{"id":5872,"date":"2011-02-24T16:15:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T00:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=5872"},"modified":"2011-02-24T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T00:15:51","slug":"the-real-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/24\/the-real-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"the real deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Francis - Photo: Chris Christodoulou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You never know what you’re going to get when a new guest conductor arrives. It’s especially true when your scheduled guest has cancelled and the management is casting about frantically trying to get an adequate replacement on board in time for the first rehearsal.<\/p>\n

In the case of Michael Francis, who is stepping in for the indisposed Alondra de la Parra, we got the real deal. He’s got all the goods. He has the “pretty hands” that show everything that you want, and without\u00a0unnecessary\u00a0talking. He has a calm, confident demeanor. And that bit of British self-deprecation that we Americans love (it makes us feel superior).<\/p>\n

Given that two of the pieces are unknown to him (and to us), it could have been a disastrous rehearsal, but in fact, it was a very productive and working rehearsal, with humor and laughter interspersed. I’m very much looking forward to see how the concerts will go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You never know what you’re going to get when a new guest conductor arrives. It’s especially true when your scheduled guest has cancelled and the management is casting about frantically trying to get an adequate replacement on board in time for the first rehearsal. In the case of Michael Francis, who is stepping in for […]<\/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":[299,2],"tags":[2553,2551,3668],"class_list":["post-5872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conducting","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-alondra-de-al-parra","tag-michael-francis","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1wI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5862,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/23\/last-minute-substitute-for-oregon-symphony-concerts\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":0},"title":"last minute substitute for oregon symphony concerts","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just got this news from the Oregon Symphony press office: Guest conductor Alondra de la Parra has been forced to withdraw\u00a0from the Oregon Symphony\u2019s \u201cThomas Lauderdale Plays Grieg\u201d Classical series\u00a0concerts Feb. 26-28 for personal reasons. Young British conductor Michael Francis \u2013\u00a0who is quickly earning a reputation as the man to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/AlondradelaParra1web-e1265005004666.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3129,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/18\/young-conductors-to-watch\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":1},"title":"young conductors to watch","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Alondra de la Parra - Photo: Courtney Perry The Daily Beast has an article about the current crop of young conductors who are either making it big or, in their opinion, are about to (the headline screams: Young Rock Stars of the Conducting World\").\u00a0 Some of these conductors have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"AlondradelaParra1web","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/AlondradelaParra1web.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6966,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/08\/guests-and-replacements\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":2},"title":"guests and replacements","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that we're continuing our run, here at the Oregon Symphony, of last-minute replacements. Last season, we had two visits from conductor Michael Francis, who replaced Gunther Herbig and Alondra de la Parra last year when they were forced to withdraw from their engagements here. Ironically, our last-minute replacement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/NatashaParemski_1_orig_credit_Andrea_Joynt-e1318119395526.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/17\/oso-resident-up-for-two-more-positions\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":3},"title":"OSO resident up for two more positions","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"OSO Resident conductor Gregory Vajda is up for two more music director positions: the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony. From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: The Fort Wayne Philharmonic announced its 2008-09 season during a news conference Tuesday. The season will feature at least 10 different maestros,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gregory Vajda, conductor","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/gregory_vajda7.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6042,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/23\/michael-francis-returns-to-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":4},"title":"michael francis returns to oregon symphony!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Our upcoming guest conductor Gunter Herbig has cancelled his engagement with the Oregon Symphony, and the orchestra's loss quickly became its gain when young British conductor Michael Francis, who electrified both the orchestra and audiences last month, was engaged to replace Maestro Herbig. The concert, entitled \"A Pair of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/MichaelFrancis-credit-chris-christodoulou-400x265.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5884,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/27\/michael-francis-makes-strong-debut\/","url_meta":{"origin":5872,"position":5},"title":"michael francis makes strong debut","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We played our first of three concerts in Portland with our emergency replacement conductor, the British conductor Michael Francis, last night, and in spite of the good amount of buzz that his nascent career has gotten up to this point, he was still impressive. Rather than give a blow-by-blow account\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/web-photo-6-266x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872","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=5872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}