Magazine

Shocking moments in music that, like an earthquake, changed the contour of the landscape for all future musical enterprise (Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, minimalism, John Cage, French aesthetic challenging German hegemony, the infusion of jazz and Latin vernacular into the classical stage, etc.) and often scandalized the public with their emergence.

Raise your hand if you know that 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York, as well as the 150th anniversary of the birth of Amy Beach, the first acclaimed American composer. Do I see any hands? Certainly you did not see mine. If I ever came across the name “Amy Beach,” I probably thought it was a strip of sand somewhere on the Jersey shore.

Being a participant in Close Encounters performances was a sublime experience for this old actress. It is a rare and happy circumstance to be asked to narrate a piece to music or around music and I was a lucky designate. What joy!

How many of us have heard that playing Mozart for a fetus in utero will increase his or her math skills? Or that piano (or other instrument) training increases IQ? Listening to and making music has become a subject of significant interest to neuroscientists over the past decade as it has become clear that studying and playing an instrument has significant positive effect on the brain of the player.