For the second year in a row The Springfield Symphony was hired to play for a commencement and we did it last night. It’s an enormous event and the response to our presence and our performance like last year was overwhelming. More overwhelming to me though is the college that asked us…
Ron Spigelman
Philippe Quint rings Joshua’s Bell!!!!
The recent return of Philippe Quint’s Violin and his concert of gratitude to a group of cabbies is in stark contrast to the ill conceived busking session with Joshua Bell in a Washington Metro station last year. One was an audience connection, the other…Oi!….
Please…Compose Yourself!
We performed 3 Young People’s Concerts on Tuesday. In my career I must have done over 500 YPC’s and I never grow tired of them. I sometimes like to end a program with something that gets everyone jumping, literally this week when they all did the “wave” to Stars and Stripes. Walking outside afterwards, the buses that were all loaded up were bopping up and down…awesome! But not as awesome as the way the audience collectively responded to an off the cuff question…..
Revolution for an Evolution part 5 – Initiating Initiative
Initiative like vision cannot be taught directly or by wrote, it’s not something that can be given but something I believe that we all have. It can be awakened in students by placing them into situations that call for them to be socially literate, so that they start caring about their communities, the issues, the people. As soon as they get to a school they need to be sent right out again, as soon as it’s possible…….
Getting my Kicks…….
Next weekend is the last concert of the season and it’s a program I have been planning since arriving in Springfield four seasons ago. It’s part of our mission to make the orchestra a community cornerstone by creating programs once in a while that truly celebrate where we are, which in this case is a couple of blocks from Route 66……
Revolution for an Evolution part 4 – Vision
For me there are are three big things that music students should be engaged in discovering: Vision, Initiative and Sincerity. I say discovering only because I don’t believe these elements can be taught by wrote as they are not skills. They can however be learned, and colleges can play a big role by creating an institutional vision that helps to create an ideal environment to facilitate the learning of these elements…..
Revolution for an Evolution part 3 – To always gain and never lose!
Last week the Boise Philharmonic appointed Robert Franz to be their next Music Director. I know Robert well, he succeeded me in Buffalo and I showed him around before he moved there. We have been in touch from time to time. I was a candidate in Boise also (although not in the final running) and upon hearing the news I was very happy for him and for them…wait a second I’m not supposed to feel this way, aren’t we all supposed to be competitors, fierce rivals, we are conductors, surely there must be some mistake…..have I lost my competitive streak?…..
Ron, do you have any pants…?
I had an absolutely wonderful time with the Syracuse Symphony last week doing Brahms 3 and the Dvorak Cello Concerto with Mark Kosower, an incredible artist. We have all experienced that moment after arriving somewhere when we realize we’ve forgotten something. What was unusual when we were in Jamestown NY last week was the call I received an hour before the concert from a musician in the orchestra. It’s impossible to make this stuff up, especially since we were in the birthplace of Lucille Ball!…….