by Kile Smith | Feb 29, 2016 | Classical music, WRTI Arts Desk
[First published 29 Feb 2016 in the WRTI Arts Desk, reprinted here by permission.] March 5th is the anniversary of a remarkable day in music history. Sergei Prokofiev died, but almost unnoticed, because it was the same day that Josef Stalin, the tyrant who had caused...
by Kile Smith | Feb 22, 2016 | Jazz, WRTI Arts Desk
[First published 22 Feb 2016 in WRTI’s Arts Desk and reprinted by permission.] This week it’s the 99th anniversary of an important first for the WRTI family. It happened in South Jersey, and the significance of it extends to this day....
by Kile Smith | Feb 8, 2016 | Classical music, WRTI Arts Desk
[First published in WRTI’s Arts Desk, 8 Feb 2016. Reprinted by permission.] The recording industry gives out its GRAMMY Awards on February 15th; WRTI’s Kile Smith looks at the classical categories. This year’s classical GRAMMYs may have more than a few...
by Kile Smith | Feb 1, 2016 | Classical music, WRTI Arts Desk
[First published in WRTI’s Arts Desk, 1 Feb 2016. Reprinted by permission.] The recording industry gives out the GRAMMY Awards in two weeks, and WRTI’s Kile Smith looks at the classical categories, which include some local names. On February 15th the 58th Grammy...
by Kile Smith | Jan 18, 2016 | WRTI Arts Desk
[First published in WRTI’s Arts Desk 18 Jan 2016.] It’s an odd name for an odd work that almost wasn’t written. But it premiered 72 years ago this week, and as WRTI’s Kile Smith reports, this piece by Paul Hindemith is one of the most popular orchestral works of the...
by Kile Smith | Dec 21, 2015 | Children's Music, Classical music, WRTI Arts Desk
[First published in WRTI’s Arts Desk, 21 December 2015.] A young mother wanted to sing to her children. She wrote poems based on a story by the Brothers Grimm and asked her brother to set them to music. He did, but then kept working with them, and in two years those...