General updates

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — Mozart’s birthday; Beethoven’s regard for him

January 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy, Music updates

Mozart’s birthday; Beethoven’s regard for him.

Notes by Margaret Scialdone. ~ As January 27th is the 265th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, we’ll step away from the sonatas for a few days and allow Beethoven to pay homage to his great predecessor. The teenaged Beethoven first went to Vienna in 1787, and it’s believed that he met with Mozart who agreed to take him on as a pupil. However, Beethoven immediately received news that his mother was critically ill, so he returned to Bonn after five days. When he finally came back to Vienna in 1792, Mozart had already died, at the age of 35. Beethoven then took up lessons from Haydn, which were unsatisfactory because Haydn was busy with concert tours, so he ended up studying counterpoint with Albrechtsburger and composition with Saliieri.

Beethoven had obviously studied every note Mozart had ever written, and his sketchbooks and compositions are full of Mozartean references. However, we’ll concentrate right now on one of Beethoven’s favorite genres – variations – composed on themes from Mozart’s operas.
In “The Marriage of Figaro”, the Figaro, who’s about to get married, learns that the count whom he serves intends to exercise the “Lord’s right” – to sleep with the bride on her wedding night. Furious, he announces in the aria “Se vuol ballare” his determination to thwart the Count’s plan.

Here you will find Mozart’s aria is sung by Erwin Schrott, and Beethoven’s variations, WoO 40, are performed by Jiyoung Park and Hue-am Park.

Webcast—To Shut Down the Coup Against Trump, Exonerate LaRouche

January 31, 2019by Jason Ross in General updates, Helga Webcast

The regime change coup against President Trump has been increasingly visible, as positive developments based on his initiatives have forced the coup plotters into the open. Look at the intelligence officials who presented the “Worldwide Threat Assessment” to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 30. On virtually every single issue, those delivering the report—DNI Coats, CIA Director Haspel and FBI Director Wry—contradicted the President’s strategic policies. Responding to them, Trump called them “naive”, and expressed optimism that his diplomatic initiatives have been effective.

Helga Zepp LaRouche provided a concise report on those contradictions, on North Korea, Syria, relations with Russia and China, etc. The Old Paradigm, the neoliberal British imperial model, has failed, she said, and much of the world has moved into a New Paradigm, based on win-win cooperation. Typifying this Old Paradigm, is George Soros, who attacked China in his speech at Davos as the biggest threat to his “Open Society.” Zepp LaRouche said this is true, as his “Open Society” is nothing more than the collapsing British neoliberal system.

The same regime change forces behind Russiagate are now pushing a regime change coup in Venezuela, with potentially dangerous consequences. She asked, How can we avoid feeling as though we, who are fighting against this coup, are on a roller coaster, going up and down? It’s a question of understanding the principle of the Common Good. Study the works of Lyndon LaRouche, to become true representatives of the Common Good. And fight for his exoneration, as those who put him in prison thirty years ago are the ones running coups around the world, and in the U.S., today.

Lift Every Voice: Towards a Renaissance of Classical Culture

January 30, 2019by Jason Ross in Houston SI activity, Music updates, Our cultural events, Our musical events

On Friday, January 25, the Schiller Institute Houston Community Chorus invited members of the community to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at an event in southwest Houston.

Texas Schiller Institute spokesman Brian Lantz opened the event highlighting the shifts occurring globally towards greater cooperation, and that Dr. King knew the only way to create a durable peace was through the reconciliation of differences and non-violent cooperation, even if some attempt to stifle it. He described how King saw cooperation through the idea of agapic, unconditional love for humanity, as expressed in the first Corinthians. Dr. King was an avid lover of classical music and opera, as was his wife, Coretta Scott King, a trained pianist and classical singer.

Texas Schiller Institute head Brian Lantz’s opening remarks on Dr. King.

The chorus opened the concert with a four part polyphony of the anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, followed by a collage of short audio speeches by Dr. King. The program continued with four selections from the Mozart Vespers, Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus”, a traditional Chinese folk song, “Jasmine flower” (Mo Li Hua), and a number of spiritual selections, one of which was led by tenor Brian Lantz. Among the highlights of the evening were the solo spiritual performances of “Go Down Moses” sung by Maestro Dorceal Duckens, and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” sung by Kesha Rogers.

Maestro Dorceal Duckens singing ‘Go Down Moses’.

The audience was truly transformed by the power of the music and the selection of clips from Dr. King intertwined. At the end of the event the audience was asked to stand and cross arms and join in in singing “We Shall Overcome.”

The Houston Schiller Institute Community Chorus.

Newer members to the chorus expressed how happy they were to sing with the chorus. Everyone was overjoyed by the experience and you had a sense that the concert had a transforming quality on everyone. It was not just entertainment, and no one left the room as the same person they were when they entered.

World Food Program Head Praises China, as Greatest ‘Success Story’ in Ending Hunger

January 29, 2019by Leona Meyer-Kasai in New Silk Road / BRI updates

David Beasley, the Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP)— the food-assistance branch of the United Nations and the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security—was interviewed on Jan. 24 by CCTV on the sidelines of the Davos Forum. He said:

“When you look where the world has gone in the last few decades, [there are] a lot of success stories around the world, but there’s no greater success story than China. China has reduced the number of people that are hungry by 800 million people in the last 40 years. And it needs to be replicated, modeled and using that experience in other parts of the world. We would like to have your expertise and involvement, and engagement in addressing hunger in countries around the world. So China has gone from being a beneficiary country to now a donor,” said the WFP executive director.

He further stated: “China is a global superpower. China has a role to play in helping the world move in a more peaceful, stable direction. And I think the quicker that the West and China can find that path to work together, I think the world will benefit from that.”

Czech President Endorsing New Silk Road

January 29, 2019by Leona Meyer-Kasai in New Silk Road / BRI updates

Czech President Milos Zeman said he supports his country’s companies to participate in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and he firmly hopes it would help boost the country’s industries such as railways and real estate. He made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua in Prague on Jan. 24. He said he has a dream that the “New Silk Road will lead through the Czech Republic to Western Europe.” Praising the Belt and Road as a “wonderful initiative,” Zeman said courage is needed for such a project.

As for China’s development, Zeman said China is a major country both politically and economically. He said China has been successful in increasing the standard of living of its people, and the middle class is growing in the country. He also stressed that his country adheres to the one-China policy.

Notice: New Science page

January 25, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Environmentalism updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Scientific research studies

“Green” Means No Humanity – Stop the Great Reset!

The Schiller Institute website has launched a new page intended to generate a scientific discussion on the fraud of the “climate science” now being used to justify the global drive toward a fascist Great Reset. The page includes presentations, articles and a discussion space for truthful scientific discourse.

Check out the new page and share it with others…

A Celebration: Robert Burns – Friend of Freedom

January 22, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Cultural renaissance updates, General, Music updates, Our cultural events, Our musical events

Schiller Institute NYC Chorus

Robert Burns – Friend of Freedom
Join us for a birthday celebration.
Sunday, January 24th, 6:00 pm EST

As the story goes, in 1793, at a private dinner in England, when the host proposed the health of William Pitt [first prime minister of Great Britain], the poet said, sharply, “Let us drink the health of a greater and better man – George Washington.” As the Schiller Institute Chorus takes its name from the Poet of Freedom, Friedrich Schiller, let us celebrate another friend of the human freedom, Robert Burns, born on January 25, 1759.

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, in his essay, “A Defense of Poetry,” established that, in fact, it is the poets, who are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. In a moment as tumultuous as our present time, it is ever more important that we understand and develop in ourselves that poetic power capable of changing the course of human history for the better.

Join us in a celebration of the immortal life of Robert Burns through his own works and those of others; to help demonstrate that power of poetry and culture in strengthening the human spirit, to not only face adversity, but to overcome it with a greater good.

We plan to demonstrate how Burns fulfilled the great German poet, Friedrich Schiller’s demand, that a poet be both a patriot of his nation and citizen of the world. Please join us for an evening of song, poetry, and history, to advance the cause and the joy of true human freedom.

“A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.”
Ludwig van Beethoven

Switzerland Clearly Opts for New Silk Road

January 26, 2019by Leona Meyer-Kasai in New Silk Road / BRI updates

Swiss President Ueli Maurer said, after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan ahead of the Davos World Economic Forum, that he views the Belt and Road as offering many good opportunities for Swiss industry. In contrast to substantial restrictions which the EU has imposed against Chinese direct investments into European companies, the Swiss, which are not part of the European Union, will not do so.

Maurer pointed out that the Swiss economy has greatly benefitted in the past from unrestricted access to other countries, therefore the Swiss do not fear Chinese investors and will welcome them, rather than impose restrictions on them. Maurer hinted during a state visit to China last April that he will sign a far-reaching agreement of cooperation with the Chinese.

Wang Qishan turns out to be very interested in the history of Switzerland, particularly its relations with, and independence from, the House of Hapsburg—the Wilhelm Tell paradigm. The Chinese official was given a tour of the original Hapsburg castle in Aargau, yesterday, and at a reception there, exchanged views with local officials on the history of the Hapsburg Empire and the relation to the Chinese Empire 500 years ago, along the old Silk Road by land and by sea, which connection is currently revived with the New Silk Road.

Philippines Case Proves China ‘Debt Trap’ Is Fake News

January 24, 2019by Leona Meyer-Kasai in New Silk Road / BRI updates

A serious study of Philippines debt compared to the development of the real economy by a doctoral student in the U.S. has provided powerful proof that the hysterical campaign against the Belt and Road Initiative in the West—centered on the lie of China creating debt traps aimed at taking over nations around the world—is unreconstituted organic fertilizer.

Alvin Camba, a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University, has conducted in-depth research on the Philippines economy for several years. On Jan. 18 he published some of his findings, titled “Examining Belt and Road Debt Trap Controversies in the Philippines” on the Jamestown Foundation website. After reviewing the many articles claiming the Philippines is a model of China’s debt trap, he counters: “In the case of the Philippines, the country possesses economic fundamentals that mitigate against the danger of excessive indebtedness. Between 1999 and 2014, Philippine debt increased from $51 to $77 billion. However, at the same time, the country’s external debt to GDP ratio (in percentage) decreased from 61.6% to 27.3%. The total amount of the country’s annual debt service during those years ranged from $6.5 to $7.5 billion, but the percentage of debt service decreased from 14.6 to 6.2%, indicating that less of the country’s GDP has been used for servicing debt.”

Even more important, Camba writes that the opponents of the BRI “ignore the likelihood that projects that generate internal demand could successfully contribute to economic growth.” He points to the rise in overall productivity created by, especially, the two rail lines being constructed by China in Luzon.

He also states that China is not the only investor in Philippine infrastructure, but that “more than half of developmental infrastructure projects in the country are funded by the Japanese International Corporation Agency and the Asian Development Bank.”

Webcast—Brits Panic grows; Will Trump’s Missile Defense Plan Become LaRouche and Reagan’s SDI?

January 19, 2019by Jason Ross in Helga Webcast, Space updates

While one of the Empire’s favorite leak sheets, Buzzfeed, exposed itself with its latest lying story targeting President Trump, he opened the prospect that LaRouche’s design for the SDI might be back on the agenda. And while May and Macron continue in their vain attempts to prop up the collapsing neo-liberal model, the Italians continue to forge ahead.

This week’s Schiller Institute’s webcast with Helga Zepp LaRouche presents an optimistic perspective on what it will take to finish off the era of British imperial geopolitics.

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