Patrício da Silva received formal musical training at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal), followed by composition studies in the United States at CalArts, and the University of California. His composition teachers include António Pinho Vargas, Mel Powel, Stephen L. Mosko, Morton Subotnick, William Kraft, David Cope, Curtis Roads, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison and Sydney Hodkinson. Following his graduate studies, da Silva engaged in post-doctoral work in algorithmic composition at IRCAM in Paris. He has received numerous awards and fellowships and his compositions have been performed by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (where da Silva was Composer in Residence, 2008-10), California Ear-Unit, Lontano, Lyris Quartet, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Piano Quartet, New Fromm Players, Orquestra do Algarve, Shakespeare & Co., What's Next? Ensemble, Stefan Asbury, Tzimon Barto, Ryu Cipris, Gloria Cheng, Joana Carneiro, Cesário Costa, William Eddins, Lorenz Gamma, David Gutkin, Paul Haas, Vimbayi Kaziboni, Michael Kudirka, David Loebel, Brian Pezzone, José Rodilla, Mark Robson, Tara Schwab, Ming Tsu, Laurent Wagner and Ian Whitcomb. Watch a performance of his The Fact of the Matter as a Matter of Fact (2007) played by Orquestra do Algarve, Cesario Costa conducting . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Just before departing on his American Tour in 1928, Maurice Ravel received a commission from Ida Rubinstein for a ballet, to be called Fandango. His intention was to orchestrate some pieces from Iberia by Albéniz, but as he was beginning work in July, he discovered that the rights to the music were already assigned to another composers. Ravel was initially dismayed and at a loss as to how he would fulfill his commission. However while continuing his holiday in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, he developed a Spanish-sounding theme which had about it "something quite insistent". Boléro, as the work was renamed, went on to become Ravel's most popular work, and one of the most frequently played pieces of classical music. The work lasts about 15 minutes, repeating each of the theme's two parts 9 times in the same key (until the very last bars), using different orchestrations to vary the texture and to create a gradual crescendo, and Ravel was insistent that the work should be played at a steady and unvarying tempo (as his own recording demonstrates). At the first performance of her ballet production in 1928, Ida Rubinstein danced the role of a flamenco dancer who is trying out steps on a table in a bar, surrounded by men whose admiration turns to lustful obsession. Ravel did not entirely approve; his own conception was an outdoor scene in front of a factory whose machinery provides the inflexible rhythm; the factory workers would emerge to dance together, while a story of a bullfighter killed by a jealous rival was played out. Watch Boléro (1928) performed by famed ballerina Maya Plisetskaya as choreographed by Maurice Béjart  . . . it's our DANSES PYTHEUSES for the week.

. . . and see another Bolero with ballerina Maria Alexandrova, with (so we're told) choreography by Bronislava Nijinska - who choreographed the work for Ida Rubenstein.

Kurt Weill composed his ballet chanté (sung ballet) The Seven Deadly Sins (1933) during a time of tremendous political upheaval and turmoil in Europe. Weill's most enduring works of this period were his collaborations with leftist writer Bertolt Brecht, especially "The Threepenny Opera." "The Seven Deadly Sins" marks the end of Weill's European career, being his last collaboration with Brecht and the last enduring work that he composed in his European theater style. This style is characterized by its directness, which is a product of Weill's use of elements from popular music – in the case of this work, dance music and the barbershop quartet – as well as his use of established musical forms, like the church chorale. The ballet was commissioned by Edward James, a wealthy Englishman whose Paris ballet troupe, Les Ballets 1933, counted the choreographer and dancer George Balanchine among its founders. It was decided that the ballet would be sung, with the main character, Anna, "split" into singing and dancing halves. This way, Weill's estranged wife, the singer Lotte Lenya, could star alongside James' also estranged dancer wife, Tilly Losch (John Mangum/Los Angeles Philharmonic). Watch a concert performance of The Seven Deadly Sins with soprano Akiko Nakajima and the Miyazaki International Music Festival Orchestra with Charles Dutoit conducting . . . the second of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Amy Scurria knew at a very young age that music would hold a prominent position in her life. She began composing as early as eight years old pursuing study and in piano and composition. After winning various piano and composition contests, she went on to study composition at the Westminster Choir College Summer Program in Princeton, NJ, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Aspen Music Festival, Peabody Conservatory, La Schola Cantorum in Paris, France, and Duke University. Notable teachers have included Chen Yi, Robert Sirota, Narcis Bonet, Anthony Kelley, and Stephen Jaffe. She has been commissioned and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, LongLeaf Opera, Sigma Alpha Iota and Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Vermont Youth Orchestra, Youth Pro Musica, the Shepherd College Concert Choir, and many others. She has had performances throughout the U.S., England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, and Japan. Scurria's music is currently moving towards the creation of opera, however, her music (non-vocal included) has always included a background narrative or story. She believes that "music is a powerful and unusual language that, when spoken well, can reach the deepest part of the human spirit." Listen to a performance of Amy Scurria's Adaptations (2007) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.