Happy Birthday Robert Commanday
Robert Commanday
Musical Gifts
Happy Birthday Robert Commanday! What would you like? The Stravinsky version of the standard greeting, or one, I believe, by Nicholas Slonimsky? Myself, I’d prefer the Bruckner 3rd Symphony played by the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra under the baton of Kurt Masur.
P.S. I am really enjoying volunteering in the Opera’s communications department on Monday afternoons with your delightful granddaughter Elisabeth Swim; I attended a concert in Davies Hall and it was fascinating because you look so much alike!
Dressed for the Opera, with Jemmie
Toasting You From Turkey
Greetings from sunny Istanbul, Turkey, where I am a music journalist with Time Out magazine. I’m also teaching music at the Conservatoire inside the French Consulate here. Believe me, at a time when arts journalists are getting the axe in the U.S., I feel very fortunate to have an editor here who says, literally, “write whatever you want.” And I do.
I see on SFCV it’s your B-Day, so I take this occasion to renew my contact with you and let you know I still read the Web site every week. It’s a wonderful service to the Bay Area’s rich performing arts world, the artists, and a model for arts journalism around the world.
I hope your birthday today is wonderful, full of friends, and some great music!
Best wishes.
Counducting on a Japan reunion tour
To 86 More …
I wanted to add my birthday greetings and good wishes to all the others that will no doubt come flooding in for your 86th! Not only are you fondly remembered by those of us who “knew you when,” but it is delightful having your granddaughter working at San Francisco Opera. Elisabeth’s work-space, and that of her colleague, Micah, are one of the many places in the WMOH where I worked when I was producing the radio broadcasts during the 1970’s.
Be well, and enjoy your longevity!
Thanks for Writing
Happy Birthday, and may you have many more healthy years of listening to and writing about music!
And a belated thank you, for letting me write for SFCV.
Yours gratefully,
Singing Your Praises
I sang in the Oakland Symphony Chorus in 1997 (or 1998?) when you directed us for two movements of the Mozart Requiem. OSC was commemorating its 40th anniversary and had invited all previous directors to attend and you showed up! I recall talking to you at the reception after and you mentioning this new endeavor, the San Francisco Classical Voice, an attempt to bring professional-level music criticism to cyberspace (still quite new then).
And you succeeded! I still cannot miss each weekly edition and am so impressed with the stable of critics and how much I learn about classical music and musicians from SFCV.
And for those of you SFCV‘ers out there who would like to perform (again?) under Bob’s baton, the OSC will feature him July 29 at the Summer Sing-ins for the Brahms Requiem. NOT to be missed!
Thanks again, Bob, for your continued support of Bay Area classical music. And Happy Birthday!
Writing Muse
Congratulations on your birthday from an old frend and admirer. I’ve been out of music criticism quite a while, and only recently returned to arts writing after a long stint in new media management. It was at the MCANA convention recently in Denver that I learned your birthday was coming up. You were president of the MCA when I first began working as a critic and you were helpful in so many different ways — getting me into an early writers’ workshop at Ravinia was important early on.
What I now see on your site is indeed impressive, obviously the result of steady nurturing over many years, and I can see that you are continuing to cultivate writers. Congratulations to a life well managed and many good choices.
All the best to you always,
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