Just a bit of “Der Philosoph” — Symphonie Nr.22 — for you (perhaps you can guess why I chose this particular symphony?):
Presto (second movement):
Finale:
Bob Ward, principal horn of San Francisco Symphony, answers a question about auditions at the symphony’s social network site.
Find more videos like this on San Francisco Symphony Social Network
I think it would have been more fun to hear about his very long audition process.
Ah, auditions. I am quite behind in keeping those up to date here. This week I’m hoping to be able to catch up on the list. In the following weeks I definitely need to go through all my lists of oboe and bassoon players and make all the necessary changes. I have considered retiring those pages, as the work is awfully time consuming, but I’ll see if I can deal with it soon and if it’s not as difficult as I fear I’ll go ahead and keep ’em up; I think some people enjoy those lists. In case you haven’t viewed them, here they are:
- Double Reed Instructors in the US (This list is small, as I only add folks in if they contact me.)
- Double Reed Musicians’ Personal Pages
- Instructors: North American Universities, Colleges & Conservatories
- Instructors: USA Boarding Schools
So check ’em out if you haven’t already; and feel free to update me with any information you have. 🙂
I guess I’m just amazed that I set out this goal to see all these Mahler symphonies, and now I have seen all of his amazing symphonies live, thanks to this crazy tour of mine.
Purcell: Hear My Prayer
I’m home from playing for the Cantabile Intermediate choir. What a great group of singers! These young kids … probably third through seventh grades … were incredibly well behaved, and sure knew their music. The younger kiddos also sang while I was there, and they were extremely cute and again well behaved. I don’t know what these directors do, but they know how to get kids to pay attention without, from what I can tell, being at all mean.
Unfortunately I had to leave after the first half, so I missed the older singers. I just knew I’d have to get my ear out of sound for a time, and eating dinner before tonight’s concert is probably a good idea too.
Here is the Intermediate group at a Christmas concert:
One thing that always takes me a bit of time to get used to is choral conducting. I just want downbeats and you don’t always get them. The kids have no problem with that, though. And aren’t they cute?
When I see names of friends and colleagues in reviews it’s fun to paste them here for all to see. When it’s from an opera review it’s even more fun, since the orchestra doesn’t always get a mention for opera. Congrats, friends!
Concertmaster Tina Anderson, cellists Janet Witharm and Dahna Rudin, Peter Lemberg on oboe/English horn, clarinetists Bruce Foster and Susan Macy have earned special mention.
I read it here. 🙂
The lituus looks terribly unweildy. Read this article and you can even listen to the thing.
I think oboe sounds better, but of course I’m biased.
“We were rehearsing from 10 am to 10 pm,” said Zavgorodniy, “Working hard. And there were no language barriers: we speak the same language — forte, piano, iminuendo, ritenuto…”
Sometimes I struggle with the iminuendo, though … 😉
The article is about the YTSO, of course. Interesting to read that one of the winners didn’t follow the rules on the second round; I suspected that rule following wasn’t completely necessary with this thing.
I read the reviews (not all that positive for the most part). I heard the orchestra (sounded like what it was). I know what a few colleagues think of it (thumbs down). But I just don’t get all that upset about the thing. It was a gimmick for YouTube. It was probably a great deal of fun for the winners. And I think it may have even gotten some folks to watch a symphony who otherwise would have skipped it. So … well … whatever!
I don’t think I would have wanted to do a 10-10 rehearsal, though. I guess I’m too darn lazy!
Intro:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Classical music played at station to ‘pacify’ Underground users, despite area’s rich pop history
[…]
One staff member said it was “too early” to tell if the music was a help or a hindrance, but said anything was worth trying to encourage customers to behave more politely towards harassed staff.
Yes indeed. Every classical musician I know is always polite. It’s all because of the music.
I just wound up with a lot of free time at UCSC: my first student showed up saying he wasn’t feeling well. When he complained about how bad his throat felt I said, “Let me have a look.”
White spots.
Now I suppose it could be something else, but I told him to go to the health center right away. I’m thinking strep. And he has to play in the UCSC opera performance tonight. (Or at least he’s supposed to! I suppose if push came to shove I’d wind up in the pit in his place. I was planning on attending in any case.)
So I have some free time, and I’m attempting to catch up with email. I have been negligent so I have a lot of catching up to do.
I’ve found a very “good side” of the ear problem; it really hurts if I bite my nails! Perhaps this whole ear problem could cure me of my ridiculously immature and bad habit. (Doubtful, though.) It also hurts to whistle. When I have music on in the car I frequently start to whistle … and since I am so forgetful I manage to continue to try this, each time being painfully reminded that whistling hurts. Funny how playing the oboe, speaking and singing don’t hurt, but whistling does.
Maybe that’s just saying something about my whistling, though. (And, by the way, I can only whistle by “whistling in” rather than blowing out. Weird, huh?)
