II with the guitarist Dale Kavanagh, Amadeus Guitar Duo, panpipes player Gheorghe Zamfir and the State Philharmonic Arad; including an orchestral work by Bäcker “Rapsodia Mallorquina” the CD Berühmte Opernarien – Panflöte und Orchester with soloist Gheorghe Zamfir and State Philharmonic Arad, as well as the CD ZauberPANflöte with panpipes player Matthias Schlubeck and the State Philharmonic Transylvania were very successful and full of tribute. 

Beside his compositions Horst-Hans Bäcker, since 2006, is delighting the audience with his Arrangements for Symphonic Orchestra and some for Choir and Orchestra of works by the Bands such as Beatles, Queen, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Supertramp and others. Each time these concerts are sold out and Highlights were some Open Air Concerts with each about 25,000 enthusiastic spectators. Another positive effect of this kind of concerts is to bring young people closer to Symphony Orchestras and Choirs.

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19

 

US orchestra study finds trumpet ‘riskiest’ instrument for spreading COVID-19. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM

A University of Minnesota study discovers the wind instruments that emit the most aerosols, and are therefore “riskiest” in the transmission of COVID-19.

Trumpets and oboes, as well as bass trombones, were found to be “high risk” compared to other brass and woodwind instruments, in new research into coronavirus transmission in orchestras.

Bass clarinet and tuba were found to be “lower risk”.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that while trumpets and oboes were the “riskiest” instruments for transmitting airborne diseases, none of the examined wind instruments were found to spread aerosols further than one foot.

Published last month in the Journal of Aerosol Science, the study investigated 15 musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra in an effort to help them return to live music-making in a COVID-secure way.

Researchers say their findings could provide “valuable insights into the risk assessment of airborne disease transmission and the corresponding mitigation strategies for different musical activities involving the usage of wind instruments”.

Read more: UK government’s latest guidance for live music-making >

Minnesota Orchestra plays for the first since the pandemic shutdown. Picture: Getty

In the study, researchers tracked the aerosols emitted from 10 orchestral woodwind and brass instruments: the flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, oboe and bassoon; tuba, French horn, trumpet, trombone and bass trombone.

The concentration of aerosols – tiny air particles that can contain viruses and lead to the transmission of airborne diseases like COVID-19 – produced from instruments, was then compared with the amount produced by players when simply breathing or speaking.

Read more: Singing ‘no riskier than talking’, UK study says >

“As higher aerosol concentration leads to an increased risk of airborne disease transmission, we categorise these instruments into low, intermediate, and high-risk levels,” researchers said.

The aerosols coming from instruments ranged from 20 to 2,400 particles per litre of air. When players were tested when breathing or speaking, they produced an average of just 90 and 230 particles per litre respectively. 

Trumpet, oboe and bass trombone players, in particular, were likely to produce more aerosols when playing, than while speaking and breathing. The researches termed these instruments “high risk” for transmitting airborne diseases.

The bassoon, piccolo, flute, bass clarinet and French horn were considered an “intermediate risk”.

Perhaps due to the tube length of the instrument, the tuba was termed “low risk”.

Scientists said mouthpiece designs could also affect the level of aerosols produced.

“All of this information I think is very useful for planning,” said Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Jiarong Hong, who led the team. “Once we understand the risk level of different instruments, we can actually target the higher risk instruments. You certainly don’t want to have a group of trumpet players playing in a confined room because that will be a very high-risk activity.”

Osmo Vanska rehearses with the Minnesota Orchestra, of whom 15 members participated in the coronavirus study. Picture: Getty

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the study could influence orchestral seating arrangements going forward, as the arts world looks for ways to perform live safely in pandemic times.

“Those wearing masks could sit closer, while those who can’t wear masks should sit further apart,” Ho said, adding that a distance of 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) between unmasked players would be safer.

Ho said plastic screens between players could help block some big droplets, but attested that good ventilation is still crucial in reducing the risk of transmission through tiny particles.

Researchers also recommended social distancing, putting masks over instruments and using portable filters. They found that a single-layer mask blocks 60 percent of the particles without significantly reducing sound quality. Two layers block 75 percent with a slight drop in sound quality, while three layers block 92 percent but cause a substantial dip in sound quality.

Minnesota Orchestra is currently performing for online audiences only, in small groups of no more than 25 musicians. The full orchestra consists of around 90 musicians.

Read more: Minnesota Orchestra breaks with Minneapolis Police, ‘will no longer use for concert security’ >

President and CEO Michelle Miller Burns said the orchestra is now planning “a multi-layered approach to safety onstage and backstage that involves COVID testing, light quarantining, wearing masks, maintaining distance between musicians, and investigating bell barriers and air purifiers – all in the interest of mitigating as many risks as possible”.

She added: “This important research will benefit organisations beyond ours, and we are pleased that the University’s findings can now be shared with school groups and other ensembles to help inform and guide their decisions and safety strategies.”

Rockmusiker Spencer Davis ist tot

 

Bekannt wurde der britische Musiker in den 1960er Jahren mit Songs wie "Keep On Running". Nun ist SpencerDavis im Alter von 81 Jahren in Los Angeles gestorben.

    

Der Gründer der "Spencer Davis Group" starb in einem Krankenhaus der kalifornischen Stadt. Todesursache sei eine Lungenentzündung gewesen, teilte sein langjähriger Manager Bob Birk mit. Der 1939 in Wales geborene Spencer Davis sang, spielte Gitarre und Keyboard. Er hatte die nach ihm benannte Band 1963 gegründet, die bald mit Songs wie "Gimme Some Lovin" und "I'm a Man" Erfolge feiern konnte. "Keep On Running" und "Somebody Help Me" schafften es Mitte der 60er Jahre auf Platz eins der britischen Singlecharts. Viele weitere Titel schafften es in die britischen Top 40.

Spencer Davis (r.) zusammen mit seinen Bandkollegen Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood, Pete York

Seine Musiker-Karriere begann Davis während eines Studiums an der Universität Birmingham. Er trat zusammen mit zukünftigen Stars wie dem späteren Rolling-Stones-Bassisten Bill Wyman und dem Fleetwood Mac-Mitglied Christine McVie auf. In den 70er Jahren zog Davis nach Kalifornien, nahm später Solo-Alben auf, arbeitete mit anderen Musikern zusammen und tourte um die Welt.

Sein Manager Birk würdigte ihn als hochmoralischen, sehr talentierten, gutmütigen, extrem intelligenten und großzügigen Menschen. Davis hinterlässt seine Partnerin June und drei erwachsene Kinder.

qu/rb (dpa, ap)

Hans Rott - Symphony for string orchestra

Victor Borge - His Music and His Life

Early life and career

Victor Borge was born Børge Rosenbaum on 3 January 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke (née Lichtinger) Rosenbaum, were both musicians: his father a violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra,[5][6] and his mother a pianist.[7] Borge began piano lessons at the age of two, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. He gave his first piano recital when he was eight years old, and in 1918 was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying under Olivo Krause. Later on, he was taught by Victor Schiøler, Liszt's student Frederic Lamond, and Busoni's pupil Egon Petri.

Borge played his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish Odd Fellow Palæet (The Odd Fellow's Lodge building) concert hall. After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now famous "stand-up" act, with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. He married the American Elsie Chilton in 1933; the same year he debuted with his revue acts.[8] Borge started touring extensively in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes.

When the German armed forces occupied Denmark on 9 April 1940, during World War II, Borge was playing a concert in Sweden and managed to escape to Finland.[9] He travelled to America on the United States Army transport American Legion, the last neutral ship to make it out of Petsamo, Finland,[10][11] and arrived 28 August 1940, with only $20 (about $365 today), with $3 going to the customs fee. Disguised as a sailor, Borge returned to Denmark once during the occupation to visit his dying mother.[12]

Move to America

Even though Borge did not speak a word of English upon arrival, he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience, learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor Borge, and in 1941, he started on Rudy Vallee's radio show.[13] He was hired soon after by Bing Crosby for his Kraft Music Hall programme.[14]

Borge quickly rose to fame, winning Best New Radio Performer of the Year in 1942. Soon after the award, he was offered film roles with stars such as Frank Sinatra (in Higher and Higher). While hosting The Victor Borge Show on NBC beginning in 1946,[15] he developed many of his trademarks, including repeatedly announcing his intent to play a piece but getting "distracted" by something or other, making comments about the audience, or discussing the usefulness of Chopin's "Minute Waltz" as an egg timer.[16] He would also start out with some well-known classical piece like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and suddenly move into a harmonically similar pop or jazz tune, such as Cole Porter's "Night and Day" or "Happy Birthday to You."

Borge's style

One of Borge's other famous routines was "Phonetic Punctuation," in which he read a passage from a book and added exaggerated sound effects to stand for all of the punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and exclamation marks.[17] Another is his "Inflationary Language," in which he added one to every number or homophone of a number in the words he spoke. For example: "once upon a time" becomes "twice upon a time", "wonderful" becomes "twoderful", "forehead" becomes "fivehead", "anyone for tennis" becomes "anytwo five elevennis", "I ate a tenderloin with my fork and so on and so forth" becomes "I nined an elevenderloin with my fivek and so on and so fifth".[14]

Borge performing before an audience in 1957

Borge used physical and visual elements in his live and televised performances. He would play a strange-sounding piano tune from sheet music, looking increasingly confused; turning the sheet upside down or sideways, he would then play the actual tune, flashing a joyful smile of accomplishment to the audience (he had, at first, been literally playing the tune upside down or sideways). When his energetic playing of another song would cause him to fall off the piano bench, he would open the seat lid, take out the two ends of an automotive seat belt, and buckle himself onto the bench, "for safety." Conducting an orchestra, he might stop and order a violinist who had played a sour note to get off the stage, then resume the performance and have the other members of the section move up to fill the empty seat while they were still playing. From off stage would come the sound of a gunshot.

His musical sidekick in the 1960s, Leonid Hambro, was also a well-known concert pianist.[18] In 1968, classical pianist Şahan Arzruni joined him as his straight man, performing together on one piano a version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, considered a musical-comedic classic.[19]

He also enjoyed interacting with the audience. Seeing an interested person in the front row, he would ask them, "Do you like good music?" or "Do you care for piano music?" After an affirmative answer, Borge would take a piece of sheet music from his piano and say, "Here is some," and hand it over. After the audience's laughter died down, he would say, "That'll be $1.95" (or whatever the current price might be). He would then ask whether the audience member could read music; if the member said yes, he would ask a higher price. If he got no response from the audience after a joke, he would often add "...when this ovation has died down, of course." The delayed punchline to handing the person the sheet music would come when he would reach the end of a number and begin playing the penultimate notes over and over, with a puzzled look. He would then go back to the person in the audience, retrieve the sheet music, tear off a piece of it, stick it on the piano, and play the last couple of notes from it.

Making fun of modern theater, he would sometimes begin a performance by asking if there were any children in the audience. There always were, of course. He would sternly order them out, then say, "We do have some children in here; that means I can't do the second half in the nude. I'll wear the tie (pause). The long one (pause). The very long one, yes."[20]

In his stage shows in later years, he would include a segment with opera singer Marilyn Mulvey. She would try to sing an aria, and he would react and interrupt, with such antics as falling off the bench in "surprise" when she hit a high note. He would also remind her repeatedly not to rest her hand on the piano, telling her that if she got used to it, "and one day a piano was not there – Fffftttt! " After the routine, the spotlight would rest on Mulvey, and she would sing a serious number with Borge accompanying in the background.

Later career

Borge appeared on Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan several times during 1948. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States the same year. He started the Comedy in Music show at John Golden Theatre in New York City on 2 October 1953. Comedy in Music became the longest running one-man show in the history of theater with 849 performances when it closed on 21 January 1956, a feat which placed it in the Guinness Book of World Records.[21]

Continuing his success with tours and shows, Borge played with and conducted orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,[22] the New York Philharmonic[23] and London Philharmonic.[24] Always modest, he felt honored when he was invited to conduct the Royal Danish Orchestra at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1992.

His later television appearances included his "Phonetic Punctuation" routine on The Electric Company in a filmed sketch.[25] He would also use this sketch on The Electric Company's LP record to follow, during its "Punctuation" song.[26] In addition, he appeared several times on Sesame Street,[27][28][29][30] and he was a guest star during the fourth season of The Muppet Show.[31][32][33]

Victor Borge continued to tour until his last days, performing up to 60 times per year when he was 90 years old.

Other endeavors

Borge made several appearances on the long-running TV show What's My Line?, both as a celebrity panelist, and as a contestant with the occupation "poultry farmer" (the latter was not a comedy routine; as a business venture, Borge raised and popularized Rock Cornish game hens starting in the 1950s).[34]

Borge helped start several trust funds, including the Thanks to Scandinavia Fund,[35] which was started in dedication to those who helped the Jews escape the German persecution during the war.[35]

Aside from his musical work, Borge wrote three books, My Favorite Intermissions[36] and My Favorite Comedies in Music[37] (both with Robert Sherman), and the autobiography Smilet er den korteste afstand ("The Smile is the Shortest Distance") with Niels-Jørgen Kaiser.[38]

In 1979, Borge founded the American Pianists Association (then called the Beethoven Foundation) with Julius Bloom and Anthony P. Habig. The American Pianists Association now produces two major piano competitions: the Classical Fellowship Awards and the Jazz Fellowship Awards.[39]