home.
The dedication of the bronze statue of Ole Bull is fixed for May 17th, at Minneapolis.
Anton Seidl has been engaged to conduct the performances of “Parsifal” at Bayreuth during the coming season.
The old Music Hall organ, once the pride of Boston, is to be sold at auction. For about thirteen years it has been stored in a shed at the back of the conservatory.
It is probably not generally known that a son of the great pianist, Muzio Clementi, is still living. This is the Rev. V. Clementi, settled as a clergyman in Peterboro’, Ontario, Canada.
Olean, N. Y., is to have a musical festival, which will take place on May 4th and 5th. Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” will be presented. Excerpts from oratorio will also be given, with a chorus of 120.
The New York State Music Teachers’ Association will meet at Binghamton, July 6th to 8th. It promises to be especially attractive this year because of the many famous soloists who will participate.
The first music school in the United States, built at Salem, Conn., in 1839, was destroyed by fire a few weeks ago. It was called Music Yale Seminary and was established by Oramel Whittlesey, a piano manufacturer.
Mr. Louis C. Elson, of Boston, has accepted the chairmanship of the meeting to be devoted to musical journalism, which is one of the features of the Music Teachers’ National Association Convention in New York next June.
A movement is on foot to have Walter Damrosch placed at the head of Yale’s department of music, and it is believed that he would accept the position. He would certainly find it more profitable than giving Wagnerian opera in New York.
Horace G. Bird, composer, organist, and choral conductor, died recently at his home in Chicago. Mr. Bird conducted the music in the Wigwam when Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President, and organized the first musical union in Chicago.
The annual examinations of the American College of Musicians will be held at 107 East Fourteenth Street, New York City, commencing Monday, June 21st, at 9.30 a.m. For particulars address Robert Bonner, 102 Williams Street, Providence, R. I.
A May Festival will be held at Moberly, Mo., May 26th, 27th, and 28th. There will be a chorus of 200 voices, orchestra, celebrated pianists, vocalists, etc. Prof. J. Goetze, of Moberly, has full charge of the meeting and intends to make it a success.
The preparations for the National Saengerfest, which is to be held in Philadelphia during the week of June 21st, are on a scale of greater magnitude than any event ever attempted in that city since the Centennial Exposition. The largest auditorium ever used in that city will be erected.
The Missouri State Music Teachers’ Association meets at Pertle Springs, Missouri, on June 16th, 17th, and 18th. It will be the largest meeting ever held, and there will be in attendance the representative teachers and some of the celebrated pianists of the country. They are sparing no expense to make it one of the largest affairs ever held in Missouri.
A Kansas musical jubilee is to be held at Hutchinson, May 19th to 21st. There will be competitions for prizes, the adjudication of which will be conducted by Messrs. Frederic W. Root in the vocal department and Mr. Allan H. Spencer in the instrumental side. Both gentlemen will lecture and give recitals. At a similar jubilee about two years ago Mr. W. C. E. Seeboeck was adjudicator, and his report covered an entire page in the local newspapers. Among the contests are those for harp, ‘cello, orchestra, piano solo, solos for all classes of voices, etc.
Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood will teach, give recitals, and play in concerts at the Chautauqua Assembly from July 12th to August 14th inclusive. He will play the Saint- Saëns G-minor concerto, with orchestra, at the Music Teachers’ National Association Convention in New York, June 24th, and will also appear in recitals at the Michigan and New York State Music Teachers’ Association meetings. He will conduct the examinations at the Toronto Conservatory and at St. Mary’s School, Knoxville, Illinois, early in June. His sister, Eleanor Sherwood, is musical director of the last-named school.
The directors of the Indianapolis May Music Festival have announced the programme for the ninth season. The list of principals includes Calvé, Ella Russell, De Vere, Sapio, Ffrangcon, Davies, Baron Berthold, Evan Williams, and the two local people, the prima donna, Sara Layton Walker, and Oliver Willard Pierce, the pianist. In addition to the chorus of 400 voices there will be a children’s chorus of 1000 voices for a matinee. The festival is to be under the direction of Frank Van der Stücken, with his symphony orchestra of 60 players from Cincinnati. The dates for the festival are May 20th, 21st, and 22d, with six performances.
Mr. W. Waugh Lauder has arranged a musico- literary tour of Europe for the advantage of the young graduate, music student, singer, or pianist eager for knowledge. The excursionists will leave New York by the Cunard steamer Umbria, June 26th, and remain abroad until August 24th. All the old world centers will be visited, including particularly places of musical interest. At Bayreuth the stop made will be long enough to permit one to attend the performances of the second cycle of “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” The homes and graves of Wagner, Liszt, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and others, will be visited, and, taking all in all, this will be a very interesting trip for musicians to take.
Unusually active efforts are being put forth to make the next meeting of the Music Teachers’ National Association a great success. Much of value is offered that is instructive as well as entertaining. This meeting bids fair to be the best attended and most valuable one in the history of this useful organization. Special railroad and hotel rates are offered, and several grand concerts and other valuable features that make of this meeting a grand festival, rather than one of the too common humdrum rounds of papers and recitals. New York and our other larger cities can furnish really first-class artists in the various departments of our art, and it is an education to attend a festival where such artists can be heard at their best. Address R. Huntington Woodman, 19 East Fourteenth Street, New York City, for tickets and for detail particulars of the meeting.
foreign.
Lamoureaux’s orchestra has had a great success in Germany.
Eugene D’Albert is having success in Russia with his piano recitals.
Sir Arthur Sullivan is to receive $10,000 for the new ballet he has composed for the Alhambra, London.
Pinsuti’s well-known song, “True Till Death,” recently changed hands in London for $3000. There is money occasionally in a meritorious song; here is an instance.
Mascagni has sold the right of bringing out his latest opera, “Iris,” a Japanese fairy-story, with text by Ligi, to a London opera company for 42,000 marks, a little over $10,000.
Verdi is at work on an oratorio and not an opera as was reported some time since. He is working on it leisurely, however, and it will not be ready for a long time to come.
