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- Ashkenasi You Tube Channel Videos of excerpts from several of Ashkenasi’s musicals
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Notes from a Composer
“Speakeasy” Selections
Category Archives: The Teaching Artist
Watch OPERA KIDS on September 5 and beyond
“Opera Kids” is a documentary about the Creating Original Opera program that I had taught and also helped develop starting in 1990. I write about the film, directed by Max Sturm, who first experienced the program as a participating 5th … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged 5th grade, All Arts, Creating Original Opera, documentary, Kids, Max Sturm, Opera, Opera Kids, WNET
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BRIER PATCH in MADISON SQUARE PARK
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', The Teaching Artist, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged American Dream, art, Brier Patch, Conservatory, education, exhibition, Hugh Hayden, installation, Madison Square, New York City, park, photography, progress, public art, school desk, sculpture, tree branch, winter
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OPERA KIDS – the movie
“Opera Kids” is a documentary about the Creating Original Opera program that I had taught and also helped develop with my colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department since 1990. It was directed by Max Sturm, who participated in … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, The Teaching Artist
Tagged 5th grade, Acting, Brooklyn Children's School, composing, Covid 19, Creating Original Opera, documentary, film, Max Sturm, Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, Opera, Opera Kids, original, staging, teaching artist, trailer, writing
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FESTIVAL PANDEMIC POSTPONEMENTS
See you in … 2021? Below is the 2020 Official Trailer for the Denali Film Festival. It’s a beautifully put together trailer, full of lovely images of the great outdoors. You get a strong sense for the festival’s overriding theme, … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Notes in the News, Poe Musicabres, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Alaska, coronavirus, Covid 19, Denali, Editing, Facebook, festival, film, horror, Horror Hotel, International, landscape, musicabre, musical, nature, Northeast, Ohio, pandemic, The Tell-Tale Heart, Todd Maki, trailer
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CLASS 1-3’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – involving a magic carpet and a family transformed into chameleons
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged brooklyn, chameleons, Children's School, Covid 19, dungeon, first grade, gold, magic carpet, magic potion, Opera, school closure
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CLASS 1-2’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – of the moon and the earth and a celestial smash up
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held out … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged brooklyn, chicken, Children's School, Crash, dragon, Earth, first grade, jaguar, Moon, Opera, school closure, sun
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CLASS 1-1’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – in which a dragon and a tiger meet in a dungeon
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held out … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged baby, brooklyn, bully, Children's School, Covid 19, dragon, dungeon, first grade, music director, Opera, school closure, tiger
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DROPPING NAMES
A Collection of Mini Memoir Memories You may have seen this going around on Facebook or Twitter: People listing names of celebrities they have met in their life times, but including one name that is a lie. Then people … Continue reading
Posted in Beginnings, Cinema Scope, Musicabilia, Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged after school drama program, Al Gore, Andy Serkis, anecdote, celebrity, Celeste Holm, Christopher Walken, Elijah Wood, Frank Sinatra, Gollum, High Society, Isabella Rossellini, Jack Gilford, Jennifer Anniston, Jessica Hecht, Jude Law, Kathleen Turner, Lecy Goranson, Leonard Bernstein, Lord of the Rings, Marni Nixon, NYU, Paul Rudd, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Political Psychology, Sean Mathias, The Dead, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Viggo Mortensen, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Witches, Woyzeck
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DREAMS and MEMORIES
A Dream Memory for the Grand-Niece Our niece Linden is homeschooling her children since the shelter-at-home order took hold in her state, just as it has done for millions of families all over the planet. She sent an … Continue reading
Posted in Beginnings, Literary Lyricism, The Teaching Artist
Tagged brother, devils, Dream, false memory, first grade, homeschool, Linden, Lyra, Memory, story, Tatu, trauma
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The TELL-TALE VEGAS / NYC / MOSCOW TRIFECTA that was – and then wasn’t
Thanks for Nothing, COVID 19 I was supposed to watch “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” in a Moscow movie theater today, in fact precisely while I’m typing this, “sheltering in place” this Saturday morning New York time, … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Notes in the News, Poe Musicabres, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Brandon Ruckdashel, Casablanca, coronavirus, Covid 19, Cyrillic alphabet, Days of the Dead, first grade, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Las Vegas, Moscow, musicabre, New York, NewFilmmakers NY, Opera, pandemic, Reels of the Dead, school closing, sheltering in place, The Tell-Tale Heart
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No First Grade Operas – for now
Thanks for nothing, COVID19 On Friday I received the following email from one of the first grade teachers at the Brooklyn Children’s School: Dear Danny, The first grade operas have to be postponed. The DOE and our … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Children's School, Chameleon, closure, COVID19, dragon, Earth, first grade, Moon, New York City, Opera, original, school, tiger
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The Knight Marries the Prince
A Kindergarten Original Blesses a Quaker Wedding Friday morning I heard a wedding song I realized I would have to sing that night at an actual wedding. Class K-1 at the Brooklyn Children’s School was the third kindergarten … Continue reading
FIRST GRADE ALIENS RIDE PEOPLE’S HEADS!
Another Year, Another Silly First Grade Opera! Actually, another three first grade operas at the Brooklyn Children’s School, created, written, composed and performed by first graders themselves, under the direction of their teachers and their teaching artist Mister Danny. … Continue reading
Posted in Live! On Stage, The Teaching Artist
Tagged aliens, brooklyn, car wash, Children's School, dog, first grade, Opera, pet, silly, slobber, teaching artist
1 Comment
3rd Grade Choir Presents Love & Life with the Beatles
A fainting spell nearly derailed the whole concert. But it was still a rousing success. When I plan choir concerts for elementary student performers, I hope to choose songs that will appeal to the age group but also … Continue reading
Posted in Live! On Stage, Melodies Linger On, The Teaching Artist
Tagged 3rd grade, A Day in the Life, All You Need Is Love, Blackbird, choir, concert, Elementary School, fainting, Hey Jude, Michelle, Obladi Oblada, She Loves You, Sie Liebt Dich, The Beatles, Tribeca, Within You Without You, World Trade Center, Yellow Submarine
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TROLL AFFECTION!
How a genre and boundary bursting Swedish movie brought back to mind a certain LGBTQ friendly First Grade Opera Tune I just saw the movie “Border”, Sweden’s entry for this year’s Foreign Film Oscar, and let me say, right … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Academy Award, Affection, Border, Brooklyn Children's School, first grade, Foreign Film, make up, nomination, Opera, Oscar, Sweden, Troll, wizard
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BEWARE THE CON! – a cautionary epistolary tale
The following emails are actual. Only certain identifying details have been redacted. Sunday, 7:01pm – Message from D- C- relayed via a service for independent contractors: Hello,My name is D- ,I want lessons for my Daughter,she is 12 … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged bank, cautionary tale, check, Con, email, epistolatory, fraud, invoice, piano lesson
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Notes from a Composer 