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Samuel Antek
Samuel Antek (May 1, 1909 – January 27, 1958) was a violinist in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Arturo Toscanini. He joined at the orchestra's inception in 1937 and played with it until its dissolution in 1954. Antek was also a conductor and served as music director for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 1947 to 1958. In 1948, he conducted the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series. After leaving the NBC Symphony, he served as assistant conductor with the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner. Antek's untimely death led Reiner to appoint Walter Hendl, then music director of the Dallas Symphony, to this position. Antek wrote a series of essays about Toscanini, describing the famed Italian conductor from the point of view of an orchestral musician. They were collected in a book entitled ''This Was Toscanini'', accompanied by renowned photographs of Toscanini by Robert Hupka; it was published posthumously by the Van ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, the parent corporation of the National Broadcasting Company especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony Orchestra performed weekly radio broadcast concerts with Toscanini and other conductors and several of its players served in the house orchestra for the NBC Radio Network. NBC encouraged the public’s perception of the Orchestra as a full-time organization exclusively at Toscanini’s beck and call, but Fortune disclosed in 1938 that these instrumentalists played other radio—and, later, television—broadcasts: “the Toscanini concerts have been allocated only fifteen of the thirty hours a week each man works, including rehearsals.” The orchestra's first broadcast was on November 13, 1937, and it continued until disbanded in April 1954. A new ensemble, independent of the network, called the Symphony of the Air, followed. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the Sheet music, score in a way that reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by Musical ensemble, ensemble members, and "shape" the musical phrasing, phrasing where appropriate. Conductors communicate with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, usually with the aid of a Baton (conducting), baton, and may use other gestures or signals such as facial expression and eye contact. A conductor usually supplements their direction with verbal instructions to their musicians in rehearsal. The conductor typically stands on a raised podium with a large music stand for the full score, which contains the musical notation for all the instruments or voices. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career, he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–1954), and this led to his becoming a household name, especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. Biography Early years Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, His father was a tailor. He won a scholarship to the Parma Conservatory, where he studied the cello. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh and strict. For example, the menu at the conservatory consisted almost entirely of fish; in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. This UNESCO designation recognizes the processes that shaped the European continent during the High Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300: Christianization, the so-called " Landesausbau" and the dynamics of cultural exchange and transfer characteristic for this very period. History The first written record of Naumburg dates from 1012, when it was mentioned as the ''new castle'' of the Ekkehardinger, the Margrave of Meissen. It was founded at the crossing of two trade-routes, Via Regia and the Regensburg Road. The successful foundation not long beforehand of a ''Propstei'' Church on the site of the later Naumburg Cathedral was mentioned in the Merseburg Bishops' Chronicles in 1021. In 1028 Pope John XIX gave his approval for the transfer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as List of islands of Italy, nearly 800 islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares land borders with France to the west; Switzerland and Austria to the north; Slovenia to the east; and the two enclaves of Vatican City and San Marino. It is the List of European countries by area, tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering , and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with nearly 59 million inhabitants. Italy's capital and List of cities in Italy, largest city is Rome; other major cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Venice. The history of Italy goes back to numerous List of ancient peoples of Italy, Italic peoples—notably including the ancient Romans, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Hupka
Robert Hupka (August 26, 1919 – July 3, 2001) was a recording engineer for RCA Victor and later for Columbia Records and, until his retirement, a cameraman for CBS Television in New York. He was born in Vienna, and emigrated to the U.S. at the onset of World War II to escape the Nazi persecution which took his parents' lives. His grandfather was the composer Ignaz Brüll, who was a friend of Brahms. Hupka took thousands of famous candid photographs of conductor Arturo Toscanini while Toscanini was leading the NBC Symphony Orchestra in rehearsals. Many of these photos were published in the book ''This Was Toscanini,'' (1963) accompanying an uncompleted essay by Samuel Antek, a violinist in the NBC Symphony. Later, those and several more photos were used as cover art for RCA LP and CD reissues of Toscanini's recordings. Three of these photos were used as set pieces in the television show, '' The Odd Couple''; the photos can be seen on the wall in Felix Unger's bedroom. In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanguard Press
The Vanguard Press was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left-wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array of books on radical topics, including studies of the Soviet Union, socialist theory, and politically oriented fiction by a range of writers. The press ultimately received a total of $155,000 from the Garland Fund, which separated itself and turned the press over to its publisher, James Henle. Henle became sole owner in February 1932."Book Notes," ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1932 Eschewing radical politics after 1929, the Vanguard Press operated as a respected independent literary house for 62 years. Its catalog of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and children's literature included the first books of Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Marshall McLuhan, Joyce Carol Oates and Dr. Seuss. With a valuable backlist of 500 titles, the company was sold to Rand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1958 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles. ** Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls towards Earth from its orbit and burns up. * January 13 – Battle of Edchera: The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol. * January 27 – A Soviet-American executive agreement on cultural, educational and scientific exchanges, also known as the "Lacy-Zarubin Agreement, Lacy–Zarubin Agreement", is signed in Washington, D.C. February * February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic. * February 2 – The ''Falcons'' aerobatic team of the Pakistan Air Force led by Wg Cdr Zafar Masud (air commodore), Mitty Masud set a World record loop, world record performing a 16 aircraft diamon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1909 Births
Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across drift ice, ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * January 9 – The British Nimrod Expedition, ''Nimrod'' Expedition to the South Pole, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrives at the Farthest South, farthest south reached by any prior expedition, at 88°23' S, prior to turning back due to diminishing supplies. * January 11 – The International Joint Commission on US-Canada boundary waters is established. * January 16 – Members of the ''Nimrod'' Expedition claim to have found the magnetic South Pole (but the location recorded may be incorrect). * January 24 – The White Star Liner RMS Republic (1903), RMS ''Republic'' sinks the day after a collision with ''SS Florida'' off Nantucket. Almost all of the 1,500 passengers are rescued. * January 28 – The last United States t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
