Tomorrow I have the honor to conduct for the second time in my career Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. I can’t help but think that if the New York Phil had performed this with a choir from North Korea then the world would have been on that stage, not just an orchestra from America. It brings to mind Bernstein’s famous 1989 performance celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall and him changing the word Joy to the word Freedom…..
Ron Spigelman
Way to Go Nagano!
“It was so exciting to be in a jam-packed arena…..I was impressed by the ferocity of the crowd’s emotions. There was such a personal investment and identification with the players. And the mood can change very, very quickly.”
This is a quote by Kent Nagano that appeared recently in the Toronto Globe and Mail. He’s not talking about a concert though…….
Real Water Music!
Sometimes music hits you when you least expect it. The opening work on our concert this Saturday will be the second suite from Handel’s Water Music. In picking up a few things from our local grocery store yesterday I noticed both the water and the music were for real…..
“Blah Blah Blah Spigelman!”
A blogger wrote the above comment in a post about a performance I conducted 18 months ago at our annual “Firefall” festival, a patriotic extravaganza with incredible fireworks. I think the blogger was right in this case since when I talked, the fireworks paused! When judging whether or not talking to an audience is a good idea, I believe what is said by a conductor is secondary to their motivation to talk…..
Here we go again with the Funding!
We read about funding cuts and immediately there is outrage, “how can they do this?”, “where is the soul in our government?”, “how can they devalue the arts like this?” and so on. We never look at ourselves or for that matter outside of our sphere to realize that we have not yet made ourselves a necessity. If we are vital to the world’s well being, providing a basic human need, then obviously we’ve not totally proved it yet, or they wouldn’t keep targeting the arts…….
For Goodness Sakes Let Me Move, and Please Clean the Piano!!!
When I go to Syracuse I sometimes stay with a wonderful couple, Todd and Debbie Cornell. They are Symphony subscribers, donors, and volunteers. Whenever I am with them we have long discussions (usually while gorging on Debbie’s incredible blueberry pancakes) about the orchestra world, and as audience members they recently expressed to me two very different desires for the concert experience………
Plugging the Holes before Filling the Barrel – part 5 -“Bordering on the Personal!”
For the final part of this series, I introduce a program we call “Coffee and Classics” and also give a cost summary of each audience initiative program I have outlined in this series. Regarding my criticism in recent posts regarding gimmicks especially of the cupcake variety, for this program we serve coffee……hypocrisy?
At the “Knight”, it’s a new Dawn!
After my rant about the Heinz Endowments last week, it came as a complete but welcome surprise to read of how the Knight Foundation has changed their philosophy of giving, at least for three arts organizations in South Florida. I believe they will ultimately prove that vision always begins with common sense!….