Funny

17. April 2010 · Comments Off on Funny · Categories: Ramble

I just heard a kid (looks to be an older teen) tell another “This is a Japanese Maple. Ja-pa-nese Ma-ple,” he pronounced slowly, holding a branch from our tree in the front. He then said, with a bit of awe, “It’s 200 to 300 years old.”

We planted that tree in the 80s. 🙂

It was rather cute and made me smile on what is a somewhat dull Saturday.

I’m not sure why, but I’m exhausted. Probably because I had gotten used to having no work, and I just finished up with three days in a row of three hour rehearsals for opera. I love love LOVE being back to work. I love the joy music brings. I love the beautiful music in this. But I do get used to laziness. True, I’ve been teaching, but it’s not taxing in quite the same way as the pages and pages of music. Especially as this opera is new to us. We are all quite used to Boheme, Tosca, Butterfly … and as tiring as those might be to play, they don’t require the concentration that this currently requires. After all, I have to count measures of rest! I’m looking forward to reaching the point when that isn’t necessary any longer. Not that I ever fully trust myself to not count them … but I like knowing that even if I didn’t I’d be okay with the next entrance!

Here’s another snippet of the opera, this time used in the movie “A Room With A View” … go to 3:13 to begin and of course the wonderful kiss at 5:56, cut short by Charlotte …

Oh this does make me want to see that movie again!

Uninvited Percussion?

17. April 2010 · 5 comments · Categories: Videos, WWQuintet

It appears that the Madison Winds had some added percussion during their performance of the Aria from Arne Running’s Aria and Quodlibet for Woodwind Quintet … you’d not know it from looking at them, though! We are so good about not showing any reaction to things like this. So do you think it would be wise sometimes to just stop and ask that the noise be silenced, beginning the work again after that, I wonder?

Aria:

Quodlibet:

I Hadn’t Been Thinking Of This

17. April 2010 · Comments Off on I Hadn’t Been Thinking Of This · Categories: News

I knew the volcano that erupted caused tons of flights to be canceled, and I saw the news that told of stranded travelers, but I was totally forgetting about the musical world.

Travel disruptions from Europe’s volcanic ash problem have brought a heavy measure of turmoil to the classical music world. More than in many other fields, its practitioners — conductors, singers, pianists and other instrumentalists — depend on plane flights. Opera casts are increasingly international. Concert promoters, especially in this country, place a heavy premium on foreign talent. After all, where does “jet set” fit better than adjacent to “conductor”?

RTWT