Gung Hei Fat Choy, Columbus…….

For those of you not up on your Mandarin that means “Happy New Year.” Today is the start of the Year of the Rat, and I figure that it’s as good a time as any to ask the question: “Whither Columbus?” (Remember – Chris was actually trying to find China on that voyage.) Teraquads of information have already been spilled on the conundrum that the Columbus Symphony faces. I don’t know if I’ll be able to give any insight but I shall give it my best shot.

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Music Everywhere

It was just one weekend, but it proved to me that everything that we do has music at the heart of it, one way or another. Here are four highlights………

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Super Music Tuesday

It’s primary season. I realize that this column is not about politics but for those of us living in the USA this is important, and I have a personal story to tell about one of the candidates.

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Tears in the Mirror

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am one of the biggest J.R.R. Tolkien junkies on the planet.  Whenever someone else tries to show off their Tolkien trivia knowledge I will look at them with a steely gaze and say: “I’ve done research at the Tolkien archives.”  That usually shuts them up.  So when we held Principal Trumpet auditions up here in Edmonton this week the analogy immediately came to me: we have peered into the Mirror of Galadriel and are not sure of what we have seen.

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Calgary’s Brilliant Move…….

It’s a widely known fact – musicians are a little “different.” Actually most of us are bloody nuts, and that has consequences for both orchestras and musician’s families. So what’s going to happen when an orchestra actually does something about it?

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Charlotte Pt. 6

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Well, I’m home. It’s about 35 degrees colder her in Minneapolis than Charlotte, but it’s much warmer in my heart because I’ve spent the afternoon watching my boys run around like mad people. The joys of parenthood. But about last night…….

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