Category Archives: Beginnings

Entries related to my biography and development as an artist.

NfaC Pride Month Repost: THE NEARLY INVISIBLE BISEXUAL MALE

Posted on June 4, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

June is Pride Month.  So I thought I should make my first post of the month a post that deals heavily with LGBTQ issues.  And although my many posts related to my musical Speakeasy almost invariably deal with LGBTQ issues, … Continue reading →

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NfaC Repost: Forbidden Movies, Forbidden Music

Posted on May 26, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

*Originally posted May 14, 2015: I walked out of the Film Forum mind abuzz and guts churning.   I was chewing on a whole lot of food for thought as well as the ice cream melt I bought to soothe my … Continue reading →

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A Funeral – Ein Begräbnis

Posted on May 14, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

My father would have turned 82 today.   Friday, April 29 – Funeral Service in Stahnsdorf Cemetery

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Free University Berlin Remembers Abraham Ashkenasi

Posted on April 26, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

My mother was leafing through the Sunday paper as she was met with a heartwarming surprise: the Free University Berlin had posted their own commemoration announcement for my father.   This is what is says: “On March 27, 2016 passing … Continue reading →

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HERE BE GALLOWS’ HUMOR – Retreat ye who don’t care for that sort of thing

Posted on April 13, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

Sunday April 3 my father’s memorial announcement was posted in the “Familienanzeige” section of the Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin.  Actually there were two announcements, the one my family arranged, and another purchased by close Berlin friends of Dad’s.  It was … Continue reading →

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STAHNSDORF – An American Red Oak for my Father

Posted on April 7, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

My plane was delayed by two and a half hours.  Needing only hand luggage for a five day stay I breezed past the baggage carousel at Berlin-Tegel, but the taxi ride added to the delay due to traffic jams on … Continue reading →

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NfaC Repost: THE DAY I BECAME A COMPOSER

Posted on April 2, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

I have not yet written much about my parents on this blog so far, but this piece from last June includes one of my favorite anecdotes about my father: “My parents were always supportive of all my creative endeavors, but … Continue reading →

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Abraham Ashkenasi

Posted on March 27, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

Abraham Ashkenasi May 14, 1934 – March 27, 2016

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NfaC Repost: The Sound of Music: Embracing the “Sugarcoated Lie”

Posted on January 22, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

This article was one of the first ever published on “Notes from a Composer” and quickly became one of the more popular during the first months of the blog’s existence.  I thought I would repost it so newcomers to the … Continue reading →

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MY 1978 SANTA BARBARA EARTHQUAKE

Posted on January 4, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

I was standing near my croquet ball holding my mallet waiting my turn when we heard the rumbling. First thing I saw was the house shaking.  A one story ranch style house made with vertical wooden slats, which were now … Continue reading →

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HOPE for a New Year

Posted on December 31, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I believe in the good of mankind I believe in the end truth prevails It resides in our hearts and our minds Should we seek it we’d find love unveiled HOPE Happy New Year.  Let’s hope for a 2016 that … Continue reading →

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS – How this Carol Curmudgeon Ended Up Unwittingly Writing Three Seasonably Suited Carols Himself

Posted on December 21, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I plead guilty to being a bit of a Christmas Carol Grinch.  OK, I used to be a BIG Christmas Carol Grinch, really loathing most carols and sometimes resorting to lip syncing rather than singing out loud when drawn into … Continue reading →

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TROUBLE BUBBLES – The Songs from Childhood that Loom Large All One’s Life

Posted on November 11, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I was three years old when Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was released and became the one of the most popular songs of its time.   One of my earliest memories is of me, small boy hardly taller than … Continue reading →

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Catching HALLOWEEN around HALLOWEEN 1978 in a seedy New York theater

Posted on October 30, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

My father insists that the movie theater or rather many of the patrons in the theater were scarier than anything that was happening on the screen.  Possibly.  I was eleven and not world-weary enough to be wary of the pot-smoking … Continue reading →

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A Halloween Treat: THE TELL-TALE HEART – A MUSICABRE and the roommate from hell who planted its seed

Posted on October 28, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Just in time for Halloween the Tell-Tale Heart page goes live today, showcasing the audio of a live performance of my musical adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. The Tell-Tale Heart is the ultimate bad roommate story, as … Continue reading →

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BERLIN WALL MEMORIES #2 – You Might as Well Have Told Me the Earth was Flat.

Posted on October 21, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The night the Berlin Wall came down, Nov 9, 1989, I was living in New York.  I got a phone call around 6pm that night, less than an hour in real time after East German Border guards had received the … Continue reading →

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