instrument petting zoo April 25, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : education, music, the orchestra world, video, youth orchestras, add a commentAs part of our partnership with different communities each year, our education department includes what is called the instrument petting zoo. No, it’s not a bunch of instruments in a fenced in area, with children walking around them petting them with timid hands.
What it is in actuality is a chance for kids to get their hands on an instrument and be taught or guided in how to make some sort of elementary sound on it. The theory is, if they get a small taste of creating new sounds on an instrument they’ve never seen or heard, they’ll want more, and might even want to take up an instrument in school or at home.
Here’s a YouTube movie I found of a youngster named Soren getting his first taste of the violin, with OSO violist Stephen Price giving him a hand with fingering the notes:
Here’s another video of OSO music director Carlos Kalmar giving the Portland Metropolitan Youth Symphony a workout in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture.
oops… April 14, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, violin, add a commentA British man left an extremely valuable old Italian violin on a train luggage rack - now it’s missing.
LONDON - A retired shipping consultant said he lost an expensive 17th-century violin after forgetting it on a train. Rob Napier said he did not realize the instrument, made by master Venetian craftsman Matteo Goffriller in 1698, was still on the train’s luggage rack until it began pulling out of the station.
“I think you can imagine the awful, kind of pit-in-your-stomach feeling,” Napier, 67, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday. “My first instinct was: Can I jump on top of the train? But that was obviously stupid.”
Napier said he was on his way home to Bedwyn, some 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of London, on Jan. 29 after retrieving the violin from an expert who had valued it at about 200,000 pounds (US$390,000; euro245,000). Napier called the train company, but by the time the train reached its final destination, the instrument was gone.
Napier said the violin belonged to his mother, who died in 2006. A professional violinist, she bought the Goffriller from a dealer in 1945. She said later she had wanted a fine instrument to match the quality of those played by her colleagues in the well-known Ebsworth String Quartet, an all-female group, Napier said.
A reward of up to 10,000 pounds (about US$20,000 euro12,000) was being offered for the instrument’s recovery, he said.
The British Transport Police confirmed it was investigating the theft of a “very high value violin.”
oh, crap! February 12, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, music, soloists & recitals, violin, add a comment
Photo credit: Theremina
It’s every string player’s nightmare - tripping, falling, and destroying your instrument. Now imagine that you own a rare Guadagnini priceless Stradivarius violin. Yeah, you get the picture! (more…)
columbus - a personal view February 4, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : labor issues, music, the orchestra world, 1 comment so farThis past Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch profiles three musicians from the troubled Columbus Symphony: principal trumpeter Justin Bartels, violinist Joyce Fishman, and principal flutist Randy Hester. (more…)
schubert’s erlkönig February 3, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, soloists & recitals, video, violin, 2commentsLast night, after his brilliant performance of the Beethoven Second Piano Concerto, Kirill Gerstein played an encore that I’d never heard before, at least on piano alone. It was Erlkönig - originally a song by Schubert, transcribed for solo piano by Liszt. I had heard a similar transcription, by the violinist Max Ernst, for solo violin - and that is even more impressive.
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.
more seattle news January 17, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : labor issues, music, seattle, the orchestra world, 1 comment so farThe Seattle Weekly has printed an article centering around the “one-woman law firm” of Brenda Little and her lawsuit against Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony on behalf of violinist Peter Kaman. Read the entire article here.
Here’s a tidbit: (more…)
letters in response to Seattle NYTimes article December 29, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : labor issues, music, the orchestra world, 1 comment so farIn the upcoming Sunday edition of the New York Times, several letters are printed in the Arts section - you can read the complete letters (as printed) here.
Here are some of the best parts of some of them: (more…)
bizarre music news of 2007 December 29, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentThe Seattle Times’ classical music critic Melinda Bargreen reports on the bizarre classical music news that occurred around the world in 2007. Unfortunately (and am I sensing a pattern here?) she neglected to mention a couple items from her own backyard: (more…)
violinist arrested at UofO concert December 21, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : crime, music, add a comment 
One of a string (no pun intended) of bizarre stories about the often fraud-filled world of stringed instrument dealing. Apparently violinist Hokai Tang was taking violins and bows from sellers on a consignment basis, but ran off with the instruments and failed to pay the sellers their proceeds. (more…)
