{"id":14924,"date":"2018-08-29T16:08:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T23:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=14924"},"modified":"2018-08-30T07:45:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T14:45:13","slug":"on-the-eve-of-a-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2018\/08\/29\/on-the-eve-of-a-new-season\/","title":{"rendered":"on the eve of a new season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>August 30th marks the beginning of my 23rd season with the Oregon Symphony. Closing in on a quarter century! Wow, where did the time go?<\/p>\n<p>My first season I came to Portland from the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, where I was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. I really had no idea what was ahead of me. I had won the Assistant principal position the previous May, the graduated from Peabody Conservatory with my Graduate Performance Diploma. Sometime in June I got a call from the then President of the orchestra, saying that the Principal violist had resigned, and James DePreist wanted to know if I would accept the title of Acting Principal viola. I did, and it was quite a ride for someone who had only played with school orchestras, summer festivals, and had a position with a regional, per-service orchestra in Maryland. This year is a bit of a closing of a cycle. Principal violist Jo\u00ebl Belgique is on leave this season, and Carlos Kalmar asked me if I would fill in as Principal for this season. So I will, and it should be a less adrenalized experience this time around!\u00a0 I&#8217;m sort of ready to come back, but also would love a week or two more to enjoy working in the garden, taking trips to the mountains and the beach, and just being a general homebody.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure how frequently I will be updating the blog during the season, but be sure to sign up for email updates so you don&#8217;t miss new postings. Thanks for reading, and I&#8217;ll be in touch again soon!<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14226\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/27\/my-fall-preview\/noble_sig\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/noble_sig.jpg?fit=100%2C47&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"100,47\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"noble_sig\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/noble_sig.jpg?fit=100%2C47&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14226\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/noble_sig.jpg?resize=100%2C47\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"47\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 30th marks the beginning of my 23rd season with the Oregon Symphony. Closing in on a quarter century! Wow, where did the time go? My first season I came to Portland from the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, where I was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. I really had no idea what was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[3668],"class_list":["post-14924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3SI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/05\/24\/the-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":0},"title":"the end","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, with the last titanic chords of Mahler's Seventh Symphony ringing across the expanses of the Salem Armory Auditorium, my 10th season with the Oregon Symphony came to a close.\u00c2\u00a0 For three of my colleagues, it marked their final seasons with the orchestra, and after a stupendous amount of seasons,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/01\/new-musicians-join-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":1},"title":"new musicians join symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra.\u00a0 They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei.\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;auditions&quot;","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jonathangreeney.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24428,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/18\/celebrating-30-years-my-oregon-symphony-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":2},"title":"Celebrating 30 Years: My Oregon Symphony Experience","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Thirty years is no mean feat in any profession. The gilded corporations of old would give a retiring company man a gold watch (and back then it most certainly was a man). If you serve in the military, you qualify for full retirement (regardless of age) after 20 years of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_3759-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22435,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2022\/06\/10\/time-flies-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":3},"title":"time flies!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My last post here was on January 2nd, 2022. Just over six months ago! How did this happen? I'll tell you. The short story is that I decided to take the audition for Principal viola of the Oregon Symphony, from which Jo\u00ebl Belgique retired during the pandemic hiatus period. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;auditions&quot;","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0727.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12969,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/04\/season-nineteen-begins\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":4},"title":"season nineteen begins","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Eighteen years ago (actually it's a couple weeks more than that now, since our season has shrunk by several weeks) I joined the Oregon Symphony for my first season with a major symphony orchestra. I had already been a member of the Maryland Symphony, but that was an orchestra that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/480095_10152840019530122_297754356_n-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/08\/28\/oregon-symphony-v20\/","url_meta":{"origin":14924,"position":5},"title":"oregon symphony v2.0","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We're into our first rehearsals with Music Director Carlos Kalmar for the upcoming Waterfront Concert at Waterfront Park at the west side of the Hawthorne Bridge on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me tell you, the orchestra is a different animal than even the last couple of years since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}