And The Winner Is …

21. June 2019 · Comments Off on And The Winner Is … · Categories: Audition Results, Congratulations!, Oboe · Tags: , ,

San Francisco Opera had second oboe auditions this week. They were scheduled for four days, and I can’t imagine how exhausted both the players and the committee are at this point! But they have a winner.

Congratulations to Gabriel Young! I look forward to hearing you play next year. (Yes, we have season tickets again.)

Marcello, in 2015 (From YouTube: “19-year-old Gabriel Young (winner of the program’s concerto competition) in the final concert of the 2015 National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.”):

Here he is, playing the Mozart, in 2016:

And the Strauss. Memorized.

Obviously a fine, fine player! Very musical, which matters very much to me.

Congratulations, Nicholas Daniel!

27. January 2012 · Comments Off on Congratulations, Nicholas Daniel! · Categories: Congratulations!

Oboist and conductor Nicholas Daniel has been named as this year’s recipient of the Queen’s Medal for Music, Buckingham Palace has announced.

A former winner of the BBC young musician of the year, the 50-year-old will be presented with the accolade by the Queen later this year.

RTWT

Congratulations!

09. April 2011 · Comments Off on Congratulations! · Categories: Congratulations!

Tenor Juan Diego Florez has really delivered: a host of high Cs to a worldwide audience of millions _ and minutes earlier, his own baby boy in New York City.

RTWT

… can you imagine helping delivering your son and then going to sing an opera?

Well, okay, I can’t imagine going to sing an opera no matter what!

Earlier this month:

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his wife, Eloísa Maturén, are the proud parents of a baby boy, Martín Dudamel Maturén. Eloísa Maturén gave birth Friday at 9:39 p.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to Deborah Borda, president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The baby weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Mr. Dudamel, on the other hand (and understandably) opted to miss conducting a concert.

RTWT

Congratulations, Jennifer Higdon!

12. April 2010 · Comments Off on Congratulations, Jennifer Higdon! · Categories: Congratulations!, Videos

Composer Jennifer Higdon has won the Pulitzer Prize for music for her Violin Concerto, making her one of the few women to have won the country’s top classical music prize.

RTWT

I corresponded with Ms. Higdon after I had blogged about her Concerto for Orchestra that SSV performed. She contacted me and was so gracious, kindly dealing with my little comment about how my part went lower than my instrument played, explaining the issue. She even sent me a copy of her wonderful oboe concerto. I’d love to hear that done somewhere in my locale!

(Please note: I wasn’t grumping about the note. I assumed it was an error about the octave or something, and I do hope people know I honestly don’t mean to be harsh here. Recently I’ve been mis-interpreted by several people. Sometimes I wonder if they are reading me with their tone of voice, rather than mine. If I was to be mean and catty, I’d probably do it somewhere that wouldn’t be seen by so many. I’m too darn wimpy to be publicly mean the majority of the time.)

Here are three videos with Hilary Hahn interviewing Jennifer Higdon.

Congratulations to Gregory Vajda

10. July 2009 · Comments Off on Congratulations to Gregory Vajda · Categories: Congratulations!, Links

Maestro Vajda has been named as the new artistic and music director of Music In The Mountains.

I really enjoyed working with Gregory Vajda; I look forward to seeing him again with Symphony Silicon Valley in our 2009-2010 season.

Article #1

This second article includes this:

By all accounts, MIM musicians, some of whom have performed under Vajda at Symphony Silicon Valley, are keen on him.

“We are extremely excited about this,” said MIM concertmaster Robin Mayforth, who was also on the search committee.

“He has this infectious energy and enthusiasm that translates into us being able to play on this incredible level.”

But it wasn’t just Vajda’s charisma that won over Mayforth and other members of the orchestra.

“From the moment he steps up to the podium, there is a clarity in his stick technique,” she said. “And there is this incredible trust that he places in us, and we feel we can trust him as well. That puts everyone at ease.”

(Robin Mayforth is also concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley.)