Symphonic Dances
Jan 3 Sergei Rachmaninoff's final composition "Symphonic Dances" premieres in Philadelphia, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
Bartók's 6th String Quartet,
Jan 20 Béla Bartók's 6th string quartet, premieres in NYC
Everything Happens to Me
Feb 7 Frank Sinatra & Tommy Dorsey orchestra record "Everything Happens to Me"
Take the A Train
Feb 15 Duke Ellington first records "Take the A Train"
Music History
Feb 15 Greek-American singer Maria Callas makes her professional opera debut as Beatrice, in Franz von Suppé's "Boccaccio" at the Olympia Theatre in Athens, Greece
- Feb 22 Paul Creston's 1st Symphony premieres
- Feb 22 Roy Harris' "Ballad of a Railroad Man" premieres
Academy Awards
Feb 27 13th Academy Awards: "Rebecca", James Stewart & Ginger Rogers win
- Mar 14 Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra record "Babalu"
Shostakovich Honored
Mar 16 Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich receives the Stalin Prize
- Mar 19 Jimmy Dorsey & his Orchestra record "Green Eyes" and "Maria Elena", with vocals by Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly, in New York City
Glenn Miller's 1st Film
Mar 24 Glenn Miller begins work on his 1st movie "Sun Valley Serenade", starring Sonja Henie and John Payne, for 20th Century Fox
Requiem Symphony
Mar 29 World premiere performance of Benjamin Britten's "Requiem Symphony" by the New York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli. at Carnegie Hall, New York City
- May 3 WPAT-AM radio in Patterson, New Jersey begins broadcasting
- May 7 Glenn Miller records "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for RCA, it becomes 1st record to be designated "gold"
- May 13 Willy Lewis' US jazz band performs in Switzerland
- May 15 Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid Jewish music
- May 16 First US radio performance of Robert Russell Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
- May 21 Singer Johan Heesters visits Dachau concentration camp
Blithe Spirit
Jul 2 Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" premieres in London
Music History
Jul 19 BBC World Service begins playing V(ictory) ("...-" in Morse code) (opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th symphony)
- Oct 1 Dmitri Shostakovich evacuated by plane to Moscow
Music History
Oct 1 Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane's musical "Best Foot Forward", starring June Allyson, with choreography by Gene Kelly, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC; runs for 326 performances
Let's Face It
Oct 29 Cole Porter's musical "Let's Face It" opens at the Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs 547 performances
- Nov 17 Virgil Thomson's 2nd Symphony, premieres
- Nov 29 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Pal Joey", starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal, closes at the St. James Theatre, NYC, after 374 performances
- Dec 21 David Diamond's 1st Symphony premieres with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos
- Dec 27 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 7th Symphony in Siberia
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