Happy Birthday, Beethoven!

Check out the entry for our birthday boy in Grove Music Online.

Potrait Beethoven dilukis Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820.

Baltimore Opera Co. to file for bankruptcy, cancels remainder of season

After 58 years and more than 200 productions, the Baltimore Opera Company will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection Tuesday amid dwindling ticket sales and contributions.

The remaining two productions of the 2008-2009 season, Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, have been canceled. Ticket-holders will not receive refunds. Singers engaged for next season are being released from their contracts, but the company plans to continue fundraising in an effort to resume productions in the future.

Deborah Goetz, senior director of marketing and communications, confirmed Monday that Baltimore Opera's board of trustees voted Dec. 4 to file for Chapter 11 protection.

"My heart sinks," said soprano Evelyn Lear, now retired and living in Rockville. She starred in three Baltimore Opera productions during the 1970s and 1980s. "The company had high standards, good productions, a good orchestra. I'm distraught that this may mean that opera is finished in Baltimore." more

On Display in the Conservatory Library

Beethoven’s Fifth

In commemoration of two hundred years since the composition and premiere of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, we are pleased to display this facsimile of the autograph found in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

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Saint Hildegard’s Symphonia armonie celestium

This facsimile features the portion of the Riesencodex located in the Hessischen Landesbibliothek, Wiesbaden, containing Hildegard von Bingen's Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. Hildegard wrote songs for the quiet devotions of nuns in her 12th century community.

New jazz title in periodicals

There's a new title on the shelves in periodicals:
Brilliant Corners (Williamsport, PA)--A Journal of Jazz and Literature.

Longtime employees set to run Shubert Organization

The powerful Shubert Organization, Broadway's largest landlord, has looked to two of its longtime employees to run the company as well as its foundation, following the death of its chairman, Gerald Schoenfeld, last week.

Philip J. Smith has been named chairman of the organization, which owns 17 New York theaters. He will also head its multimillion-dollar foundation, which supports nonprofit theater and dance companies across the country.

The announcement was made Tuesday by the Shubert's board of directors, which also named Robert E. Wankel as president and elected him to the board of directors.

For more than a decade, Smith was the organization's president, working closely with Schoenfeld in producing shows and booking the company's many theaters.

Wankel, who has worked for the company for more than 30 years, was its chief financial officer and executive vice president.

"While Jerry Schoenfeld is not replaceable, we are confident that these new appointments will ensure the critical role of the Shubert Foundation in supporting nonprofit performing arts in America and the continued successes of the Shubert Organization in the professional theater," said Michael Sovern, president of the Shubert Foundation.

Where to buy used recordings (LPs and CDs)

Have you ever wondered about great sources for purchasing used recordings? Check out the following resources that are listed on the bottom of the Conservatory Library Web page of Research Resources

Used Recordings

Encore Recordings, Ann Arbor, MI

Princeton Record Exchange, Princeton, NJ

VVMO/Vintage Vinyl, Evanston, IL

All About Jazz

International Association of Jazz Recording Collectors

Web sites (and more) for used classical CDs and LPs (U of Illinois)