21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: FBQD

i wanna know how to play the oboe it looks amazing

21. May 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Quotes

We are not entertainers. We are musicians.

-Riccardo Muti

21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Concert Announcements

My brother, Timothy Emerson, manages and performs with the group. Here’s what he sent out:

Friends:

It’s time for another Willow Ensemble Concert!

Date / Time: 8PM on June 10 and June 11
Place: Grace Church Chantry at 10th and Broadway
Cost: $15 (advance); $20 (at the door)

Program:

Bach: Partitas for Organ
Bach: Cantata BWV 82, “Ich habe genug” for Bass Baritone and Chamber Orchestra
Schubert: Die Forelle (for baritone voice and piano)
Schubert: “The Trout” Piano Quintet

Players:

Patrick Allen, Organ
Martin Labazevitch, Piano
A. Joshua Stetson, Bass Baritone
Marilyn Cole, Oboe
Timothy Emerson, Bassoon
Alexander Sharpe, Violin
Michael Roth, Violin
David Gold, Viola
Sarah Hewitt-Roth, Cello
Jeffrey Carney, Bass

Hope you can join us!

If you would like to reserve tickets at $15/each, please respond to this email with your full name, the date of the concert you wish to attend, and the number seats you’ll need.

Cheers!

Timothy Emerson
Artistic Director, Willow Ensemble

Obviously you can’t “respond to this email” as it says above. But here is Timothy’s email address: emerst [at] gmail [dot] com

21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Symphony, Videos

I wonder.

Please Vote

21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Saturday Morning Cartoon

Mickey’s Grand Opera (Mar. 7, 1936)

21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: TQOD

Whoever’s playing the Oboe, please stop.

21. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Announcements

While Symphony Silicon Valley was voted in the top 100 for Chase Community Giving (Thank you voters! Thank you Chase!), we now enter into a tighter race, competing for the $500,000 grant for our arts education program.. Because of that I’m going to remind you daily until the voting stops. PLEASE, if you are on Facebook, vote for us. This is a worthy and worthwhile cause … taking the arts to all 4th through 6th grade students in our county! That’s the goal. I — and all involved with Symphony Silicon Valley — appreciate your votes! Let’s get the larger sum of money for this project!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Wait, what are you doing reading this blog still? You really need to CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Please bear with me: I will post this particular news every day until the voting period ends.

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Read Online

… would you still choose oboe? (For you oboe players out there, that is.)

Oboe was Harvey-Reed’s original instrument although she admits she would have preferred playing the flute.

I read that here, and I just wondered if others feel this way as well. Flute would never be the instrument I would name. Cello possibly. But honestly, as frustrating as I am with reeds, I am still glad I play oboe and English horn.

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Announcements, Opera

Stark Insider has an article. up as well as the following video:

Opera Idol from Stark Insider on Vimeo.

Opera is the greatest art form created by the human mind,” Lotfi Mansouri, a judge and former general director of the San Francisco Opera tells Loni Kao Stark. “And you know why? Because it’s a composite art form. Everything is in it. It’s not just the music, it’s the stage, it’s the sets, the costumes. Dance. Lighting. Anything you want, it’s in opera.”

May 21, 7pm
California Theatre, 345 South First Street, San Jose
Tickets; $100 ($50 tax deductible) for premium seating; $50 ($25 tax-deductible) for reserved orchestra seating.

I’ll be there tomorrow night at 7:00 to hear the 10 finalists. SO cool, too, to see the number of OSJ current and former artists in residence are in the finals!!! Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste, Rebecca Davis, Christopher Bengochea, Jasmina Halimic & Krassen Karagiozov … congratulations!

And yeah, Jouvanca, I drive a Prius! Does that make ME a Prius? Hmmm. Maybe so. ;-)

(Opera San José link.)

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: WorldReeds™ · Tags: ,

Here is the Catalan folk oboe … and it appears that they like to do contemporary music on these! I had to put a few videos up … I just couldn’t resist.

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Announcements

It’s not just about music, by the way … we’re talking theater, ballet and more!

Please vote!

We don’t have nearly enough votes to pull us through at this point. Spread the word. Tell your family, friends, colleagues … heck, tell the grocery store clerk and the person who makes your lattés!

And thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who have voted. It is greatly appreciated!

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Quotes

All you have to do is learn how to listen. If you listen to the music, it will tell you what it’s trying to do. If you try and interfere with it in some way, if you come with some theory about how it goes, then you’re in for trouble. You just have to allow the music to flow. So if you can set it off right at the beginning, then you’ve got nothing more to do.

-Sir Colin Davis

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Just Sayin'

I was playing in a woodwind quintet at a shopping mall and a man pointed to an instrument and said, ‘What is THAT?! I’ve never seen one before!” He was pointing at the flute.

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: Oboe, Videos

Howarth, with the help of Christopher Redgate, has a redesigned oboe. Check it out!

Here’s Mr. Redgate playing “The Sting of the Bee” (a “Transcendental improvised study”):

20. May 2011 · Comments Off · Categories: FBQD

IM PLAYING THE OBOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This young girl looks to be in middle school, if not younger. C’mon parents, teach your kids how to hide their Facebook pages from those of us who aren’t her “friends” at least! I love her excitement though.)