{"id":19392,"date":"2020-08-23T10:03:38","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T17:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=19392"},"modified":"2020-08-23T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T17:20:09","slug":"love-in-the-time-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2020\/08\/23\/love-in-the-time-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"love in the time of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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You know when you’re going on a first date with someone, and somehow you have this feeling that they might be “the one”? Chamber music is the place where musical matchmaking happens, and when you find an ideal situation, it is pretty much the best thing ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago I was asked to play some concerts with the Willamette Valley Chamber Music festival, and it was a total musical match. Co-founders and artistic directors (and wife and husband) Sasha Callahan and Leo Eguchi were warm and welcoming, and easy to play (and talk) with. It just felt ‘right’. Add in the presence of familiar (and first-rate) players like Greg Ewer, Megumi Stohs Lewis, Marilyn DeOliveira, and Kenji Bunch, and it just got better and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I missed last year’s festival (due to a fractured clavicle) which was bad enough, but this year’s festival almost didn’t happen. Concerns over quarantine protocols and how to safely bring the festival to audiences almost scuttled the festival. But a decision was reached to have the musicians play together (masked, and somewhat distanced) and to live stream the performances with a professional video production team. All I can say is that making in-person music after months of being isolated was a dream come true. I’m so happy that the festival took place this year, and I can’t wait for a ‘normal’ festival next summer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I could go on and on about the musical experiences of these past three weeks, but what sticks with me, and that I’ll be pondering for a good long time, is the music that I learned which was unfamiliar to me. Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout<\/em> by Gabriela Lena Frank, Break Away<\/em>, by Jessie Montgomery. Hip Hop Studies and Etudes<\/em> and String Quartet No. 5 “Parks”<\/em>, by Bernard Daniel Roumain. Works that are powerful, innovative, well-constructed, and challenging and enjoyable to perform. Works that belong in the canon by voices that deserve to be heard \u2013 must be heard. Sasha and Leo have programmed inclusively from the very start of the festival five years ago, and I’m thankful to them for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the way, the recording by WVCMF artists of string quartets of Gabriela Lena Frank “Her Own Wings” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Arts chart, and is available to purchase wherever you buy your music. If you like a physical CD (and who doesn’t?), you can order it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’d like to watch the archived stream of the last concert (Aug. 22) – you have August 25th to get a ticket and watch it – you can do that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know when you’re going on a first date with someone, and somehow you have this feeling that they might be “the one”? Chamber music is the place where musical matchmaking happens, and when you find an ideal situation, it is pretty much the best thing ever. Two years ago I was asked to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[136,503,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chamber-music","category-string-quartet","category-summer-festivals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-52M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5688,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/03\/chamber-mahler\/","url_meta":{"origin":19392,"position":0},"title":"chamber mahler","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Even though the orchestra doesn't start up again until Friday (rehearsing for the Joan Rivers special on Saturday), I've got another orchestra (quasi) gig going on this week.\u00a0 It's a recording project with Ken Selden, conductor of the Portland State University Orchestra, and it's pretty unusual.\u00a0 We're working on Mahler's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14032,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/05\/musical-polygamy\/","url_meta":{"origin":19392,"position":1},"title":"musical polygamy","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I went for the click-bait headline this time. 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It will be my second time playing this wonderful piece, the first having been back in 2003 under Maestro James DePreist.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1895-12-13-Mahler_ABPh_","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1895-12-13-Mahler_ABPh_-300x429.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12883,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/31\/the-sport-of-kings\/","url_meta":{"origin":19392,"position":3},"title":"the sport of kings","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I am, of course, referring to chamber music. While most of us musicians are not anywhere near endowed with the power or wealth of royalty, we can transform our lot into something approaching that (at least in the artistic sense) by playing some of the great works of chamber music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ranchview.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ranchview.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ranchview.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2766,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/24\/whats-coming-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":19392,"position":4},"title":"what’s coming up","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Student performers at the 2008 Max Aronoff Viola Institute Photo \u00a9 Charles Noble On Thursday we venture North to Seattle to begin rehearsals for the faculty performances at the 19th edition of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute. \u00a0I co-founded MAVI with my undergrad teacher Joyce Ram\u00e9e, and it's been going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CRW_0426","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/CRW_0426-400x266.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8281,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/04\/playing-string-quartets\/","url_meta":{"origin":19392,"position":5},"title":"playing string quartets","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I know that this will come off as a bit extreme, but I have to say, if you are a string player and you do not regularly indulge yourself in playing string quartets: you are a fool. You are missing out of the best of the best of music, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Arnica Quartet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/DSC_0360-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19392","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=19392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}