The Many Faces of Peter Schickele
The One Face of P.D.Q. Bach


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of P.D.Q. Bach compositions |

Just as smoke signals gave way to the telephone, the august but paleolithic Peter
Schickele Rag has given way to a Web site devoted to Peter
Schickele, Prof. Schickele, and P.D.Q.
Bach. All the features that the Rag
featured will be featured on this Web site, which will be updated even more
frequently than the Rag was published—that’s right, even more
frequently. Featured features include crosspuzz
wordles, complete information about the concertizing
activities, plus ordering information for
whatever merchandising rip-offs are being made available.

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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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The
Peter Schickele/P.D.Q. Bach Web Site has been honored with a “Cool Site”
award by the Open Directory Project. |
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