Aaron Copland - The Promise of Living - Instrumental.........coupled with vintage film

[PJMcK]

1. Thanks, I had not seen that video

I’ve been a fan of Aaron Copland since my teens when I played third trumpet in the all-state orchestra in 1976 when we celebrated the bicentennial. Lincoln Portrait was a piece we performed and I was a fan ever since.

In college, I went to a music school in NYC and during my graduate studies I interned for Leonard Bernstein which was one of the most amazing periods of my then young life. Through that association, I met Copland and had a long conversation with him about a piece he wrote called Nonet for Strings. We both enjoyed the chat; for the maestro, he was flattered that I knew this obscure piece in his catalog and wanted to dig into it. For me, his responses to my questions were a detailed composition lesson from a master. Truly a remarkable encounter.

Here’s the Lincoln Portrait: