KPAC Blog

In pop music, pieces featuring the "original artists" are usually big sellers. These are the performances we heard first and are used to -- not the cover songs performed by other artists years later. Some pieces are so familiar that we mentally hear the scratches and pops on the 45's that we had at home back in the day.

With a mixture of trepidation and excitement, Hector Berlioz, the composer, critic and conductor, stood poised to lay aside many of the usual tasks and distractions of his life and give himself up to the dream of a lifetime: The composition of an epic on antique themes inspired by Virgil's "Aeneid," Les Troyens.

It was on a Summer morning in Mexico City that I heard the sad news of the passing of Herbert von Karajan. The notice was on the radio as I drove over to the Sala Nezahualcoytl, on the campus of Mexico's National University. I was on my way to play a matinee concert with the Orquesta de la Mineria.

Once I arrived, I immediately went to the dressing room of the conductor, Luis Herrera de la Fuente, to relate the bad news. He was alarmed. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm afraid so, Maestro," I replied.

I suppose it is because I have largely made my living these past 20 years with my voice -- though certainly not as a singer -- that I have come to value the sound of a voice and what it reveals; both when the voice is alive, and perhaps more importantly, when that speaker is no longer with us.

Kerrville, Boerne and San Antonio host Camerata SA concerts this weekend

Personal Expressions will feature Anastasia Storer and Matthew Zerweck, violins; Emily Freudigman, viola; and Ken Freudigman, cello. These Camerata San Antonio musicians play together in chamber music as well as at the San Antonio Symphony.

A special piece written by Marin Alsop on NPR included a photo of her conducting the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in a concert on a Brazilian beach. Twenty thousand listeners attended! Wow! An outdoor concert in December?

A look at the latest weather forecasts for points in South America quickly reminds us that it is presently Summertime (and one would hope the livin’ is easy) throughout the Southern Hemisphere.

When I sit back and think upon my youth my thoughts often turn to television; I am an American after all. One program that gripped me in those days was "In Search of…" where Leonard Nimoy would explore various topics; everything from Bigfoot to the mysterious underwater monoliths thought to be the foundations of Atlantis.

• This week, BBC One premiered a made-for-TV treatment of the Joyce Hatto scandal called "Loving Miss Hatto," with Francesca Annis and Alfred Molina as the leads. Remember her?

Live broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic and Franz Welser Most takes place Jan. 1st

The Vienna Philharmonic has selected the General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera, Franz Welser Most, to conduct the New Year's Concert 2013. Philharmonic Chairman Clemens Hellsberg said the invitation was extended not only on the basis of the convincing artistic success of his New Year's Concert 2011, but also in recognition of Most's stellar collaboration with the Philharmonic as well as in the Vienna State Opera.