A Mendelssohn festival is suggested for Berlin this fall.
Prof. Julius Epstein, the celebrated piano-teacher of Vienna, has entered his seventy-first year.
Raoul Pugno, the French pianist, is to make a concert-tour in the United States next season.
A foreign exchange says that a new concert-hall, seating 20,000 persons, has been opened in Paris.
The next meeting of the Music-Teachers’ National Association will be at Asheville, N. C., in July, 1903.
Arthur Nikisch has been elected principal of the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, succeeding Carl Reinecke.
The recently published financial statement of the Cincinnati May Festival Association shows a loss of $2,840.28.
Mr. Harold Bauer is living in Paris this summer. He will have a very large number of Americans among his pupils.
A new fairy opera, of which the title is not announced, by Humperdinck, is to be given in Berlin next season.
A music-festival to be given in Berne will include seventy-one societies, the largest gathering of the kind in Switzerland.
Hans Merian, a German writer, author of a “History of Music in the Nineteenth Century,” died recently in Leipzig.
The Musical Courier says it is reported that Richard Strauss will come to the United States to direct concerts next season.
An Austrian violinist has constructed a new viola which can be fingered the same as the violin. It has the true viola quality.
Madame Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler is to give a number of concerts in Europe this summer. She will return to this country after Christmas.
A prize of $500 for the best march-song suitable for the coronation season, offered by an English committee, was won by Miss Alicia Needham.
Swedish musicians have petitioned their government to tax each active visiting musician. The measure is aimed at visiting artists, principally.
Mr. Horatio W. Parker, professor of music in Yale University, received the degree of Doctor of Music from Cambridge University, England.
The Philharmonic Society of Warsaw, Poland, gave a total of sixty-six orchestral concerts in the four months from November, 1901, to March, 1902.
Mr. Frank van der Stucken, of Cincinnati, conducted the orchestra of the Royal Harmonic Society at Antwerp, the program including one of his own compositions.
Mr. Frederic Lamond, the English pianist, who is to be heard in this country next season, was a pupil of von Bülow and, as may be supposed, has a fine Beethoven repertoire.
Enrico Bossi, the well-known Italian composer, has been appointed director of the famous Musical Lyceum, in Bologna, to succeed Martucci, who goes to the Conservatory at Naples.
A Russian nobleman has established in St. Petersburg a series of popular symphony concerts. He directs the orchestra and chorus, and guarantees the expenses from his private purses.
The Council of Trinity College, London, which is one of the strongest musical institutions in England, has given $25,000 to the University of London for the establishment of a chair of music.
The Knabe Piano Company have on exhibition in Baltimore a harpsichord that formerly belonged to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, of Revolutionary fame. It has stops on each side of the two manuals.
It is announced as definitely settled that Mascagni will visit the United States next season, bringing with him a large orchestra and a company of singers who will produce “Cavalleria Rusticana” under his direction.
The Paris opera employs 51 principal singers, a chorus of 165, an orchestra of 107, a ballet of 217, with supernumeraries, machinists, electricians, costumers, ticket-sellers, ushers, etc., to make a grand total of 1530.
The Iowa State Music-Teachers’ Association held the seventh annual meeting at Dubuque, June 24th-27th. The morning sessions were devoted to essays and discussions, the afternoons and evenings to concerts.
Walter Damrosch, in addition to the regular series of concerts given by the New York Philharmonic Society, has planned for a series of Sunday afternoon concerts at low prices of admission next season.
In April of this year the United States exported musical instruments to the value of $383,083, a gain of about forty per cent, over the same month last year. Ten months preceding April showed a total exportation of $3,176,926.
The London Athenæum says that the manuscript of the fifteenth prelude and fugue of the second book of Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavichord,” has been brought to light. The handwriting is claimed to be unmistakably that of Bach.
Young students should remember “Never to take lessons from a professor who never learned himself,” to “Avoid all masters whose methods have been the cause of their own failure,” and “Never accept an assertion unsupported by evidence.”
According to a London paper the most successful opera-houses are those which do not receive government or municipal subventions, as the Lyric at Milan; Covent Garden in London; and the Metropolitan at New York. As has been said, “instead of having one or a few patrons, they have many subscribers, which makes a deficit unlikely.”
Permanent orchestral concerts will be given in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Several other cities, such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and San Francisco have orchestras, but they have not been put on a strong financial basis. St. Louis, with the coming world’s fair, affords a good field for a strong organization.
The town of Lindsborg, Kansas, the center of a Swedish colony, holds annually a “Messiah” Festival. An auditorium seating upward of 4000 persons is used for the concerts. The chorus numbers 400 members, many of them being students in the college in the town, which is supported by the Swedes in the vicinity. The community for miles around are patrons of the festival.
The annual convention and festival of the New Hampshire Music Teachers’ Association will be held in Music Hall, The Weirs, August 4th-8th. Both educational and festival objects have been considered and the officers of the Association feel that a fine program will reward all who attend. Madame Julie Rive-King will give a recital) a complete scene from Gounod’s “Faust” will be given by soloists, chorus, and orchestra.
The Southern Music-Teachers’ Association held the third annual session at Asheville, N. C., June 17th- 19th. An interesting program of essays and music was given by members of the association. The officers for 1903 are Mr. J. W. Jendwine, Raleigh, N. C., President; M. T. Nelson, Knoxville, Tenn., Treasurer; Mr. E. Geiger, Athens, Ga., Corresponding Secretary. The association has invited the Music-Teachers’ National Association to hold a joint session in the South next summer.
