Paderewski is announced to begin an American tour in November.
Mascagni conducted the performance of his much discussed opera, "II Piccolo Marat," at the opening of the season in Buenos Aires, early in June.
A Schumann Festival, the first ever to be held in his birthplace, has recently been managed successfully in Zwickau, Saxony, where Schumann's father kept a bookstore and where Robert spent the first eighteen years of his life.
The 500th Performance of "Samson et Delila" at the Paris Opera-Comique was recently given, according to report, in memory of Saint-Saëns.
Sousa, it is said, will return to his home, from the autumn tour of his band, and after November 5 will devote his time to the writing of an opera on a strictly American subject, in which Mary Garden is to appear in the principal role.
Summer Opera, at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens is meeting with marked success this season. A notable feature is that Ralph Lyford, the conductor, is an American and fourteen of the singers of the company are Cincinnati trained.
Portraits of Famous Composers appear on the new series of stamps issued by the Austrian government.
Gabriel Faure was officially recognized as the Dean of French Composers, by an elaborate performance of a programme of his works at the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, Paris, at which President Millerand and the ministers of state attended.
The Prize Winning Opera. "The Prince and Nuredha" by Guido Bianchini, a soldier musician, chosen from among thirty submitted to the committee appointed by the Minister of Pine Arts, will be presented this autumn at the Teatro Fenice of Venice.
The Philharmonic Society of Berlin recently celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its organization by a series of three notable concerts.
Fifteen Thousand Dollars has been bequeathed to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Association, by the late Mrs. Susan W. Longworth, mother of Representative Nicholas Longworth.
The Partello Collection, probably the greatest collection of master-made violins of the world, has been sold to a Chicago music house at a price said to be $150,000. It consists of twenty-four violins and twenty-eight bows by the most famous of all makers.
The Prix de Rome will not be awarded this year as no composition submitted to the Academic des Beaux Arts was considered worthy of the Grand Prize.
Sir Frederick Bridge, so long organist of Westminster Abbey and England's greatest musical antiquarian, was honored the first week in July, by a valedictory service at Albert Hall in recognition of his relinquishing the baton of the Royal Choral Society, which he has held for twenty-six years. The Duke of Connaught, president, and the Earl of Shaftsbury made addresses.
Eugene Ysaye, having laid down the baton of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will re-enter the concert field and begin a tour of America in January, 1923.
Mme. Schumann-Heink received on her birthday, June 1A the degree of Doctor of Music, from the University of Southern California.
A Mozart Festival will be held from August 13 to 29, at Salzburg, his birthplace. Richard Strauss will be the chief conductor; while Selma Kurz and Eugen d'Albert will be the soloists best known to Americans. "Cosi Fan Tutti," "Marriage of Figaro and "Abduction from the Seraglio" are the operas to be given with orchestral concerts interspersed.
A $1,000 Prize is offered by the North Shore Festival Association for a composition for Orchestra. Particulars from Carl D. Kinsey, 624 South Michigan Ave., Chicago.
Beniamino Gigli, a leading Italian tenor of the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York, has had the ribbon of Commander of the Crown conferred upon him by King Vittorio Emmanuelo, for his work in the diffusion and affirmation of Italian art, particularly in the United States.
A Service of the Music of John Blow was recently held in Westminster Abbey. Blow was Organist of the Abbey in 1669; and this was the first of a series of services in commemoration of great musicians who have been connected with the Abbey.
Theodore Dubois has been awarded the Jean Reynaud Prize of 10,000 francs for his work as a composer and the influence he has had on music and the younger generation of composers.
Newton J. Corey passed away on the morning of July 18, which will leave a sense of loss in the lives of the hosts of people who have been helped by his inspiring activities in the musical world. He was secretary and manager of the Detroit Orchestral Association, and well known as an organist, lecturer and writer on musical subjects. For years he had been Editor of the Teachers' Round Table Department of The Etude; and his death comes keenly not only to his fellow-workers on the staff but also to the multitude of readers who have learned to rely on his wise counsel. Also he had been editor of Arts and Artists and music critic of the Detroit Saturday Night for which he wrote trenchantly and fluently. Mr. Corey was born in Hillsdale, Mich., on Jan. 31, 1861. At thirteen he was organist of the church of Hillsdale College, where he was educated. In 1880 he went to Boston where he devoted himself largely to the organ. In 1891 be settled in Detroit as organist of the Fort Street Presbyterian Church which position he has held since that time. In 1910 Mr. Corey received the degree of Doctor of Music from Hillsdale College.
Miss Elisabeth Cueney of St. Louis has been elected president of the National Concert Managers' Association.
Mr. Herbert Bedford's lectures on Unaccompanied Song are said to have been one of the hits of the London Season.
Chaliapin, the eminent Russian basso, has announced his intention of bringing his family to our shores and becoming himself an American citizen.
The Department of Music of the University of Minnesota has received an appropriation of three hundred thousand dollars from the State Legislature, for expenses including buildings and equipment,
The National Federation of Music Clubs is offering prizes for a Lyric-Dance- Drama—$400 to the Librettist and $600, to the composer of the music. The Judges of the Libretto have announced Robert Francis Allen to have won the former with his book, "Pan in America." Copies of this will soon be ready for distribution by the Chairman of American Composers, Mrs. Edwin B. Garrigues, 201 Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, Pa.
An American Museum of Musical Art has received a charter of incorporation and will be eestablished (sic) in Brooklyn, for the purpose of preserving objects of interest in the development of music as well as to increase and diffuse knowledge of its history, science, influence and utility.
Philadelphia has appropriated $40,000 for free orchestral concerts in Fairmount Park, to be performed by fifty members of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under well known guest conductors. Standing room within hearing distance of the amphitheatre on Lemon Hill has been at a premium.
Prince Albert of Monaco, one of Europe's most liberal patrons of music, died June 26, in a Paris hospital. He will be remembered gratefully by many an American soldier for having placed his estate at the service of General Pershing as a recreation ground during the last days of the war.
Alexander Glazounoff, premier Russian composer and conductor, is scheduled for a tour of America next season, at which time he will appear as guest conductor of our leading orchestras.
Handel's "Orlando Furioso" has been revived at a Handel Festival recently held at his birthplace, Halle. This is said to have been the first performance of this opera since the composer's death.
THE NATIONAL, AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL offers $3,800 in contest prizes at the 1922 festival to be held at Buffalo, N. Y., October 2 to 7. For particulars write A. A. Van deMark, American Music Festival, 223 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.
Richard Hageman has been engaged as associate musical director and first conductor of the French repertoire of the Chicago Opera.
Wallingford Riegger has been awarded the Paderewski Prize of five hundred dollars, for his Trio in B Minor for Piano, Violin and Cello. An interesting feature of the award is that, though Mr. Riegger (American born of American parents and mostly American educated) has conducted the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin, has been assistant conductor at the Royal opera of Wurtzburg, first conductor at the Louise Theatre of Konigsburg and is now professor of harmony, counterpoint and composition at Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa, he has won this prize though never having had a composition published.
Mischa Elman has returned from his world tour of two years which was particularly notable for his enthusiastic reception in the Orient.
Tannhauser has just been given by the Imperial Music School in Tokio with an all Japanese cast. Why not? Once we attended a performance of Madama Butterfly with an American Soprano, an Irish tenor, An Italian baritone, a German contralto and a Scotch Bass. Surely the Japs were consistent in making Tannhauser all Japanese—at best grand opera plots rupture the strongest imaginations. Gatti-Casazza, who has directed the Metropolitan since 1908, has just signed a new contract for three more years. We understand that during his directorship the opera has been run without a deficit.
Britain is honoring its musicians by unveiling a tablet in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, to the memory of Thomas Augustine Arne, born in 1710. Also the Trinity College of Music, in order to celebrate its jubilee this year, is subscribing for two windows to adorn its building, one to Purcell and the other to John of Forncett, these central figures to be surrounded by small portraits of the most influential musicians of each century. Thomas Arne has been singled out as the most influential secular composer in England in the eighteenth century, and so a further memorial will stand in his honor.
Sasche Guitry, the inimitable actor-author, comedian of Paris, has just completed the book of a comic opera for which Ivan Caryll (pen name for the Belgian composer Felix Tilkins) has just written the music.
A New Choral Symphony in seven movements, entitled Vita Nuova and said to have been inspired by Dante, has just come from the pen of Jenö Hubay. It was produced in Budapest with great success.
An English physician named Heath (according to Le Menestrel) has discovered that music is an aid to digestion and has prescribed special music for special parts of the menu. He recommends "love songs" during the roast.
The New Memorial Centre of Music, for which New York proposes to spend $30,000,000, will probably be located on two blocks on 59th St. facing Central Park. In all probability the building will become the home of the Metropolitan Opera Company as well as other great musical undertakings.
A Fifteen Year Old Soprano, Marion Talley, sang the title role, of "Mignon" at the annual performance of the Kansas City Opera Company this year. Her debut was a pronounced success.
Stravinsky has recently completed a comic opera entitled "Mavra." It is said to have been done in his most advanced style but to be exceedingly humorous in treatment.
The Beggars Opera, which it is expected will be heard in the country next year, has been running in London for two years. It is nearly one hundred and ninety-six years since this remarkable pasticchio was first given at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. The success of the present revival is said to have been due to a remarkably gifted and experienced conductor, Frederick Austin, who is also a composer and a singer. Possessed of that inimitable British skill in stage presentation which made the Savoy and the Gaiety companies models of finish and smoothness, the two-century-old bit of satire and musical patch work has been resuscitated in a manner which has "packed the house."
