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…)
tidbits for monday morning June 2, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, bloggers, cello, chamber music, music, soloists & recitals, the orchestra world, viola, violin, 2comments• I just caught Robert Levine’s latest blog entry about the Milwaukee Symphony’s recent concerts with Hilary Hahn. Robert is one of the smartest guys out there, I’m coming to appreciate, and reading this post had me scratching my head and wondering “why couldn’t I have said that?”. I like the way he clearly expresses what’s on his mind, and gets to the crux of the matter with minimal equivocation. Hahn was in Milwaukee playing the Tchaikovsky concerto, and Levine really hits the nail on the head about this piece (which is one of my favorite guilty pleasures, by the way):
But I found myself not really convinced by her version of the piece, which surprised me, as I hadn’t felt that way about the previous times she’d played with us. I spent all week trying to figure out why. The best I could come up with was that she was trying to find more in the piece than was actually there. She was making wonderful and interesting phrases all over the place. But it’s not that kind of piece. In a funny way, her great strengths as a musician – her intelligence and imagination – were not really relevant to the piece, and even got in the way. One doesn’t think of semplice and Tchaikowsky as ever being coupled – but I think that’s what it needs. Perhaps that’s why the last movement consistently worked the best, because all it needs – all there’s time for, really – is technique and a kind of inexorable rhythmic stability, which of course she has in spades.
• In other news, my joint recital with Heather Blackburn went pretty well - I’ll have more thoughts on it when I have a little more distance from it. For now, my alarm clock is off until further notice, however!
• Last Friday evening I went to hear a chamber concert organized by cellist Justin Kagan, and it featured some top local players in works of Shostakovich (his Piano Quintet), Gerald Cohen (a trio for viola, cello and piano), and Schoenberg (his sextet Verklärte Nacht). Every work was played with conviction and assurance, with kudos going out to everyone involved, as to single out one or several would be unfair to them all.
I hope that concerts such as this become more of a regular event in Portland. We have plenty of high-powered out-of-towners that come in and play chamber music on the various series in town, but little opportunity to hear our high-powered locals play the same.
majestic & transformative May 28, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, music, add a commentThis should be a great concert, featuring some of Portland’s best classical musicians - I’ll actually be there for this one!
An Evening of Majestic and Transformative
Chamber Music
Thursday, May 29 @ 8 PM
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave., Portland, OR
Program:
Shostakovich: Quintet for Piano & Strings
Gerald Cohen: Trio for Viola, Cello & Piano
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Performers:
Greg Ewer & Ron Blessinger, violins
Michelle Mathewson & Viorel Bejenaru, violas
Justin Kagan & Dorothy Lewis, cellos
Cary Lewis, piano
Admission at door: $10
Doors open at 7:00 PM
new concert space debuts in KBPS benefit April 30, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, fundraising, add a commentThe Museum of Contemporary Craft, at 724 NW Davis (the DeSoto building, on the North Park blocks), will make its debut as one of Portland’s newest concert venues in a benefit for KBPS’ “Permanent Home on Your Dial” campaign to secure its broadcast license in perpetuity.
The concert will feature Portland chamber music fixtures violist Joël Belgique, violinist Inés Voglar, pianist Cary Lewis, and cellist Dorothy Lewis.
They’ll present a very interesting concert of chamber music rarities, including a world premiere by composer and classical radio announcer Robert McBride of a new work for violin and piano. An arrangement of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances for piano quartet will also be featured, as well as Enoch Arden, a melodrama by Richard Strauss, with KBPS announcer Edmund Stone narrating.
Tickets are $20 and are available in advance at Classical Millennium at 3144 E. Burnside, or at the door the evening of the performance.
To learn more about the Craft museum, take a look at this video:
wordless music in pdx April 17, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, chamber music, contemporary, music, popular music, 1 comment so farWordless Music, a group that promotes cross-pollination amongst popular and classical music genres (to put it rather grotesquely) is presenting two concerts in Portland this week, on Thursday (tonight) the 17th and Friday the 18th of April, with the Friday concert featuring the Portland contemporary music ensemble Third Angle.
Here is what they are about, in their own words:
The Wordless Music Series is devoted to the idea that the sound worlds of classical and contemporary instrumental music – in genres such as indie rock, free jazz, and electronic music – share more in common than conventional thinking might suggest. To illustrate the continuity between these worlds, the series will pair rock and electronic musicians in an intimate concert setting with more traditionally understood classical and chamber music performers. In so doing, the series will bring together audiences and introduce listeners of both classical and contemporary music to composers they might not otherwise encounter, for a completely new concert experience.
Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Here are the particulars, lifted from their press release:
On Thursday, April 17, Stars of the Lid will perform with a string quartet and projections, on a program opened by electronic composer and Ghostly recording artist Christopher Willits. Also appearing will be members of Portland’s Classical Revolution PDX, to perform Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor and Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel for piano and viola.
The two-day kickoff event continues on Friday, April 18, at the Old Church, where Portland native and Wordless Music favorite Eluvium will make his second appearance for the series, on a program with local new-music ensemble Third Angle, which will perform chamber music by Chen Yi, Zoltan Kodály, and Portland composers Tomas Svoboda and David Schiff. Tickets to both inaugural Portland Wordless Music events can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com and local Jackpot Records stores.
jun iwasaki & friends concert tonight April 4, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, chamber music, fundraising, music, 1 comment so far
An exciting concert will be presented this evening to endow the Naomi Blumberg Endowment Fund for Chamber Music Education at the Community Music Center. The concert features OSO concertmaster Jun Iwasaki, OSO musicians, and CMC students and alumni in a full evening of chamber music.
The concert will feature the Mendelssohn Trio in c minor, Op. 66, and the Octet for strings, Op. 20.
Here’s a listing of the performers:
From the Oregon Symphony: Jun Iwasaki, Greg Ewer, Inés Voglar, Joël Belgique, Charles Noble, Trevor Fitzpatrick, and Adam Esbensen.
CMC Students and Alumni: Becky Anderson, Brandon Garbot, Boris Papadiuk and Eloise Kim.
Tickets are on sale at the door, come early as seating is limited.
great chamber music online March 12, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a comment
Violinists Bella Hristova and Joel Link; cellists Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos and Yu-wen Wang; and violists Vicki Powell and Roberto Dìaz perform at the Curtis Institute [click to enlarge].
The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, one of the leading music conservatories of the world, has begun a new initiative with students, faculty, and alumni of the august institution playing concerts together on tour. The opening salvo of this undertaking was fired on Monday night, with a concert given at the Curtis’ Field Concert Hall. Curtis’ president and alumnus, violist Roberto Dìaz; alumna Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos (former principal cellist of the OSO), and four current students performed chamber works by Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and Antonin Dvorak. The concert was also filmed by WHYY for future telecast.
The good news is that you can hear the concert via an archived stream over the internet. Just go to InstantEncore.com to listen to the concert [registration may be necessary, but is free]. Enjoy!
messiaen and carter festival primer January 22, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, contemporary, music, soloists & recitals, add a commentDavid Stabler offers an excellent compendium of links and photos that relate to the upcoming weekend’s Carter/Messiaen Project concerts by Chamber Music Northwest.
Don’t forget, if you are or know of a full-time college student who might like the Carter/Messiaen concerts, they can get free student passes online.
Stabler also highlights this Thursday’s (01/24) lieder recital by tenor Ian Bostridge presented by Friends of Chamber Music. He’s singing what looks to be a program of some of the best-loved songs of Franz Schubert - a must-hear concert by one of the leading lieder singers of his generation (perhaps the next Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau?).
Photo credit: ©EMI/Simon Fowler
free student tickets! January 16, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentChamber Music Northwest is offering free tickets to college students from around Oregon and SW Washington for their upcoming Carter-Messiaen Project concerts, coming up this January 25 - 27, 2008 at Kaul Auditorum at Reed College. For additional info, check the CMNW website or call their ticket office at 503-294-6400.
Interested full-time college students should surf over to www.cmnw.org/students and fill out the form. A pass will then appear on screen - simply print it out and bring it, along with a current student ID to the ticket table at the concert, and you’ll be inside for all the fun, absolutely free!
David Schiff, noted professor, composer and writer, has prepared an essay about the works presented during this project - click here to download a pdf file to print and read at home.
