So MMmusings thinks I might be jealous, eh? Nope. Not I. Not of Swan Lake anyway! I could have opted for Swan Lake rather than Rigoletto and yet I didn’t. Go figure. It is a lovely solo. But the entire ballet … it’s brutal on the oboist. Still, I do love the expressiveness of that [...]
Archive of entries posted on February 2008
If You Build Blog It He Will Come
So someone blogs about Alex Klein and “The Commercial”. She puts up a few comics too. She then corresponds with him. Eventually he comes to her school to give a masterclass. Too cool, huh? No, this isn’t about me. But still it’s cool. Read about it here. It makes me wonder though: who should I [...]
Happy Birthday!
… to ACB! So what are you now … EIGHT? Cool.
Appomattox Nixed?
I’ll be sad if it’s the case, but wondered about it when I saw four operas listed recently. Then Robert Gable provided a link to yet another wonderer. I realize a lot of people i talked with didn’t care for the opera, but I liked it and was hoping to see it again.
A Quiet Week
After Rigoletto this week has felt a bit odd. I will admit that it’s nice to be home every night, but I get rather lazy, and I sure watch a lot of junk TV. But I’ll remain a Project Runway junkie, (Hey … PR idea … design for an orchestra! Tee hee. Of course I [...]
Auditions (again)
Speaking of auditions, I ran across three videos of oboists who are auditioning for something called IYO. Hmmm. Anyone know what that is? International Youth Orchestra? Italian Youth Orchestra? Something else? Do tell. Video One Two Three (Not numbered due to abliity, just randomly done.)
Ooh … Fight … Fight!
China Philharmonic Orchestra vs. Lang Lang That’s what I see here, although it might change and then you’ll miss it. Too bad, eh? Alex Ross saw it first.
Hah!
Some of you will get this, some not. I’m guessing Mr. Kaulkin will. How ’bout you, Mike? The rest of you? Do tell! ;-) (Thanks, Kelsey!) “… and a little more beer ….”
Please Study with an Oboist
I’ve had students come to me with some major problems. Sometimes it’s fingering issues, and sometimes embouchure. Sometimes it’s even basic things like, “Oh, I’m supposed to dip my reed in water?!” Please, please, please … study with an oboist! Study with someone who is actually playing the darn instrument, not someone who used to [...]
Ouch!
Can you imagine being told by the conductor that you must apologize to the chorus if you, as an instrumentalist, made a mistake? Aykal has an excellent temperament and balanced approach; a redoubtable task-master and charismatic wit. The first wrong note was met with a glare, and an instruction to the poor culprit – an [...]
Maybe She’s Just Boring?
Four-and-half-years ago, Spector approached Leeds after one of his seminars and told him about her dogs falling asleep when she played the piano. She hoped that he would want to work with her on a CD for dogs. RTWT Yeah, everyone’s heard by now that classical music soothes dogs. But I still had to post [...]
Short Sits
Do you like opera a bit, but don’t like to stick around for three hours or more? Check out Five:15. I wouldn’t mind hearing what these folks came up with. I doubt I’ll get to Scotland soon though, unless someone wants to send me there. (Pretty please?! I love Scotland!) Apparently there were no women [...]
Too Darn Fun!
Gotta Dance! With shopping carts. (Or “trolleys”.) ;-) I just found this charming. And I’ll bet those people had lots of fun doing it, too!
Auditions
Here is a good blog entry about auditions. If you want to know what musicians are up against, read it. Jason Heath has written about the cruel and unusual punishment as well (including a post about his horrible experience with San Jose Symphony —for some reason I feel to blame, which is so darn pathetic [...]
I Won’t Win An Oscar
… but yesterday I was put on film. I really was. But no biggie, to be honest; UCSC had to videotape a few lessons for my review. This sort of thing is nothing stressful to me. Maybe it’s not to most musicians who spend time on the stage. I simply don’t pay attention to a [...]