Through the next week I shall be in the beautiful city of Charlotte, N.C. It will be my pleasure to return to the podium of the Charlotte Symphony for concerts this weekend. These are not normal concerts – this particular CSO is looking for a Music Director.
Bill Holm is a Minnesota writer who penned a fabulous book several years ago called Coming Home Crazy. It is a collection of stories about the time that this 6’5″ descendant of the Icelandic warriors spent teaching English in the middle kingdom – China – during the mid ’80s. It’s fabulous, very intuitive and insightful, and an absolute must-read for anyone with an interest in the Land of the Dragon. It’s also the book I took on my recent vacation to Mexico.
Legitimacy in art has long been debated by intellectuals as to whether or not popularity equals legitimacy. I have heard it bemoaned that there have been no Operas written in the past 40 to 50 years that have become part of the regular repertoire. I would argue that the composer Stephen Sondheim like Gershwin and Bernstein before him has broken that Musical to Opera barrier even though he says he’s not a fan of Opera! For me Sweeney Todd is an Opera and Sondheim is a master composer who should be on … Continue Reading
Ho Ho Ho!!!! The kids are all excited because Santa is coming. If the Big Guy manages to find our snow-laden chimney this year I’m a gonna ask him for the following 12 things for Classical Music:
With thanks to Ron for reminding me to blog about the wonderful ESWAT team at the Edmonton Symphony.
Comes today the stunning news from the L.A. Times that this generation of classical musicians actually listens to other music!!!! Even more amazing, we actually enjoy it and (shudder!!!!!) PLAY IT! I’m SHOCKED!! SHOCKED!!
Orchestras improve with more performances not more rehearsals! The act of being at your best happens at the point of contact with an audience. The challenge is: How do we perform more with expenses rising and budgets stagnating? Simple, if you have good musicians, TRUST THEM and don’t rehearse them to death! In fact by cutting rehearsals an orchestra can become better and fast!!…..
This past weekend in the middle of conducting “The Nutcracker” a thought occurred to me. Didn’t composers try to use new instruments as soon as they became available? Case in point the Celeste. We hear Sugar Plum now and the first thought from conductors and musicians is probably Great only 10 minutes till the end of the ballet! Seriously though, when it was first heard it would have been like hearing an Electric Guitar in the orchestra today the sound was so new…