There is indeed a new string quartet in town, one that is aiming to perform great classical music in a non-traditional space. That quartet is Mousai Remix, and it’s made up of four players from the Oregon Symphony (Shin-young Kwon and Emily Cole, violins; Jennifer Arnold, viola; and Marilyn de Oliveira). If you don’t think
{ 3 comments }
I’m revisiting my previous post, in which I somewhat lazily dissected the season announcements of three orchestras (Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville) for 2012-2013, to a look at the soloists that they’ve engaged for the season (plus those slated for the LA Philharmonic as well, to add some more (?) into the mix). Will there be
{ 1 comment }
February is the month in which most orchestras start their new subscription campaigns with their next-season announcements. I haven’t really paid much attention to what’s being programmed outside of my own orchestra, but I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at the seasons and see if any trends are emerging. Chicago
{ 4 comments }
I’ve always wondered why conductors do (or don’t do) certain things that seem either idiotic or genius-y in the heat of the moment. Then I read this paragraph in Michael Hovnanian’s blog – I think he’s hit the nail on the head: The problem with making conductorial convulsions the source of all musical inspiration is
{ 2 comments }
This weekend brings yet another stellar violinist to the Oregon Symphony, this time it’s returning soloist Stefan Jackiw (pronounced JACK-eev). He played some superb Mozart on his last visit, and this time he’s playing Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, a work that’s most often heard being butchered by young aspiring contestants at solo and ensemble competitions
{ 1 comment }
Back February 1st – Aloha!
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It is never a sure thing who an orchestra is really considering when they are looking for a new music director. Some conductors don’t want to be seen as ‘auditioning’ for the gig, and orchestras are often competing for the same scarce resource: a good conductor. So it pays to be cagey about just who
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It seems that a member of the San Francisco Symphony was doing some soft practicing in his apartment recently, and received for his troubles a very rude and irate phone message. Here’s what he did next…
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
There were two major highlights to last weekend’s classical series concerts with the Oregon Symphony: Joshua Bell and our brass section. Due to changes in his calendar, Bell dropped the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto for the Brahms Violin Concerto. Basically, he was to perform the piece publicly for the first time this season, but several
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Arnica Quartet is presenting their second concert of the season in Portland on Friday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Music Center. The concert is part of the month-long March Music Moderne festival curated by Bob Priest. The concert features music by some of the greatest composers from the 17th – 21st
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Once again I made the mistake of reading the auditions forum at the myauditions.com website. Once again, there are conspiracy theories being proposed about the results of another major audition – in this case the recent Boston Symphony percussion auditions (one of the winners is a current member of our section here in Oregon). This
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Matthew McKay, who just joined the Oregon Symphony percussion section this season, has won a position in the venerable Boston Symphony. He will be joining former OSO cellist Adam Esbensen, who left for the BSO in 2008. Problematic for the Oregon Symphony percussion section is that the runner-up in the audition that Matt won here
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
You’ve no doubt heard by now about the cellphone stare-down at the New York Philharmonic’s recent performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony between music director Alan Gilbert and a stubborn cellphone user in the front rows of Avery Fisher Hall. I was reading some of the comments to both the original blog posting about the incident
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The great German baritone Thomas Quasthoff today announced his retirement from the concert stage. It has come as a shock to much of the close-knit classical music and opera world. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with him a few times over the course of my career, and they have always been moments
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
