Yesterday was the last full day of rehearsals and tonight the performances begin. My continuing chat with Richard focuses on the grueling schedule and how that helps a Pianist post Cliburn. I was able catch finalist Haochen Zhang (who is 19 today!) asking The USA chief Steinway technician Ron Coners about an issue with the keys. I then interviewed Ron who used to be the tech for Horowitz! More excerpts from rehearsals with James Conlon 1 on 1 including the practicalities of tempo and collaboration…listen below!
Cliburn Soundoff! – Vacatello/Son/Rodzinski/Tsujii/Conlon/Bozhanov – Audio
From the Cliburn, more from my chat with Richard focusing on how new media can affect an artist’s performance, candid clips from 4 of the finalists including a couple of excerpts from their 1 on 1 rehearsals with James Conlon who arrived yesterday plus an interesting clip with finalist Yeol Eum Son and Cliburn general manager Maria Guralnik about the practicalities of being a non US resident about to be flooded with concert engagements. Some of this you will not see or hear on the web-cast!….
Cliburn Soundoff! – Rodzinski/Lam/Announcement – AUDIO!
This week I will post daily from the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition where for the 4th time I am assisting James Conlon. After rehearsing the orchestra the last two days James takes over and I do the assistant thing which gives me time to do interviews, so this will be mostly Audio postings. Today the 1st part of my talk with ED Richard Rodzinski, a quick chat with Semi finalist Andrea Lam and the announcement of the finalists!……
R – E – S – P – E – C – T !!!
I had the joy of sharing a stage with The Pointer Sisters last weekend. It was really fun to see the Ladies doing there thing on the stage of the Winspear Centre, and our audience jumping up and down, and the bands – the ESO and The Pointer Sisters band – funking out. Great concerts, for sure, but even more interesting stories – and rumor of more sightings of the specie Convinsualistia Outdatie.
Plugging the Holes before Filling the Barrel (2009) – Opposite World!…..
Two articles jumped out at me over the weekend. Both reminded me of the constant tail chasing that goes on in the arts world. Sometimes we get so far behind our audience’s needs, that we end up doing either what we should have been doing all along but a little too late, or the opposite of we should be doing right now….
In order to move forward, first you must “retreat”….plus handing the keys to the musicians!
We had Drew here this week for the purpose of beginning the process to re-structure our organization to be ready for the future. Being that we are in a strong position and not in crisis makes this the perfect time for that process. In other words, rather than waiting for the fires to start, we are attempting to make ourselves fire proof! There were two retreats and many meetings. I am going to let Drew extrapolate on his visit here and instead focus on his chat with myself and one of our musicians about a program that I hope will be repeated everywhere!…..
The Floggings Will Continue… Part Deux
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted to this blog. Many times over the past few weeks I meant to sit down and write a calm, well-reasoned article about how a very good friend of mine was treated by the organization to whom she gave almost two decades of fantastic service. But every time I do sit down my blood starts boiling and I find myself cursing a blue streak. So I had better get this off of my chest now before it gives me an aneurysm. Warning – this will not be a happy post and I plan on using blunt language.
Lie to Me!…..
We all have our favorite TV or Radio shows that we watch or listen to regularly, whether they be a guilty pleasure, relaxation, passing time in the car etc…One of the best shows of the TV season was the Fox show “Lie to Me” and in the very intense season finale Dr. Cal Lightman played by Tim Roth said something that I can’t stop thinking about….