Now that the symphony’s season is over, there’s no reason to despair! No, in fact, there are many reasons to be happy, for there are myriad opportunities to hear live classical music nearly all summer long here in Portland and surrounding areas. Starting in just a couple of weeks is the Astoria Music Festival (June
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Another season of the Oregon Symphony has wrapped. This year ended my fourteenth season with the Oregon Symphony – I can hardly believe it’s been that long already. I still largely feel like I just got here. Yet so much has changed since then. When I arrived, I was 26 years old, fresh from Peabody
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Yes, Rufus Wainwright will be joining the Oregon Symphony as a part of PICA’s TBA festival with his show Classical Rufus! You won’t want to miss this – the last collaboration with PICA was the incredible Antony Hegarty concert which received rave reviews from critics, audience, and orchestra members alike. This should be no exception!
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Yes, Monday night was our last concert in the friendly confines of the Arlene until next September, when we open with our gala starring violinist Joshua Bell. It was another fine concert, and I think it might have gone the best of the three nights. Elina’s playing of the Britten just gets more and more
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Well, I feel like I redeemed myself after my fuzziness on Saturday night, and in general, many things went better for the entire orchestra on Sunday evening than the Saturday opening night’s concert. As much as I love the Mahler First Symphony, the work that is capturing my heart this week is the Britten Violin
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Phew! Tonight was the first concert of our last weekend of the season. And I was surprisingly fuzz-headed all evening. Bummer. It was one of those nights where I just couldn’t get the proper level of focus that I feel I should have being on the front desk. I wasn’t a very good support to
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Wow – how did the last concert weekend of the season get here so quickly? I guess it is a sign of my growing age that the years are starting to go by much faster than they used to. Perhaps it’s also an indication of how rich and full my life is as well. If
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David Stabler has the ticket sales info for last week’s Beethoven Festival, which was quite successful, with just over 71 percent capacity audiences. He suggests a few possibilities for future festivals, such as Gershwin, Bernstein, or Latin. That got me to thinking, too.
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A portion of the last movement of Mahler’s First Symphony with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic.
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I’m sitting at the computer with my afternoon latte beside me, and am reflecting upon the fact that this is the last week of the Oregon Symphony’s 2009-2010 season. It truly has gone by in what seems like the blink of an eye. Last night we concluded our three concert traversal of all six Beethoven
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Elina Vähälä, the amazing umlaut-ed Finnish violinist, will be here this weekend for Britten’s Violin Concerto. If you don’t remember her, she played a breathtaking Vivaldi Four Seasons a couple years back, and I think that the Britten is tailor made for her. Here’s a preview of her playing from this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
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Well, we’re two-thirds of the way through the Beethoven Festival here at the Oregon Symphony, and it’s been quite a ride so far. Normally, when we do a concerto, it’s the only one on the program. Usually it’s a nice break from the heavy lifting of the symphonic works on the program. But when you
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If you feel the earth tremble beneath your feet starting Thursday Friday afternoon, don’t be alarmed, it’s not an earthquake. It will be the sound of dozens of timpanists vying for the timpani position being vacated by the retiring Paul Salvatore at the end of this season. A timpocalypse! Did you know there are two
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I’ve decided to keep track of pieces that are excruciating for violists to play. There seems to be an evolving canon (a pantheon, if you will) of works which violists seem to universally dislike playing. Usually this is due to the physical demands of the piece. The viola needs a bit more effort to get the
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The Oregon Symphony’s Beethoven Festival (rehearsals begin today) kicks off May 15th with the Lenore Overture No. 3, the Piano Concerto No. 2, and the Triple Concerto. Arnaldo Cohen is the amazing pianist who will be playing all of the concertos. He’ll be joined in the Triple by OSO concertmaster Jun Iwasaki and cellist Quirine
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