![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/38620_1024.jpg?resize=300%2C200\" "\\"levin-curtis\\"")
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Robert Levin, the acclaimed pianist\/scholar who appeared with the Oregon Symphony a few seasons ago, gave a commencement address at the Curtis Institute of Music this year.\u00c2\u00a0 I found it to be a very inspirational message, one given with urgency – describing the countdown clock on classical music as being at “two minutes to midnight”.\u00c2\u00a0 Several points resonated with me very strongly.\u00c2\u00a0 First, he takes issue with the supposed “niche market” of classical music, where business people describe 10% of the population not being worth the risk, by illustrating the situation in Beethoven’s time, where it took months to get approval and funding for a premiere, and when it was given 400 people heard the work, and that was considered a success.\u00c2\u00a0 Levin asserts that can what we have now be argued to be a failure by comparison?\u00c2\u00a0 The second point concerns the need for commissioning and performing new music from composers of one’s own generation.\u00c2\u00a0 He says that this is vital to prevent classical music from becoming simply a “museum”.<\/p>\n
It’s a great address, and is quite brief, less than 10 minutes – you can listen to it online here<\/a>, at InstantEncore.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Levin, the acclaimed pianist\/scholar who appeared with the Oregon Symphony a few seasons ago, gave a commencement address at the Curtis Institute of Music this year.\u00c2\u00a0 I found it to be a very inspirational message, one given with urgency – describing the countdown clock on classical music as being at “two minutes to midnight”.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/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":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":[167,183,247,1025,115],"tags":[1674,1676],"class_list":["post-2693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composition","category-contemporary","category-education","category-historical-performance","category-music","tag-curtis-institute-of-music","tag-robert-levin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-Hr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2832,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/08\/robert-levin-commencement-speech-transcript\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":0},"title":"robert levin commencement speech transcript","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you enjoyed the video of Robert Levin's electrifying commencement address to the 2009 graduating class at the Curtis Institute of Music, you can now peruse a transcript of the speech.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a must-read for anyone considering going into the music field, or about to enter the music field.\u00c2\u00a0 Most\u2026","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":6924,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/25\/roberto-diaz-on-reinventing-a-career-in-classical-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":1},"title":"roberto diaz on reinventing a career in classical music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "video"","block_context":{"text":"video","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/video\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/02\/a-terrible-loss\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":2},"title":"a terrible loss","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I encountered Jerome on a tour with the Super World Orchestra in 2000. He was an amazing horn player - I'll remember his solos from Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story for a long time. From Peter Dobrin, classical music critic, Philadelphia Inquirer: Jerome Ashby, 1956-2007 By Peter Dobrin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ashby_jerome_CL_0607.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.phillynews.com\/inquirer\/ArtsWatch\/ashby_jerome_CL_0607.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/05\/11\/random-thoughts-about-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":3},"title":"random thoughts about music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some thoughts that have passed through my head during the last couple of days of rehearsals: Mozart really is a great composer (Norman Lebrecht notwithstanding) Composer John Adams just might have the best copyist in the business Choruses will, without fail, laugh at all the conductor's jokes Playing\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":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3354,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/15\/mozart-dutilleux-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":4},"title":"mozart, dutilleux, and more","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday marks the beginning of the rehearsal period for our next Classical concert, November 21-23. \u00a0Conducted by Resident conductor Gregory Vajda, this program will feature a pretty diverse group of compositions. Though not the major work on the program, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for winds will feature four of our outstanding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contemporary"","block_context":{"text":"contemporary","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/contemporary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":257,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/01\/april-fool\/","url_meta":{"origin":2693,"position":5},"title":"april fool","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy April Fool's Day! As a violist, I take special pride in what is, along with bassoonists, our special day. It's been a busy week. I've been in rehearsals for the two different concerts that we're doing with the OSO this week: the subscription classical series which involves Leonard Bernstein's\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":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693","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=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}