1.
1888 in art
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February – Fifth annual exhibition of Les XX, at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels. W. W. January 17 – Mohamed Nagy, Egyptian painter, february 22 – Horace Pippin, self-taught African-American painter. March 14 – Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Canadian painter, march 19 – Josef Albers, German artist, mathematician and educator. April 6 – Hans Richter, German painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, june 12 – Tom Purvis, English poster artist. July 10 – Giorgio de Chirico, Greek-Italian painter, august 13 – Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor. August 14 – Sydney Carline, English painter, war artist, august 30 – Siri Derkert, Swedish artist, sculptor and political campaigner. November 7 – Mariano Andreu, Spanish painter, enamelling master, sculptor, november 11 – Johannes Itten, Swiss colour theorist, painter and designer. Stanley Royle, English post-impressionist landscape painter
2.
Music
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Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres and it is music to my ears point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, There is no noise, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. There are many types of music, including music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal, within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, the word derives from Greek μουσική. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the music is derived from mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica the art of music and this is derived from the. Greek mousike of the Muses, from fem. of mousikos pertaining to the Muses, from Mousa Muse. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. With the advent of recording, records of popular songs. Some music lovers create mix tapes of their songs, which serve as a self-portrait. An environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved, amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings, There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians, in community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. However, there are many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers
3.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
4.
Concertgebouw
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The Royal Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term concertgebouw literally translates into English as concert building, on 11 April 2013, on occasion of the buildings 125th anniversary, Queen Beatrix bestowed the Royal Title Koninklijk upon the building, as she did previously to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Because of its highly regarded acoustics, the Concertgebouw is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world, along with such as Bostons Symphony Hall. The architect of the building was Adolf Leonard van Gendt, who was inspired by the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, construction began in 1883 in a pasture that was then outside the city, in Nieuwer-Amstel, a municipality that in 1964 became Amstelveen. A total of 2,186 piles of length twelve to thirteen metres were sunk into the soil. The hall opened on 11 April 1888 with a concert, in which an orchestra of 120 musicians and a chorus of 500 singers participated, performing works of Wagner, Handel, Bach. The resident orchestra of the Concertgebouw is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, for many decades the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest have also been regular performers in the Concertgebouw. The Main Hall seats 1,974, and is 44 metres long,28 metres wide and its reverberation time is 2.8 seconds without audience,2.2 seconds with, making it ideal for the late Romantic repertoire such as Mahler. Though this characteristic makes it unsuited for amplified music, groups such as Led Zeppelin, The Who. It hosts not only orchestral and operatic performances, but also jazz, a smaller, oval-shaped venue, the Recital Hall, is located behind the Main Hall. The Recital Hall is 20 metres long and 15 metres wide and its more intimate space is well-suited for chamber music and Lieder. The Recital Hall has 437 seats, when the Concertgebouw was built, acoustics were something of a black art. As in shipbuilding, designers drew upon what had worked in the past without entirely understanding the underlying science, when the building was completed, the acoustics were not perfect, and a lot of effort went into fine-tuning the aural ambience. During later restorations, particular care has been not to alter the materials used for interior decoration with this in mind. In the 1980s, the hall embarked on extensive fund-raising for renovations after the hall was found to be sinking into the ground. Pi de Bruijn was the architect for the annex to the original hall. Today, some nine hundred concerts and other events per year take place in the Concertgebouw, for a public of over 700,000, as of February 2014, the managing director of the Concertgebouw is Simon Reinink and the artistic director is Anneke Hogenstijn. The organ was built in 1890 by the organ builder Michael Maarschalkerweerd from Utrecht and it has 60 registers on three divisions and pedal
5.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
6.
George Frideric Handel
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George Frideric Handel was a German, later British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712 and he was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that Handel was not only a great composer, he was a dramatic genius of the first order. As Alexanders Feast was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works, after his success with Messiah he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759 and his funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Handel was born in 1685 in Halle-on-Saal, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and his father,63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Georg Händel was the son of a coppersmith, Valentin Händel who had emigrated from Eisleben in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching and they were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over Silesia, a Hapsburg possession as religious tensions mounted in the years before the Thirty Years War. Halle was a prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry. Even the smaller churches all had able organists and fair choirs, and humanities, the Thirty Years War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. But since the middle of the war the city was under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, the arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, which did not describe Handels family. Handel was the child of this marriage, the first son died still born. Two younger sisters were born after the birth of George Frideric, Dorthea Sophia, born 6 October 1687 and Johanna Christiana, born 10 January 1690. Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the gymnasium in Halle, Mainwaring is the source for almost all information of Handels childhood, and much of that information came from J. C. Smith, Jr. Handels confidant and copyist. Whether they came from Smith or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation and it is from Mainwaring that the portrait of Handels father as implacably opposed to any musical education comes. This did nothing to dampen young Handels inclination, in fact, Mainwaring tells the story of Handels secret attic spinnet, Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately conveyd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep, but Handel had to have had some experience with the keyboard to have made the impression in Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training. Somehow Handel made his way to the organ, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer caused the Duke to recommend to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction, Handels father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel
7.
Israel in Egypt
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Israel in Egypt is a biblical oratorio by the composer George Frideric Handel. Most scholars believe the libretto was prepared by Charles Jennens, who compiled the biblical texts for Handels Messiah. It is composed entirely of selected passages from the Old Testament, mainly from Exodus, Handel started it soon after the opera season at Kings Theatre was cancelled for lack of subscribers. The oratorio was not well received by the first audience though commended in the Daily Post, and the performance was shortened. This section precedes the Exodus, which in the version is Part II rather than Part I. Handel had long been resident in London and had enjoyed success as a composer of Italian operas there. However, in 1733 a rival company to Handels, The Opera of the Nobility, had split the audience for Italian opera in London. There was not enough support for two Italian opera companies and Handel began to find new audiences through presenting oratorio and other works in English. Israel in Egypt is one of only two oratorios by Handel with a text compiled from verses from the Bible, the other being Messiah. The librettist of Israel in Egypt is uncertain, but most scholars believe Charles Jennens compiled both texts. ”. ”Other composers Handel parodied in Israel in Eqypt were Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Caspar Kerll, Francesco Antonio Urio, Nicolaus Adam Strungk and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Handel quickly revised the work, omitting the opening Lamentations section, in its two sectioned form, Israel in Egypt was very popular in the 19th century with choral societies. Today many performances of the work use Handels original three part version, the Israelites mourn the death of Joseph, Israelite and favoured adviser to Pharaoh, King of Egypt. An announcement is made that a new Pharaoh has come to the throne who does not look kindly on the Israelites, god chooses Moses to lead his people out of bondage. The ruler of Egypt agrees to let the Israelites depart, but changes his mind, the Red Sea miraculously parts to let the Israelites cross in safety, but when the pursuing Egyptians try to cross, the waters engulf them and they are drowned. For a long time, the earliest known recording of music known to still exist was an excerpt from this oratorio conducted by August Manns. What survives is barely audible but still identifiable by ear, and gives some insight into performance practices at the height of the Handel Festival phenomenon
8.
The Crystal Palace
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The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990, designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936, Crystal Palace F. C. were founded at the site in 1905 and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkinss Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854, the Commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, turner was furious at the rejection, and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design was too expensive. Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park, the most outspoken critic was arch-conservative Col. At this point renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in the project, the lily and its house led directly to Paxtons design for the Crystal Palace and he later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as a key inspiration. Paxton left his 9 June 1850 meeting with Henry Cole fired with enthusiasm and he immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later, on 11 June, while attending a meeting of the Midland Railway, Paxton made his original concept drawing. In the event, Paxtons design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, would cover roughly twenty-five times the ground area of its progenitor. He was exultant, but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the Exhibitions opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, Paxtons modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches wide by 49 inches long, the original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a roof, except for the central transept. Both the flat-profile sections and the transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxtons design - his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took the form of a triangular prism
9.
Arthur Sullivan
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Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. The best known of his hymns and songs include Onward Christian Soldiers, the son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at age eight. He was selected as soloist in the choir of the Chapel Royal. His graduation piece was a suite of music to Shakespeares The Tempest. When it was performed in London in 1862, it was an immediate sensation, Sullivan began his composing career with a series of ambitious works, interspersed with hymns, parlour ballads and other light pieces. Among his best received early pieces were a ballet, LÎle Enchantée, from 1861 to 1872, he supplemented his income by working as a church organist and music teacher, and writing hymns and songs. In 1866, Sullivan composed a comic opera, Cox and Box. His most successful work, the Overture di Ballo, premiered in 1870. Sullivans talent and native charm earned him friends in musical and social circles, including Queen Victorias son Alfred. In 1871, Sullivan wrote his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Sullivan then produced his Festival Te Deum, an oratorio, The Light of the World, and incidental music for West End productions of several Shakespeare plays. He also had conducting and academic appointments, in 1875, producer Richard DOyly Carte reunited Gilbert and Sullivan to create a one-act piece, Trial by Jury, which was a surprise hit. Pinafore became a sensation, as did The Pirates of Penzance and Patience. Sullivan never married but had a love affair with an American socialite. After the death of his brother Fred in 1877, Sullivan supported Freds large family financially for the rest of his life, effectively adopting his nephew Bertie. Carte used his profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership to build the Savoy Theatre in 1881, later hits in the series were Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Gondoliers. Sullivan was knighted for his contributions to music in 1883 and his infrequent serious pieces during the 1880s included two cantatas, The Martyr of Antioch and The Golden Legend, his most popular choral work. Sullivans only serious opera, Ivanhoe, though successful in 1891, was little-heard after that
10.
Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as Americas greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison was an inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France. Edisons inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications and these included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of generation and distribution to homes, businesses. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His father, the son of a Loyalist refugee, had moved as a boy with the family from Nova Scotia, settling in southwestern Ontario, in a known as Shewsbury, later Vienna. Samuel Jr. eventually fled Ontario because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 and his father, Samuel Sr. had earlier fought in the War of 1812 as captain of the First Middlesex Regiment. By contrast, Samuel Jr. s struggle found him on the losing side, once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey and his mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R. G, parkers School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, Edisons family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and he briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16. He was held responsible for a near collision and he also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments on the train until he left the job. Edison obtained the right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald
11.
George Enescu
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George Enescu, known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher. He is regarded by many as Romanias most important musician, Enescu was born in Romania, in the village of Liveni, in Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood, a child prodigy, Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly very short pieces survive, all of them for violin, the earliest work of significant length bears the title Pămînt românesc, and is inscribed opus for piano and violin by George Enescu, Romanian composer, aged five years and a quarter. Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. On 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. He was the person ever admitted to this university by a dispensation of age, after only Fritz Kreisler. In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a concert at the Court of Vienna. Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. one of his teachers and the director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted Enescu at his home and he graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by Brahms, Sarasate, in 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gedalge, Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris. André Gedalge said that he was the one who truly had ideas. On 6 February 1898, at the age of only 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, Poema Română, played by the Colonne Orchestra and conducted by Édouard Colonne. Many of Enescus works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies, the opera Œdipe, and the suites for orchestra and he also wrote five symphonies, a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music. A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankars brother Uday Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the Colonial Exhibition in Paris and it was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist. He also appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras, in 1932, Enescu was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy. In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin in Mozarts Violin Concerto No.3 in G major and he also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938
12.
Symphonic poem
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Poema is an American acoustic singer-songwriter duo from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The group, was signed with Tooth & Nail Records and has released two EPs and a full-length album with them. Elle and Shealeen Puckett, sisters born and raised in the American Southwest, the female duo has been playing music ever since they can remember. At ten and twelve, the equal and opposites would walk to the gas station to play Elvis covers for anyone filling up that day until they made enough money to buy candy. They were surrounded by music their lives, starting with their parents being in bands to playing music since pre-adolescence. The sisters never planned to be professional musicians until a positive reception following a benefit show in 2008 in their hometown of Albuquerque. After pondering shortly after the show, the sisters formed Poema, won a Battle of the Bands competition, in 2009, Poema signed to Tooth & Nail Records. At the time, Elle and Shealeen Puckett were 17 and 19, the record deal came as a result of a personal call from Brandon Ebel, founder and president of Tooth & Nail Records. The call followed a play from a representative whose attention had been caught by one of Poemas performances. Aaron Sprinkle worked with Poema on several projects, in 2014, they announced their separation from Tooth & Nail Records to become an independent band. In 2010, Poema was featured on every date of the Warped Tour in the Girlz Garage, Elle Puckett – lead vocals, guitar Shealeen Puckett – backing vocals, keys Official website
