Orland Centre for Music Performance

Orland Centre for Music Performance Specializing in Suzuki pedagogy on the piano, violin, viola, cello and voice. A sanctuary for prodigies.

The fabulous fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien discarded his mortal frame on September 2, 1973 in Bournemouth, England at ...
09/02/2026

The fabulous fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien discarded his mortal frame on September 2, 1973 in Bournemouth, England at the age of 81. What made Tolkien unusual was that he didn’t simply write fantasy stories—he constructed an entire mythology, complete with invented languages, histories, genealogies, legends, peoples, and cultures. He was also a serious philologist and medievalist, and his knowledge of Old English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages strongly shaped his fantasy world, being a professor of Anglo-Saxon and later English Language and Literature at Oxford.

Tolkien famously defended fantasy as serious literature. In his essay “On Fairy-Stories,” he argued that fairy stories can provide what he called “recovery, escape, consolation”—a way of seeing the world afresh rather than merely escaping from it.

One of his most famous observations was: “Not all those who wander are lost.”

09/01/2026

Johann Pachelbel was baptized on September 1, 1653, in Nuremberg, Germany. Although many know him for a singlular work, his influence on church music, keyboard composition, and later composers was much broader. His Canon in D major is one of the most recognizable pieces in Western classical music written for three violins and basso continuo, historians regard Pachelbel as one of the leading composers of the late 17th century. His keyboard works remain staples of organ repertoire, although his famous canon continues to be among the most performed pieces of Baroque music worldwide for formal ceremonies.
Interestingly, Pachelbel was also connected to the Bach family—he taught Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721) who in turn taught his younger brother, Johann Sebastian Bach who was born in 1685.

A sublime birthday greeting to violinist Itzhak Perlman who has turned 81 today. Born on August 31, 1945 in Tel Aviv, Pe...
08/31/2026

A sublime birthday greeting to violinist Itzhak Perlman who has turned 81 today. Born on August 31, 1945 in Tel Aviv, Perlman is particularly admired for his rich, expressive tone and interpretations of the standard violin repertoire. Beyond the classical repertoire, millions have heard him performing in film with the famous violin solos in John Williams’s score for Schindler’s List, Memoirs of a Geisha, and others.
Some notable quotations attributed to maestro Perlman:

“Never miss an opportunity to teach; when you teach others, you teach yourself.”
“The most important thing to do is really listen.”
“When I play, I don’t think about my disability. I think about the music.”

08/30/2026

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, best known for her brillant Gothic novel Frankenstein, was born on August 30, 1797 in London. Her parents were famous intellectuals and her mother was a radical feminist who advocated women’s rights. Mary Shelley was only 18 when she first imagined Frankenstein’s story. She later described the moment as a kind of waking nightmare:

“I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.”

Mary conceived the idea that became Frankenstein, and published anonymously in 1818, when she was just 20 years old. Mary’s marriage to Percy Shelley was intellectually intense but personally difficult. Percy was one of the great English Romantic poets, and the two shared an extraordinary literary circle. Mary eventually became an important editor and biographer of Percy, helping preserve his reputation after his death by drowning in 1822.
Some cogent thoughts from Mary:

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!”

08/28/2026

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on this day, August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt. A polymath and the most influential writer in the German language, his credits include being a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. He is generally regarded as the supreme figure of German literature.

Goethe had a deep lifelong interest in music and was an important force behind the development of the German Lied. His poetry inspired hundreds of musical settings, most famously by Schubert, as well as Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and many others. Schubert’s “Erlkönig”, for example, is based on Goethe’s poem and is one of the supreme examples of poetry transformed into music.

Goethe also fervently studied botany, anatomy, geology, optics and color theory, and he regarded his scientific investigations as an important part of his life’s work. His Theory of Colours (1810) was particularly important to him.

“Everyone should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of their life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
And some other poignant quotes:
“You can easily judge a man's character by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
“Our planet is the universe's mental institution.”

08/27/2026

The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born on August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century and famous for his dialectical method and absolute idealism, viewing history and reality as a progressive unfolding of reason and spirit (Geist) through a cycle of opposing forces resolving into new truths.
One of Hegel’s deepest concerns was human freedom. He believed freedom becomes real not merely when an individual can do whatever he wants, but when individuals participate in rational social institutions—family, civil society, law, and political life.

“But what experience and history teach is that nations and governments have never learned anything from history and have never acted in accordance with the lessons that could have been drawn from it.“

“To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.”

A moment of your time to digest and absorb…
08/25/2026

A moment of your time to digest and absorb…

Jorge Luis Borges was a phenomenal Argentine Spanish writer, poet, essayist, and librarian, widely regarded as one of th...
08/24/2026

Jorge Luis Borges was a phenomenal Argentine Spanish writer, poet, essayist, and librarian, widely regarded as one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century. Born in Buenos Aires, on August 25, 1899 he wrote with remarkable precision and economy. His stories are often short—sometimes only a few pages—but they contain dense philosophical ideas, fictional references, and intellectual puzzles. Many read like essays disguised as fiction.
One of his most famous ideas comes from The Library of Babel: the notion of a universe that is itself an infinite library containing every possible book—a powerful metaphor for knowledge, chaos, and meaning. ‘I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.’

Borges also translated works from English, German, French, and other languages into Spanish. languages. His multilingual reading was central to his literary imagination and he frequently incorporated foreign books, imaginary translations, quotations, and invented authors into his stories.
On Time: ´Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire."

Achille Claude Debussy, born on this day, August 22, 1862 was considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Imp...
08/22/2026

Achille Claude Debussy, born on this day, August 22, 1862 was considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Impressionism, using his extraordinary ear for beauty and sensitivity to sound to create his own language with magically shimmering textures and sensuous mysteries.
Debussy changed how composers thought about harmony and musical structure. Instead of using music primarily to tell a story or follow strict forms, he created soundscapes that evoke moods and impressions, paving the way for much of 20th-century classical music. His adoption of non-traditional scales and tonal structures was paradigmatic for many composers who followed.
Debussy’s compositional technique influenced composers such as Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, and many jazz musicians, such as Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock.

"Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes."
“Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.”

He was most definitely an unusually witty, and sharply articulate in his critical writings with a French flair.

Born on August 21, 1904 in New Jersey, Count Basie was one of the most influential figures in jazz. A pianist, composer,...
08/21/2026

Born on August 21, 1904 in New Jersey, Count Basie was one of the most influential figures in jazz. A pianist, composer, and bandleader, he became famous for leading the Count Basie Orchestra, one of the greatest big bands of the swing era. Basie’s influence on jazz, swing, and big band music remains profound, and the Count Basie Orchestra has continued performing under new directors long after his death, preserving his musical legacy.

"The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves."

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Orland Park, IL

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