{"id":5642,"date":"2010-12-16T16:40:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T00:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=5642"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:34:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:34:27","slug":"misc-orchestral-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/12\/16\/misc-orchestral-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"misc orchestral stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Kirk McKoy - Los Angeles Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I became aware of a recent LA Times<\/em> article<\/a> about the LA Philharmonic’s principal violist Carrie Dennis through Marjorie Talvi’s blog<\/a>. \u00a0Here’s the headline: Carrie Dennis is easy to notice in the Los Angeles Philharmonic<\/em>. \u00a0The sub-headline is: Yes, she’s the principal violist and deeply respected by her peers. But what makes her stand out are her animated movements during concerts.<\/p>\n

I’m bothered by this, for a couple of reasons. \u00a0First of all, that this story exists at all. \u00a0Why would someone at the LA Times choose to run this story? Is an animated presence on the stage of a major orchestra such a big deal? Was the story planted by someone within the orchestra? \u00a0It just seems like such a strange angle on the story about this particular player (who is known in the biz to be quite an animated player). \u00a0She’s had such an illustrious career for someone who is in her 30’s. \u00a0Why not focus on her start in the Philadelphia Orchestra, her stint in the Berlin Philharmonic, and her arrival to the Los Angeles Philharmonic? \u00a0I guess it’s just doesn’t smack of what little controversy they were able to dig up about her amount of bodily motion when she plays. \u00a0Another thing that bothers me, no one in her section would go on the record with attribution, except for Jerry Epstein, who retired at the end of last season. \u00a0That makes me wonder where the buzz that prompted this article came from.<\/p>\n

Another thing that sort of hangs in the air in this article is the dwelling on the fact that she’s a female principal – it almost seems a little like the fetishizing of Cynthia Phelps during the first part of her tenure as principal violist of the New York Philharmonic. \u00a0She was a darling of the New York press, and was often written about more for the gowns she wore on gala nights than how she played. \u00a0It just goes to show that when you’re a woman in a position of power, you’ll always be taken by appearance first, and by talent second. \u00a0And that makes me sad. \u00a0Shouldn’t we be past that sort of thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I became aware of a recent LA Times article about the LA Philharmonic’s principal violist Carrie Dennis through Marjorie Talvi’s blog. \u00a0Here’s the headline: Carrie Dennis is easy to notice in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. \u00a0The sub-headline is: Yes, she’s the principal violist and deeply respected by her peers. But what makes her stand out […]<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[2467,313,2468],"class_list":["post-5642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-carrie-dennis","tag-los-angeles-philharmonic","tag-los-angeles-times"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1t0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":657,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/11\/carrie-dennis-plays-paganini-and-schumann\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":0},"title":"carrie dennis plays paganini and schumann","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrie Dennis, the phenomenal violist who has (by the anything but grizzled age of 30!) already been Assistant principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and was just named as Principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a couple videos up on youtube. See\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/05iUOXkzvM8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/09\/new-principal-viola-for-la\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":1},"title":"new principal viola for LA","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrie Dennis, currently one of the principal violists of the Berlin Philharmonic (you might have seen her on the front desk for Monday's broadcast of the BPO's Mahler 9 with Simon Rattle), has been hired as the new principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Here's the LAPhil's press release:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"laphil.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/laphil.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2683,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/12\/doldrums\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":2},"title":"doldrums","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that time of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra's season is over (and so are the paychecks).\u00c2\u00a0 I teach at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute, a string camp that takes place at the end of June each year in Kenmore, a suburb of Seattle\/Bellevue.\u00c2\u00a0 I always seem to choose repertoire that\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":884,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/28\/harold-in-pyongyang\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":3},"title":"Madame Harold in Pyongyang","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"New York Philharmonic violist Dawn Hannay kept a blog of her part of the orchestra's tour of North Korea. You can find it here. P1050021 | Originally uploaded by dawnvlaclick photo to enlarge Thanks to MH for the link.","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":437,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/19\/proof-that-violists-are-coordinated\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":4},"title":"proof that violists ARE coordinated","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Just picked this up off of Sheridan's blog - too good to pass up. It really is viola playing in a nutshell - you watch and listen, waiting for the seemingly inevitable car wreck... Sheridan, by the way, was a classmate of mine at the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/S7qgrovYC4M\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5708,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/06\/oregon-symphony-welcomes-four-new-musicians\/","url_meta":{"origin":5642,"position":5},"title":"oregon symphony welcomes four new musicians","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After a series of auditions held this past Fall, the Oregon Symphony will welcome four new musicians to its ranks after the winter break concludes Friday.\u00a0 With violist Silu Fei, timpanist Jonathan Greeney and English hornist Kyle Mustain already here (and sounding fantastic), this brings our number of new musicians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","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\/2011\/01\/Ted-Botsford-200x337.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642","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=5642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}