not your average concert July 14, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, bloggers, chamber music, summer festivals, add a comment
James Bash, one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, met up with a patron at a recent Chamber Music Northwest concert who contributed in a significant way to his concert experience - by vomiting all over his back! Yech!
Maybe CMNW should have air sick bags tucked into their seats for upcoming concerts?
You can read all about it (and about how the concert went) by clicking here.
Viola Camp 2008 July 6, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : summer festivals, viola, add a commentHere is a slide show of images from the rehearsals, concerts, and classes of the 2008 Max Aronoff Viola Institute (along with some non-musical sights from the campus and our friends’ homes). It’s hard to believe that Joyce and I started this thing 18 years ago - almost two decades! Ok, now I feel old… (more…)
teaching/performing June 30, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, music, seattle, summer festivals, add a commentThis week I’m up in Kenmore, Washington teaching and performing at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute, which I helped to found 18 years ago. The facility that we use is Bastyr University, which has all the classrooms and the lovely Chapel which is acoustically renowned (and used for a lot of movie scoring work during the year) - and not air-conditioned.
Yep, we’ve been sweatin’ to the oldies up here in the normally temperate city by the shores of Lake Washington. Our dorm rooms are on the top floor, and it takes some time, despite exhaustion, to get to sleep most nights. The chapel, however, is a giant masonry sweat-box, which makes performing a true test of mind over matter. The brain cells grow listless and despondent, and the fingerboard grows either sticky or slippery depending upon the propensity of one’s fingers to sweating, and one’s well-chosen concert outfit begins to look like an outdoor shower has been taken.
But, it’s a fun time for all of us on the faculty to play chamber music together, catch up on what’s happened since last year’s camp, and hear some new repertoire that we don’t know. It also provides a great opportunity for us to share our experience and artistry with a collection of violists, cellists, and violinists from several generations, and that feels awfully good after a long season in the orchestra.
astoria music festival returns June 9, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, music, soloists & recitals, summer festivals, the orchestra world, add a comment
Arriving at the last minute, the Astoria Music Festival returns this summer in full force with a slate of varied offerings June 19-29 in Astoria.
Here’s a look at the concerts on offer this year: (more…)
more adams February 3, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, contemporary, music, summer festivals, the orchestra world, add a commentIf you enjoyed last night’s first run of the Adams, word is you can come back with your ticket stub from last night in hand and get in to see the piece again tonight. Judging from the response of the audience last night, there may be more than a few takers. It’s good to hear a relatively contemporary piece get such a strong audience response. All the press about how difficult a piece it is surely didn’t hurt, either.
Here’s a clip of OSO violinist Shin-young Kwon playing the cadenza from the third movement, Roadrunner, recorded live at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the summer of 2002. Click here to hear the whole performance.
