Aesop's Feast

I found this work by Charles Valentin Alkan on youtube.
It's just so amazing! I want to play it when I'm older!

My Nutcracker Performance Dates

I'm going to be a mouse in the National Ballet of Canada's Nutcracker.
The scene with the mice is in the first act.

We just found out my performance schedule.

I'll be performing on:

• Sunday, December 23rd at 1pm
• Saturday, December 29th at 5:30pm
• Friday, January 4th at 1pm

(The performance schedule is 'subject to change')

Information on how to buy tickets is available online at the National Ballet of Canada's website:
http://national.ballet.ca/

See you at the ballet!

More Fun with Pachelbel

PAgagNINI - Pachelbel's Canon in D

Pachelbel and 4 Chords

Here's something to make you laugh.


Rob Paravonian - Pachelbel Rant

Axis of Awesome - 4 Chords

Andrés Segovia, Father of Classical Guitar

Andrés Segovia is known as the Father of Classical Guitar. He transcribed a lot of music which were for other instruments to guitar and he developed a standard technique for guitar.

We're so lucky to have videos of him playing.

Here is one of him playing Isaac Albéniz's Asturias

There is a video where he talks about how the guitar is like an orchestra.

This is a video of Segovia playing Danza in G by Granados

This last piece is of Segovia playing Bach's Prelude BWV 1007.

Joaquín Rodrigo & the Guitar as a Concert Instrument

Joaquín Rodrigo's was born on November 22, 1901 in Spain.
He went almost completely blind when he was 3 years old. He studied music, including piano and violin. People know him best for his guitar compositions and using it as a concert instrument.

Here are two of his most famous works.
Concierto de Aranjuez, 2nd Movement (Adagio)

Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre

I LOVE it when the guitar is featured with the orchestra! It's so dramatic!

Francisco Tárrega and the Nokia Ring Tone

Today is Francisco Tárrega's birthday. He was born on November 21, 1852 and he died in 1909.

He had an eye infection when he was young which messed up his eyesight but he studied music and his first 2 music teachers were blind. He ran away a lot but by the time he was a teen he could play both the piano and guitar. He wrote lots of pieces for the guitar and he transcribed piano works by Beethoven and Chopin and others for the guitar.

His most known piece is a clip from "Grand Vals" which is used in the Nokia Ring Tone.

I don't think he could have guessed that his music would be used the way it is now. Telephones were just becoming popular around the time he died and they hadn't even thought of cellphones yet.


Here's another piece by Tárrega that I mentioned in an earlier blog post. It's Recuerdos de la Alhambra played by Drew Henderson.

Here's Tárrega's Lagrima played by Miloš Karadaglić