USC Drumline Cadence

This is a video featuring the drumline of the University of Southern California. Absolutely fantastic. But I pity their poor parents!

Igudesman & Joo

Aleskey Igudesman on the violin and Hyung-ki Joo on the piano combine clasical musical artistry with comedy as a duo much like Victor Borge did as a single. They have several hilarious videos on YouTube. Here are two of my favorites:

The Breaking Winds - Toccata and Fugue

A very special treat - The Breaking Winds, young ladies from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, play Bach's Toccata and Fugue on bassoons with organ accompaniment. Appropriately recorded in October, 2010 right before Halloween

Georges Cziffra

Hungarian Georges Cziffra (1921-1994) was one of the finest pianists of the 20th Century. In this video Cziffra in preparation for a television appearance went to the TV studio to test the piano while technicians tested the lighting and camera angles for the telecast. He walks onto the set, removes his jacket, sits at the piano and puts on a fantastic improvisation. The aspect ratio of the video is off, but it does not affect the quality of Cziffra's performance.

Thus Sprach Zarathustra

This silly YouTube video of supposed terrible high school musicians playing the opening theme from the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey reminded me of my own high school's band.

No, they were not nearly so bad as this group, but that is not saying much. Having to sit in our seats at school assemblies while the band "entertained" us was quite an ordeal. I believe most of us would have preferred to take a test or write an essay.




Thinking of my school's band for the first time in over a half century, I checked them out in the yearbook from my senior year. I was surprised to discover that it was 100% male. They may not have been quality musicians but they did wear nice gold jackets and have shiny instruments!!