It is no secret that in this crazy job of music making, many musicians base a concert’s success on how their level of individual playing. Yes, you can say the whole ensemble did well (or not), but there can be a self nagging urge after a concert to mentally relive a missed cue or wrong bowing. It’s the way musicians are; incredibly focused and detail oriented.

While reading the news last week I come across two items which had everything and nothing to do with each other: another school shooting and an obituary of a famous jazz musician. Legendary jazz artist Byard Lancaster who died of cancer last week was quoted in his obituary saying this: “One of the reasons we have violence in the schools is we’ve taken music out of the schools.” Byard was right. Over the past 20 years music and arts education have steadily been cut out of many public schools and we are ... Continue Reading

The 2011-2012 season was one of the busiest in my career and although that’s a good problem to have, it does cut down on the time usually spent staying grounded and keeping the bigger picture in perspective. So my time performing at the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF) was more important than ever this summer to not only help artistically and emotionally recharge but to provide a healthy context for refocusing on the bigger picture and preparing for the upcoming season. Thank your music teachers. Even if you quit middle school orchestra, ... Continue Reading

There is little free time on any orchestra tour, and last month’s trip to Carnegie Hall with the Nashville Symphony was no different. The orchestra was scheduled to rehearse and perform on Saturday, so arrival the day before left little time to really do anything touristy. About the same point I was wondering how to spend the evening, I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to see the opera at the Met that evening. I figured it would be something very New Yorky to do in ... Continue Reading

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? I could answer that with the punch line to the old joke, but it’s more interesting to see how six orchestras are preparing to go there for the Spring for Music Festival. For six straight evenings from May 7 through May 12, these north American orchestras will travel to New York’s famous venue, Carnegie Hall. Each orchestra has a diverse and exceptional program, and many have customized their repertoire to be regionally insightful. Besides looking through the Spring for Music Festival website, which has an ... Continue Reading