Category: Stamps

New Stamps 2024

Every year, worldwide more than 200 stamps related to music are issued. The list of new issues published in the members-only-section of our website is updated several times per month.
 

17.2.24:Latvia / Malaysia / Norway / Portugal / Romania / Spain / Uruguay
24.2.24: India / Luxembourg / Portugal / UN
2.3.24: Indie / Isle of Man (Update) / Hungary / Russia / USA
16.3.24: Japan / Macau / Spain / South Korea
23.3.24: Japan / Romania / Serbia

Stamps Europe (members only)  Stamps Overseas (members only)
 
Planned issues 2024 (members only)

New Stamps 2023

Every year, worldwide more than 200 stamps related to music are issued. The list of new issues published in the members-only-section of our website is updated several times per month.
 

23.2.: Guinea / Guinea-Bissau / Macau / Mongolia
2.3.: Sierra Leone
9.3.: Djibouti / Niger
15.3.: Liberia / Sierra Leone
23.3.: China / Guinea-Bissau

Stamps Europe (members only)  Stamps Overseas (members only)

Stamp of the Month: March 2024

Bedřich Smetana

The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824 in Litomyšl and died on May 12, 1884 in Prague. March 2024 will be the 200th anniversary of his birthday.
 
Smetana began taking violin and piano lessons at the age of four. After attending high school, he studied piano and composition in Prague from 1843 to 1847 and also worked as a music teacher. In 1848 he opened his own private music school with the help of his friend Franz Liszt.

Czechoslovakia 4.6.1949

Czech Republic 14.2.2024
Allegorical illustrations for the cycle “My Fatherland”

In 1856 Smetana left his homeland for political reasons and headed the Philharmonic Society in Gothenburg for five years. After his return he supported the Czech national movement and led the Hlahol patriotic singing society from 1863 to 1865. From 1865 to 1869 he conducted the Czech Philharmonic concerts, worked as a music critic for the newspaper Národní listy in 1864/1865 and was first conductor of the Czech interim theater České Prozatimní Divadlo from 1866 to 1874. When he fell ill in 1874, he retreated to the countryside to compose.
 
Bedřich Smetana composed eight operas, of which “The Bartered Bride” (1866) and the Czech national opera “Libussa” (1869–1872) are the most famous. In addition to the six-part cycle “My Fatherland,” he composed four other orchestral works, chamber music, piano music and three works for organ.

The video shows the symphony orchestra of the Kranj High School (Slovenia) under the direction of Nejc Avbelj with the symphonic poem “The Moldau” (Czech: Vltava) from the cycle “My Fatherland” (Má vlast) by Bedřich Smetana.

Stamp of the Month: February 2024

Oskar Merikanto


Finland 5.8.1968

The Finnish composer Frans Oskar Merikanto was born on August 5, 1868 in Helsinki and died on February 17, 1924 in Hausjärvi-Oitti. February 2024 will mark the 100th anniversary of his death.
 
After publishing his first organ and piano concerto in 1887, Oskar Merikanto studied organ, piano, music theory and composition in Leipzig and Berlin. In 1892 he became organist at what is now St. John’s Church in Helsinki, a position he held until his death.From 1911 to 1922 he was opera conductor at what is now the Finnish
National Opera. He also worked as an organ teacher at the Church Music School and the Helsinki Music Institute and was considered Finland’s leading organ expert throughout the country for many years.
Oskar Merikanto composed three operas, violin, piano and organ pieces, choral works and songs. His musical play “Pohjan neiti” from 1898 (“Miss of the North”) is considered the first opera in the Finnish language. His melodic and folk songs, which he composed to Finnish, Swedish and German texts, are also well known.

 

The video shows, among other dancers, the later French professional dancer Julien Conti with his partner Cassandra Cauvemberg at a junior dance competition in 2014/2015 with “Valse Lente” op. 33 by Oskar Merikanto.

Stamp of the Month: January 2024

Josef Suk


Czechoslovakia 12.5.1957
The Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk was born on January 4, 1874 in Křečovice near Prague and died on May 29, 1935 in Benešov near Prague. January 2024 will be the 150th anniversary of his birthday.
 
Being the son of a teacher and church musician, Josef Suk received lessons in violin, piano and organ from his father. From 1885 he studied violin, piano and composition at the Prague Conservatory, the latter with his future father-in-law Antonín Dvořák. In 1891, Suk took over as second violin in the new founded violin quartett of the Prague Conservatory. With this so-called “Czech Quartet”, one of the most important ensembles of his time, Josef Suk gave over 4,000 concerts throughout Europe in around 40 years. From 1922 he taught as a professor of violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory, of which he was also rector from 1930.
As a composer, Josef Suk created two symphonies, 16 other orchestral works, 30 piano works, chamber music, songs and choral works and two incidental music.
 
The video shows the Collegium Instrumentale Saarbrücken under the direction of Vilmantas Kaliunas with the 1st movement (Andante con moto) from the Serenade for String Orchestra in E flat major by Josef Suk. The recording was made in March 2013 at the spring concert at the University of Music in Saarbrücken.

New Stamps by Private Postal Services

Private Postal Services too release stamps related to music. Members will find a list with the latest issues in the members only section.
 


9.9.23: Biberpost (Magdeburg) / NordBrief (Rostock) / Nordkurier (Neubrandenburg)
6.10.23: NordBrief (Rendsburg) / RegioPrint Vertrieb (Cottbus)
24.10.23: Post Modern (Dresden)
24.11.23: Post Modern (Dresden) / LVZ Post (Leipzig)
22.12.23: BeePost (Lithuania) / NordBrief (Rostock)
 
Private Postal Services (Members only)

New Stamps 2022

Every year, worldwide more than 200 stamps related to music are issued. The list of new issues published in the members-only-section of our website is updated several times per month.
 


3.6.23: Guinea / Niger
27.6.23: Central African Republic / Egypt / Guinea / Jersey / Liberia
29.7.23: Saudia Arabia
5.8.23: Niger
22.12.23: Iraq / Japan

Stamps Europe (members only)  Stamps Overseas (members only)

Stamp of the Month: December 2023

Maria Callas


Griechenland 12.10.2023
The Greek soprano Maria Callas (real name Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulou) was born on December 2, 1923 in New York. She died on September 16, 1977 in Paris.
December 2023 will be the 100th anniversary of her birthday.
 
Read an article from our bulletin “Der Musikus”
 
Maria Callas – There can only be one
 
And listen to a historical recording with Maria Callas as Violetta and Enrico Caruso as Alfredo singing the aria “Libiam ne’ lieti calici” from the first act of the opera “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi.

 

Stamp of the Month: November 2023

Lou Koster


Luxembourg 18.2.2003
The Luxembourgish composer Marie Louise “Lou” Koster was born on May 7, 1889 in Luxembourg and died on November 17, 1973 in her hometown. November 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of her death.
 
Lou Koster received music lessons from her grandfather Franz Ferdinand Hoebich (1813–1900), the very first bandmaster of the Luxembourg military band. During the last years of the silent film era, Lou played piano and violin with
her sisters Lina and Laure in Luxembourg cinemas to accompany the films. In 1906, Lou Koster became one of the first students at the newly founded conservatory in Luxembourg. In 1908, just 19 years old, she became a lecturer in violin and piano at this university.
Lou Koster created an extensive oeuvre of 322 compositions. At first she mainly composed waltzes and marches, which were played by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra from 1933 and broadcast on the radio. Chamber music, piano and orchestral works, works for children’s choir, fairy tale plays, as well as operas and operettas followed later. After her retirement, from 1954 onwards, she devoted herself primarily to composing songs in the three languages spoken in the country. Her greatest success was the choral ballad “Der Geiger von Echternach” (The violinist from Echternach), which she worked on until shortly before her death.
 

The video shows the Luxembourgish soprano Noémie Sunnen (*1978), who suffers from ALS, accompanied by Annie Kraus, with the song “Akaziebléi” (Acacia Blossom) by Lou Koster. The recording was made on July 5, 2017 at a benefit concert at the Luxembourg Conservatory for patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).