Geoffrey Burleson

Arnold Schoenberg's works are in the public domain as of today! Now kids can make TikToks to A Survivor from Warsaw royalty-free!

After I posted a recovered artifact from one of my 60s nouvelle vague films, I was asked if I had any copies of posters from my foray as an actor in Italian neorealist cinema. Here’s one.

Invent the cell phone.

Happy Belated 191st Birthday to Camille Saint-Saëns! Sorry I missed it yesterday, but to celebrate, here are excerpts from my performance of his Étude in C Major, Op. 52, No. 1, from a concert at the Sibelius Academy’s Camerata, Helsinki, Finland, March 21, 2018 (full performance available on my YouTube channel) 
#SaintSaens #birthday #Sibelius #Finland

Ed Gein, who ran afoul of the law for practicing taxidermy without a license, has died.

One minute opening of my arrangement of/improv on Frank Zappa’s BeBop Tango, recorded live in concert this summer at Arthur Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, as part of the 2026 Mostly Modern Festival. My full performance is available on the Mostly Modern Projects YouTube Channel. #Zappa #MostlyModernFestival #SaratogaSprings

One minute excerpt of “Lume, Lume”, a traditional Romanian folk song arranged by me and IMPetus, which we will perform next as part of our show at the historic Strand Theatre, Hudson Falls, NY, on Sunday, September 27 @ 3pm. IMPetus consists of myself, vocal virtuosa Maria Tegzes, and fierce guitar magus Dave “Knife” Fabris. #music #concert #IMPetus

"I gave you an ultimatum, punk, not a penultimatum." #ToughGuySemantician

9/11 & Myra Hess I was at LaGuardia that morning, as soprano Maria Tegzes and I were supposed to fly to Chicago to perform on the Dame Myra Hess Series on September 12, 2001. Even the trivialities are still so memorable: one ticket agent saying to the other “just take their bags anyway” when we checked in; watching Au Bon Pain and other concessions closing their gates just before 9 AM; both bewildering. Nonetheless, we proceeded through security and to the gate. Opposite the gate, at Fig & Olive, everyone was huddled at the bar around the TV. One person said a small commuter plane had hit the WTC. I immediately thought “I can view this directly a few feet away at the gate”, with the gate’s windows affording a direct view of the lower Manhattan skyline. My first thought on seeing the skyline in context was “that’s a hell of a lot of smoke for a small plane.” Before I knew anything else, LaGuardia was swiftly evacuated. We were all in limbo for some time right outside Terminal B. Maria and I decided to climb a few levels in the parking garage so that we could see. By that point, they were both gone; nothing but a massive veil of smoke over lower Manhattan. There were two people standing at the edge of the high garage level as we approached. One described what happened, and then said: “the world will never be the same.” Security then told us to leave the garage. Since we live on the Queens/Nassau Co. border, we were able to make it home before too long. Four days later, we were told we could retrieve our baggage from LaGuardia, which was rather perfectly downwind from the perpetual fire at ground zero. We each had to cover our faces as we walked through the parking lot both ways, to deal with the stench. Dame Myra Hess, whose is honored via the title of the concert series in Chicago on which we were supposed to perform the next day, was a British pianist who played numerous lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery in London during the World War II blitz, sometimes with audible bombs in the background punctuating the performances (once, one actually detonated right next to the National Gallery during one of her concerts). In Chicago, the organizers of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts found locally-based musicians at the last minute to perform the 12:15pm concert on 9/12/01, in our absence. There were many deeply inspirational and defiant examples of our resilience in the immediate aftermath of that day. Myra Hess herself would have played the next day, and I’ll always appreciate and remember that same beautiful defiance being applied via the series named after her in Chicago.

One minute excerpt of Larry Thomas Bell’s “Terza Rima: 12 Variations on Awake our Souls, Away our Fears”, which I’ll be premiering at @BerkleeCollege on Thursday, September 10, 2026, in David Friend Recital Hall @ 7:30pm. Part of a program celebrating Larry Thomas Bell’s piano music, and including solo performances by Jennifer Elowsky-Fox, and the composer himself. Free admission! #concert #piano #Berklee

Happy Labor Day!

Godfather Part II Eight and a Half (8 1/2) Once Upon a Time in America Fargo Fight Club Rear Window Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Young Frankenstein

Happy Birthday to John Cage! In celebration, and contemplating starting my 20th year at Hunter College, here’s my greatest YouTube “hit” (147,000 views!) wherein I led a performance of Cage’s “Imaginary Landscape No. 4” as part of a Cage Festival I organized with my brilliant colleague Joachim Pissarro at Hunter, 17 years ago. youtu.be/A0BNsBlzQII?is=lSpP…

Day 1 of Year 20 of teaching at Hunter College. Studio is cleansed, renewed, and ready to resonate. Let the games begin! – at Manhattan, NY

Was thinking of assigning Robert Schumann’s “Promiscuous Leaves” to a 15 year old student, but then I remembered it was rated NC-17. (Schirmer Edition, 1916)

Tried to type "these courses all have overloads"; it came out as "these courses all have overlords." #TooMuchAdmin #SemesterStartsIn2Days #IAmTheCourseOverlord