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Archive of entries posted on 18th January 2007

Good Question!

“… obviously playing music does not help my stress, or it hasn’t lately. Why is this though? How has something so joyful and peaceful become so painful, destructive and unpleasant?“ Matt Heller asks a very good question. I’m sure he and I aren’t the only two musicians who ask this. At least I hope not! [...]

I Know Some Of My Pals Don’t Agree

… but there are times I sure wish I could play sax. Watching this video it’s one of those times. There is something about sax. It’s like it’s from the gut, you know? Or maybe you don’t. But that’s how it sounds and feels to me. The blog itself was about sad news. I had [...]

Hey … That’s ME?!

Radio One also affected in bid to attract younger listeners to classical station CBC’s classical music station, Radio Two, is revamping its evening and late-night programming in a bid to attract younger listeners, the public broadcaster announced Wednesday. So I read that headline and thought, “Oh yeah. Like this isn’t something I’ve heard over and [...]

The Truth About The Double Bass?

Tom Vignieri, the music producer for From the Top, describes Serenade for Strings, a movement work written for a string orchestra and a double bass, as a “strikingly beautiful work.” Hmm. Does this mean the double bass isn’t part of a string orchestra? This is from an article about a young composer who will be [...]

MQOD

What I like is bottomless flattery. -Peter O’Toole (If you didn’t see the Charlie Rose interview—I just saw it on KQED—I hope you can catch it sometime. It was wonderful.) Update: There’s a blog entry about the interview over at Sounds & Fury that you might want to check out. —–

Listen: John Mack

You can hear a bit of John Mack here, on Composer’s Datebook. Scroll down to January 17, and click on “PLAY TODAY’S PROGRAM”. It’s a short segment, and there’s talking over much of it, but you’ll be hearing Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Oboe Concerto, which she wrote for Mack. (He premiered the concerto on January 17, [...]

Nokia Nixes News

They say it wasn’t the phone after all. So never mind about this post. Although phones going off at concerts are still annoying. Concert tonight. 7:30. And the low notes only get more difficult rather than easier. Not that I’ve bombed, but I’ve grown more uncomfortable at each rehearsal. I wonder why that is. Oh. [...]