Current Assignment(s)Students should be working on the Remote Learning Assignment for the week of April 27 (due Monday, 5/4). Details can be found in Google Classroom. | UpdatesThe first-ever Nipmuc Virtual Chorus Concert is available! Click here for a short message and link to the concert (sent 4/29/2020). |
Weekly Feature: Musical Records
This week we highlight a different category of random musical records each day. Thursday: "The most..."
| The most expensive musical instrument sold at auction is the '"Lady Blunt'" Stradivarius violin and was sold at £9,808,000 ($15,875,800) by Tarisio Auctions (USA) in London, UK, on June, 20 2011. The auction was organized online on behalf of the Nippon Music Foundation and the proceeds went to the Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. |  |
The most instruments used in a piece of music was 315 and was achieved by Rupam Sarmah (India) and his team, performing a symphony composed and directed by Rupam Sarmah at Jorhat Sports Complex, Assam, India, on February 24, 2013. The number of different instruments used was 315, however the total number of instruments used (including duplications) was 370, plus 106 vocalists, making a grand total of 476 musicians who performed the symphony which lasted for just over half an hour.
| The most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours is BTS (Boy With Luv) feat. Halsey' Official MV, which achieved 74,600,000 views from April 12-13, 2019. |  |
This Month in Music: April
Happy last day of April!
(we made it)
Here's a look back at some important musical events that occurred during April:
(we made it)
Here's a look back at some important musical events that occurred during April:
April 1,1873: Sergei Rachmaninoff is born in Novgorod, Russia. Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the late Romantic period whose works are still widely performed.
| | April 4,1964: The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" single goes #1 and stays there for 5 weeks. |
April 7, 1915: Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She first rose to prominence in the 1930’s with a unique style that reinvented the conventions of modern singing and performance.
Today, Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical masterpieces, her songwriting skills, creativity and courageous views on inequality and justice. Click here to learn more.
Today, Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical masterpieces, her songwriting skills, creativity and courageous views on inequality and justice. Click here to learn more.
April 9, 1939: Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Anderson, already famous in the United States and Europe, gave the outdoor concert after she was denied use of a venue owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which had a white-artist-only performance clause. With the support of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (who resigned from the DAR as a result of their decision) and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Anderson performed for 25 minutes to a desegregated crowd that stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.
Anderson went on to have a long career as a performer - she died in 1993 at the age of 96. Click here to read a more detailed account of Anderson's Lincoln Memorial performance.
 | April 15,2001: Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Ross Hyman) dies at the age of 49 following a seven-year battle with lymphoma. Ramone was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Ramones, who are considered by some to be the first true punk rock group. |
| April 19,1963: Johnny Cash releases his single "Ring Of Fire," written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore. | |
April 22, 1876: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completes his ballet "Swan Lake." Though it is now one of the most recognizable and frequently performed ballets of all time, it received only a lukewarm reception when it premiered in 1877. Click here to learn more.
 | April 26, 1970: The musical Company opens at Broadway's Alvin Theater, and ran for 690 performances, closing on January 1, 1972. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards, and won six. Company was composed by Stephen Sondheim, who is also known for Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and many others. |
| April 27,1810: Ludwig van Beethoven, generally considered one of the greatest composers of all time, is thought to have composed one of his most recognizable piano works, "Fur Elise." Click here to learn more. | |
April 30,1885: The Boston Pops Orchestra forms, thanks to the efforts of Henry Lee Higginson, who had also founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra four years earlier in 1881. The Pops continues to perform for audiences in Boston and around the world, and are especially known for their annual July 4th Fireworks Spectacular Concert at the Esplanade, as well as collaborations with many well known musicians and celebrities.
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