7 Things You Didn’t Know About Samuel Barber
1. Having been bit by the musical bug at the tender age of 6, Samuel Barber was composing magnificent solo piano pieces by the time he was 7, and had composed his first opera by the time he was 10.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/883258-Louise-Homer
2. Barber served in the Air Corp during World War II, at which time his Symphony No. 2 was commissioned by the Army Air Forces.
3. Barber’s maternal aunt was the well-known opera singer Louise Beatty Homer.
4. Barber’s piece “Adagio for Strings” from his String Quartet, became a radio hit after it was played at the funeral for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, and again for the funeral of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
5. After premiering at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, Barber’s opera Vanessa won a Pulitzer Prize and became the first American opera to be performed at Austria’s Salzburg Festival.
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6. In 1962, Samuel Barber became the first American composer to make an official visit to the Soviet Union.
7. Barber’s upstairs neighbor in his New York City apartment was none other than jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman.
Don’t miss our presentation of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto at our Opening Night Gala Concert with guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine on September 14 at 8:00pm.
Tickets can be purchased HERE.
