Marvin Rosen, WPRB Princeton
24 hour Classical Discoveries Marathon: 21st Century American Music
Tuesday, September 8 at 7:00 pm until Wednesday, September 9 at 7:00 pm
These days it is nearly impossible to find a “radio” station that plays our music and other new music of interest. In my experience, some of the New York stations that used to play a lot of new music have somewhat shut us out for whatever reasons. There are new releases coming out from every country in the world, but who has the time to actually search this material on the internet?
Marvin Rosen, host of Classical Discoveries on WPRB Princeton, does. He is a devoted listener and audiophile and leaves no stone unturned, taking his search worldwide.
He is assisted by his wife Beata Rzeszodko-Rosen, who was born and raised in Poland and acquired a wide-ranging knowledge of the music of Eastern Europe.
In Marvin’s programs, which have been on the air for 12 years now, and have received an ASCAP award in 2005, I find rare music that is truly fresh and interesting. Even though I don’t have access to the broadcast from my radio in New York City, I can hear the music streaming on the WPRBÂ web site “www.wprb.com or you can find a link from the Classical Discoveries own website: http://www.classicaldiscoveries.org. This site is soon to be updated with a new look and additional ease-of-use features. The web site also provides a guest book for comments and feedback on the programs.
Through mid September on Wednesday mornings, from 5:30AM through 11 AM, Classical Discoveries airs; and then, from 11AM through 3PM, it is followed by Classical Discoveries goes Avant-Garde. Also, during the summer, special early music programs air on Saturdays from 6:00 to 9:00 PM – and that’s really premium time so check the web site for those.
Classical Discoveries represents a landmark of knowledge with programs that are uninhibited, with the widest possible range of music both historically and geographically. On Classical Discoveries you will hear the noble sounds of Polish Baroque from the 17th century, or the enchanting voice of a nun from Lebanon who also happens to be a composer. Here is the list of composers from letter L from the repertoire page on the web site – how many of these names are familiar?
Gyorgy Lang, Judith Lang Zaimont, Libby Larsen, Rick LaSalle, Elodie Lauten, Vytautas Laurusas, Jón Leifs, Leon Levitch, Zara Levina, Frank Ezra Levy, Peter Lieberson, Gyorgy Ligeti, Lukas Ligeti, Christian Lindberg, Bo Linde, Binnette Lipper, Ricardo Llorca, George Lloyd, David Loeb, Doug Lofstrom, Fernando Lopes-Graca, Oleksa Lozowchuk, William Lovelock, Pawel Lukaszewski, Wojciech Lukaszewski.
On the site, the “Special Presentations” page comprises a number of categories as for example: Women’s music, American music, Avant-garde and Electronic music, rare Baroque and Renaissance music, and music from other countries (Spotlight/Focus On Countries).
Some of the programs are particularly well researched: Voices Of Lithuania – Musical Voyage, The Glorious Sound Of The Polish Baroque, Music By The Nuns Of Italian Baroque, Beyond The Mysteries Of Middle-Eastern Music, Iceland: Land Of Fire And Ice, Classical Discoveries Goes Outback- Musical Voyage To Australia, Polish Music Beyond Chopin And Gorecki, Music For Kwanza – and other holiday programs from all different traditions.
The 24-hour Marathon program (see date and time above) is specially exciting as it is focused on exclusively new American music. Classical Discoveries has become a major source of cultural preservation in a shrinking music scene.
An article came out just recently about Classical Discoveries you might want to peruse it. This is the link: http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/08/24/time_off/entertainment_news/doc4a8c2f83149a4057334441.txt
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