Don’t Be Expecting Gigs From Your Instructors, Though

18. May 2009 · 4 comments · Categories: Links

The annual Nutcracker production at the Stevens Center will soon have a different sound.

Student musicians from UNC School of the Arts will perform in the pit during the show’s run in December, replacing paid musicians from the Winston-Salem Symphony, UNCSA officials announced yesterday. Ransom Wilson, the music director of the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra, will conduct.

Sigh. Quite some time ago a board member of a now defunct orchestra threatened something like this.

Later on in the same article:

The decision to go with student musicians as opposed to paid professionals does make educational sense for UNCSA: The students will gain some experience performing a score that they will almost certainly encounter if they become professionals.

Heh. Sure. But if your teachers were in that professional group and you are taking their gig, you can assume they won’t be entirely pleased and I’m guessing they won’t be offering your name up for as a sub any time soon. Of course if these students do land an orchestra job in the Winston-Salem Orchestra they can kiss the Nutcracker gig goodbye.

Hmmm. What about the students who have already made it into the Winston-Salem Orchestra? (If there are any; I was a professional symphony member when I was still at the university). They won’t be allowed to play.

You can read the entire article here.

Stealing Is Still Wrong, Even In 2009

18. May 2009 · 5 comments · Categories: Links, Quotes, Ramble

A pervasive thought is that if the source is online it may be treated with less respect than something in print. So endemic is this feeling in wired youth-culture that for some, illegally downloading software, pirating music and stealing intellectual property is no longer viewed for what it is — stealing.

And for anyone caught red-handed that claims innocence — or has the cheek to proclaim a high-minded purpose to deflect complete responsibility — the fact still remains; this is stealing.

You can read the above, and more and Bruce Hembd (yes, mbd … gee, Bruce, how do you pronounce that?)

I so appreciate Bruce’s two posts about this. Stealing is stealing. You can quote me on that. Or you can quote Bruce instead. Either way is okay. Just credit us, please. 😉

I’m so thankful that I don’t have to read concert reports or research papers. I don’t have to deal with plagiarism. I just teach oboe, and I haven’t, at least up until now, required any written work. It’s difficult for my students to do a lot of cheating when it comes to playing. They can lie about practicing, but I can almost always tell when they do that. I won’t allow copies to be used in lessons, so they also can’t get away with using illegal copies, and I’ve stopped loaning out my CDs because they too frequently came back damaged. If they copy illegally from other sources there’s not much I can do. But they certainly know how I feel about it.

I don’t know that there is anything on this blog that is actually worth stealing, but if anyone has taken things and used them as their own I haven’t a clue about it. I would hope that people would ask permission to use anything here, but since no one has asked … hmmm … well, I’m going to assume no one wants anything here.

I do always try to link and give credit to anything here … except for the BQODs and TQODs. I suppose I should rethink those. Truth be told, I didn’t want to link to some of those because I didn’t want to embarrass the writers. Perhaps I should stop posting the quotes instead. Thoughts? Is it illegal or unethical to post quotes anonymously? Oh dear. Now I’m going to feel guilty about these. Bruce HeMBD (grin) … thoughts?

Tennis Shoes & T Shirts

18. May 2009 · 3 comments · Categories: Links, Ramble, Videos

So this guy, James Rhodes, is on a mission. I read it first here where, clearly, the writer isn’t blown away.

And no, I’ve never played in a concert hall that smelled of urine. Some of the backstage bathrooms were pretty awful, but no one in the audience would have a clue about that. And I’m seeing old people at concerts, it’s true, but I’m also seeing some kids, and even hearing babies cry at times. (Why oh why do people bring infants to concerts? I’m puzzled by that one!)

So anyway, I wanted to read more about this lover and promoter of classical music. So I checked this article out, and an even earlier one. They guy likes to swear a lot and smoke. He’s edgy. He likes to dress in t shirts, jeans and sneakers. But what’s most important is “Can he play?”

(I think he needs to clip his fingernails … isn’t that what I’m hearing clicking away?)

I’ll let you all be the judge of his music.

Here he is (below, I mean), playing what he is calling the “Bach Marcello” and now I’m just confused and feeling like an idiot because I thought it was the Marcello Oboe Concerto. Are we playing a transcription of this by someone else?

Again, you can judge for yourself what you think of the music (I have an opinion, but I don’t want to jump in here and color what you might think):

TQOD

18. May 2009 · Comments Off on TQOD · Categories: TQOD

I now play double reeds so I’m even more awesome…..if only I could afford an English Horn….where is my bailout Obama????

BQOD

18. May 2009 · Comments Off on BQOD · Categories: BQOD

I actually do feel smarter, more peaceful and even more motivated when I listen to Classical music.