Mstislav Rostropovich, one of the great musicians of the 20th century passed away today in Moscow. He was 80 years old.

For my non-musician friends and family who are frequent readers, Rostropovich was a hugely influential cellist who was also known for his abilities as a conductor and composer. He premiered both of Shostakovich’s cello concertos as well as works by noted composers such as Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Britten, Bernstein and Penderecki, among others.

In addition to his musical accomplishments, Rostropovich also was a strident advocate of the rights of Russian artists, writers, and musicians to express themselves without fear of persecution by the government of the Soviet Union. The following is an excerpt from the New York Times about his famous sheltering of Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

Mr. Rostropovich became famous well beyond musical circles, as a symbol of artistic conscience and his defiance of the Soviet regime. When the writer Aleksander Solzhenitsyn came increasingly under attack by Soviet authorities in the late 1960’s, Mr. Rostropovich and Miss Vishnevskaya allowed him to stay in their dacha at Zhukovka, outside Moscow.

For those who don’t know his performances, I encourage you to seek out his recordings and listen to his brilliance. I would personally start with the classic recording of him and Benjamin Britten performing the Schubert Arpeggione Sonata.

Generations have been touched by this miraculous spirit, and will continue to be touched long after he has gone.

~Maxim Vengerov (from TIME Europe, October 2, 2004)

Even though it has been around for about four months now, and I am sure that most of you internet hipsters have seen this long before now, I have finally watched the “Pachelbel Rant” on Youtube.

If you haven’t seen it, it is just as funny as advertised, especially for a guy who teaches theory and is married to a cellist. As with all good comedy, it hits the nail right on the head with just the right amount of exaggeration to make it entertaining.

My sincere thanks to R. and A., two students at two separate universities who both recommended it to me within four days of each other.

I have known for quite some time that the Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet was considering performing the work I wrote for them last spring during their upcoming performance at Carnegie Hall. In a recent conversation with one of the members of the quintet, it was confirmed that they are still planning to have it on the program that they will play on June 8th. Unless the program changes (and that is certainly possible), this will be my first New York performance. Unfortunately, I will be in Europe at the time and will miss the concert.

This is a great bit of news for my family and a talking point for my father, who like any father, loves to talk about his children’s accomplishements, but I am am a bit underwhelmed by the entire situation. I’m very flattered that they (SMBQ) enjoyed the piece enough to keep it in their books for this tour, especially since I have been away from Western for almost a year. I am also always pleased to see my music performed, but for some reason, and most likely because I will not be able to be in attendance, I am just having a hard time being enthusiastic about this opportunity. I just have this detached feeling about the performance, and that is a bit frustrating. Maybe if anyone is in New York at the time and makes it out to hear it (Jim?) then I can live vicariously through your account of the performance.

I think I’m going to call one of the guys from the quintet just to chat, that ought to get me fired up again!

I’ve been away from this blog for quite some time now. To be honest, I have been having some doubts about the usefulness of doing this every day. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy reading blogs nor is it an indictment of those of you who enjoy writing them, but I was becoming more and more obsessed with dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” so that my posts come across with the right tone and without offending anyone who might be reading them.

As a result, I have been seriously considering moving this blog to a new address and making a new site that is completely anonymous (other than to close friends and family) so that I can feel free to criticize, compliment, speculate, and pontificate without fear of offending anyone or causing problems in my career or workplace. What I don’t want this blog to be is simply a journal of my day, but rather a place where I can express an opinion and hear thoughts from others on a variety of subjects with a focus on teaching and music.

I don’t know if it is something that I will ultimately do, but if anyone has any thoughts on the subject, I’d love to hear them.

In the meantime, I have a couple of posts that I will throw up in the next few days.

The sanctuary in which all of us presume to forward the mission of higher education has been shattered and I have been stunned all day since first hearing the terrible news from Blacksburg.

My deepest sympathy to the families, friends, colleauges and peers of those that lost their lives to this senseless act of incomprehensible violence and my heartfelt support for all that have been touched by this event.