Update 6 September 2026:  A major political website in the District of Columbia carried this story.  I scanned their comments and interestingly nearly all of the commenters said the same thing I wrote in this article.  They all thought this was staged as an act of desperation for the dictator’s fascist regime’s agenda of demolishing the Kennedy Center.  “Get rid of it!”  Someone asked, “Where did they get the dirt that’s on the floor?” (lol)  Yeah, where did that come from?  One of the planters outside?  Someone said, “One of the bricks fell out of my chimney so I guess I’m supposed to tear the house down now.”  Yes, that’s their sick mentality.  End of Update.

It looks staged to me by the “maga” trash cult now ruining/running the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in the District.

I wouldn’t at all put it past the chronically lying “maga” trash — including that “maga” cult Board that the dictator appointed — to knock a hole in the ceiling in an attempt to prove their point that the building is supposedly falling apart and needs renovations requiring a 2 year closure.  Or the dictator will demolish it.  That’s the threat.

My construction friend said the stuff/debris they put on the carpet that allegedly fell down from the ceiling can be cleaned up easily in less than 30 minutes.  And new sheet rock can be installed in the ceiling that they allegedly knocked out in the ceiling.  That would take at the most 2 days.  You certainly don’t bulldoze a building because of these minor things that they themselves allegedly caused.

Now let’s talk about the stuff on the floor:  sheet rock is white in colour and light grey.  If it is plaster that fell from the ceiling, that is white to light grey.  It is not black.  The building was built between 1966 and 1971 with no building materials made from a black colour.  So this is phony.  He said if there were water damage that there would be brown stains on the ceiling.  I don’t see any water damage indications on the ceiling.  He said:  The stuff on the carpet looks like it came out of someone’s vacuum cleaner — with pieces of white paper in it — and then they took some dirt from outside and threw it on the floor.  Phony.  He also said that if it were legit the stuff on the carpet would not be scattered all over the place, but would have fallen straight down in more of a pile.  And he thinks the hole in the ceiling (about the size of a plate) was hammered out as well.

But these “maga” trash cultist are so desperate to get their dictator’s name on the plaza outside the Kennedy Center which is why I put nothing past them at all.  My source is DC News:

I would hope that the judge handling this case will see this for what it is.  Staged.

I am aware that the Kennedy Center has long had water problems because of the building’s flat roof, although I don’t see this hole in the ceiling that they knocked out at all related to water.  In my opinion, one of the “maga” trash cultist made the hole in the ceiling deliberately with a hammer.

In the past, the rain water from the roof leaked into the original Filene Center Pipe Organ  in the Concert Hall and ultimately ruined the organ, causing notes to stick on the organ during performances — the organist had to turn the organ off and on during performances to see if that would correct the sticking notes — but ultimately the organ became unusable for performances.  That’s why the former Chair — that the dictator fired — donated the current pipe organ after he found an organ he felt was appropriate for the Concert Hall.  I think I have that story correct from the article I read about the new pipe organ after it was installed.

Of course the “maga” trash cultist who released a statement about this from the Kennedy Center, exaggerated and called that small hole in the ceiling, “a ceiling collapse.’  No, it wasn’t a ceiling collapse, you lying useless bitch.  But lying is all that you “maga” trash cultist know how to do following your dictator’s example.  That, as well as call everything “fake news,” “a hoax” and “a witch hunt.”  Is that also what you teach your kids to do?  And I suppose you pretend to be a Christian too?

I wouldn’t bet on it, at the rate things are going.

This insane nut, the US dictator in the white house, obviously hates the Kennedy Center.  He’s obsessed with it.

I’ll be surprised if the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is still standing by the end of September (2026).

The dictator has taken out all of the memorial weeping willow trees which were symbolic of the nation grieving President Kennedy’s death.  Infuriating.  Who gave him the right to do that?  Nobody.  But as he has said many times, “I can do anything I want.”  Apparently he can, and nobody stops him because they are terrified of some 80 year old bully slob dictator.  Unconscionable.  It’s incredible how many people — supposed adults — never learned how to deal with your insecure, thin-skinned, it’s-all-about-me schoolyard bully.

His agenda includes trying to make the Kennedy Center look as bad as possible.

Where are the Democrats of the Dead Democratic Party?  Oh they’re as silent as usual, useless, except for Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH), a member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, who has the lawsuit going against all of this.

And the dictator has taken out the “Blue” art piece which was on the grounds.

Even though a bulldozer could take out the trees I’ve been told, the dictator appears to be “clearing the grounds”  so that bulldozers will have easy access to come in and take out the building?

What about the pipe organ in the Concert Hall? That will be destroyed too.

Everything will be destroyed by this nut in the white house.  What a disgusting piece of fascist-racist/nazi trash he is.

The dictator’s appointed Kennedy Center Board — they are all his cultists — described the Kennedy Center as “an embarrassment to the nation’s capital.”  Hardly!  The embarrassment to the nation’s capital, the District of Columbia, is this trashy, sick and septic “maga” cult regime in the white house, in the congress, the “maga” trash on the supreme court and his unqualified-for-their-job cabinet, where this dictator is allowed to do anything he wants because he is seen as the “maga” messiah.  It’s insanity.

One of the people on this Board is JD’s wife who previously worked for a progressive law firm in San Francisco before JD was chosen by the dictator to be his sidekick.  She could have chosen to work for a conservative law firm, but no.  Just like JD, apparently his wife stands for nothing either. They’re both an empty slate and only do what will advance them in the moment.  Related:  Sleeping with the Enemy: Is Usha Vance a Hypocrite or a Survivor?

Related:  The “maga” cult in the NSO.  The End of the Kennedy Center.

Update 2 September 2026:

The Supreme Court is a Disgrace:

I can see the same illogic that the corrupt supreme court used to justify the dictator’s gaudy and tacky ballroom — as Kyle (Secular Talk) explains in his video above — will be the same illogical/go-ahead that this corrupt court will use to justify the dictator’s bulldozing of the Kennedy Center.

Scanning Kyle’s comments, some people are calling the US dictator a king, to which I respond:

The white house resident/occupant is a fascist dictator, not a king. This is a fascist regime and the word dictator is used with fascist regimes, not king. He is the opposite of Britain’s King Charles III, who seems to be a very nice guy. A King or Queen involves a family monarchy. For there to be a king, that requires family hereditary lineage. That does not exist here. This fascist dictator is the only person from his family holding political office.  Get it right, people.  No, I suppose you won’t because of the idiots of that “No Kings” movement brainwashing people with the wrong word, just because the willfully-ignorant US dictator referred to himself a few times as a “king.”  The dunce wouldn’t know the difference either (between a king and a dictator), and apparently the movement did no research on this before naming their movemnet.

End of Update

Update 28 August 2026:  Regarding the Kennedy Center:  How can a building made of steel, granite and concrete be falling apart?  The regime keeps lying — as usual; they’re chronic liars — about how the Kennedy Center will need to be demolished if the fascist dictator can’t slap his name on the building, and that the building is falling apart.  Rubbish.  I think his name is still on the building; I don’t think it was removed and I’m not aware that anyone has confirmed that his name has been removed because one can’t get to the building due to the barricades/tarp.  It’s just been assumed that his name has been removed.  FACE FACTS:  According to AI:  The Kennedy Center is primarily constructed of steel, concrete, granite and white marble.  The structural materials were provided by Bethlehem Steel and an extensive gift of 3,700 tons of Italian marble were from Carrara for its aesthetic finishes.  Concrete: Used extensively for the Kennedy Center foundation, base infrastructure, and load-bearing elements.  Granite:  Exterior slabs complement the overall stonework and structural design.  How can a building made of steel, granite and concrete be falling apart?  There are some places in the garage area that need repair, but the building is not falling apart as this septic lying regime would have one believe.  The regime talks/lies as if the Kennedy Center is some wooden shack.  These childish lying “maga” trash of this despicable regime will say and do anything to get their way.  And now the commerce secretary has stuck his puss into the matter — what does he have to do with it? — in an act of desperation for the dictator.  Fuck off all of you, you lying scum!  Don’t all of you lying trash pretend to be Christians?  Yeah, you’re lying about that too to play your “maga” base.

Take the 102-story Empire State Building in NYC for example:   The Empire State Building is made of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.  The Empire State Building was built between 1930 and 1931, and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts was built between 1964 and 1971.  The Empire State Building is still standing and will stand for probably a thousand years, just like the Kennedy Center, unless some insane, lawless lunatic who is seen as above the law with some lofty title is allowed to demolish it for petty, childish reason.  Isn’t it miserable when the dictator has to FACE FACTS and he ain’t going anywhere unless he dies, and trash like that don’t die.  I was asked the other day after we heard about the death of Dolly Parton, which I was very sorry to hear about:  “Why is it that good people die and the bad people keep going on and on?”  We both knew who she was talking about even though no one’s name was mentioned.   Being from New York City, one would think that the dictator would be obsessed with the Empire State Building and want that building renamed with his name and puss on it.  The dictator’s ultimate goal:

Quote:  Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” Mayers wrote in the filing.  End Quote.  [Source:  NBC News]

Related:  What will happen to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall’s Pipe Organ?

End of Update.

I read the following on a credible classical music website before posting this article:

I’m paraphrasing except for the direct quote below:

The plans to close the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and re-vandalise the fascist/nazi’s dictator’s name to the building remain in the courts.  That’s assuming his name has been removed to begin with.  I’m not one who believes his name has been removed.  That’s why the tarp is up to begin with — to hide his name — and will remain up “indefinitely.”  The confusion had delayed the approval of a NSO season (2026-27) that will be performed entirely outside the Kennedy Center with performances in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

The National Symphony Orchestra will now expand its regional reach, for which it credits the “strategic direction of the Chairman of the Center, [the dictator’s full name and middle initial in initial caps:  Name Redacted].”  End Paraphrase

Oh brother!  WTF?  Why on Earth is the National Symphony Orchestra crediting this lawless, belligerent, dysfunctional, rude, crude, sexist, misogynistic, lowlife, LOSER, void of any social skills, void of any decorum, bullying, chronic lying, 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter (rapist) and fascist dictator piece of trash of The Epstein Class with anything?  What is wrong with the NSO?  They don’t stand for anything?  Why would they credit a horrible person, a fascist dictator who kicked them out of the Kennedy Center?  He kicked them out of their home, the Concert Hall, which they’ve played in since the Kennedy Center opened.  Now they have no other choice but to tour and they have decided to credit the dictator/eat his big ass for them choosing to tour (in order for the NSO to survive) and they’re crediting — what they call — the “strategic direction of the Chairman…”   jesus fucking christ.  Have they gone fucking insane like much of the world?

I have to say that after reading that quote, I am done with the National Symphony Orchestra.  I don’t care what happens to them at this point.

This cannot be overstated:  The National Symphony Orchestra is now eating the ass of the despicable fascist regime dictator who closed their performance venue.  They’re giving him credit for — what they call — the “strategic direction of the Chairman” (what “strategic direction?”) by causing them to perform elsewhere in the DMV (District, Maryland and Virginia).  The despicable US dictator who thinks he’s above all laws and owns the world shut down their performance venue and they proceed to eat his ass for doing so — have they gone insane? — and by applauding the “strategic direction of the Chairman of the Center, [His full name redacted].”  I’m surprised they didn’t add, “Thank you so much you petty, lawless, chronically lying, war criminal, (outdated) ballroom-obsessed, military draft-dodger claiming ‘bone spurs’ who now loves to play military/GI Joe and give salutes, this 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter/rapist of the Epstein Class.

Despicable.

This piece of fascist/nazi, racist trash in the white house deserves credit for nothing other than for ruining everything he touches.  He and his incompetent fascist “maga” cultist regime are the scum of the Earth.

The reality is that the dictator in the white house doesn’t give a fuck about the National Symphony Orchestra.  Has he even heard of them?  I doubt it.

World “leaders” have been eating the ass of the 34-count convicted felon and rapist of the Epstein Class ever since this chronically lying piece of shit and world bully became white house resident.  And their ass eating of him has gotten them no where.   That’s especially the case with the “leaders” in the EU, such as French president Emmanuel Macron.  World “leaders” still haven’t learned that endless compliments and ass-eating of the dictator gets them nowhere in the end.  He’ll fuck them right over.

So what does the NSO think their ass-eating of this fascist dictator in the white house will get them in the long run?

Or was that paragraph above written by the “maga” cult musicians in the NSO?  The reader is aware of the “maga” cultists in the NSO, correct?  I suspect not.

Some of the NSO musicians have talked briefly and anonymously about the “maga” cultists in the Orchestra.  They didn’t say much about them other than they exist in the NSO.  I had no idea that was the case.  I sensed it is a rather sizeable group since it’s been mentioned multiple times by members of the Orchestra speaking anonymously.

What some of the other musicians said (in my words) was that:  the “maga” cult in the NSO was delighted when their messiah cult-leader dictator took over the Kennedy Center and appointed himself Chair and named other “maga” cultist to the Board, after he fired the previously Board.  But that excitement didn’t last.  The “maga” cultists in the NSO were disgusted when their messiah dictator vandalised the building by graffiti’ing his name on it because they saw that as having very negative consequences, which has been the case.  No one has written about how many “maga” cultists comprise the membership of the NSO.

After reading the quoted text in bold at the top of this page, in my opinion the NSO deserve what they get.  It’s clearly not the same Orchestra I performed with in the Orchestra Choruses.

At this point, I don’t give a damn what happens to the NSO.

But I’ll go ahead and post this article since I had already written it.  It was written before I found that information above about the NSO licking the dictator’s ass.  Otherwise I’d say no more about them.

Doesn’t the Music Director/Conductor of the NSO know the history of the Orchestra, since he’s been their conductor since the 2017 season?  He seemed to be implying that touring would be new for them, especially touring around the States.  The reality is that the NSO has been touring for a long time.

From AI:

The National Symphony Orchestra has a long history of touring across US cities and States since 1940, alongside international travels.  They continue to schedule domestic regional and national tours, including a Florida tour and upcoming multi-state U.S. tour date

Will the NSO disband?

Paraphased from another source:

Things are so bad that Jean Davidson, who resigned from her role as Executive Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in early 2026 (she went to an arts organisation in Beverly Hills), told The New York Times that “it’s very possible” that the Orchestra might fold entirely, calling such an outcome “an international embarrassment.”  End Paraphase

I have to say that before I did the research for writing this article, I felt differently in a positive way about the National Symphony Orchestra than I do now.  And that feeling was based on the good feelings I felt about them when we — the Choral Arts Society of Washington and the University of Maryland Chorus — were performing with them upon invitation.  We performed with the NSO often, both the Choral Arts Society and The Maryland Chorus.  In fact, the University of Maryland Chorus had quite a legacy with the NSO during the Antal Doráti years as they were his favourite Chorus.  But now, years later, after learning what I’ve learned, as I wrote above, again, I don’t care what happens to the NSO.  The US dictator kicked them out of the Kennedy Center and then they eat his ass and credit him for what they plan to do in the future, even though they had no other choice to do what they plan to do.  The convicted felon had nothing to do with what they plan to do in the future.  This insanity cannot be overstated.

The End of the Kennedy Center?

That’s the way it feels to me at this point in time, and I have pretty much accepted that, and even expecting that, especially after the dictator on 25 August 2026 talked about demolishing the Kennedy Center if he didn’t get his way.

The end of the Kennedy Center is because of that piece of thin-skinned LOSER bully trash — he loves bullying others by calling them “LOSER” in all caps so I thought I’d use that to describe him — in the white house destroys everything he touches.  And it’s because of this mentally-ill, lawless, insane, petty, 34-count convicted felon and rapist of The Epstein Class, narcissistic child in an oversized bloated adult body who is seen as a god by many, including “maga” trash John Roberts on the supreme court (who BTW has allowed the dictator to continue building his gaudy and tacky ballroom) .

The US dictator thinks he owns and runs the world — and the world belongs to him — and he’s above all laws and he demands his name on as many things as possible, including other people’s tombstones.

The Kennedy Center is a Memorial Center to assassinated/dead President Kennedy.  Apparently the US dictator doesn’t know what the word “memorial” means because by vandalising the Kennedy Center with his name implies that he, the dictator, is dead too.  The world is indeed waiting for this piece of trash to die, and will celebrate accordingly when he’s dead, but unfortunately often trash like that don’t die. They just keep going on and on.  Of course there will be a group that will engage in revisionist history about him when he dies and make him out to be a saint.  That’s what usually happens with political trash.

The Kennedy Center was a wonderful and special place for decades. The striking thing about this is that other than one Democrat, the congress and the “maga” trash on the supreme court have done nothing to stop this village idiot/dictator.

The Dead Democratic Party by its silence is complicit.  With only a few exceptions, most Democrats have remained silent the entire time about the dictator’s lawlessness/actions, as usual.  Silence is equal to complicity.  The Dead Democratic Party also obviously doesn’t care if he ruins the District of Columbia just as he is ruining the white house.  Have you seen the oval office with that gaudy and tacky gold everywhere?  This piece of trash has no taste in anything.  But both political cults — the Republicans and Democrats — are so afraid of this world bully that they’ve allowed him to ruin whatever he chooses to ruin.  So why would the Democrats “go after” the dictator and the unqualified/incompetent “maga” trash in this extremely incompetent and embarrassing regime, should the Democrats ever become the majority in the congress?  That’s what was said about Obama by the wishful-thinking Democratic Party cultists.  They assured people that Obama would “go after” Bush.  He did just the opposite.  Instead, Obama said, “We must look forward and not back,” (translation:  I’m not going after anybody) as he greatly expanded the Bush/Cheney regime’s right-wing agenda.  The Obama and Bush families became best friends.  We saw Bush and Michelle Obama sharing candies and kisses in Washington National Cathedral.  Check that out at that link.  Just like the Republican Cult, as terrified as most of the Democrats are of this fascisdt dictator, I see a repeat of Obama:  “We must look forward and not back.”  Related:  What midterms?  And what fool would expect them to be legitimate under this despicable regime considering his executive orders related to elections?

As for being afraid of him, why are supposed adults afraid of this despicable piece of lying and corrupt trash?  These politicians are adults.  These politicians who are afraid of the dictator act like terrified children.  I still don’t understand why anyone is afraid of this corrupt, criminal piece of fascist/nazi trash.  I had mistakenly thought that most adult were experienced in dealing with bullies/trash like him, but it seems that most people are instead easily intimidated by others.  I cannot at all relate to that.  As my choral friend says about me, “You’re not intimidated by anyone,” which is true, and neither is he.  As he said, “You write to Deans, Chancellors, and anybody else you have a problem with or something to thank them for that most people wouldn’t ever consider writing to because they would feel intimidated by them.”  Some people are easily intimidated by others.  A relative told me she was intimidated by my Conservatory training.  I don’t know why, but I showed her my résumé and that was her response.

Reflecting on my performance experience in the Kennedy Center:

Upon reflection, I’m very glad that I came along at a time that I did where I had the opportunity to perform in the John F Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts’s Concert Hall for three seasons with two of the three outstanding Orchestra Choruses I wanted to perform with (Norman Scribner’s Choral Arts Society of Washington and Dr. Paul Traver’s University of Maryland Chorus) who were invited to perform each season in the Kennedy Center with the resident National Symphony Orchestra and other (inter)national touring orchestras.  Even though I eventually burned out on the demanding rehearsal/performance schedule, it was a very rewarding experience and the height of the symphonic choral music movement particularly in the District.  A lot of symphonic choral works were being performed at that time.  The engagements with the NSO were the main attraction that choristers had for performing with the Orchestra Choruses.  That’s long gone, and things started changing in that regard after I moved to San Francisco.  Before the closure of the Kennedy Center, each Orchestra Chorus had approximately one set of performances with the NSO.  In one recent season, the Choral Arts Society surprisingly had no performances with the NSO.

But after I graduated from the Conservatory, I finally got to do something that I realised I wanted to do with two superb Orchestra Choruses in the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra.  And then after I moved to San Francisco, I was fortunate to be a chorister with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis/Vance George Chorus Directors).  Ms Hillis flew back and forth from Chicago each week as Interim Chorus Director, since she had to continue to prepare the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus for performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

If you’ve been following the latest in the news about the Kennedy Center and the Center’s dictator-“maga” cult appointed Board, and because the petty and insane US fascist/nazi dictator in the white house always gets what he wants even when he ignores a judge’s/a court’s ruling, I have no doubt that he will get the Kennedy Center as well, and ultimately destroy it.  Then he’ll build his own “Entertainment Complex” in the same place with his name saturated all over the building in gold and call it “the greatest in the world.”

I talked with a contractor friend of mine who is now retired but has decades of experience as a very successful building contractor in San Francisco.  I asked him:  From what has been talked about and what you’ve seen that “they say” is wrong with the Kennedy Center building, how long would it take to repair that?  My friend said:  Well it wouldn’t take two years.  For any honest, experienced contractor who is not corrupt or trying to abuse/”milk” the situation, it would take probably a couple of months at the most.  For example, the tan staining on the marble on the façade of the Center can easily be cleaned.

I read whilst writing this that the marble was also damaged by putting the 34-count convicted felon/rapist and dictator’s name on the building and by allegedly removing the dictator’s name, although, again, I’m not convinced that his name has been removed.  No one has confirmed that his name is gone; people are just assuming it’s gone because a judge ordered that.  Well when has this piece of trash ever given a fuck what judges order or say?  In my opinion, that’s why the tarp is still up as of this writing to hide his name which has supposedly been removed, but hasn’t.  Has anyone seen the building to confirm that his name is gone?  Not to my knowledge because no one can get to that area because of the barricades and the guards.  I’ve read the chronic lies from the Kennedy Center so-called “management” on why the tarp needs to be up “indefinitely.”  My contractor friend said that any marks on the marble would be easy to fix and/or simply replace that piece of marble and stick it in.

But I think the dictator will tear down the Kennedy Center — I won’t be at all surprised if he does — and start over with a new building and rename it in his long name and of course call it “the greatest Entertainment Complex in the world.”  There’s no one to stop him from doing that, which is the part I find unconscionable.  If it were anybody else, that person or group would be stopped immediately and thrown in jail.  But because it’s this overweight bully in a blue suit with white shirt and red tie and a black sharpie in hand, he will gut the building just as he ripped down the east wing of the white house, which currently looks like a junk yard. There were no consequences for that, because the “maga” trash on the supreme court granted him complete immunity.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned about this “complete immunity” rubbish and “maga” cultist John Roberts said she was overreacting and being extreme.

The Kennedy Center Concert Hall was extensively renovated in 1997 (with the reopening in October 1997) to improve acoustics, the layout, and ADA accessibility.  The Concert Hall later received a new pipe organ installation in 2012.   I much preferred the original stage that we performed on, and Filene Center Pipe Organ installation. The renovation cost was approximately USD$10 MILLION.  They added a high-tech acoustical canopy and side reverberation chambers. Accessibility & seating was added, updated to meet the Disabilities Act standards, they added chorister seats, and onstage boxes. The pipe organ is a Casavant Frères pipe organ.

I don’t like the new stage area they put in because the Chorus seating looks cramped around the organ pipes and the acoustical canopy hides part of the pipes.  The original stage was much more open, and the installation of the original organ pipes looked much more majestic.  The pipes were also behind an architectural wall when the pipe organ was not being used, very much like the Concert Hall in Dresden, in Deutschland.

When the dictator begins gutting the Concert Hall, I would assume that the pipe organ will be destroyed since this piece of racist/nazi trash wouldn’t care about that or even know the pipe organ is there.

The End of the Concert Hall’s resident National Symphony Orchestra?

The “maga management” of the Kennedy Center has talked about pausing the NSO for two years, which will likely lead to the end of the NSO.

Well, at least two musicians have already left the NSO:  I read that the Principal Trombonist is going to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the second chair trombonist is going into a teaching position.   I would assume that other NSO musicians are not sitting around waiting to see what happens to the Orchestra, but are rather applying/auditioning with other orchestras nationally and perhaps internationally.

They have a 2026-27 schedule of touring performances listed for venues around the District, Maryland and Virginia.  Händel‘s Messiah was listed for performances in December 2026, but the name of the Chorus was not listed.  Since some of those performances will be at The Clarice Performing Arts Centre at the University of Maryland in College Park, I’m assuming the University of Maryland Concert Choir will be the choral ensemble invited for the Messiah performances.  Maryland usually “does Messiah” with the NSO every December.  But if the University of Maryland Concert Choir perform anything else all year on the campus, you’d never know about it since they don’t upload any performances to YT, including any with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra.  They don’t seem to use that “state of the art” facility to its fullest.  Then why have it?  I guess they’re not interested in exposure, unlike Dr. Paul Traver who was all about exposure with his superb and renowned University of Maryland Chorus.

The NSO’s Music Director/conductor will also take the NSO out of the District for his presumably first multi-state US tour with the Orchestra, between 20 April and 30 April 2027.  He said the NSO will make good on the “National” part of its name by performing in venues in California, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

The conductor doesn’t seem to know why the Orchestra is called the National Symphony Orchestra.  The reason the Orchestra is called the “National” Symphony Orchestra is because the Orchestra is based in the District of Columbia, the US nation’s capital city.  Just like other organisations in DC with the word “National” as part of their name, such as:  National Public Radio, the National Academy of Sciences (where I used to work), the National Theatre, the National Archives and Records Administration, National Park Service, Washington National Cathedral, National Institutes of Health, Washington National Opera, National Security Council, the Washington Nationals (baseball team), National Action Network, Washington National Airport (which is in Arlington VA across the Potomac River), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Education Association, and others.  Using the Music Director’s thinking, are all of these organisations supposed to go on some type of tour of the US because “National” is part of their name?   (roll eyes)  My choral friend said he didn’t know all of that.  Well, I know from living there in the District of Columbia that many things in the District are called “National”  and have “National” as part of their name because it’s the nation’s capital city, the Federal District, the seat of the Federal government.

So, after the dictator demolishes the Kennedy Center, the Kennedy name will be removed and it will be his full name on the building followed by “Entertainment Complex” or some such nonsense.

On one of the political websites I read, one commenter said the dictator would rename the Lincoln Memorial and call it “the Lincoln/tr*mp Memorial.  That person was corrected and told, “you’re dead wrong.  It would have to be “the tr*mp/Lincoln Memorial.”  This petty man’s name must be first. Another person said:  He will also rename DC.  I wouldn’t put it past him and he’ll call it, “the District of Columbia tr*mp.”

Because the now-thoroughly corrupt US supreme court and the “maga” cult therein gave the dictator complete immunity — more insanity — it looks like he’s allowed to do anything he wants including demolishing the Kennedy Center because there’s no one to stop him.  My choral friend said, “I have trouble comprehending that; that there’s no one to stop him, including the supreme court and that so-called “chief justice.”  Oh him!  No, the “chief [in]justice” is one of the many residents in the dictator’s upper colon — there’s a whole pile of people up there — and will give him anything he wants.

————————————

[Note:  I never type the fascist/nazi racist US dictator’s name, and I don’t want it on this site.  But everyone else online types his name in full, complete with middle initial — including those sites pretending to be “progressive” and claiming they can’t stand him — yet they type his full name in initial caps giving him absolute respect.  It’s disgusting.  Respect must be earned — not automatically granted — and this chronically lying piece of fascist trash has done nothing to earn anyone’s respect.  He’s the only one from his corrupt crime family holding political office, so he’s not going to be confused with anybody else in his family, yet people refuse to type just his surname.  Yes, they seem to enjoy typing his long full name with middle initial.  They also continue to refer to this despicable fascist regime as an “administration,” as if we were still living in a democracy.  We’re not.  Other than myself, the only person I know who consistently and constantly uses the fascist term regime is Attorney Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch.  But his status-quo commenters continue to use the word “administration” as if they don’t listen to what Ben says.  All others online and at microphones try to sanitise this despicable lawless fascist regime by calling it an “administration” as if we were still a democracy.  People in their denial refuse to understand that this is no longer a time of “business as usual and things are fine” which seems to be what most people want to believe.  This immature, fist-pumping, rude finger-pointing world-bully dictator likes to present this phony image of being all big and tough but is really one of the most thin-skinned of people.  To him and his thin-skinned regime, anything they disagree with (including facts) they call “fake news” and/or a “witch hunt.”  Lawlessness, going after the media, not having the maturity to take ownership and responsibility for the problems one creates and blaming them on others and so-called “vandals,” ignoring judge’s order, ignoring court orders and one being above all laws is fascism and a dictatorship.  Fascism is what the US is now living in, and having ramifications around the world.  In addition, I’ve never been convinced that the 2024 election was legitimate, in part, because of the speed of it.  It went too fast based on other national elections historically which were much slower where there were big gaps in the results coming in.  Election experts saw problems.  They urged mealy-mouthed Harris to demand a (hand) recount in the swing states where they saw election problems/”anomalies,” but she couldn’t be bothered and instead went on holiday to Hawaii.

From AI:

Quote (with my slight edits):  The term “34-count convicted felon” used within this article refers to the current white house occupant [name redacted] who became the first former U.S. white house resident to be convicted of a felony. On May 30, 2024, a Manhattan Supreme Court jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proved that the dictator falsified these records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film worker Stormy Daniels.  Prosecutors successfully argued that the records were falsified to conceal an illegal scheme to influence and protect his 2016 presidential election campaign.  End Quote.

Dictator or King?

The US dictator has erroneously referred to himself as “king” on several  occasion, and then there’s that “No Kings” movement nonsense.  The people who started that movement apparently did no research on this topic and what’s required to be a king before coming up with the word king.  Under fascism, one has a dictator.  Under a monarchy, a hereditary family lineage, one has a king.  The village idiot would not know that he can’t be a king because a hereditary family lineage is required for him to be a king with a monarchy.  That does not exist in this case.  Instead, he’s a fascist, authoritarian dictator which he wants to be and he has installed fascism with the complicity of his “maga” cultists enablers in the US congress and the majority of the US supreme court.  (I use lower case because of my lack of respect for both institutions).  The dictator tries to sanitise being a dictator by using the wrong word:  king.  Or because he’s a dummy, and doesn’t know any better.  He doesn’t know the difference between king (and its requirements) and dictator.  And many others in the US who don’t know — and have done no research on this — use the wrong word “king” as well.   They don’t know the difference and do not know what I’ve stated here about a hereditary linage being required for one to be a monarch/king/sovereign.  Think King Charles III and the Windsor Family Monarchy in Britain.  King Charles III is the Sovereign, the Monarch, the Head of State and the Supreme Governor of the established Church of England/the Anglican Church, the State Church.  King Charles acts/behaves very maturely, the opposite of this piece of childish and petty village idiot. King Charles seems to be a very nice guy and a very nice person.  He doesn’t demand constant attention and it’s not all about him every day.  Whereas the US dictator is a septic, absolutely horrible person.  He’s the lowest of lows; “the bottom of the barrel.”  He’s gutter trash.  Muchas Gracias to you for your attention to this matter.]

Article Updated (15 August 2026):

[Disclosure: In my past, I worked at a local Suicide Prevention Network, so I found this especially troubling/fucked up]. Apparently the word suicide is taboo in the UK. I had no idea. The word can’t even be spoken or printed apparently. Therefore, if Harrison died by suicide in the River Cam, that would never be said or printed. It has to be kept “hush, hush.” So silly. So it’s just implied by using the code language “nothing suspicious found?” (Roll eyes/sigh). How did people get this far? I thought we were all adults here, no? Apparently not. Another example of this insanity is that Jason Arday, a former/resigned Cambridge University professor accused of “widely publicised allegations that he plagiarised and falsified parts of his research, as well as claims of fabrication in his autobiographical accounts. He was found dead at his home in South London on 14 August 2026, nine days after his resignation.” His death is described in the same way as Harrison’s: Found dead but “nothing suspicious found.” Translation: Suicide. So that is code language for: He took his own life or he died by suicide, because one can’t or is not supposed to say the taboo “s” word (suicide) in the UK. That is fucked up. Strange. Weird. I didn’t know that was the case in the UK. And this taboo is not new. Where does one begin with this insanity? And what nut started this insane “tradition?” I found an article from 2014 addressing this topic:

I Didn’t Realise the Word ‘Suicide’ Was so Taboo in the UK

Also:

Breaking the taboo of suicide – we need to talk

End of Update

This is a strange one and apparently no one wants to talk about what really happened.

The authorities found Harrison’s body the next morning in the river.  He died 7 June 2026 but his funeral wasn’t held in the King’s College Chapel until almost 4 weeks later on 3 July 2026.

Celebrated Cambridge University organist who played in world famous carol service dies after ‘falling in the River Cam’

How did he do that?

“Emergency services raced to the scene the following morning after a report was received of a body in the water at an area known as the Backs, as several colleges back onto the river there.  He was pulled from the shallow river, which is usually packed with punts during the day, but was declared dead at the scene.”

I asked:  How does one accidentally fall into this particular mostly shallow river?  And why the snap judgment from the emergency services/authorities that he fell into the river and that “nothing suspicious is suspected?” (read down the page).

According to AI:

Quote:  It is generally not easy to accidentally fall into the River Cam by King’s College Bridge.  The banks along The Backs are well-defined, the paved paths are separated from the water, and the commercial flat-bottomed punts are wide and stable.

Controlled Banks: The edges near the college grounds feature structured stone walls or flat lawns rather than slippery, unexpected drop-offs.

End Quote from AI

So sorry to hear about the unexpected and very mysterious death of musician Harrison Cole.  He was 25 at the time of his death (June 2026) and held the position of Assisting Organist at the renowned King’s College, Cambridge (Oxbridge).

“Nothing suspicious is suspected” is what I’ve read in each article about this.  Well, if “nothing suspicious is suspected,” why hasn’t anyone said what happened to Harrison, in detail?  It all seems very hush-hush.

My choral friend said, “Why doesn’t Luke, his partner, say something?  You’d think that he would make a statement explaining where he himself was at the time and how Harrison happened to get into the river and how he drowned, to clear things up, rather than having this ongoing, dangling mystery.

On one site, someone wrote that “apparently he committed suicide.”  When “nothing suspicious is suspected,” suicide can be the case from my research.

Someone asked “how did this happen?”   That person was heavily attacked just for writing that and wanting to know some details.  What’s wrong with people wanting to know how this esteemed musician — who had accomplished so much and was at the top of his field — could have drowned in the river outside the King’s College Chapel and how he got in the river in the first place?  What’s wrong with people wanting to know that?  What is wrong with people?  Have they “all” gone insane?  They have so many hangups.

Unfortunately, many people brainwashed in outdated traditions can’t talk about death at all.  There’s a whole crowd like that.  And they refuse to understand that death is part of life.  So there is no reason what-so-ever why people should not talk about why and how someone died.  Period.

I will talk about it, period.  I think about Margaret Hillis, Robert Shaw, Dr. Paul Traver, Norman Scribner and other stellar Chorus Directors who have died, and of course other outstanding musicians, including Harrison.  I also think about the many talented actors of the past generation who died of cancer of one type or another from tobacco smoking.  What a waste.  It starts to bring tears to my eyes.  They are all gone forever.  That is hard to think about; I try not to think about that.  I think death is a complete waste of a human being, and I don’t believe in all that scare-tactic heaven and hell nonsense.  I think that when one dies it’s like being under permanent general anesthesia.  That’s it.  Or as I’ve heard some people refer to death, “It’s lights out.”  I know many people say about the deceased person, “He’s/She’s gone to be with the Lord.”  Yeah right.  Well don’t count on it!   And no, that’s not the case at all — it’s just that most people want to believe that as a way of comforting their grief — but the fact is we haven’t had Judgment Day yet (where the brass/the trumpets sound and all…not that we ever will have Judgment Day).  Judgment Day has to come first before anyone goes to heaven or hell.  So there’s a big hole in one’s theology regarding death and going to heaven or hell.  I remember getting into an argument with my dad over this.  I challenged him on Judgment Day and all he could say was, “Well you’re right, they do say that.”  I know they do.  So he asked me, “So you think [name of person] is just lying up there in the ground?”  I said:  Yes.  Where do you think [name of person] is, in some holding tank with billions of other people waiting for Judgment Day to arrive?  He couldn’t answer the question.

In Harrison’s case, the coroner has offered no details of how he died.  His obituary reads that “He died suddenly.”  How?  How did he get in the Cam River (shown below).  Was he thrown off that cement bridge down there by one of his friends playing around or what?

Or was his death by suicide?  Did he jump off that bridge and — being a shallow river — broke his back, neck or his legs and (if he couldn’t walk) drowned that way.  I suppose that could explain how “he died suddenly.”

My choral friend brought this up:  Was this a hate crime?  Was Harrison drowned/killed because he was queer?

From AI:  “The University of Cambridge is generally very queer-friendly, boasting a large and visible queer student population, active advocacy groups, and supportive institutional policies, though individual experiences across its historic collegiate system can still vary… Student surveys and demographic snapshots indicate a remarkably high percentage of queer and non-heterosexual students relative to national averages.”

I just think this is all so very tragic for Harrison himself, his mother and father, his brother Josh, and his partner Luke.  If it were a suicide, were there no visible or obvious signs that his family noticed?  Maybe he and Luke were having problems? — Luke wasn’t with Harrison at the time? — or he and his other family members?, and Harrison felt there was no way out, were it a suicide.  I hadn’t considered it might be a suicide, but since someone mentioned it back in June at the time of his death, that makes more sense at this point.  Even if one is at the top of their field, that doesn’t mean that one can’t be depressed and/or suicidal, and the depression may have nothing to do with one’s career.

About the Cam River:  AI says that this mostly shallow river is approximately 91cm-122cm deep / 3-4 feet deep or 304cm / 10 feet at its deepest but that is only in spots in the mud areas of the river.  But one can drown in very shallow water, especially if one can’t walk, as I mentioned above.

The story goes that he drowned in what’s known as “The Backs” of the River Cam (shown above) — which is in back of some of the Colleges of Cambridge University — which runs in back of the  King’s College Chapel shown over on the right in the above image, where he was Assisting Organist.

Reading his bio, at age 25, Harrison had already accomplished a lot in the Church of England, including serving as Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral (Anglican) and previously Organ Scholar at Trinity College Cambridge.  He was also Assistant Organist at Gonville and Caius College.  He spent three years as a student at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music.  He was planning to go to St. Michael’s Cornhill in London and begin focusing on freelancing.  I assume he wasn’t interested in a permanent position as a parish, chapel or Cathedral Organist or Choirmaster.

Some commenters wrote that they’d never heard of Harrison.  Well, that’s their problem.  That’s not surprising though.  I doubt that most people know the names of the Organist and Choirmaster at their church — and they don’t care! — even if their names and degrees (if they have degrees) are printed on the service leaflet.  That’s because many (most?) people don’t care about the music, in part, because they don’t know anything about music and they’re there for what they call “the spoken word.”  I had a relative like that.  She complained about me being all into the music.  My choral friend told her:   Well he’s a Conservatory-trained musician (she found that to be intimidating she said) and his experience is in the Anglican Church.  She said, “But he should be into the spoken word — just because she was into it — that’s what it’s all about.  He told her:  Not to him it’s not.  She claimed to be Episcopalian, but her attitude about “the spoken word” is right out of the Roman Catholic Church, from my experience.  She had no ear for music.  She could hear the same piece over and over and not know it was the same piece being played or performed over and over.  Only a small group of people would have heard of Harrison Cole.  It’s a special niche.

Well, there’s a lot about this story that is being deliberately left out.  Excluding suicide, how did Harrison get into the shallow river to begin with at night.  I read he was leaving an event on campus at the end of term.  Was he all there mentally?  Was he sober or intoxicated at the time?

From my research with AI, it is not easy to “accidentally fall” into the River Cam, and then drown.  Looking at the image above, that makes sense, because it’s a rather shallow river.   Was he with anyone at the time?  If so, what did they do?

I have found no report or response from the coroner online, probably from the family’s request.

Again, in the online comment responses to his death, no one is questioning anything (other than that one person I mentioned who got reprimanded for doing so), such as how he happened to get in this shallow river to begin with and how he happened to “die suddenly” and whether he was alone or with other people?  Apparently most people don’t want to know how he died, which I find to be damn odd.  If it were a relative, wouldn’t they want to know how their relative died?  Or would they prefer to live in Denial about that too?  “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know!”

As for his music, one thing Harrison is being remembered for is his organ accompaniment for The Trinity Chapel Choir’s superb performance of the Duruflé – Requiem (below).  He was the Senior Organ Scholar at Trinity College Chapel at the time.  Here is a Tribute to Harrison by the Former Director of Music, Stephen Layton.

The Harrison Cole Fund

The Harrison Cole Fund has been established in memory of the late Harrison Cole, Assisting Organist at King’s College, to help aspiring musicians who have ambition to come to Cambridge in the future.

Article Updated on 15 August 2026 (with credible information — bottom of the page — about the US dictator’s increasing Red-Baiting of opponents, a desperate attempt to slander people used by fascist and nazi regimes).

Progressive political commentator Kyle Kulinski declared that “he absolutely needs to be impeached, removed, and locked up. He’s a completely unhinged lunatic, and he’s a sadistic violent menace to the world.”

Radiohead guitarist — who lives in Wales — on the state of the world: “There is not a drop of Wisdom. The world is shit today. What we’re witnessing today is the collapse of capitalism, the slow collapse of our system. Our political and business “leaders” — who are mostly men — they are usually very wounded men and can’t feel the beauty of this planet, and they’re not very evolved human beings. “But we’re fighting wars!” and it’s pathetic. They’re like 14-15 year old boys staring in the school playground. There’s not a drop of wisdom.” He was asked about Brexit and if he’s missing that link: He responded, “Holy shit yes. Coming to Paris, we were like brothers and sisters when the UK was a member state of the EU.” He spoke of the passport process being now very difficult to get to the EU.

The media and most of the public sanitise the US dictator by continuing to call him “President” with an initial caps “P” which denotes respect. Every article I see begins with his full name and initial caps as if the world doesn’t have any clue who he is. Yet one reads his name over and over. There’s only one person with his surname in an office so why do they have to keep typing his long full name with “US President…” in front? It’s their way of giving him full respect when he has not earned anyone’s respect nor is he deserving of anyone’s respect being a con man, 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert predator of The Epstein Class, and he’s one of the most horrible people on Earth. So-called progressives sites give him full respect as well. He’s not going to be confused with another person with his surname. All of these sites and commenters sanitise fascism by continuing to call it democracy. This is all Denial. The same people continue to give a 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert predator (“grab ’em by the pussy”) and war criminal respect just because he holds a certain title. They say, “You have to respect the office.” Rubbish. Not when there’s trash in the office you don’t! And this has nothing to do with being partisan because I’m not partisan. I have no use for either corporate party in the US: The Republican Party or the Dead Democratic Party who don’t seem to have any clue who they are as a party. And respect must be earned, and this piece of corrupt fascist/nazi trash and his entire corrupt regime have done nothing to earn anyone’s respect. Period.

I was prompted to write this article after hearing conversations in the hallways of the Conservatory from the students and Faculty, and from my choral friend. Also, from reading online comments under political videos on YT.

I’m seeing more and more people referring to the US dictator in the white house as king (rather than what he is: a dictator) even though he behaves nothing like a real, authentic King: King Charles III, for example, who seems like a very nice guy. How can they call a 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator and pedophile protector of The Epstein Class “king?”

On the service leaflet for the funeral of that “maga” trash/senator who died recently, the language they used on the service leaflet at Washington National Cathedral for the dictator was “the Honorable [his full name with initial caps – name of US dictator]. The Honorable? What is “honourable” about this piece of trash? What is wrong with people? In their denial, they like to engage in revisionist history about these political scum. How could anyone even type the word honourable in the same sentence with his name? Denial. Clearly the word honourable means nothing anymore.

As for that funeral: I scanned through it; I wasn’t about to watch it. The US dictator sat on the front row — as usual, his usual perch — for attention, with empty-slate JD next to him. The dictator’s eyes were closed much of the time. Couldn’t they find a Southern Baptist church somewhere to hold it, since that’s what it was? All the hymns were from the Southern Baptist hymnal (“How Great Thou Art” was one of them). Because Washington National Cathedral is a Cathedral Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion they were required to follow The Book of Common Prayer. I saw no Anglican hymns on the service leaflet. They used the Apostles’s Creed — used for Choral Evensong — and there was no Holy Communion. Well with that crowd they would need grape juice for Communion and Anglicans use red wine for Communion. The Bishop of the Diocese of Washington chose to skip the event. Good for her!

There is nothing what-so-ever honourable about this chronically lying 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert (“grab ’em by the pussy”) assaulter, pedophile protector of The Epstein Class and international fist-pumping and finger-pointing bully war monger (who campaigned on just the opposite) war criminal piece of lying trash.

As one would expect with a dictator, he has no respect for the US Constitution (which he took an oath to uphold) or the rule of law — he’s above the law — because both get in the way of his fascist/nazi agenda. The “maga” trash on the US supreme court have made him above the law by giving him complete immunity, with only very rare exceptions to that. They have mostly ruled in his favour. And oaths mean nothing to him. They are purely symbolic. He thinks he’s above all that because as he has said, “I can do anything.” Most people fall all over him as if he’s the messiah, the god. Look at that pathetic Mike Johnson — who pretends to be a Christian/Southern Baptist — piece of trash the way he bows and scrapes to this lawless dictator. He has no self-respect.

The global thinking is:

The US bully dictator can trash and trample on anybody in the world — as he does on a daily basis — but no one is supposed to trash or trample on him. Despite his enormous size, his enormous ego is too fragile, thin-skinned and delicate despite the fake image he presents to the contrary with all that “big and tough” BS, that fist-pumping and rude finger-pointing nonsense he does. He never learned that it’s considered rude to point at people.

Talking with my choral friend about this, I said: The US has long been a country in denial on many levels, and this is one of them. I’m seeing more people using the word “king” online rather than what he is: a dictator. It’s as if they are afraid to use the words dictator, regime and fascism. They want to pretend that things are “normal?”

Another piece of denial is that the US refuses to acknowledge that this dictator in the oval along with his “maga” friends on the us supreme court have installed fascism in this country. The US is no longer a democracy. Under fascism, there is a dictator, not a king. (Think Britain’s King Charles III).

I also pointed out that people keep using the word “administration” instead of the word regime for this government, and regime is the word they should be using under fascism. More denial?

As we see it, most people in the US are trying to minimise, sanitise and deny the installation of fascism in the United States of North America. They don’t want to believe that could happen in the US. So instead, they use the word “king” for the white house resident which is sanitising him. They apparently — in their denial — think the word dictator is too harsh, even though he is a dictator and he has been allowed to become a dictator. Again, it’s a matter of minimising and sanitising the truth, which is what the US always does to try to make things not look as bad as they are. It’s DENIAL. Face facts.

For example, Ben of MeidasTouch on YT is the only person I know who regularly and consistently uses the word regime in reference to this piece of trash — and that’s what Ben calls him: trash — in the white house and the regime the dictator has installed.

But despite Ben using the word regime, his commenters in their denial continue to use the word “administration.” It’s as if they don’t listen to what he says. The word administration is used in a democracy, which we no longer have. Most people still want to believe — live under illusions — we still have a democracy. That comes from a position of denial, as well as insanity.

I wrote a comment on Ben’s YT channel pointing that out, but everyone ignored it. And ignoring something, in this context, is a form of denial.

I’ve not heard one Democrat in the House or Senate refer to this piece of fascist trash as a dictator nor have they spoken to the fascism he has installed.

Instead, like everyone else — except myself and Ben — let’s pretend that things are “normal” so let’s keep referring to him by his full name with the word “President” [sic] in initials caps which denotes respect. Let’s pretend that there will be midterms and they will be fair and honest and that the Democrats will sweep the House and Senate and things will miraculously change with the Democrats taking on the dictator. There are nuts that believe all that.

Denial is the mentality in the US and it is blatant denial.

So when will the US come out of its stupor, denial and realise the reality of things that the US is a fascist dictatorship with a 34-count convicted felon as dictator? They won’t. They haven’t in the past.

We’re now being told by the talking heads parked at microphones on YT that the Democrats will go after all of these “maga” trash and the dictator (although no one calls him that) and the Democrats will correct all of what he’s done when they get in power. Yeah right. What drugs are these people on with their delusional wishful-thinking?

Fact: The Democrats are as terrified of the dictator as are the Republicans. And unfortunately none of them ever learned how to deal with a schoolyard bully who is not only a dummy, but he’s also stupid. Need an example: Putting another tariff on Canada because their wildfire smoke is coming across the border into the US, and the dictator talks about “raking the forest.” Insanity. Give this piece of racist/nazi trash and his crime family a rake and let them have a go at it.

Does one not remember the past? Do these people not remember that this is the same drivel we heard about Obama, and how Obama was going to “go after the Bush regime.” That didn’t happen at all. The reality of what happened with that was the following: Obama greatly expanded the Bush regime’s agenda — which the Obamabots (his cultists) refused to talk about because they were not supposed to speak negatively about their messiah — and Obama said, “We must look forward and not backward.” No one remembers that? Translation: I’m going to befriend the Bush regime; I’m not “going after” anyone. When Obama was not “going after” anyone, his cultists made excuses for him, “You have to give him tiiiiiime.” Yeah sure. Then we saw Michelle Obama and George Bush sitting side by side in Washington National Cathedral sharing candies. The two families being best of friends. Check out that link and see for yourself.

On another topic, the dictator wants to now renovate Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia. He wants to ruin Dulles just like he’s ruined the Kennedy Center, the Reflecting Pool, both of which are a mess, on and on. Anything he touches, he ruins.

Of course the dictator will graffiti his name on the airport. Congressional Republicans have already submitted a bill to do just that, to rename Dulles after their “maga” cult leader.

Commenters are referring to Dulles as “Washington DC’s Dulles.” Many people think that Dulles is in the District of Columbia. There is no room in the District for an airport. Even Washington National Airport (DCA) is not in the District. It’s across the Potomac on the Virginia side. It’s technically in Arlington County.

Some education:

Dulles International Airport sits about 24 kilometres/15 miles west of the Capital Beltway (I-495) in Virginia. It is roughly 41-42 kilometres/26 miles west of the District’s downtown area and is reached via the Dulles Toll Road, or the District’s Metro Silver Line (WMATA: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority).

Distance to Beltway from Dulles: 24 kilometres/~15 miles west of I-495

Distance to DC from Dulles: 41-42 kilometres/~26 miles west of downtown

Counties: Loudoun and Fairfax counties

There are so many stupid people in the US who don’t know basic geography. And unfortunately, many people cater to stupid people. I refuse to. Instead, I attempt to educate.

Midterms?

I don’t see midterms happening. There may be midterms, but even if there are I don’t expect them to be legitimate, especially considering E*on M*sk is now getting involved once again in the midterms. This is another part of people’s denial. Everywhere I go, the thinking is that we’re in the status quo where things are “normal.” We’re not. I hear people talking about the midterms and how this and that will happen like any other election is their thinking. The dictator has already said there is no need for elections because — according to him — “I’ve accomplished so much,” he said.

I’m not expecting the midterms to take place because he will say, “we’re at war with Iran and the Middle East” and he will cancel the midterms.

The Automatic Registration Law (The Draft)

The dictator signed the National Defense Authorization Act passed by congress, which includes a provision for the Selective Service System to automatically register eligible men aged 18 to 26.

Implementation of the regime automatically registering eligible men for the Selective Service System is planned to roll out by December 2026.

“Reactivating an actual military draft would require a brand-new act and explicit approval from congress.” (Yeah right. That’s the way it’s supposed to work in “normal time” in a democracy. But considering that the US congress has been relegated to purely symbolic status — other than when they’re on their knee pads bowing and scraping to the dictator (and they seem quite comfortable in that position, especially “maga” cultist Johnson), under fascism the dictator will give the orders and that’s all that will be necessary for the draft to begin. With few exceptions, the Democrats will remain silent and feet-shuffling).

My “Vote Blue” neighbour says, “Oh he would never do that.” Okay. Do you think the Dead Democratic Party will do anything in response? If there are midterms, why would any sane person expect them to be legitimate considering all that this regime has done and put in place per executive orders to make elections illegitimate. But denial is the state that most people are in so they — including people on public radio — go on as if we’re in a democracy (we’re not, we’re in a fascist regime) and things will be as they “always have been” seems to be the general thinking of the public.

STOP PLAYING HIM; STOP PROMOTING HIM:

Then there are the video creators on YT who claim they can’t stand this piece of trash, yet every day they play clips of him rather than making up their own video and telling their viewers what this piece of trash said in their own words. No one has to watch this war criminal. I and my choral friend either scroll through any part of the video that has him chronically lying or we click off entirely refusing to watch the video.

The video creators don’t seem to understand that they are giving him exposure, they’re promoting him by playing him, and any exposure is good, even when it’s bad news. His puss is still on the screen for people to look at.

I won’t even type his name on this site because I understand exposure.

An analogy: I told one of my choral mentors that one of the Orchestra Choruses I performed with was not always fully prepared for our performances because we had a very demanding performance schedule and there was only so much time to prepare the pieces/repertoire. My choral mentor told me: It doesn’t matter, the Chorus got the exposure anyway and that’s what matters: Exposure. That’s very true and to most people’s ears we probably sounded fully prepared, and we got the exposure.

The 25th Amendment:

More Denial. I get the impression that most people know nothing about the 25th Amendment, that they’re just repeating what they’ve heard others say in calling for the 25th Amendment to be used. I knew little about it until I researched it. And after my research, I concluded that people are dreaming and delusional if they think the 25th Amendment will be used to remove these criminal, lawless trash. The dictator’s “maga” cabinet would never vote to remove him:

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes clear rules for the convicted felon’s succession, filling JD’s vacancy, and handling the convicted felon’s disability. Ratified in 1967, it outlines four core sections detailing how power is transferred.

Succession and Vacancies

Section 1 (Death or Removal): If the convicted felon dies (which the world can’t wait to happen I will add), resigns (which he’ll never do), or is removed from office (which will never happen), JD immediately takes the convicted felon’s position.

Section 2 (JD’s Vacancy): If the office of JD becomes empty (which is not going to happen), the convicted felon nominates someone to replace JD. This nominee takes office after a majority vote confirmation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Disability and Transfer of Power

Section 3 (Voluntary Transfer): The 34-count convicted felon/dictator can send a written declaration to the leaders of Congress (the Speaker of the House and the Senate President pro tempore) stating they cannot perform their duties. (NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.) JD then serves as acting dictator until the dictator sends a second written declaration stating they can resume work.

Section 4 (Involuntary Transfer): If the dictator/convicted felon is unable or refuses to declare their own disability, JD and a majority of the cabinet (or another body designated by law) can send a written declaration to Congress stating the dictator cannot fulfill duties. (Can you see that happening for real? NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.) JD immediately takes over as acting dictator. If the dictator disputes this claim, Congress must vote on the matter; a two-thirds majority in both houses is required to keep JD in power as acting dictator.

The Reality: None of those four Sections are going to happen, not with his fascist/nazi cabinet, not with these “maga” fascist/nazi Republicans and not with the feet-shuffling Dead Democratic Party.

I would also add that a dictator doesn’t build a gaudy and tacky billion-dollar ballroom and then leave. That’s why he’s been talking about 2028 and his permanent residency in the white house, until he eventually dies. Aren’t ballrooms outdated? Yes. But not with a dictator who has taken the nation back to “The Golden Age” where ballrooms were popular in the 1930s-40s.

The Communist Card/The dictator’s intense Red-Baiting:

Yes, the dictator continues to wallow in the gutter. He has no conscience for a level of human decency. He’s the scum of the Earth. Red-Baiting is especially used during fascist and nazi regimes, which is what the current occupant in the white house and his septic regime are. Some are fascists, some are nazis.

The dictator is now big on slandering people with whom he disagrees politically by calling them a “communist.” If only he knew what the word meant! Unfortunately, this piece of trash doesn’t know the definition of communist or communism, but the chronic liar never lets authentic definitions or facts get in his way.

El-Sayed Faces Barrage of Racist Attacks After Michigan Win

The 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter (“grab ’em by the pussy”), war criminal and of The Epstein Class wrote this bunk:

El-Sayed [is] a “Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel” Wednesday morning, saying that his victory was “Great News for the Republican Party,” in a post on Truth Social. JD had to also add his version of hate by attacking El-Sayed in passing in a press conference.

He also called Zohran Mamdani and Kamala Harris a Communist.

Supporting article from the Associated Press

I forgot to post this Choral Evensong from June 2026 by the excellent Choir of New College at Oxford University. The New College Chapel is part of the established Church of England.

The anthem for this Liturgy was by Kenneth Leighton. It required a high musical skill level to perform it superbly, as they did.

“Boys of that young age can perform that anthem?” Skilled adult choristers might have trouble with that anthem. The boys of New College Choir School didn’t.

The canticle setting for this Choral Evensong was the Stanford Service in C.

The psalm (Anglican Chant) setting was by Crotch.

In this performance:
With the WDR Rundfunkchor ∙
Michael Alber, Einstudierung/Chorus Director ∙
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent ∙
Clara Andrada, Principal Flautist

In this performance:
With the Collegium Vocale Gent ∙
Philippe Herreweghe, Dirigent ∙
Clara Andrada, Principal Flautist

Conservatory training:

As I’ve said before, in my opinion, Deutschland has the finest Orchestra Choruses these days highly trained in choral excellence and they are part of Deutschland’s public broadcasting media, and I’m featuring one of them in a comparison between two performances of the same piece by Brahms. The other Chorus is from Belgium. Both Choruses performed the same piece with the hr-S (Frankfurt Radio Symphony).

By the way and this is mostly for the benefit and education of most US readers who predictably and consistently say Frankfurt incorrectly every time: The first syllable is not pronounced like the guy’s name Frank.

The correct pronunciation: Deutsche/Germans say Frankfurt as Frahnk-foort (sounding out each syllable evenly, rather than the English “Frank-fert”. Cringe. The ‘a’ is short, the ‘u’ is sounded out like the ‘oo’ in “book,” and the ‘t’ at the end is hard and crisp. Hope this helps. I’m so sick of hearing the first syllable “Frank” spoken as if they’re talking about some guy named Frank. Sigh.

I know that most people in the US unfortunately only speak one language (US English), if that, as opposed to people elsewhere in the world who speak multiple world languages fluently. I know a woman who is fluent in 5 international languages. And some people in the so-called “greatest country” can’t even get through US English, such as the lawless white house resident/the 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter (“grab ’em by the pussy”) piece of trash.

In this article, I’ve compared these two performances from a choral perspective and they are so close in excellence. I concluded that the WDR Rundfunkchor (one of the paid Choruses of the Deutschland public broadcasting media) might be slightly better — or better recorded — than the performance by the Collegium Vocale Gent, but they’re so close in their level of excellence. If I were a jurist in a choral competition and listening to the two Choruses perform this piece, I’d vote for both of them to share the same award, that’s how close they are in choral excellence, at least to my ear.

The US — and its septic politicians who live under grandiose delusions of being “the greatest country in the history of the world” — has nothing like this. In fact, under the current fascist regime in the US all federal funding for the public broadcasting media have been gutted/ended.

Some people think that choral excellence only applies to larger choral ensembles such as a Symphony Chorus or an Orchestra Chorus.  Wrong. Choral excellence applies to all choral ensembles, regardless of their size.  It’s part of the job of the Chorus Director, which some lazy or incompetent (or both) Chorus Directors fail to do.  For them, they take the easy way out and let their choristers sing as they want.

The fact is: Perfect intonation — the perfect blending of voices in each voice section (SATB) and good diction take work to achieve, and some Chorus Directors just can’t be bothered.  With that attitude, they don’t deserve to be hired. Those podunk Choruses don’t sound anything like the Choruses I feature.  They don’t sing with perfect intonation, for example.

My choral friend says about me:  You only listen to the best, because that’s part of your experience having been in three of the finest Orchestra Choruses anywhere. Well, he has no patience for podunk choral ensembles either, and he has zero patience for vocal soloists/screamers.  He can’t stand them.  Neither can I, with their fluttering/wobbling obnoxious vibrato where their voice/screaming can be heard in the next city over. 

Quite often, noticeable wobbling vibrato is used by singers to cover up pitch and vocal technique problems.  And usually vocal screamers (called “soloists”) don’t even attempt to try to match their voice to the velvety sound of the superb, well-trained Symphony Chorus behind them.  So you have this stellar, polished sound coming from the Chorus and then the vocal soloists open his/her mouth, and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I’ve never seen any conductor do anything about it — in dress rehearsals on stage — because the soloists/screamers are apparently seen as above reproach because they come from artist management agencies. I can’t remember ever hearing a conductor correcting a vocal soloist from an artist management agency. The conductor has no problem correcting the Chorus or members of the Orchestra though. But the soloists? They’re off limits.

My choral friend frequently asks:  Why did the composer have to put solo parts in the piece? It’s so much better without them. I agree with him. I don’t have an answer for that since I’ve never understood that either.  Was it for variety or to give the Chorus a break, even though the Chorus doesn’t need a break?  “The Chorus sounds so beautiful and then the vocal soloist/screamer is wailing over them; completely ruins it, completely ruins the sound” he says. That’s true.

Probably because of my training, I have a slightly wider range of choral ensembles I can listen to or put up with than he does, but not by much. When I start hearing wobbling, that’s when I click off.

In YT video performances of symphonic choral works, commenters who obviously know nothing about music — but pretend they do by using words such as “sublime” and “maestro” over and over — begin gushing over the vocal screamers as if they were the “star” of the performance.  The Orchestra and Chorus were the stars. Also, most commenters on YT who comment below symphonic choral works clearly have no trained ear for choral excellence. To them, one Chorus sounds just like the other. But many commenters give all the credit for the performance to the conductor (conductor worshipping) who didn’t play or sing a note. Nigel Kennedy said that conductors are so over-rated.

I have to be in the mood to read comments on YT under symphonic choral performances because of the musical ignorance. Many commenters seem to think that the conductor is the only musician on stage. Some commenters give all the praise for the Chorus to the conductor, rather than to the Chorus, even though in most cases, the conductor had nothing to do with the Chorus and their preparation. That credit goes to the Chorus Director, who is rarely the conductor. Usually the conductor doesn’t see the Chorus until the dress rehearsal on stage. Simon Rattle being an exception to that. In some cases, Simon prepared the Chorus and also conducted the performance.

Some commenters seem to have no problem listening to obnoxious screamers wobbling and fluttering. Commenters seem to think that’s what they’re supposed to do and confuse symphonic choral works with opera. They are two separate and different genres. Opera involves costuming and scenery (and I’ll add: screaming to be heard in the next city over). Whereas symphonic choral works do not have any costuming or scenery, although when opera divas are brought in from artist management agencies to scream out the vocal solo passages, there is indeed screaming. This confuses some of the audience into thinking that rather than hearing a symphonic choral work they’re hearing opera because of the screamers. Most screamers don’t make any attempt to match their obnoxious voice with that of the well-trained Orchestra Chorus.

Dr. Paul Traver said to the University of Maryland Chorus, “If you can’t sound good, you can at least have good diction.”  That’s very true.  Although Traver’s Maryland Chorus sounded exquisite and were known for their diction.  The Chorus Directors for the Choruses I feature do their job superbly and responsibly and achieve choral excellence.

There is a difference between a Symphony Chorus and an Orchestra Chorus:

A Symphony Chorus is an Orchestra’s own Chorus and the Symphony Chorus performs with the Orchestra any time a symphonic choral work is programmed.

An Orchestra Chorus is a Chorus independent of the Orchestra. An Orchestra Chorus is also called a Symphonic Chorus by some people, in some instances.

From my experience, a Symphonic Chorus or an Orchestra Chorus is a Chorus that performs with a major symphony orchestra by invitation only. In other words, they are not part of or attached to a major symphony orchestra. The Choral Arts Society of Washington, The Washington Chorus and the University of Maryland Concert Choir are three that come to mind, from my experience. And the same goes for the disband/”retired” University of Maryland Chorus.

Boston University’s School of Music has a Symphonic Chorus which performs with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. I’m not sure how they ended up with the name Symphonic Chorus. They really should/could be called the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

So choral excellence applies to smaller choral ensembles just as it applies to an Orchestra Chorus. The superb Collegium Vocale Gent (from Brussels) is an example of choral excellence.

We sang the Brahms’s Schickslslied when I was in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. I especially enjoyed the first part, but the second part not as much.

There’s a lovely flute solo after the second choral section that begins near 12.53 in the performance conducted by Andrés. The Principal Flautist of the hr-S, Clara Andrada de la Calle, plays the solo beautifully. She plays the solo in both performances.

In the Herreweghe performance, the camera shows her playing it beginning at 14.00.

The hr-S have several, rotating First and Second Concertmasters. In the performance conducted by
Andrés above, the First Concertmaster is Florin Iliescu. The Second Concertmaster sitting next to him is Maximilian Junghanns.

Updated: 27 July 2026: The University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and UMD Concert Choir performed Beethoven’s Ninth in The Clarice earlier this year (in May 2026). It was their own performance so there should not have been any copyright issues, yet they did not record the performance, or if they did, they did not upload it to YT or anywhere else that I can find. Strange. They have this state-of-the-art Dekelboum Concert Hall facility but act like they’re back in the 1970s or 80s with no recording capabilities. Damn odd. The Clarice opened in 2001 on the College Park campus, and 25 years later they only have 53 videos listed and no major performances of any works. So clearly, they’re not using their state-of-the-art technology to its fullest or at all. And at this point, some of their technology is probably becoming outdated since it’s 26 years old. I read that the Smith Family just gave the University USD$10 MILLION more dollars. They could use that money to update their recording capabilities in The Clarice, but since they’ve rarely used what technology they already have — and not used it at all for featuring full performances online — I’m not too hopeful that will happen. FYI: Clarice Smith and her husband, Robert H. Smith, contributed $15 million to help build the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (known as The Clarice) at the University of Maryland.

I’ve thoroughly researched this both on YT and on Vimeo (which the UMD sparsely uses) and nothing comes up for performances of the UMD Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir. If Dr. Paul Traver (Founder and Director of the University of Maryland Chorus, and my choral mentor) were still alive and part of the School of Music Faculty, things would be different. I talked with him about this topic and he was all about exposure. Well, the UMD Symphony Orchestra and UMD Concert Choir are getting no exposure online. None. So how does this encourage prospective students to want to study at the UMD School of Music (which is housed in The Clarice) and have the desire to be a part of either ensemble? Whereas other University Schools of Music and Conservatories do feature their full performances On Demand online. What is wrong with the University of Maryland?

So what does the UMD Concert Choir do all year? Just thought I would ask.

Not much, from what I can tell.  It certainly doesn’t take two semesters to re-prepare Messiah for performances with the National Symphony Orchestra when they’ve done that several times already. And going forward (into 2027) I don’t know that they will even have that performance engagement since the US dictator and 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert pedophile assaulter has shut down the Kennedy Center. The tarp is still up as of this writing. I’m not convinced his name has been removed from the building, despite news reports. And I read a credible article that said that the National Symphony Orchestra might end up disbanding. The dictator would call that, “Making ‘America’ Great Again” as he continues his destruction of the District of Columbia. Can the NSO exist as a “touring” Orchestra, meaning touring around the District, Maryland and Virginia? Or maybe they could move to Constitution Hall or GW University’s Lisner Auditorium, although The Washington National Opera is there, I think, after they chose to vacate the Kennedy Center. The NSO will likely be performing some (maybe, if there are any openings) at Wolf Trap in Northern Virginia, and at The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. From what I read, the NSO was paid directly through the Kennedy Center. Well, when they have no performances, there’s no income for them.

As I remember, the Concert Choir is a one credit course and an easy one since they certainly don’t do anything or have anywhere near the performance opportunities that the superb and renowned University of Maryland Chorus had when they were around, not even close, even though the University would have one believe otherwise.

The University says on their website:

Quote:  The UMD Concert Choir is a symphonic Choir that frequently collaborates with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to perform at top venues including the Kennedy Center…   End Quote

Frequently collaborates?  Nah. That’s a stretch too, because no choral ensemble “frequently collaborates” these days with the NSO or the BSO because neither Orchestra programmes symphonic choral works often.

“Frequently collaborates” would apply to the University of Maryland Chorus when they were around.

The University also wrote:

Quote:  The UMD Concert Choir is a distinguished 100-voice symphonic ensemble, recognized as the choir of choice for both the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO).

End Quote

Nah, I wouldn’t call them the “Choir of choice” either since it depends upon the season.  In recent seasons, The Washington Chorus seemed to be the choral ensemble receiving the most invitations, what few choral works were programmed to begin with.  The same goes for Baltimore.  And the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra also invite the Baltimore Choral Arts Society to perform with them.  The Choral Arts Society of Washington has been having some problems in recent years.  Related:  The last days of the Choral Arts Society of Washington?

The works the UMD Concert Choir have performed have included the following, since they became the Symphonic Choir on campus:

Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Britten’s War Requiem, Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.  As well as John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Liszt’s Dante Symphony.  Also Bach’s Magnificat and Weihnachtsoratorium, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Verdi’s Requiem, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri. This coming season, they will present Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Dett’s Chariot Jubilee in collaboration with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra.

Well that’s all well and good but unfortunately we can’t hear any of those pieces because no one had the intelligence to record any of them in The Clarice with its state-of-the-art recording capabilities (both audio and video, and live streaming – have they used that feature at all?) and upload them to YT or Vimeo. Why is that?   They were all their own performances so no copyright issues. May I assume that the vocal soloists for all performances (when applicable) came from the UMD School of Music Voice Department Faculty and not some artist management? Even the pieces they performed with the NSO or Baltimore SO on the odd occasion, the UMD Concert Choir could have asked the UMD Symphony Orchestra to perform with them in the Dekelboum Concert Hall, such as once a semester or so.  But, nada. “No, we can’t do that.”

End of Update

When the University of Maryland at College Park disbanded/liquidated the University of Maryland Chorus (also known as The Maryland Chorus), the University designated the all-student University of Maryland Concert Choir as the symphonic choral ensemble on campus.

The term, “Town and Gown”

The Maryland Chorus was what’s known as a “town and gown” Chorus, meaning auditioned University students and auditioned choristers from the Washington Metropolitan Area (also known as the DMV:  District, Maryland and Virginia). Although, when I was in the Chorus, from what I remember it was mostly students from the School of Music, or it seemed to be.

On one occasion in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall before I sang with the Chorus, I heard an audience member say about The Maryland Chorus, “that old guy up there can’t possibly be a student at the University of Maryland.”  His ageism was noted, as well as his ignorance about older people working on a degree programme at the UMD.  All University students are not in their 20s.  Or, the chorister that the audience member was talking about was an auditioned member of the community.

The term “town and gown” was not limited to the University of Maryland.  The University Singers at the University of Virginia School of Music in Charlottesville was also a “town and gown” choral ensemble. I don’t know if that’s still the case. I don’t think “town and gown” was that unusual at that time. The non-student choristers were required to pay a nominal fee to the University to sing in the Chorus.

I remember reading that many people on the Maryland College Park campus — including Faculty and non-music students — were very angered by the University of Maryland disbanding/liquidating their University Chorus. I still don’t know why they did that (I have a few thoughts why that was done), and I’ve not read anywhere why the University did that.

I think most universities have a University Chorus, so to not have a Chorus by that name is unusual.  When the Chorus was disband, some students wrote about how they used to go out of their way to go into the School of Music and walk by the rehearsal hall where the University Chorus was rehearsing just to hear them. Many students and Faculty felt very proud that they had a superb University Chorus on campus that performed regularly in the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra and other (inter)national orchestras, especially under conductor Antal Doráti. How many University Choruses do that or can say that?

The Maryland Chorus was Antal Doráti’s favourite Chorus and he invited them to perform as often as possible with the NSO. He and Dr. Paul Traver had a very special rapport. I remember Dr. Traver saying in rehearsal on occasion when Doráti’s name was mentioned, “There’s only one conductor” and he was referring affectionally to Doráti.

Fast-forward to the present (2026):

The University of Maryland Concert Choir performed Beethoven’s Ninth with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra on 2 May 2026 in The Clarice. Was the performance recorded? No, not that I can find anywhere. And why not?  I thought that The Clarice was this state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center with high-tech recording capabilities.  If so, they really didn’t need all that when the building was built since they’re not using it to the fullest.

Last month, I read about this upcoming May performance of Beethoven’s Ninth and I was wondering if the School of Music planned to record it. The bio I read talked about how the University Symphony Orchestra and the UMD Concert Choir had performed many symphonic choral works together in The Clarice. The repertoire they had performed together included many of the same works that the University of Maryland Chorus performed over the years with the National Symphony Orchestra.

But again, unfortunately, the UMD Concert Choir had recorded none of them in The Clarice with the University Symphony Orchestra. And again, why is that?  To me, this makes absolutely no sense at all. Don’t they have a production crew in this state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center? If so, this production crew never have anything to do to refine their production skills.

So, I wasn’t very hopeful that this May 2026 Beethoven’s Ninth was going to be recorded and uploaded to YouTube. And it wasn’t. And this was one of The Big Three.

As of this writing, there is not one performance video on YT featuring the UMD Concert Choir. Not one.  I don’t understand that. It can’t be a copyright issue because it’s their own performances.

As a comparison, the New England Conservatory upload their performances to YT. The same for Boston University’s School of Music (which is a Conservatory environment).

They have this on YT:

2025–26 UMD School of Music Ensemble:

“Recordings from UMD School of Music large ensembles, including the UMD Symphony Orchestra, the UMD Wind Orchestra, UMD Choral Activities, UMD Jazz Studies, the UMD Wind Ensemble and the Maryland Opera Studio.”

Most videos there are from 9, 10, 14, 15 years ago.

Then there’s this:

2025–26 UMD School of Music Ensemble

Recordings from UMD School of Music large ensembles, including the UMD Symphony Orchestra, the UMD Wind Orchestra, UMD Choral Activities, UMD Jazz Studies, the UMD Wind Ensemble and the Maryland Opera Studio.

Even though that description says, “UMD Choral Activities” there are no (full) performances featuring the UMD Concert Choir.

Didn’t the Concert Choir perform any symphonic choral works in 2025?  Where are they?

I should think that the UMD Concert Choir would perform symphonic choral works with the UMD Symphony Orchestra on a regular basis, at least one a semester, since they only have Messiah to do with the NSO during the first semester.  As I said, they don’t seem to do much.  It’s only a one credit course per semester, an easy credit when you don’t do anything.  You have Messiah in December which (you) performed last December and the December before that.

So again, why doesn’t the University of Maryland School of Music do the same as New England Conservatory and Boston University’s School of Music (and there are others)? I have asked this question umpteen times and still nothing changes at Maryland. Not that anyone at UMD would read what I write, or care about what I write.

I have asked if anyone on the campus remembers the University of Maryland Chorus and their legacy, and is Dr. Paul Traver’s name ever mentioned or talked about on the campus?

The sense I have is that the University hoped that both the Maryland Chorus and Traver would be forgotten about as quickly as possible.

The choral programme being what it is today at Maryland is because of the legacy of Dr. Traver, but the University attributes it entirely to the guy who came after Traver, which is unfortunate and an insult to Dr. Traver.

Knowing Dr. Paul Traver as I did (he’s one of my choral mentors) — I’m not trying to channel Dr. Traver from the grave — if he were alive, things would be different regarding recording.  Dr. Traver would be recording and using The Clarice to its full capability to heavily promote and give exposure to his choral ensembles.

I talked with Dr. Traver on the phone about recording and he favoured recording, but in a realistic sense.  I asked him why the University of Maryland Chorus had not recorded Beethoven’s Ninth, for example. He said, “Have you seen the number of Beethoven Ninths in the catalog? He continued,”People will come into the Kennedy Center and ‘ooooh and aaaaaah’ over our Beethoven’s Ninth, but the catalogue is full of performances of it.” Then I asked him about recording Messiah. He said: The same goes for Messiah. I said: But Maryland does Messiah differently with the Chorus adding Baroque ornamentation to the choral writing. He said: But most people don’t know that, and the catalogue is full of Messiah performances and people will buy those based on the conductor most likely, and not the Chorus.” Of course he was correct.

It’s about exposure.

But Traver was all about exposure and that’s what recording performances on the campus and putting them on YT would do. It would give the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir exposure.  I told Dr. Traver that on occasion the Chorus I was performing with at the time in the District was not always quite prepared, in my opinion, because we had too much repertoire to prepare for the season at the Kennedy Center (we were in demand) and there was only so much time to prepare it all. He said, “That doesn’t matter. You got the exposure anyway.” He was correct.

And featuring one’s performances on YT is a way of exposing/promoting the University’s School of Music and their level of excellence. It could encourage viewers to want to be a part of what they see and want to apply to the School of Music. Does the University not understand that?  Apparently someone there doesn’t!

Perhaps that’s not something the College Park campus is not interested in doing. That’s the perception I have, otherwise things would be different, no?

As I wrote up above, the NSO rarely programmes any symphonic choral works — other than The Big Three — and there may be a total of 3 works each season and that gives each of the three Orchestra Chorus one piece to perform for the season (1. Choral Arts Society of Washington, 2. The Washington Chorus (formerly the Oratorio Society of Washington) and 3. the University of Maryland Concert Choir).

The UMD Concert Choir might perform once a season with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Baltimore also invites the Baltimore Choral Arts Society or the UMD Concert Choir to perform with them when they programme a symphonic choral work.

Baltimore did have their own Symphony Chorus at one time. I never heard them, but I read that they weren’t that good, so the Symphony Chorus was disbanded. Then, they started inviting one of the best Choruses around: the University of Maryland Chorus to perform with them. It’s as if someone in the administration there said at a meeting: Why do we have our own Symphony Chorus (and they’re not that good), when we could be inviting the best one, University of Maryland Chorus, to perform with us instead. Then they all agreed: Well let’s do that!

The reality is that it doesn’t take an entire semester or two to prepare pieces that — in some cases — the Concert Choir has already performed in the past and they just need to re-prepare them with any new choristers. That’s why I began with: What does the UMD Concert Choir do all year? Not much, it seems. They certainly don’t upload what they do perform — whatever that is! — to YT. Sigh.

Also, as I said earlier, the UMD Concert Choir does not have the performance opportunities that the renowned and superb University of Maryland Chorus had with the NSO and (inter)national orchestras, such as performances with The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam comes to mind. Although admittedly that was a different time.

What about oratorios? Ha! Oratorios were performed in those days, especially by Robert Shafer’s excellent Oratorio Society of Washington, which later became The Washington Chorus. Other than the perfunctory annual oratorio Messiah every December on cue, all oratorios are collecting dust on book shelves these days.

Even Israel in Egypt for Double Chorus is collecting dust, all those Editions Novello. That oratorio was surviving until some time ago, and now that’s gone. Here’s one of the last performances I’m aware of (from Early Music Vancouver):

In a symphonic choral sense, with few exceptions, we’re down to The Big Three, and Maryland just performed one of them: Beethoven’s Ninth. But if you were not there at the performance — which their website says was “SOLD OUT” — you’re not going to hear it, which is a shame.

After extensive legal research on his part and that of his team in New York City, Mamdani doesn’t have the legal authority to arrest that barbaric war criminal from Israel. When did this piece of trash from Israel have a lobotomy? Or was he just born without a conscience or any ethics to guide him on what is right and what is wrong? Of course the 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert predator residing in the white house, war criminal and now dictator is the same way. He, too, is void of any conscience of what is the right thing to do and what is wrong, as he pretends to be a Christian. For him, it’s always about him and his crime family of The Epstein Class.

Talked about in the Conservatory: The students and Faculty agree that war criminal netanyahu should be arrested per the warrant out for his arrest by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But they all agree — in the Conservatory — that war criminals are apparently above reproach and above the law. Just as the lawless US dictator in the white house is above the law. He was granted complete immunity by the “maga” trash on the US supreme court. He can do anything he wants with very few exceptions, including ignoring judges orders and political rulings by his “maga” friends on the supreme court.

A month ago, I knew nothing really about the International Criminal Court. After considerable research on the ICC, I now know quite a bit about them and signatories to the Roman Statute. The Rome Statute is the international treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), defining core international crimes like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has 125 member countries (known as States Parties to the Rome Statute), distributed across five official UN regions. As expected, the two terrorist nations, the US and Israel, are not member signatories.

Region and Number of Member Countries:

African States 33
Latin American and Caribbean States 28
Western European and Other States 25
Eastern European States 20
Asia-Pacific States 19

My choral friend said: The ICC should have their own police force so they, the Court, could arrest (war) criminals for which an arrest warrant has been issued by the ICC. I agree.

The 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert (“grab ’em by the pussy”) assaulter, dictator and war criminal residing in the white house should also be arrested.

(I’m not holding my breath that either of these pieces of fascist trash scum will ever see the inside of a jail or prison).

By the way, the following is for any people who intend to protest the US congress or any of their congressional hearings:

1. Dress as they do in the US congress in their boring cookie-cutter, stuffy, conservative get up, the perfunctory suit and tie routine:

Wear a (blue) suit with a white shirt and a red tie, and the ubiquitous US flag lapel pin (you gotta have that; that’s supposed to prove something!). The point being: You might be less likely of being dragged out of there as a protester when you’re wearing a suit and tie, and you resemble the war criminal/US fascist dictator, since that suit and tie get up is what he’s usually seen in. Does he ever wash the thing/have the thing dry-cleaned?

FYI:

The size of the Chorus is irrelevant.

Conservatory Training:

And the Bavarian Radio Choir is certainly one of them with their level of choral perfection.

“Any Chorus can sing loudly.”  That’s what a soprano chorister in the Choral Arts Society of Washington told me one night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall when I was complimenting the superb University of Maryland Chorus (also known locally as The Maryland Chorus) on stage.  This chorister couldn’t find anything what-so-ever positive to say about The Maryland Chorus, even though they gave a memorable and outstanding performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, with Claudio Abbado conducting. I think she thought that the Choral Arts Society should have been on stage. Whereas The Washington Post music critic wrote about the performance, “The University of Maryland Chorus was glorious throughout.”

In hindsight, I should have told her in response to her, “Any Chorus can sing loudly” comment:  Yes, including your Choral Arts Society, but only the finest Choruses can sing loudly and beautifully, as the University of Maryland Chorus did.  But unfortunately, she was a cultist of the Choral Arts Society.  To be clear, both the Choral Arts Society and the Oratorio Society sang beautifully when they sang loudly.

I say that because I liked all three Orchestra Choruses — 1) the Choral Arts Society of Washington, 2) the University of Maryland Chorus and 3) the Oratorio Society of Washington (which later changed their name to The Washington Chorus). I was not a cultist of any.  I had my preference — which was for the University of Maryland Chorus — but I liked all three. I thought they were all excellent, which is why they got engagements with the NSO. 

At that time, I did notice that The Maryland Chorus was getting some pretty hot engagements. Dr. Paul Traver later told me that The Maryland Chorus got the engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam through Margaret Hillis (Founder and Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus). Claudio Abbado had contacted her in Chicago and asked her to recommend an Orchestra Chorus in the DC area, and she recommended the University of Maryland Chorus. She had previously worked with them during a choral workshop on the College Park campus.

But my immature chorister friend didn’t have the maturity to say anything positive about The Maryland Chorus. Unfortunately, there were choristers in the Choral Arts Society who were jealous of the engagements that The Maryland Chorus was receiving — I think they thought Choral Arts should have had those engagements — so there was resentment of the University of Maryland Chorus by some of the Choral Arts people and some made snide remarks about The Maryland Chorus. 

Dr. Traver accepted the engagements he was offered. He didn’t “storm into the Kennedy Center and demand that his Maryland Chorus perform with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam” as some basses in the Choral Arts Society said/lied about during our break. Dr. Traver would never have done something like that because he would have known that doing so would end the University of Maryland Chorus ever being invited back again. Also, the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at that time was Antal Doráti, and the University of Maryland Chorus had quite a legacy under Doráti. That’s because they were his favourite Chorus, and he invited them to perform with the NSO as often as possible.

On my first visit to the Kennedy Center from the Conservatory where I was training, I noticed the performance schedule for the Concert Hall’s resident National Symphony Orchestra and I also noticed that it appeared that the University of Maryland Chorus was practically the Official Chorus of the National Symphony Orchestra. This is what I remember seeing on the NSO’s schedule, and I think they had a couple of other engagements that season:

VERDI/REQUIEM
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CHORUS
Paul Traver director
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Antal Doráti, Music Director

MAHLER/SYMPHONY NO 2 (The Resurrection)
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CHORUS
Paul Traver director
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Antal Doráti, Music Director

BEETHOVEN/SYMPHONY NO 9 (Choral)
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CHORUS
Paul Traver director
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Antal Doráti, Music Director

There were a couple of performances listed for Norman Scribner’s Choral Arts Society of Washington (they were excellent as well) and Robert Shafer’s Oratorio Society of Washington (also excellent), but the University of Maryland Chorus was the most featured Chorus.

Speaking of Beethoven/Symphony No 9 (the last piece above I remember seeing on the NSO’s season subscription when I went to the Kennedy Center), during their tenure, The Maryland Chorus performed Beethoven’s Ninth over 38 times with various (inter)national orchestras upon invitation. On one of those occasions, below is what was written about their performance at Wolf Trap:

National Symphony Orchestra & University of Maryland Chorus

“…an excellent performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was presented to an overflow audience Saturday night at Wolf Trap. This excellence, however, was a last-minute development, and primary credit goes not to the National Symphony, which was the orchestra for the occasion, but to the University of Maryland Chorus, which came to the orchestra’s rescue. The Chorus—one of the best—celebrated its 20th anniversary and its 36th Beethoven Ninth by singing the final movement as well as I have ever heard it sung, live or on records.”
Source: National Symphony Orchestra & University of Maryland Chorus (Joseph McLellan)

In the performance above from Deutschland, you can hear the superb Bavarian Radio Choir — which is the official Chorus of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra — sing quietly and beautifully beginning at 1.07.50 and 1.11.11.  This is choral excellence at its highest level.

You can also hear them sing quietly and beautifully in the Schumann piece below, Nachtlied.

From AI:

“Peter Dijkstra is the Artistic and Chorus Director for the Bavarian Radio Choir. He has held this title since the 2022-2023 season. He also led the Choir from 2005 to 2016. Sir Simon Rattle has served as the Choir’s Chief Conductor since 2023.”

My choral friend said: “Considering the state the US is in, how can anyone claim that ‘the US is the greatest country in the history of the world?'” Insanity.

The US federal government has ended funding for the public broadcasting media in the US under the dictator’s regime.

In Deutschland, their public broadcasting media is just the opposite:

Deutschland’s public broadcasting network (ARD) and its associated broadcasting entities officially operate 11 Radio Orchestras. In addition to these symphonic and radio ensembles, the network manages multiple professional big bands and 7 Radio Orchestra Choruses across the country:

The 11 radio orchestras include::

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO)

Munich Radio Orchestra (Münchner Rundfunkorchester)

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

NDR Radiophilharmonie

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

WDR Funkhausorchester

Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester)

SWR Symphony Orchestra

German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (SR/SWR)

Deutschland officially has seven paid Radio Choruses, all of which are publicly funded and associated with the country’s public broadcasting networks (ARD) and Deutschlandradio:

Rundfunkchor Berlin (Berlin Radio Choir)

RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin)

MDR Rundfunkchor (Leipzig)

WDR Rundfunkchor (Cologne)

NDR Chor (Hamburg)

SWR Vokalensemble (Stuttgart)

BR-Chor (Bavarian Radio Chorus in Munich)

Whereas, the so-called “greatest country in the history of the world (the US)” has nothing like this. There is no National Public Radio Symphony Orchestra and Radio Chorus, for example, and there never has been.

There are a couple other performances of the Mahler 2nd that come close to this level of choral excellence, but these performances above are the finest and the best recorded. In the other performances, I didn’t like where the Chorus was seated — they were practically up at the ceiling!…not really but you get the point — or the camera work on the Chorus, and the audio wasn’t quite as good, but I think part of the problem was the Concert Hall they were performing in and the acoustic shells or canopies above the stage.

At the end of the Schumann (video above), the First Concertmaster took his bow and applauded the Chorus for their outstanding performance. My choral friend said: “I wouldn’t have even noticed that if you hadn’t pointed in out, and I think only another musician would have noticed that.” Perhaps.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra apparently wanted their Chorus to have an encore, so they sang this piece by Purcell, another example of singing beautifully quietly: