Joe Morello, the adventuresome drummer in Dave Brubeck’s most famous quartet, has died at 82. Tucked away at the bottom of his obituary in the New York Times is this gem: Joseph A. Morello was born in Springfield, Mass., on July 17, 1928. Sight-impaired from an early age, he took up the violin at 6 and performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra three years later. According to a biography on his Web site, Mr. Morello gave up the violin for drums at 15, after meeting his idol, the violinist Jascha Heifetz. Reminds me of

Looks like I”m doing some softball questions again.  For a pair of pretty expensive tickets to the NYPhil performance of  Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18, who can answer any of the following questions. Where in New York did Bartók live when he died on September 26, 1945.  (Street and nearest cross-street) In what hospital did he die? Where is his grave? What was the last work that he completed? What friend of mine lived for several years in the same building? Answer one or more and you might be a winner.

Okay, kiddies, I have four pairs of tickets to give away to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18.  The performance is part of the New York Philharmonic’s Hungarian Echoes Festival led by the estimable Finnish hockey star Esa-Pekka Salonen.  The problem is that Sequenza 21 readers are all such a bunch of smart asses that I can never come up with a question that stumps anyone for more than 30 seconds so that means the first person who reads this probably wins. So, here’s what we’re going to do this time.  Today, we’re giving away one pair

There was a certain amount of preliminary drama in the few days before the first performances of Harrison Birtwistle’s Violin Concerto by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on March 3 through 5, during the course of which James Levine, who has been plagued by a series of health problems for several years and who had canceled the preceding concert due to illness, first announced that he was unable to participate in any of remaining concerts of the current season, and then, a day later, due to those recurring health problems, resigned as the orchestra’s music director, leaving considerable doubt about how the

On February 17th, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin declared 2011 the “Year of the Composer” in Vermont, the first such proclamation in the country. Getting the proclamation itself — little more than a prosaic document signed by a friendly politician — and getting something useful out of the proclamation are two separate stories, one still in the process of being written. The proclamation is a whereas-filled document that states, “the creation and presentation of newly composed music is fundamental to the history of Vermont and provides a basis for continuing growth of educational opportunities, progress in the our cultural leadership and