We had our second rehearsal for Rigoletto today, and it was our first with singers. This is an opera I prefer to rehearse with singers; it makes it so much easier to play! Besides, I just love voices.
My part isn’t killer hard, but it has its moments. There’s one section I should copy out [...]
Read here:
Star tenor Juan Diego Florez has been forced to cancel all performances in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” because of a throat infection caused by a swallowed fishbone, the company said Thursday.
Chew on that for a while. (But be careful about how and what you swallow.)
Anyone, anywhere, at any time can listen to the B minor Mass (BWV 232) upon one condition only - that they possess a machine. No qualification is required of any sort - faith, virtue, education, experience, age. Music is now free for all. If I say the loudspeaker is the principal enemy of music, I [...]
If you, like me, can’t stay up all that late if you aren’t working, you can catch Alex Ross on the Colbert Report by going here.
I’ll catch it later, as I’m off to Rigoletto.
History is history and music is music. I mean, they’re totally separate. I mean, history’s like 4th period and music is 6th [...]
“One of the things I’m doing in Paris is being fitted for the prosthetics for my gradual transformation [into the fly creature]. And there are telepods and smoke and teleportation and videos of exploding baboons. There’s a lot going on,” he said, with a slight laugh.
I dunno. An opera of The Fly just doesn’t appeal [...]
Denmark’s most distinguished chamber ensemble seeks an oboist. The ensemble features an exciting, wide-ranging repertoire of both traditional and contemporary chamber music.
(read here)
What would you recommend to a younger, or new classical music listener?
Alex Ross: First, go to a live concert. Recordings capture only a fraction of what makes classical music compelling—the social experience of listening with a crowd in real time, the physical and psychological effect of hearing natural sound reverberate in a room.
I was talking [...]
… as well as other composers. Read all about it.
The video headline is “Muzak tames the savage beast” … hmmm … something to howl about?
I can tell you I bark less and snooze more. And I listen to classical music. So it must be true.
Oh. But I’m no dog.
Right?
Now of course someone [...]
The French horn must be really hard to play, because it sure sounds like it.
-Wayne Bergeron, trumpet player
(found here)
If any of you have applied to UCSC, or are applying to SCU and would like to connect with me, feel free to drop me a line. I’ve noticed some visitors from the university websites, so I thought I’d put a note up here to get your attention!
In case you’re online and want to chat [...]
Since we splurged and went for the entire San Francisco Opera 2008-2009 season, I’m thinking we’ll skip out on the offer by San Francisco Symphony, but it IS a great deal, so I’m going to recommend it to readers! :-)
$25 or $55 at ticket? Great prices!
I just read the blog of a wind player who was subbing in an orchestra. The player names the orchestra as well as the works. So you know there are no secrets. That same horn player then admits playing a lot of the first piece down an octave because the new work was something he/she [...]
I just love the picture here! Too. Darn. Cool.
I’d steal the picture and put it here, but I think that’s against the rules and, well, you know me and rules! :-)
But a football player who knows about the oboe? Say what?!
And yes, you bet your life I’m going to watch the Superbowl. These past few [...]
The misshapen Schumann Piano Concerto started its life as a stand-alone Fantasy that morphed into a long first movement, the composer then adding two small closing sections to flesh it out. The work has an unusually quirky performance history. In one of the first concert hall performances of the work, the solo oboist made a [...]
Repost
So if anyone is interested in registering do feel free! Please remember I want a name on that form; sometimes spambots try to register and if I see what looks to be a real name I can assume the registrant is real. Then you can join in conversations … tell me I’m goofy … tell [...]
Anyway, in som countris I think it is splld “obo”.
Patricia Prunty, associate professor of music, decided to throw out her obo and focus on what makes her heart really skip a beat-singing.
(and later)
After realizing the perfect dynamic the group had, Prunty decided it was best to focus on singing, rather than also playing piano, [...]
If we want thousands to hear us in the huge auditoriums of our concert halls and opera houses we simply have to make a lot of noise.
-Gustav Mahler (read in The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross)
I’ve been on both sides of the screen when it comes to auditions. I’ve sat on the panel, and I’ve escorted auditionees to that horrible screen a good number of times. In both cases I have been a bit nauseous; there’s something about auditions … even though I wasn’t even auditioning I’d get that awful [...]
No, we are not “San Jose Philharmonic”! Oops.
I’m SO glad I don’t do the drives these musicians do. I couldn’t bear it!
I’m with Karla; I don’t want to commute with other musicians if I can avoid it. And since I live 7 minutes away from work I can get away with driving alone, except when [...]
Someone in a discussion group was asking for a recording of the Hindemith Oboe Sonata.
Here’s a bit of the conversation (with a few things that might identify the people X’d out):
Person #1: Would somebody happen to have a recording of the Hindemith sonata for oboe an piano? I’m supposed to perform this piece in a [...]
Read here:
Mahler’s ‘hideousness’ cannot be ignored
UNION-TRIBUNE
January 27, 2008
I am a musician, concert-goer, opera lover and, hopefully, a compassionate human being. Therefore, I strongly disagree with Valerie Scher’s statement that Wagner’s beliefs should be separated from his music (“Looking beyond composer’s dark shadow: Wagner’s work should be separated from the taint of his anti-Semitic beliefs,” Jan. [...]
6:00 pm KQED Channel 9
Truly CA: Our State, Our Stories[#305]
Freeway Philharmonic
This documentary follows seven San Francisco Bay Area freelance classical musicians as they perform with regional orchestras across Northern California, juggling their love of music with a stressful road warrior lifestyle - which often requires traveling hundreds of miles a day to rehearse, teach, and [...]
Certain people are annoyed that I believe in God, but I want people to know that God is present in everything, in the concert hall, in the ocean, on the mountain, even on the underground.
-Olivier Messian (read in The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century)
I’ve started a Summer Programs page for college students and young professionals. If any readers out there want to recommend one feel free to leave me a message and I’ll happily add to the list.
If you are hoping to attend UCSC, be sure and send those scholarship recordings in! They must be postmarked by January 31.
Need the info? Go here.
AND … if you are planning on UCSC, why not drop me a line? :-)
