A few months ago Elaine Calder asked the orchestra members to suggest guest artists with whom they would like to work. I’ve compiled a list of those who I’d personally love to see come, as well as those who I think would really create excitement and big audience numbers for our concerts. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a big season of A-list soloists and conductors, and I think that sometimes you’ve got to spend money to make money, and skimping on guest artists can often come back to bite you on the wrong end.<\/p>\n
Remember the recent big attendance figures generated by Itzhak Perlman and James Depreist? They cost a lot, but they make money for the orchestra. I figure that when you look through the season brochure or scan the pages of the newspaper, you want to see a name you recognize – that gets you in the door. I read somewhere that in print advertising, success is getting the consumer’s eye to stay on a page for 1\/10th of a second longer than a comparable ad. That little catch of the eye is what adds up to success when your product is competing in a crowded field. So, without further ado, my semi-annotated wish list of guest artists:<\/p>\n
Yakov Kreizberg<\/strong> – he’s been here before, and I can’t wait for him to come back again – we’ve been lucky to have him as much as we have, he’s rapidly becoming one of the top guest conductors in the world today. He brings a wonderful combination of flexibility and rigor to his approach. His guest appearances here are always cited by the orchestra musicians as high points of the season.<\/p>\n Robert Spano<\/strong> – I worked with him years ago at Tanglewood, where he now heads the conducting program. He’s now the music director of the Atlanta Symphony. He is a dynamic force of nature who specializes in new music while bringing a new spin to old classics.<\/p>\n Michael Tilson Thomas<\/strong> – I played a concert under him while playing a week with the New World Symphony. He’s the closest thing we have to a modern day Leonard Bernstein, and he delivers all the goods: he can talk and he can conduct with the best of them. A Mahler symphony with MTT would be a trip to heaven, hell, and back.<\/p>\n Marin Alsop<\/strong> – she’s now music director of the Baltimore Symphony, where she’s putting together an adventurous season (very progressive). I think that snobbery kept her from being asked to come here in years past (being from the Eugene Symphony), but I think it’s time she was invited to come and work with us. It seems like Eugene is a couple steps ahead of us in terms of being on the right part of the cutting edge – maybe we could borrow couple of their moves for a change.<\/p>\n Hilary Hahn, violin<\/strong> – she is one of the hottest violinists out there right now, and rightly so. She brings an Apollonian approach to playing that is so very satisfying, plus she has a diverse repertoire and a reputation for searching interpretations.<\/p>\n Alisa Weilerstein, cello<\/strong> – she’s the cellist to beat right now and her first Oregon engagement is at the little Sunriver Music Festival. She’s inspiring (for better or for worse) a lot of comparisons with Jaqueline duPr\u00c3\u00a9 and recently made some high profile (and critically acclaimed) debuts with Big Five orchestras.<\/p>\n Angela Hewitt, piano<\/strong> – one of my favorite pianists, and a favorite of Portland keyboard afficianados: I’d love to hear her do Bach, Beethoven or Mozart with Carlos on the podium, it would be a pairing for the ages, I suspect.<\/p>\n Stephen Hough, piano<\/strong> – he’s playing Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto this season, and I’d love to see him as often as humanly possible – my favorite pianist who visits regularly.<\/p>\n John Kimura Parker, piano<\/strong> – he is a HUGE Portland favorite, and I know he’d love to play with us again – there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be seen more often around here.<\/p>\n Yo-yo Ma, cello<\/strong> – he hasn’t been here in 11 years – bring him back, he’d be the perfect opening gala artist, and everyone has a great time when he’s on stage.<\/p>\n Daniel Barenboim, piano\/conductor <\/strong>– it’s a pie-in-the-sky notion, I know, but to have him come and conduct some Wagner and lead a Mozart concerto from the piano, it’s a no-brainer. I would love to see the orchestra work with a huge A-list star conductor of his stature.<\/p>\n Other notions: do some concert versions of opera with big name vocalists, using the Keller Auditorium stage to allow semi-staged productions, and bring in an influential director like Peter Sellars to do some provocative staging as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few months ago Elaine Calder asked the orchestra members to suggest guest artists with whom they would like to work. I’ve compiled a list of those who I’d personally love to see come, as well as those who I think would really create excitement and big audience numbers for our concerts. It’s been quite […]<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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":false,"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],"tags":[86,117,55,3666,53,3662,93,62,3656,3659],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-critic","tag-orchestra","tag-oregon","tag-piano","tag-portland","tag-soloists","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-40","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2454,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/01\/young-artists-at-the-schnitz\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":0},"title":"young artists at the schnitz","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're a fan of the up and coming talent in classical music in Portland\/SW Washington, then you are no doubt familiar with the Young Artists at the Schnitz concert.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a great way to hear lots of great music for instrumentalists and vocalists with a great pick-up orchestra under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"image1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/image1-400x599.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":889,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/28\/classical-conflict\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":1},"title":"classical conflict","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just perused a recent article about the Florida Orchestra and some highly-publicized comments from subscribers about the contemporary programming that is being done by music director Stefan Sanderling. I understand that some patrons don't care for hearing anything written after 1870 or so. Fine. But why do they complain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/07\/stablers-must-see-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":2},"title":"stabler’s must-see list","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler has posted his list of 10 guest artists that he'd like to see at the Oregon Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a good list - I'd add Jonathan Biss, pianist; Tabea Zimmerman, violist (I know, I know...); Janine Jansen, violinist; and Daniel Barenboim, conductor\/pianist, among others...","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":665,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/17\/harder-than-it-looks\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":3},"title":"harder than it looks","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So, should musicians have input into the programs that the orchestra presents? It's not an easy a question to answer. With orchestras, it's always as many times complicated as there are players in the orchestra - plus the artistic administrator and the music director, oh, and the audience. Esteemed \"the-orchestra-that-shall-not-be-named\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3264,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/15\/heat-up-cool-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":4},"title":"heat up, cool down","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the time of year where a curious shift happens: the classical music season heats up, while the weather outside cools down. \u00a0This post in just going to be a hodge-podge of random thoughts, truly full of daily observations, rather than what is usually posted here (not sure what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ir?t=dailyobservat-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12662,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/22\/season-eighteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":5},"title":"season eighteen","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday night marked the final concert of my eighteenth season with the Oregon Symphony. It's been a year of marked contrasts for both myself and the orchestra. The orchestra is sounding very, very good. Make no mistake about that. We made a strong debut at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. We are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Me with retiring OSO violist Steve Price, with 41 seasons under his belt!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/cs-sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","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=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Soloists<\/font><\/h3>\n
Other<\/font><\/h3>\n