The Rock

Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.

Today in Music History

I am off to judge a piano competition, but here are some fun facts for "today in music history".

• 1853 -- Arthur Foote, American composer, teacher, and for 32 years the organist at Boston's first Unitarian Church, is born in Salem, Massachusetts.
• 1887 -- Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer and collector of over 1,200 folk songs, is born in Rio de Janeiro.
• 1931 -- French horn virtuoso Barry Tuckwell is born in Melbourne, Australia.
• 1948 -- Birth of English conductor Richard Hickox in Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire.
• 1950 -- American violinist Eugene Fodor, who shared second prize in the 1974 International Tchaikovsky Violin Contest (no first-place award was given), is born in Turkey Creek, Colorado.
• 1953 -- Just a few weeks short of his 62nd birthday, Sergei Prokofiev dies. The event is overshadowed by the death on the same day of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.