Author: JDCuebas (Jeremy Cuebas)

Béla Bartók
Post

Dance Suite

Hungarian composer, conductor, and pianist Béla Bartók (1881–1945) was born in Nagyszentmiklós, a town that now lies within Romanian borders. He spent his childhood in various locations in present-day Ukraine...

Read More
Arturo Marquez
Post

Danzón No. 4

Music was a way of life for the family of Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (b. 1950). His grandfather was a folk musician and his father a dance-hall performer in a mariachi band. Thus...

Read More
Erik Satie
Post

Gymnopédie No. 3, 1

Erik Satie (1866–1925) was an outlier, both musically and socially. As a piano student, he left the Paris Conservatory twice without completion because he could not adapt to the inflexible...

Read More
Antonin Dvorak
Post

Violin Concerto in A Minor

In 1879, one of the leading violinists of the time, Joseph Joachim, heard a Dvořák string quartet and went on to champion the composer’s chamber music. In return, Dvořák composed his...

Read More
Florence Price
Post

Ethiopia's Shadow in America

Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1887–1953) is an American treasure whose music was almost forgotten due to her race and gender. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price’s family supported her musical...

Read More
Rodrigo at the piano
Post

Concierto de Aranjuez

Born in the region of Valencia, twentieth-century Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901–1999) lost his sight as a small child. He learned to play piano and violin at the school for the blind he attended...

Read More
Astor Piazzolla
Post

Sinfonietta

Few composers have developed a style as individual and recognizable as Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992). Born in Argentina, but raised in New York City, Piazzolla was intrigued...

Read More
Vince Oliver
Post

Las Vistas Doradas

Las Vistas Doradas (Golden Views), was commissioned by the Denver Young Artists Orchestra and premiered by the ensemble at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2023 with the Fort Collins Symphony’s very own...

Read More
William Grant Still
Post

Miniature Overture

William Grant Still (1895–1978) came of age in the early twentieth century at a time when composers were trying to establish a uniquely American identity. For Still, that sometimes meant...

Read More
Sergei Prokofiev
Post

Symphony No. 5 in Bb Major, Op. 100

Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich are the two composers who stood above the rest of those who labored during the years of the Soviet Union.  Unlike Shostakovich, however, Prokofiev enjoyed part of his career living and composing in the West, voluntarily returning to the USSR in 1936. Like his compatriot...

Read More
Claude Debussy Square image
Post

Global Warming

Claude Debussy composed the three movements of his Nocturnes for orchestra between 1897-99. The early reception of this work was not wholly enthusiastic by any means, and they continued to receive mixed reviews...

Read More
Michael Abels
Post

Global Warming

With a “keen ear for musical color and a deft ability to adapt structural elements from popular music into the symphonic idiom” (Houston Chronicle), contemporary composer Michael Abels has...

Read More
Benjamin Britten
Post

Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

Twentieth-century British composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) was a precocious child. By the age of fourteen, he had already composed more than one hundred works. Recognizing his talent, his viola teacher introduced the boy to Frank Bridge, a highly acknowledged composer of the time....

Read More