Hello again, Jaybird enthuiasts!

As promised in my brief Playalong #22 announcement, here is some data about the composer of KISS ME AGAIN, Victor Herbert. I hope you will it interesting and informative.

For the Jaybirds (Colin, Joyce, Joy and me!)

TED ROSE (the Yankee Jaybird)

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Victor Herbert received his early musical training in Europe at the Stuttgart Conservatory, where he developed into an outstanding cello player. He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1886 to join the Metropolitan Opera—-she as a soprano to sing the title role in the American premier of Verdi’s Aida and he as principal cellist.

In 1892, Victor Herbert exhibited another side of his musical life when he became conductor of the 22nd Regimental Band of the New York National Guard, succeeding the great Patrick Gilmore; the following year he took over leadership of Gilmore’s civilian band following Gilmore’s death. Then in another swirl of musical activity, Herbert conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1898 until 1902, building that orchestra into a major American ensemble, with tours to major cities, including New York and Chicago (where his Auditorium Festival March celebrated the twelth anniversary of Chicago's Auditorium Theatre (1901),designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Six years later, he founded the Victor Herbert Orchestra, and conducted programs of light orchestral music on tours and at summer resorts for many years.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Herbert championed the right of composers to profit from their work and worked closely with John Philip Sousa and others in founding the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the organization that, even today, protects the rights of creative musicians.
In 1894, Victor Herbert composed the first of his operettas, Prince Ananias, and it was soon followed by The Serenade and The Fortune Teller. Starting in 1903, Babes in Toyland, Mlle Modiste, The Red Mill, Naughty Marietta, and many other successes made him one of the best-known figures in American music. He finally realized his long-standing intention to compose an Irish operetta, Eileen, produced in 1917.

His 1894 Cello Concerto # 2 in E minor, op. 30 is featured on a recent Yo-Yo Ma recording with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, adding weight to Herbert's reputation as an underappreciated composer of his era.