Composers Datebook
Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 2 minutes
- Episodes
- 100
- Years Active
- 2025
Atterberg's '$10,000' Symphony
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1928, the Columbia Phonograph Company of New York announced that the Symphony No. 6 by Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg was the winner of its $10,000 Schubert Memorial Prize…
The king is dead
Synopsis
On today’s date, Elvis left the building — permanently.
On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died in Memphis, Tennessee. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935, Elvis first earned his living as a me…
A Mass for Machaut
Synopsis
In the Catholic Liturgical calendar, today is celebrated as the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. In the Middle Ages, when the veneration of Mary as Notre Dame —…
Bolcom's 'Five Fold Five'
Synopsis
Young composers who came of age in the 1960s found themselves faced with a question: should they adopt the intellectually fashionable post-serial, atonal style of composition developed by Arn…
Martinu in California
Synopsis
On today's date in 1950, the orchestra of the Musical Arts Society of La Jolla, California gave the premiere performance of this music by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. The Sinfonietta …
'Twilight Butterfly' by Thomas
Synopsis
Each summer, music lovers congregate about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago for the annual Ravinia Festival, the oldest outdoor music festival in America, and since 1936 the summer home of …
Bernstein in Hollywood
Synopsis
Elia Kazan’s film, On the Waterfront, a 1954 black and white classic starring Marlon Brando, won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was also nominated for — but didn’t win — tha…
Two by Mozart
Synopsis
On today’s date, Wolfgang Mozart completed two of his most famous works: on August 10, 1787, the Serenade known as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and, on the same day 10 years later, the Jupiter Sym…
Berlioz, Beatrice and Benedict
Synopsis
In the 19th century, the German spa town of Baden-Baden was the place to be in the summer. Wealthy international tourists could bathe in artesian wells by day, and by night, gamble at the cas…
Chaminade in America
Synopsis
French composer and concert pianist Cecile Chaminade was born in Paris on this date in 1857. She wrote symphonic works and even operas, but it was her piano pieces and songs that became enorm…
Mendelssohn gets wet and wild
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1829, the German composer Felix Mendelssohn and his friend, Karl Klingemann, were on the North Sea bound for Glasgow.
Klingemann was not impressed with Scotland and wrote ho…
An opera debut for Britten and Bernstein
Synopsis
On today's date in 1946, Leonard Bernstein conducted the American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes, at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Peter Grimes had rece…
Of mountains and Messiaen
Synopsis
Gourmet composer Gioachino Rossini had a beef dish, Tournedos Rossini, named after him, and over the centuries countless towns have honored their native composers by naming streets after them…
Mozart gets married
Synopsis
As a public service, here’s a reminder for those of you who tend to forget your wedding anniversary: if you’re not sure when it is, maybe now would be a good time to check … before it’s too l…
Rossini asks 'Who was that masked man?'
Synopsis
A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty “Hi-yo, Silver!”
Generations of American baby boomers first heard Rossini’s William Tell Overture as the opening credits of…
Gluck and Glass in the underworld
Synopsis
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a priest of Apollo and a fabulous musician, who attempted to bring his dead wife Eurydice back from the underworld.
On this day in 1774, in Paris, the first per…
Dvorak's 'American Quintet'
Synopsis
Most classical music lovers know and love Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Opus 95, and his American String Quartet, Opus 96, but fewer know the work he wrote next: his String Quintet, Opus 97. W…
Bach at rest
Synopsis
Two or three days after his death on July 28, 1750, the final rites were held in Leipzig, in St. John’s Church, for Johann Sebastian Bach, considered by many the greatest composer who ever li…
Ellington honored -- finally!
Synopsis
On today’s date in 1965, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of an orchestral work by Duke Ellington, The Golden Broom and the Green Apple, with the composer conducting. O…
Caruso sings Cohan
Synopsis
In 1917, on the day the United States declared war in Germany, American song-writer and former vaudeville showman George M. Cohan composed “Over There,” a song based on the first three notes …