There’s a vitriolic war of words going on across the pond in Great Britain over this statement made by the Arts Minister Margaret Hodge:
“The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events – I’m thinking of the Proms but it is true of many others – is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this.”
She is being torn apart for this, but there is a balanced and profound viewpoint that I came across……
I’ll never forget one particular day during my senior year in high school in Sydney Australia, when in English class we had our first lesson on King Lear. Our teacher began to talk about the play. We were not paying much attention and suddenly he stood up, opened the door and asked us to follow him. Someone asked him where we were going, (to the Principal’s office I thought) to the theater he replied…..
Today I noticed a very scary article that was posted on ArtsJournal on Friday. The US society has gotten to the point where there are some States spending more on prisons then they are on higher education. If this doesn’t scare the livin’ bejesus out of you then……….
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…..
Oy! Putting together an opera is not for the squeamish. It takes a very special breed of conductor to specialize in this particular art form and my hat’s off to them.
“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…….
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…..
For today’s post I have a very special guest: Allan Gilliland is a composer based in Edmonton, and tonight the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is giving the World Premiere of his newest work – Dreaming of the Masters II: Rhapsody GEB. In Allan’s own words this is what it’s all about………