This one just made me smile: an 8 year old came up and tried his hand at conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in the witches’ ride section of Humperdinck’s opera “Hansel and Gretel”. Cuteness ensues.
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conductor
Yes, Pinchas Zukerman, aka P-Zuk (his rapper name), is leading the Oregon Symphony this week – most through his conducting, but also with some timely demonstrations on a surprised Assistant concertmaster Erin Furbee’s violin (I think she may never clean it again!). The Zuk-meister will also be playing one of Haydn’s little-known violin concertos this
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“Music allows us to really find our inner self, to be free to search for those things that we normally don’t have the opportunity or the time to search for. It opens up many, many doors within us. It opens the doors to our soul, to our feelings, to humanity as a whole.” – Yakov
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Yes, today was the first day back after the holiday break for us at the Oregon Symphony. It was also a double rehearsal day, and I was dog tired when I headed for my car after the second rehearsal of the day. One of the interesting things about working in an orchestra is how you
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This scorching (but oh so appropriate) post from conductor Bill Eddins is required reading for every arts administrator out there in these times of “right-sizing” (or bottom-line-sizing, more accurately put): I know that you’re supposed to be wedded to the bottom line but do keep in mind that the people who you are about to
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Friday we had our second set of rehearsals for our next Classical series concert with beloved violinist Itzhak Perlman at the helm. He’s really a genial guy, he acts like “one of the guys” with the orchestra and generally lets us do whatever we want to (within reason). He had a couple good comments during
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More responses are coming in to the original blog post that started the online bickering over whether or not Gilbert Kaplan is a charlatan or a conductor – sometimes I ask myself, what’s the difference? – here’s a sampling: At A Musical Rampage we get the opinion that Kaplan might not be a real conductor,
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Norman Lebrecht has weighed in with his opinion of the blog post by the New York Philharmonic’s bass second trombonist David Finlayson which expressed in no uncertain terms Finlayson’s low regard for the conducting prowess and musical fitness of amateur conductor Gilbert Kaplan. Read the Lebrecht posting and digest your initial reaction for a bit
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Towards the end of any orchestra’s season, you tend to hear a lot (make that a LOT) of armchair quarterbacking by the rank and file about the leadership of any conductor within rock throwing range. Some even make the entire organization’s woes solely the responsibility of the stick waver. I’m sure that’s gratifying to the
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In the sporting world, if you’ve got depth on your team, then you’ve got a “great bench”. Supporting players that can come in at a moment’s notice and make a crucial difference when one of your first string players is unable to play.
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Conductor David Hattner has been appointed as the fifth conductor and music director of the Portland Youth Phiharmonic, known as America’s first established youth orchestra, founded in 1924. Hattner’s first musical career was as a professional clarinetist, and his positions have included the Princeton Symphony, Cascade Music Festival Orchestra, New Jersey Opera Theater and the
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We here at the OSO seem to the welcoming committee for conductors who are making their first forays into the North American market this year. Earlier this month we welcomed Pietari Inkinen of Finland, who was in his second week of being in America (after a week in Cincinnati). This week we welcomed a visitor
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Atlanta Symphony music director Robert Spano and principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles have both had their contracts extended – Spano’s through the 2013-2014 season, and Runnicles’ through the 2010-2011 season. Robert Spano (photo courtesy Kirshbaum Demler & Associates ) Donald Runnicles (photo courtesy San Francisco Opera) Not much of a surprise, since this duo of
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Today we had the first rehearsals for our upcoming classical series concerts with Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen. He’s a guest conductor that we’ve never worked with before, and he’s very new to the U.S. conducting circuit – this is his second US orchestra ever, his first having been the Cincinnati Symphony in February.
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I was forwarded an online review of Hannu Lintu‘s conducting debut with the New Jersey Symphony this past weekend. He’s an almost perennial favorite of the Oregon Symphony and its audiences, so I thought this might be of interest. I’m glad to hear that he’s on the radar for US conducting posts as well –
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