100px|Henry Wood
Henry Wood (1869–1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall, offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries. (more...)
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1096:
The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Crusade
1520:
The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon were discovered by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named them "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon
1805:
Napoleonic Wars: Lord Nelson signalled "England expects that every man will do his duty" to the rest of his Royal Navy forces before they defeated Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and his combined French and Spanish navy at the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain's Cape Trafalgar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_expects_that_every_man_will_do_his_duty
1959:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum
1978:
After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Frederick Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_disappearance
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
gleek (v): 1. (archaic) To jest, ridicule, or mock; to make sport of. 2. (informal) To discharge a thin stream of liquid through the teeth or from under the tongue http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gleek
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
If we must all agree, all work together, we're no better than a machine. If an individual can't work in solidarity with his fellows, it's his duty to work alone. His duty and his right. We have been denying people that right. We've been saying, more and more often, you must work with the others, you must accept the rule of the majority. But any rule is tyranny. The duty of the individual is to accept no rule, to be the initiator of his own acts, to be responsible. Only if he does so will the society live, and change, and adapt, and survive. We are not subjects of a State founded upon law, but members of a society founded upon revolution. Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution. --Ursula K. Le Guin http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin