San Jose Chamber Orchestra (Opera!) & Symphony

22. August 2008 · Comments Off on San Jose Chamber Orchestra (Opera!) & Symphony · Categories: Concert Announcements, Links, Opera, Symphony

… all in one weekend.

Tomorrow I meet with SSV folks for the first time this season. I really enjoy getting to do something like this park concert before we get back on stage. It’s just a less stressful way to begin. We perform in the park on Sunday afternoon, and then I have about an hour and a half between that and the San José Chamber Orchestra Opera! concert. (The singers sound great!)

Here’s the symphony’s free concert info that I just found at another site (always good to see others posting this news:

Music in the Meadow
By Gary Wiens
August 22nd, 2008 @ 11:52 AM Free, Fun, Kids, Music, San Jose, Symphony

Symphony Silicon Valley, led by Bruce Hangen, former Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Pops, will perform a live concert for the family to enjoy featuring music by Bernstein, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Beethoven and more. Bring a picnic and come early as the first 700 children receive a free recorder and instruction how to play it beginning at 2:15 pm.

Discovery Meadow Park
Woz Way and San Carlos Street, San Jose

Sunday, August 24
Beginning 3:00 pm

Admission: Free

See at San Jose Metblogs here.

Sounds as if the SJCO concert is nearly sold out, so if you want to go to that (7:00 Sunday evening) better get tickets quickly!

David Amram

22. August 2008 · Comments Off on David Amram · Categories: Links, Ramble

… will be the composer in residence at the Democratic National Convention. You can read about it here. I found out about it here.

Included in the article is this:

He explained the responsibilities of a composer in residence in an e-mail this week while “hiding out” at his farm in upstate New York composing a piano concerto.

Might that be the piano concerto Symphony Silicon Valley will be premiering this year? I’ll bet so.

I met Mr. Amram when we premiered another work, Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, of his, and found him to be very easy to talk to, and extremely gracious. You can now hear that work if you visit this page. I played principal oboe in that performance, and I really loved playing the work. It had a great English horn solo as well, so I would have been happy in either chair. 🙂

Something Borrowed, Red, White & Blue

22. August 2008 · 5 comments · Categories: Links, News

The source of the American national anthem being played at the Beijing Olympics during medal ceremonies is in question. Peter Breiner wasn’t watching the Games until his friends starting calling to say, “That sounds like your arrangement.” It does. Especially the “Rockets Red Glare” section — an unusually soft string rendition that brought some controversy when it was used in Athens in 2004.He got paid for that rendition in 2004. Now Mr. Breiner says he’s “100-percent positive” that the Chinese borrowed it from his work. In an email to The Washington Post, the Chinese insist they came up with the arrangement themselves.

When I heard it the first time I thought, “Oh rats, they are using the version they used four years ago. I really don’t care for that arrangement.” Of course I’d really prefer that our national anthem be America the Beautiful, so what do I know?

You can read about it here or listened to the NPR segment from that link.

Reed Making

22. August 2008 · Comments Off on Reed Making · Categories: Ramble

You are not making reeds. You are learning to make reeds. There’s a big difference. It’s not all your fault.

I confess: I do not like to make reeds.

I know, I know, that’s no surprise. But I thought I’d ‘fess up again. Just because.

I think Martin Schuring likes to make reeds. I know, at least, that he knows a ton about reeds. I really appreciate his Notes for Beginning Reed Makers. You need to read it. Really!

BQOD

22. August 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: BQOD

It seemed that people who listened to music who’s rate was faster than their heart beat drove a little faster, but missed more of the ques on the road. This makes it more likely for people listening to heavy Rock, Punk, or any fast-tempo music more likely to be in an ancient.

On the other side of the spectrum, classical music can put people in a sort of trance making them less able to react to things on the road.

Simply copied from the blog. Honest. Misspelling “queue” is understandable, to be sure. Too many vowels, and you only hear a u, wouldn’t you know?

I don’t listen to much fast music, so I don’t know what it’s like to be in an ancient. I know what it’s like to feel ancient, though.

Okay. Back to my trance-like state.

**Update**
Do read the comments; I clearly wasn’t paying attention to what I was reading. Go figure. 🙂