Mark Likes Music

To further celebrate his birthday, here's William Schuman appearing on What's My Line in 1962, only a few months after taking on the job as president of Lincoln Center, and just before the premiere of his Symphony No. 8 in Philharmonic (now Avery Fisher) Hall.

Last year, I marked William Schuman's birthday  on this blog , and today I'm doing it again (because birthdays come once a year). It's Schuman's 100th, and Bill McLaughlin is paying tribute all week on his radio show Exploring Music (which you can hear on WQXR here in New York City). On the Exploring Music blog, you can hear McLaughlin talk about Schuman's Symphony No. 3 . It's a great piece, but  Circus Overture brings back fond memories. Back when my son was two years old, I used to bounce him around on our bed while listening to this piece. Can't do that now.  

In November, Chelsea Tipton and the Westchester Philharmonic will be performing Schuman's Symphony No. 5 (1943). Good to see.

To my surprise, I found the biography of William Schuman at Borders today. John Clare interviewed the author, Juilliard president Joseph Polisi, last year. There's more--including clips of lots of Schuman's music--at the website to promote the book, schuman-americanmuse.com .

Yes, it's Barack Obama's birthday, but it's also William Schuman's, and there was a time when that would have been a pretty big deal. As John Clare reminded us on his blog , Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic celebrated Schuman's 50th birthday in 1960, opening their October 13-16 shows with his Symphony No. 3. Two years later, as Schuman began his tenure as president of Lincoln Center (he was previously president of the Juilliard School), he appeared on What's My Line?