Category: Music
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Christmas 2023
Looking for Christmas memories in my father’s autobiography, I am struck not by the happier ones but by the wartime ones with their mixture of horror and hope. 1944 – Flying Bombs In September 1944, the V2s began to hit London. Called Flying Bombs, they were long range ballistic missiles. On a terrifying night, Leonard…
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Anniversary Post
Leonard Salzedo 24th September 1921 – 6th May 2000 A year since the Leonard Salzedo Celebration concert in London organised by the Leonard Salzedo Society on the 101st anniversary of Leonard’s birth. Two years since the launch of the film on YouTube Leonard Salzedo A Life Composed in Music for the Centenary of this birth.…
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Leonard gets a medal!
#OTD 80 years ago 22 July 1943, in the main hall of the Royal College of Music 21-year-old Leonard Salzedo received the Tagore Gold Medal for outstanding student of the year from the then Princess Elizabeth, aged 17. The Queen was there to see her daughter in her first public engagement. Official Photo of the presentation…
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The premiere of Salzedo’s First Symphony
On 10th May 1956 the premiere of Leonard Salzedo’s 1st Symphony by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (of which Leonard was a member) conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham took place at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Sir Thomas Beecham Leonard Salzedo writes ‘Early in 1956 I had a message that Sir Thomas Beecham had some concerts…
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What a wonderful night!
A large and enthusiastic audience of people attended Conway Hall, London, on Saturday 24th September 2022, for a celebration concert of Leonard Salzedo’s music exactly 101 years to the day since he was born. The beautiful programme full of photos and information guided everyone to a wonderfully varied and inspirational concert. Brass first then piano…
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It’s the Leonard Salzedo Celebration Concert tomorrow
Two years in the planning; originally we were going to hold it in 2021, Leonard Salzedo’s centenary year, but because of covid we delayed it a year and made the film Leonard Salzedo A Life Composed in Music instead. And now it’s only a day away. Buy tickets and programmes here The Artists We approached…
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Leonard Salzedo’s links with Trinity Laban Conservatoire
Violinist and teacher Nicholas Roth and his wife pianist Rucky van Mill met Leonard Salzedo in the early 1960s. Soon after, they moved from their flat in Kilburn to a house in Wembley, round the corner from the Salzedo family home, with their daughter Rucky. Living in Wembley in the 1960s Budapest trio Leonard also…
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And there’s more of John Cromer Braun’s work…
Two of the five Leonard Salzedo songs that mezzo Lotte Betts-Dean is singing at the concert with Ben Costello at the piano, also have words by John Cromer. The Wind at Morning The Wind at Morning was written in Cairo, where John was stationed, in November 1941, as a nostalgic recollection of homeland. In 1969…
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Leonard Salzedo and John Cromer
In the early 1950s Leonard received a letter from Pat Braun née Millard, a distant cousin. Pat had seen Leonard’s ballets at Rambert and at Sadlers Wells – where she had often seen him take a bow – but they had never met. Soon afterwards Pat and John Braun came for dinner at the Salzedo…
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A Blast of Brass
Leonard Salzedo’s Divertimento for Three Trumpets and Three Trombones was written for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in 1959 when both Leonard and Philip were members of the RPO. As Paul Beniston, principal trumpet of the LPO (which Leonard was a member of in the 1940s) said when they played it in 2020: ‘it’s great…
