Performance Today
Performance Today is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listeners on 237 stations. The program builds its two-hour daily broadcast from live concert performances from around the world. Performance Today is based at the American Public Media studios in Saint Paul, but is on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country. In addition to live concert performances, the show airs in-studio interviews. Weekly features include the "Piano Puzzler" with composer Bruce Adolphe. Through the PT Young Artist in Residence program, the show highlights young soloists from American conservatories who have the potential for great careers. Former Performance Today young artists include pianists Orli Shaham, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, guitarist Jason Vieaux, violinist Colin Jacobsen among many others.
Performance Today was created by National Public Radio, went on the air in 1987. The program was founded by NPR vice president for cultural programming Dean Boal, who gave Performance Today its name, who, along with NPR colleagues Doug Bennet, Jane Couch, Ellen Boal, retired Baldwin Piano Company president Lucien Wulsin, secured the series' initial funding. NPR produced and distributed the program from Washington, D. C. until 2007. For most of its first two years, under hosts Kathryn Loomans and Liane Hansen, it combined classical music with numerous and wide-ranging arts features. In 1989, the focus shifted to classical music. Martin Goldsmith hosted for nearly ten years. During Goldsmith's tenure as host the show grew from 40 stations to 230, with weekly listeners reaching 1.5 million. The show won a Peabody Award in 1998. Fred Child has been the program's host since October 2000. In January 2007, American Public Media took over as the program's producer and distributor and moved the production to Saint Paul, Minnesota.
In 2007, the show was awarded the Karl Haas Prize for Music Education by Fine Arts Radio International. And in 2014, Performance Today won a Gabriel Award for artistic achievement; the Piano Puzzler is a weekly feature on the show. Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer; the listener tries to do two things: name the hidden tune, name the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking. The Piano Puzzler is available as a podcast. Music is Music is a Performance Today podcast featuring composers and musicians steeped in the classical tradition, but determined to carve out a home for new music in the 21st century; each new episode features artists talking about a sample of their work. Current episodes include conversations with Julia Holter, the Spektral Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, members of Wilco and Helado Negro; each year, Performance Today invites musicians from top American conservatories to visit the PT studios for a week-long residency.
They join host Fred Child in the APM studio to play music, discuss their backgrounds, their ambitions, what it means to be a musician. Previous young artists have represented a variety of music schools including the New England Conservatory, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Jacobs School at the Indiana University, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, The Colburn School. Former Performance Today young artists include pianists Orli Shaham, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, guitarist Jason Vieaux, violinist Colin Jacobsen among many others. Fred Child American Public Media Performance Today Official site
Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Stanisław Skrowaczewski was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer. Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów; as a child, he studied violin. A hand injury ended his piano career. After World War II, Skrowaczewski graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków and soon, in 1946, became the associate conductor of the Wrocław Philharmonic the Katowice Philharmonic, the Kraków Philharmonic and the Warsaw National Orchestra, he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1956 he won the Santa Cecilia Competition for Conductors. At the invitation of George Szell, Skrowaczewski conducted the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1960 he was appointed music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1979 when he became conductor laureate. In 1981 the American Composers Forum commissioned the Clarinet Concerto which Skrowaczewski wrote for Minnesota Orchestra principal clarinetist Joe Longo, who premiered it in 1981. Between 1983 and 1992 he was principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.
Between 1995 and 1997, Skrowaczewski served as artistic advisor to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 1988, he was composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season at Saratoga, he has guest-conducted that orchestra, many others, all over the world. His complete set of recordings of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, made with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, has received much acclaim, as has his 2005/06 complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the orchestra. Another noted recording is his Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with soloist Gina Bachauer. Skrowaczewski's Passacaglia Immaginaria, completed in 1995, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestral Association to honor the memory of Ken and Judy Dayton, it was premiered at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis in 1996, his Chamber Concerto was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in memory of Leopold Sipe, their first music director.
Skrowaczewski received his second Pulitzer nomination in 1999 for his Concerto for Orchestra. He received the Commander Order of the White Eagle, the highest order conferred by the Polish government, as well as the Gold Medal of the Mahler-Bruckner Society, the 1973 Ditson Conductor's Award, the 1976 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, he was the father of Paul Sebastien, founder of electronica groups Psykosonik and Basic Pleasure Model. He lived in Wayzata and died in St. Louis Park on February 21, 2017. Frederick Harris, Jr. director of the MIT Wind Ensemble, wrote Skrowaczewski's official biography. Stanisław Skrowaczewski on IMDb Biography Interview with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, June 27, 1987 Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski by Dr. Frederick Edward Harris Jr. publication date: August 31, 2011. Skrowaczewski, Here with Us Memorial article by David Markle
Roberto Abbado
Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. He is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed Music Director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma, he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester. Born into a musical family, Mr. Abbado is a son of the pianist and composer Marcello Abbado, for more than twenty years Director of Conservatorio "G. Verdi" in Milan, his grandfather was the violinist and teacher Michelangelo Abbado and his uncle the conductor Claudio Abbado. In his teens, Roberto Abbado studied at Conservatorio "G. Rossini" in Pesaro and piano with Paolo Bordoni and composition with Bruno Bettinelli at Conservatorio “G. Verdi” in Milan, he studied conducting with Mario Gusella in Milan and Franco Ferrara at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He attended the last summer course of Hans Swarowsky in Vienna in 1975.
In 1975, Piero Farulli funded the "Vincenzo Galilei" Orchestra and Chorus at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa to perform Bach Cantatas. Mario Gusella recommended Mr. Abbado to Piero Farulli in order to conduct the orchestra in a series of concerts. In 1977, the musicians of Accademia di Santa Cecilia Symphony Orchestra asked Mr. Abbado to conduct a concert in Rieti, while he was still studying at Accademia, for a fellow student a privilege never to be. In the same year he won Second Prize at Malko Competition for young conductors in Copenhagen, promoted by Danish Radio and Television. In 1978 he conducted concerts with leading Italian and Scandinavian orchestras such as Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice, Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai di Milano, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, his first appearance as opera conductor, aged 23, was in Macerata, Arena Sferisterio in 1978, in a new production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, featuring Renato Bruson, Cesare Siepi and Ilva Ligabue.
He conducted the season opening night at Teatro La Fenice on December 1979 with a new production of Rossini's Il Turco in Italia. In 1980 he conducted Verdi's Aida at Teatro Massimo in Palermo: one of the performance was attended by the Intendant of Wiener Staatsoper Seefelner, who engaged Mr. Abbado. In 1981 he conducted the world première of Flavio Testi's Il sosia at Piccola Scala in Milan. In the same year he conducted a new production of Rossini's La Cenerentola at Wiener Staatsoper, staged by Gian Carlo Menotti and featuring Agnes Baltsa, Francisco Araiza, Enzo Dara, Giuseppe Taddei. In 1982 he conducted Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at Opernhaus in Zurich with Edita Gruberova and Araiza. In summer he conducted at Edinburgh Festival Rossini's La pietra del paragone staged by Eduardo De Filippo with Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala. In November he conducted Verdi's Don Carlo at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona with a stunning cast including Montserrat Caballé, Elena Obraztsova, José Carreras, Leo Nucci and Martti Talvela.
He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in 1984 conducting Donizetti's Don Pasquale, in a production featuring Sesto Bruscantini in the title role and Lucia Aliberti. In the same house he conducted the world première of Testi's Riccardo III in 1987, Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 1997, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 2006, the world première of Fabio Vacchi's Teneke in 2007 and Rossini's La donna del lago with Joyce Di Donato, Daniela Barcellona and Juan Diego Flórez in 2011. In 1985 he made his Paris debut with Yo Yo Ma as soloist. Mr. Abbado has conducted many leading orchestras in Europe, including Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Dresden Staatskapelle, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In 1987 he was appointed music director of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago in Chile, a position held till 1989. In 1989 he made his debut at Münchner Opernfestspiele of Bayerisches Staatsoper with Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo, he conducted there new productions of La Traviata and Aida, furthermore Manon Lescaut, Don Pasquale and Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges. From 1991 to 1998 he served as Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester. In 1993 he toured in Japan with Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 1994 he made his debut at Metropolitan Opera in New York with Adriana Lecouvreur, he conducted there Giordano's Fedora with Freni and Domingo in 1996, Verdi's La Traviata in 2000, Verdi's Ernani in 2008. In USA he conducted operas in San Francisco, Washington D. C. Houston. In 1995 he made his debut at Opéra Bastille with Lucia di Lammermoor featuring Mariella Devia, he conducted his Carnegie Hall debut in 1996 with The Orchestra of St. Luke's, further he conducted there the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony.
In 1998 he conducted a new production of Verdi's I Vespri siciliani at Wiener Staatsoper, staged by Herbert Wernicke. In the same year he made his debut at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducting Rossini's Le comte Ory, he conducted in Florence Verdi's Attila and I Lombardi alla prima Crociata, Henze's Phaedra and Donizetti's Anna Bolena. In 1998 he made a successful Boston Symphony Orchestra debut, opening his symphonic career in the USA, he conducted many concerts with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sa
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr.also known as Bobby, is an American jazz vocalist and conductor. A ten-time Grammy Award winner, he is known for his unique vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, improvisational vocal percussion, he is known for performing and recording as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes. McFerrin's song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a No. 1 U. S. pop won Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors at the 1989 Grammy Awards. McFerrin has worked in collaboration with instrumentalists, including pianists Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, drummer Tony Williams, cellist Yo-Yo Ma. McFerrin was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of operatic baritone Robert McFerrin and singer Sara Copper, he attended the California State University, Sacramento.
McFerrin's first recorded work, the self-titled album Bobby McFerrin, was not produced until 1982, when McFerrin was 32 years old. Before that, he had spent six years developing his musical style, the first two years of which he attempted not to listen to other singers at all, in order to avoid sounding like them, he was influenced by Keith Jarrett, who had achieved great success with a series of improvised piano concerts including The Köln Concert of 1975, wanted to attempt something similar vocally. In 1984 McFerrin performed onstage at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles as a sixth member of Herbie Hancock's VSOP II sharing horn trio parts with the Marsalis Brothers. In 1986, McFerrin was the voice of Santa Bear in Santa Bear's First Christmas, in 1987 he was the voice of Santa Bear/Bully Bear in the sequel Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure; that same year, he performed the theme song for the opening credits of Season 4 of The Cosby Show. In 1988, McFerrin recorded the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy", which became a hit and brought him widespread recognition across the world.
The song's success "ended McFerrin's musical life as he had known it," and he began to pursue other musical possibilities on stage and in recording studios. The song was used in George H. W. Bush's 1988 U. S. presidential election as Bush's 1988 official presidential campaign song, without Bobby McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, Bobby McFerrin publicly protested that particular use of his song, including stating that he was going to vote against Bush, dropped the song from his own performance repertoire, to make the point clearer. At that time, he performed on the PBS TV special Sing Out America! with Judy Collins. McFerrin sang a Wizard of Oz medley during that television special. In 1989, he performed the music for the Pixar short film Knick Knack; the rough cut to which McFerrin recorded his vocals had the words "blah blah blah" in place of the end credits. McFerrin spontaneously decided to sing "blah blah blah" as lyrics, the final version of the short film includes these lyrics during the end credits.
In 1989, he formed a ten-person "Voicestra" which he featured on both his 1990 album Medicine Music and in the score to the 1989 Oscar-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. The song "Common Threads" has reappeared in some public service advertisements about AIDS. A modified version of the song Thinkin' About Your Body from the album Spontaneous Inventions was used in a series of UK Cadbury's chocolate adverts in 1989/1990; as early as 1992, widespread rumors circulated. The rumors intentionally made fun of the distinctly positive nature of his popular song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by claiming McFerrin took his own life. In 1993, McFerrin sang Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther" theme for the movie Son of the Pink Panther. In addition to his vocal performing career, in 1994, Mr. McFerrin was appointed as creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he makes regular tours as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, including the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many others.
In McFerrin's concert appearances, he combines serious conducting of classical pieces with his own unique vocal improvisations with participation from the audience and the orchestra. For example, the concerts end with McFerrin conducting the orchestra in an a cappella rendition of the "William Tell Overture," in which the orchestra members sing their musical parts in McFerrin's vocal style instead of playing their parts on their instruments. For a few years in the late 1990s, he toured a concert version of Porgy and Bess in honor of his father, who sang the role for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film version, "to preserve the score's jazziness" in the face of "largely white orchestras" who tend not "to play around the bar lines, to stretch and bend". McFerrin says that because of his father's work in the movie, "This music has been in my body for 40 years longer than any other music."McFerrin participates in various music education programs and makes volunteer appearances as a guest music teacher and lecturer at public schools throughout the U.
S. McFerrin has collaborated with his son, Taylor, on variou
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
The American Society of Composers and Publishers is an American non-profit performance-rights organization that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, compensating them accordingly. ASCAP collects licensing fees from users of music created by ASCAP members distributes them back to its members as royalties. In effect, the arrangement is the product of a compromise: when a song is played, the user does not have to pay the copyright holder directly, nor does the music creator have to bill a radio station for use of a song. In 2012, ASCAP collected over US$941 million in licensing fees and distributed $828.7 million in royalties to its members, with an 11.6 percent operating expense ratio. As of July 2018, ASCAP membership included over 670,000 songwriters and music publishers, with over 11 million registered works. In the United States, ASCAP competes with four other PROs – Broadcast Music, Inc. the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, Global Music Rights, & Pro Music Rights.
Unlike collecting societies outside the United States, ASCAP contract is non-exclusive, although it is not so simple for a foreign person to join ASCAP, it is possible. ASCAP has an office in the United Kingdom; as the artist agreement is non-exclusive, authors can license using a creative commons license. The ASCAP bill of rights states, "we have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free". If an author is going to use a creative commons license with another's works, this is the only author's rights organisation that has a non-exclusive contract that a foreign person can join. If an author uses a Creative Commons license and is not a member of a performing rights organisation, the works would generate royalties, these royalties are collected and given to publishers and artists that are members of these organisations. ASCAP was founded by Victor Herbert, together with composers Louis Hirsch, John Raymond Hubbell, Silvio Hein and Gustave Kerker, a lyricist Glen MacDonough, publishers George Maxwell and Jay Witmark, a copyright attorney Nathan Burkan at the Hotel Claridge in New York City on February 13, 1914, to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members, who were writers and publishers associated with New York City's Tin Pan Alley.
ASCAP's earliest members included the era's most active songwriters—Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Rudolf Friml, Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, John Philip Sousa, Alfred Baldwin Sloane, James Weldon Johnson, Robert Hood Bowers and Harry Tierney. Subsequently, many other prominent songwriters became members. In 1919, ASCAP and the Performing Rights Society of Great Britain, signed the first reciprocal agreement for the representation of each other's members' works in their respective territories. Today, ASCAP has global reciprocal agreements and licenses the U. S. performances of hundreds of thousands of international music creators. The advent of radio in the 1920s brought an important new source of income for ASCAP. Radio stations only broadcast performers live, the performers working for free. Performers wanted to be paid, recorded performances became more prevalent. ASCAP started collecting license fees from the broadcasters. Between 1931 and 1939, ASCAP increased royalty rates charged to broadcasters more than 400%.
In the late 1930s, ASCAP's general control over most music and its membership requirements were considered to be in restraint of trade and illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Justice Department abandoned the case; the Justice Department sued again in 1941, the case was settled with a consent decree in which the most important points were that ASCAP must set rates and not discriminate between customers who have the same requirements to license music, or "similar standing." Anyone, unable to negotiate satisfactory terms with ASCAP, or is otherwise unable to get a license, may go to the court overseeing the consent decree and litigate the terms they find objectionable, the terms set by the court will be binding upon the licensee and ASCAP. BMI signed a consent decree in 1941, although the terms were much more favorable to BMI than those applied to ASCAP. In 1940, when ASCAP tried to double its license fees again, radio broadcasters formed a boycott of ASCAP and founded a competing royalty agency, Broadcast Music Incorporated.
During a ten-month period lasting from January 1 to October 29, 1941, no music licensed by ASCAP was broadcast on NBC and CBS radio stations. Instead, the stations played regional music and styles, traditionally disdained by ASCAP; when the differences between ASCAP and the broadcasters were resolved in October 1941, ASCAP agreed to settle for a lower fee than they had demanded. ASCAP's membership diversified further in the 1940s, bringing along jazz and swing greats, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson; the movies soared in popularity during the 1930s and 1940s, with them came classic scores and songs by new ASCAP members like Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Morton Gould, Jule Styne. Classical-music composers Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein brought their compositions into the ASCAP repertory in the 1940s; the rise of rock and roll derived from both country music and rhythm and blues music caused airplay of BMI licensed songs to double that of ASCAP licensed songs.
ASCAP officials decided. So ASCAP spearheaded a congressional investigation into the prac
Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor. He is music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, an Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. De Waart studied oboe and conducting at the Sweelinck Conservatory, graduating in 1962; the following year, he was appointed associate principal oboe of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1964, at the age of 23, De Waart won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York; as part of his prize, he served for one year as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. On his return to the Netherlands, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink. In 1967, he was appointed conductor of both the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, was the latter's music director from 1973 to 1979. De Waart made his début at the San Francisco Symphony in 1975.
A year he became principal guest conductor, from 1977 to 1985 he was music director. From 1986 to 1995, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. In 1989, De Waart returned to the Netherlands, where he was appointed music director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, he resigned from the post in 2004 and now he is the orchestra's conductor laureate. De Waart became chief conductor and artistic adviser of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1993, served in the post until 2003. While in Sydney, De Waart made no secret of his dislike of the acoustics of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, the orchestra's home, saying, "if there is no clear intention to do something to improve the hall we seriously have to look at another venue". In 2004, De Waart became artistic director and chief conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, he concluded his Hong Kong tenure in 2012. In January 2008, De Waart was named music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he assumed the post in September 2009.
In March 2008, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra announced De Waart as an Artistic Partner with the orchestra for the 2010–11 season. In April 2010, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announced the extension of De Waart's contract through the 2016–17 season. In the same month, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic announced De Waart's appointment as chief conductor for six seasons beginning in 2012, he formally began his chief conductorship of deFilharmonie in 2011, a year earlier than scheduled. In November 2014, deFilharmonie announced that De Waart's tenure as chief conductor would conclude after the 2015–2016 season. In February 2015, the Milwaukee Symphony announced the conclusion of De Waart's music directorship after the 2016–2017 season, he now has the title of conductor laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony. In June 2015, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of De Waart as its next music director, he led his first concerts as NZSO music director in March 2016. In January 2015, De Waart first guest-conducted the San Diego Symphony.
In January 2019, the orchestra announced the appointment of De Waart as its first-ever principal guest conductor, effective with the 2019-2020 season. De Waart has been a frequent conductor of opera, making his first appearance at the Santa Fe Opera in 1971, in a production of The Flying Dutchman, he debuted at the Houston Grand Opera in 1975, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1976, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1979. From 1970, he conducted Netherlands Opera frequently. In 1980, he directed a Ring cycle at the San Francisco Opera. In March 2002, De Waart announced his departure in 2004 as chief conductor of the DNO, a position he had occupied since 1999. In giving his reason for leaving, De Waart mentioned his desire to spend time with his two small children, but in an interview with the newspaper Trouw he mentioned his disagreement with DNO director Pierre Audi's conceptual staging of Lohengrin and Robert Wilson's planned Madama Butterfly, saying he missed "humanity" and "emotion in the direction."
In July 2007, SFO named De Waart their chief conductor, effective 1 October 2007. His initial contract was for four years, during which time he conducted the 2008 production of Billy Budd, but in November 2008, SFO announced that De Waart would step down before the end of his contract, no earlier than the end of the 2009 season. De Waart cited family reasons for this decision. An avid promoter of contemporary music, De Waart led premieres of works by John Adams, whose opera Nixon in China he has recorded. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Symphony No. 2 is dedicated to him. De Waart's recording catalog is extensive, encompassing recordings with such labels as Philips and orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony. In January 2001 De Waart was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal "for service to Australian society and the advancement of music". In May 2005, he was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia "for service to Australia as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra".
He is a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. De Waart and his sixth wife, Rebecca Dopp, live in Maple Bluff, near Dopp's hometown of Middleton, they married in 1999 and have two children: a son, a daughter, Olivia. The family lived in Hong Kong but moved to accommodate Sebastiaan's asthma. De Waart and his first wife, Noor Terweij, had two children
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U. S. state of Minnesota. As of 2017, the city's estimated population was 309,180. Saint Paul is the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota; the city lies on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city. Known as the "Twin Cities", the two form the core of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.6 million residents. Founded near historic Native American settlements as a trading and transportation center, the city rose to prominence when it was named the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849; the Dakota name for Saint Paul is "Imnizaska". Though Minneapolis is better-known nationally, Saint Paul contains the state government and other important institutions. Regionally, the city is known for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
As a business hub of the Upper Midwest, it is the headquarters of companies such as Ecolab. Saint Paul, along with its twin city, Minneapolis, is known for its high literacy rate; the settlement began at present-day Lambert's Landing, but was known as Pig's Eye after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant established a popular tavern there. When Lucien Galtier, the first Catholic pastor of the region, established the Log Chapel of Saint Paul, he made it known that the settlement was now to be called by that name, as "Saint Paul as applied to a town or city was well appropriated, this monosyllable is short, sounds good, it is understood by all Christian denominations". Burial mounds in present-day Indian Mounds Park suggest that the area was inhabited by the Hopewell Native Americans about two thousand years ago. From the early 17th century until 1837, the Mdewakanton Dakota, a tribe of the Sioux, lived near the mounds after fleeing their ancestral home of Mille Lacs Lake from advancing Ojibwe, they called the area I-mni-za ska dan for its exposed white sandstone cliffs.
In the Menominee language it is called Sāēnepān-Menīkān, which means "ribbon, silk or satin village", suggesting its role in trade throughout the region after the introduction of European goods. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, US Army officer Zebulon Pike negotiated 100,000 acres of land from the local Dakota tribes in 1805 to establish a fort; the negotiated territory was located on both banks of the Mississippi River, starting from Saint Anthony Falls in present-day Minneapolis, to its confluence with the Saint Croix River. Fort Snelling was built on the territory in 1819 at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, which formed a natural barrier to both Native American nations; the 1837 Treaty with the Sioux ceded all local tribal land east of the Mississippi to the U. S. Government. Taoyateduta moved his band at Kaposia across the river to the south. Fur traders and missionaries came to the area for the fort's protection. Many of the settlers were French-Canadians. However, as a whiskey trade flourished, military officers banned settlers from the fort-controlled lands.
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, a retired fur trader-turned-bootlegger who irritated officials, set up his tavern, the Pig's Eye, near present-day Lambert's Landing. By the early 1840s, the community had become important as a trading center and a destination for settlers heading west. Locals called Pig's Eye Landing after Parrant's popular tavern. In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier was sent to minister to the Catholic French Canadians and established a chapel, named for his favorite saint, Paul the Apostle, on the bluffs above Lambert's Landing. Galtier intended for the settlement to adopt the name Saint Paul in honor of the new chapel. In 1847, a New York educator named Harriet Bishop moved to the area and opened the city's first school; the Minnesota Territory was formalized in Saint Paul named as its capital. In 1857, the territorial legislature voted to move the capital to Saint Peter. However, Joe Rolette, a territorial legislator, stole the physical text of the approved bill and went into hiding, thus preventing the move.
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota was admitted to the union as the thirty-second state, with Saint Paul as the capital. That year, more than 1,000 steamboats were in service at Saint Paul, making the city a gateway for settlers to the Minnesota frontier or Dakota Territory. Natural geography was a primary reason; the area was the last accessible point to unload boats coming upriver due to the Mississippi River Valley's stone bluffs. During this period, Saint Paul was called "The Last City of the East." Industrialist James J. Hill constructed and expanded his network of railways into the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway, which were headquartered in Saint Paul. Today they are collectively part of the BNSF Railway. On August 20, 1904, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes damaged hundreds of downtown buildings, causing USD $1.78 million in damages to the city and ripping spans from the High Bridge. In the 1960s, during urban renewal, Saint Paul razed western neighborhoods close to downtown.
The city contended with the creation of the interstate freeway system in a built landscape. From 1959 to 1961, the western Rondo Neighborhood was demolished by the construction of Interstate 94, which brought attention to racial segregation and unequal housing in northern cities; the annual
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