Maurice Ravel was born on March 7th, 1875. The French composer is famous for his lush melodies and brilliant orchestration (see Ravel's orchestration of Mussgorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition). His piano works are considered some of the most difficult to perform on piano even to this day (see Scarbo). Martha Argerich is considered one of the premier interpreters of Ravel; she will perform La Valse and the Piano Concerto in G Major with the LA Phil this week. Since she is in high demand, she is scheduled to play four concerts this week, from Thursday to Sunday. She has been flaky in the past few years for various reasons, but there seems to be no issues this time (she performed Prokofiev 3rd last year as well) and you will be in for a treat. more ›

Interesting interview with Menotti more ›

2008 marks the 100 year anniversary of the birth of French composer Olivier Messiaen, best known for his masterpiece Quatuor por la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time"). Piano Spheres is commemorating his birth with a concert at Zipper Hall this Tuesday featuring pianists Mark Robson and Joanne Pearce Martin. more ›

Best line of the day: "If L.A. Unified can't figure out the math on employee paychecks, can it be trusted to teach more than 700,000 students?" It's been 231 days since the whole fiasco began at the LAUSD. Teachers aren't being paid while dead people are being issues paychecks. Autumn officially begins on Sundaysays the Griffith Observatory's Sky Report, which also states Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Venus can all be seen in the sky... more ›