Being a San Diego native can give one a shortsighted perspective of history. Besides the Portuguese tuna fisherman, Children’s Pool and Point Loma Lighthouse, San Diego is limited for the most part to the sights …
Vienna, Austria, is a dreamlike city filled with two imperial palaces, one hundred art museums and countless Viennese cafes. So where do you begin for only a few days’ visit? If, like me, you’re married …
This was the trip of a lifetime. Traveling to Budapest, Hungary, I experienced the time of my life while trekking simultaneously through the hardships of a stolen passport, wallet and train pass. I was studying …
They say every little girl’s dream is to be a princess. When I told a family friend that I’d been accepted into the Salzburg Global Seminar and would be living in an 18th century castle, …
Many people are largely unfamiliar with how important Franz Joseph Haydn was to classical music. He is called the “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet,” yet he is not as well …
When people find out that my daughter’s middle name is Vienna, the first question is inevitably some variation of, “Oooh, you didn’t name her after that mean chick from the Bachelor, did you??” So, no. …
Mozart’s Haffner Symphony is a fairly famous piece of music, but who the hell was Haffner? Haffer got not just the symphony but also a 55-minute-long serenade. That’s about 90 minutes of music by Mozart …
The BBC Proms is taking up the cause of Franz Schmidt in a concert on September 10 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. A performance of Schmidt’s Symphony No. 2 will be given by the Vienna …
This is the first of a series of curated YouTube videos. As videos are featured they will be added to a playlist here. The first piece to be featured is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Don’t …
It’s time for another video installment. This is video number three. Since Beethoven’s Fifth is the starting point for the playlist, how do a Russian composer and a Russian conductor fit in? Via the orchestra, …