What’s this program about?
Enter the musical world of Sir Malcolm Arnold, a world of brisk expression and energy, evocative 
soundscape, precise instrumentation, and winsome melody. A world of richly colored, well crafted, deeply satisfying sound.
Many people discover Malcolm Arnold through his sets of appealing dances and through his film scores, especially Bridge on the River Kwai.
Weimar. 
This former East German city (that seems so pastoral and peaceful) is actually a bubbling caldron for the arts and culture! Designated in 1999 as UNESCO’s Cultural Capital of Europe, Weimar is a small but unbelievably beautiful and famous city where virtually every movement in German and European cultural history seems to have left its mark.
Weimar combines the cultures of the Reformation (Luther), European Baroque (Bach and Herder), Classicism (Goethe and Schiller), and Romanticism (Liszt) with modern movements in the arts (Bauhaus), politics (Weimar Republic), and military history (Napoleon, Hitler and World War II).
After discovering Weimar in 1998, I helped create SMU’s Summer in Weimar program and co-directed the program for many years. During that time, I developed a deep admiration for one of our German guides, Dieter Kunkel. I asked Dieter to help me explain what makes Weimar so special.
What’s this program about?
We think of West Side Story as Bernstein’s musical, but it needed director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim to bring all of the elements together. West Side Story was a dividing line in each of the collaborators’ lives. It launched Sondheim’s career. Bernstein never again wrote anything like it.
“The chief problem,” Bernstein wrote, was “to tread the fine line between opera and Broadway, between realism and poetry, ballet and ‘just dancing,’ abstract and representational.” Featuring jazz and Latin forms, and songs too operatic for actors without trained voices, the collaborators agreed to preserve the “kid” quality by casting teens rather than seasoned professionals.
Works discussed: Bernstein, West Side Story
What’s this program about?
We forget how young the idea of a public concert is. Until around 1700, the idea of people assembling to play music not as part of a theatrical presentation or church service, but rather purely for listening, was almost unknown.
Concerts in the 19th Century included a lot of eating and drinking, gossip, and press reports on the personalities similar to today’s tabloids. Concerts were occasions for the hippest people to hear the newest, edgy music, filled with surprises and musical special effects.
Works discussed: Rimsky-Korsakov, Capriccio Espagnole; Sarasate, Zigeuenerweisen; Turrin, Fandango; Williams, Cowboys Overture; Brahms, Academic Festival Overture; Fauré, Elegie
Popcorn and high C’s? At the same time? Want to find out what really goes on backstage? Then let’s go to the movies – at theaters across America – to see Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, March 15 and 16, live via HD satellite transmission from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
If you think opera is silly and outdated, you’ll have to rethink when the gavel smashes to open Peter Grimes. It’s a searing story of a rugged fisherman pitted against his community. The HD feed from The Met includes backstage interviews where you’ll meet key people and watch how talent and technology come together to create an unforgettable show.
What’s this program about?
Was it the great tunes, the snappy lyrics, or both? George Gershwin’s fabulous songs are a treasured part of American music. His Rhapsody in Blue, theater works American in Paris and Porgy and Bess, brought him celebrity status and changed the course of American music. After his premature death, his brother Ira carried on the legacy working with the Library of Congress to ensure that these musical treasures are ours today. Professor Carol surveys the life and works of Gerswhin.
Works discussed: Rhapsody in Blue, Songs, Three Preludes for Piano
Conductor and oboist Vladimir Lande talks with Professor Carol about the legacy of Evgeny Mravinsky and Soviet composers Shostakovich and Khachaturian, as well as the influence of folklore and the bells of the Orthodox Church on Russian composers. He discusses performances of music by John Corigliano, Gaetano Panariello, and Lorenzo Ferrero and his enthusiasm for performing contemporary music of 
In addition to his conducting career, Lande is a virtuoso oboist with the Poulenc Trio and the D’Amore duo. He began his career as principal oboist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (1984-1989), playing under such legendary conductors as Mravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, and Yuri Temirkanov.
Lande has been awarded many prestigious prizes, including the First Prize of the Russian Republic Wind Competition. He was named principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in
What’s this program about?
Music – the revitalizing force that keeps life energized, toes tapping, and the soul young at heart. Young players take the stage as the Dallas Wind Symphony combines forces with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony to perform works by Paul Hindemith, Frank Ticheli, Charles Rochester Young, John Williams, and Percy Grainger.
Works discussed: Young, Tempered Steel; Ticheli, Blue Shades; Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis
What’s this program about?
Russian music has tremendous audience appeal. Its sources are the very cornerstones of Old Russian Culture: the Orthodox Church, Russian history, Russian fairy tales and folklore, and Russia’s position between West and East. Liturgical chants and bells reverberate in the music of Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninov. Russian history and literature inspire the operas Prince Igor and Khovanshchina.
Works discussed: Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Easter Overture; Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Prelude to Khovanshchina; Borodin, Prince Igor, Polovtsian Dances.
What’s this program about?
Richard Wagner was, and remains, one of the most intense and controversial figures of all time. For those who love Wagner’s music, Wagner becomes an obsession. Wagner understood and glorified the sound of wind instruments, especially brass, and transcriptions of Wagner’s operatic music have made highly effective and enjoyable arrangements for wind band. That’s how Wagner became a band geek.
Works discussed: Wagner’s Rienzi, Lohengrin, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung
