Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast in Philadelphia (posted May 20, 2013)

Annual Armadillo String Quartet Concert (posted April 28, 2013)

The Armadillo String Quartet continues their series of annual Music of Peter Schickele concerts on June 11, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. This year’s offering includes two (depending on how you count) word premieres, including the Serenade for String Trio and String Quintet No. 2, in addition to old favorites String Quartet No. 1 “American Dreams”, and Top o’ the Millennium for 2 violas.  As is often the case in these cases, the concert will take place at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena, California, which can be found at the address on the concert listing page.

2013-2014 Concert Tour (posted February 18, 2013)

After three years with no regular concert tours of P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele music, the good professor is hitting the road again.  He’s bringing back both of the notorious chamber music programs that combined P.D.Q. Bach discoveries and Peter Schickele compositions, The Jekyll and Hyde Tour and The What’s Your Sign? Tour, and has reassembled the cast of characters that have brought this music to life:  off-coloratura soprano Michèle Eaton, tenor profundo Brian Doughterty, keyboarder Margaret Kampmeier (for The What’s Your Sign? Tour), and stage manager William Walters.  The tour will take place during the 2013-2014 season, so the time to start booking the concerts into your local theaters is now.  Information about these concerts can be found on the concert listing page, complete with lists of pieces to be performed, audio clips, performer biographies, and contact information for the booking agent.

Also on the concert listing page are the latest last-minute but short-notice updates to the 2012-2013 concert calendar.  This includes two different concerts featuring veteran P.D.Q. Bach musicians playing Mr. Schickele’s music.  The first of these feature Jorge Mester, conductor of the very first public P.D.Q. Bach concerts and several of the December concerts in New York city, this time conducting the Louisville Orchestra in Mr. Schickele’s Concerto for Chamber Orchestra at Whitney Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mr. Schickele will be on hand for a pre-concert chat with Maestro Mister Mester for this concert, coming up quickly on February 21 and 22, 2013, and followed closely thereafter by February 23, 2013, when Bargemusic in New York City will be the location for Alaria to play Mr. Schickele’s Piano Trio “Alaria” on a floating barge in Brooklyn just under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Alaria, whose piano player David Oei was an original member of The Intimate P.D.Q. Bach concert tours in the 1970’s, commissioned this work and premiered it just over a year ago.  Those who missed the piece the first time around can find out more about it on the concert listing page, just after the information about the 2013-2014 concert season offerings.

Prairie Home Companion Appearance (posted November 27, 2012)

Peter Schickele will be appearing on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday, December 1.  This program will be broadcast live on American Public Media (see http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/ for details) and can also be seen in person at Town Hall in New York (also see http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/ for details).  Mr. Schickele will be presenting Joy To The World, Especially Out Of Work Musicians, a Suite For Six Gig-Impaired Musicians:  Piccolo, English Horn, E-flat Clarinet,  Baritone Saxophone, Contrabassoon, and Gong.  Also appearing on the same program with Peter will be The Bacon Brothers, which is sure to improve Peter’s score when playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

A Year in the Catskills CD (posted July 15, 2012)

The Blair Woodwind Quintet has not only commissioned a Peter Schickele woodwind quintet, they have also recorded the work along with several other pieces Peter Schickele pieces featuring woodwinds, and has also made the CD available for purchase right off of this very Web Site.  The new piece and the CD are both called A Year in the Catskills and evoke the feeling of four months spent in the Catskills Mountains, plus a finale.  Other works on the CD include What Did You Do Today at Jeffey’s House for French horn and piano, Dream Dances for flute, oboe, and cello, Gardens for oboe and piano and Diversions for oboe, clarinet and bassoon, works that have been sometimes heard on the radio (the first one and part of the second were heard on NPR’s From The Top) and sometimes in hard-to-find CDs (the third one) or LPs (the fourth), but have never before been collected together in one easy-to-play CD.  It is also easy to order, right from the same place where you can find complete track listings and sample audio clips.

The Rest of the 2011-2012 Concert Season (posted April 17, 2012)

Three more concerts were recently added to the Concert Schedule page, thus rounding out the current season.  It may be noted that this is a much smaller number of concerts than may be remembered from many past years’ concert seasons, and in fact Peter Schickele is winding down the amount of concert touring he is doing.  He has written a note that talks about this change and his future plans, which can be found on the page where we will continue to post details on those concerts that have been scheduled...

...like the next installment of the Armadillo String Quartet’s annual “Music by Peter Schickele” concert.  This year, the 22nd one, takes place on April 23 in Pasadena, California and includes guest artists and pianists Joanne Pearce Martin and Gavin Martin and the world premiere of String Quartet No. 6 “Shadow Mountain” and the West Coast premiere of Piano Trio “Alaria”, part of a full evening of Peter Schickele music introduced by the composer himself...

...who will also be on hand for some events over the summer in the mountains of New York.  The Woodstock Beat benefit concert this year will feature a retrospective of the works of Peter Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach on in Woodstock, New York on July 21:   Byrdcliffe Presents: The Woodstock Off-Beat: The Musical Life of Peter Schickele.  And two of Mr. Schickele’s larger choral works will be included in The Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice on August 5 in Phoenicia, New York: Concerto for Piano and Chorus “The Twelve Months” and Go for Broke, a Comedy for Chorus.  More information about all of these events and the concert scene can be seen at the usual location.

Annual Bearsville Theater Show and TV Broadcast of Classical Comedy Contest (posted December 3, 2011)

The sixth annual edition of the Holiday Trainwreck, where Peter Schickele shares the stage with Gilles Malkine and Mikhail Horowitz at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, New York, has been scheduled for December 10th at 8:00 p.m.  This year Peter’s music will be performed with the assistance of singers Elizabeth Farnum, Alexandra Sweeton, Brian Dougherty, and Lewis White.  Those who have attended some of the previous year’s shows will know what to expect, and everybody else can find out all about it on the new Holiday Trainwreck page and then still not know what to expect.

Meanwhile, the WQXR Classicial Comedy Contest, where last month Peter was one of the judges at the Caroline’s on Broadway comedy club, has been turned into a 1-hour television program that will be broadcast on New York area public radio stations Thirteen WNET and WLIW21.  These broadcasts are scheduled at disparate times on December 9th, December 10th, and December 9th again, including, in true comedy club fashion, a midnight show.  Even though this is now a television broadcast, you can still find the details on the Concert Schedule page, including the specific broadcast times on each network.

"Alaria" Piano Trio World Premiere (posted November 7, 2011)

The next concert to be added to the 2011-2012 Concert Season is presented by Alaria and includes the world premiere of the Piano Trio that Peter Schickele has written for them.  The concert will take place at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City on December 4, 2011.  Performing the work will be members of Alaria including pianist David Oei, who was one of the original cast members of the Intimate P.D.Q. Bach touring program way back in the 1970’s and on the record album (as such things were called way back in the 1970’s) of the same name.  Along with the premiere of Mr. Schickele’s Piano Trio, the group will also be playing works by Beethoven and Shostakovich.  See the newly doubled-in-size list of concerts on the Concert Schedule page for details.

The First Hint of the 2011-2012 Concert Season (posted September 10, 2011)

Even though the 2011-2012 Concert Season may have fewer events than in many previous years, some of the information about upcoming events has started to trickle in.  Actually, most of the events are still in the planning stages and will be announced later in the season, but one of them is now listed on the concert calendar page ahead of all of the others because it contains a deadline that is coming up soon.  Radio station WQXR has organized a Classical Comedy Contest where contestants can present their classical comedy acts before a panel of judges and a live audience for a chance to win fame, glory, and a prize package.  Peter Schickele will be one of the judges at this event on November 8, 2011 at famous comedy club Carolines on Broadway as part of the New York Comedy Festival.  Will you be one of the contestants?  Read the contest rules on how to submit your own classical comedy video (before the deadline of October 10, 2011) at http://www.wqxr.org/comedy.

Yet Another Concert Update (posted May 15, 2011)

Yet another concert has been added to the 2010-11 concert season, and also to the Armadillo String Quartet’s series of annual Music by Peter Schickele concerts.  In fact, this bring to 21 the total number of consecutive years that the Armadillo String Quartet has presented evenings of chamber music jam packed with Peter Schickele compositions with the composer on hand to introduce them.  This year’s offerings include the world premiere of  Music for Judy for trumpet and string quartet along with other pieces for trumpet or string quartet or parts of string quartets.  As in many previous years, the concert will take place at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena, California, this time on May 23 at 8:00 p.m.  See full details on the concert calendar page.

Another Concert Update (posted January 29, 2011)

Another concert has been added to the 2010-11 concert season, this one also at Symphony Space and also where Mr. Schickele will be in attendance but not performing.  The performer will be Danielle Farina, former violist with the Lark Quartet, and the piece will be Mr. Schickele’s Mountain Music II for Viola and Piano, and the date will be February 7.  More information and links to the Symphony Space site can be found on the concert calendar page.

Contact Information

Find out whom to contact and also how.

Mailing List

Sign up to receive automatic notification of Peter Schickele/P.D.Q. Bach Web Site news.

Site Map/Search

Find out where on this Web site what can be found.