Following the success of the recently opened St. Petersburg Conservatory, the first institution of its kind in Russia, a second conservatory opened in Moscow in 1866. Among the new professors was one of the first graduates of the St. Petersburg school: a young composer named Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. A large proportion of the Moscow Conservatory’s … Continued
Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony may be the greatest graduation project of all time. Composed at the age of 18, Shostakovich’s First Symphony was written to fulfill the graduation requirements of the Leningrad Conservatory (earning him the equivalent of a college music degree), and would take the international music world by storm the following year. But … Continued
For three years, Mahler had composed almost nothing. His first three gargantuan symphonies had only met with sporadic success, if they were performed at all, and he was consumed with the Herculean task of his new job: running Vienna’s Imperial Opera. Mahler was determined to transform the declining institution into a musical and theatrical experience … Continued
In 1891, Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, an energetic American philanthropist and music lover, had a great triumph: she convinced the world-renowned Czech composer Antonin Dvořák to be the new director of her National Conservatory of Music in New York City. For his arrival the following year, she commissioned him to write a piece for the 400th anniversary … Continued
The Houston Symphony Chorus recently completed a highly successful series of concerts in the Czech Republic. Chorus Manager Anna Diemer shares her memories and impressions below. When I accepted the offer to become Manager of the Houston Symphony Chorus, I never imagined that in two short years I would be pedal-boating down the Vltava River in … Continued
As Gabriel Lena Frank’s productive three year tenure as the Houston Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence comes to a close, this Latin Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated composer has been preparing one of her most ambitious projects to date. Frank’s new Conquest Requiem calls for a large orchestra and chorus, plus soprano and baritone soloists. This is a big piece … Continued