Live From The Shadows Of The Nation's Capital's Culture Palaces (Classical Musicians Practice While Achim Freyer Contemplates Enlarging Wagner's Ring)

“Clifton Williams unbuttons his suit jacket, sits at a baby grand and prepares to conquer composer [Sergei Prokofiev's "Suggestion Diabolique”.]. The night is young and old, depending on your perspective. The clock says 8:47. But it is a school night. The church sanctuary is empty. And there is Clifton, alone at the slightly out-of-tune piano. Eyes closed. Shoulders hunched. Fingers in a painful fury, chasing music. …

A junior at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest Washington, Clifton has just two days to practice before he travels to Boston, where he will play before a live audience on "From the Top," NPR's popular showcase for the country's best young classical musicians. Washington listeners can hear it at 6 p.m. this Sunday, on classical WETA, 90.9 FM, or watch the video at http://www.fromthetop.org. Clifton recently won a $10,000 scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which partners with "From the Top" to aid exceptionally promising low-income students. The scholarships have helped them buy instruments and pay for tuition. Clifton plans to use the money for music school, travel expenses, and a piano.” ...

DeNeen L. Brown “Grand Achievement: Teen Pianist From Southeast [D.C.] Orchestrates an Unlikely Rise” Washington Post April 30, 2009

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Photo credits: Thomas Cole The Voyage of Life (Youth) (c) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 2009; (c) Lois Raimondo and the Washington Post 2009; and detail of The Voyage of Life photographed by Elizabeth Roy via Wikipedia Commons.

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Please recall that Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, does not program American classical music because her WGMS-legacy executives told her not to do so. ['Classical WETA' is the result of a merger of PBS's WETA and WGMS.]

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Achim Freyer is consumed by [the Los Angeles Opera's $32 million] 'The Ring of the Nibelung'

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Cecilia Rouse is a member of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. She has studied the existence of discrimination in symphony orchestras.