{"id":7616,"date":"2012-05-20T14:13:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T21:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=7616"},"modified":"2013-02-07T21:06:03","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T05:06:03","slug":"summer-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/20\/summer-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"summer activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Monday marks the end of the Oregon Symphony’s 2011-2012 season. It’ll be my 16th season with the orchestra. Hard to believe! Time really does start accelerating at some point along the way, that is for certain! While there is time for R&R during the summer months, we don’t earn a salary during that time, so we subsist upon what we’ve managed to save during the season and we also do summer festivals, which make for a kind of busman’s holiday, since most summer festivals are in places that you actually want to be during the summer, and the change of scenery, both musical and geographical, helps to recharge the artistic batteries from a long season of concentrated performing. Here’s a rundown of what I’ll be doing over the summer months, maybe we’ll cross paths, who knows?<\/p>\n

In June, I’ll be performing at a benefit concert<\/a> for the Old Church’s continuing renovations with a newly-formed string quartet – the Bainbridge Quartet<\/a> – which consists of myself and my wife, cellist Heather Blackburn, and two old friends on violin – both of whom were in previous string quartets that Heather and I were in – Tim Schwarz and Denise Dillenbeck. We’re playing selections from Dvorak’s Cypresses, Shostakovich’s monumental Piano Quintet with pianist Susan DeWitt Smith, and Beethoven’s great Op. 127 string quartet.<\/p>\n

At the end of June and into July, I’ll be playing with the Oregon Bach Festival<\/a> Orchestra in two concerts: one<\/a> featuring Joshua Bell playing the Mendelssohn concerto, and the other<\/a> featuring Tippet’s oratorio “A Child of Our Time”. On August 7th, I’ll be a part fo the Harvey Rosencranz Orchestra augmenting Pink Martini’s appearance<\/a> at the Bach Festival as well.<\/p>\n

July is quiet for a couple of weeks, the I journey up to the far northern reaches of Washington State to play three concerts with the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival<\/a>: the rarely performed Grand Sinfonia Concertante for string sextet by Mozart (and an unknown arranger), Beethoven’s String Quintet in C major, and Debussy’s sublime String Quartet in G minor.<\/p>\n

A week off, and then it’s off to the Sunriver Music Festival<\/a>, where there will be 10 days of chamber orchestra concerts (including an augmented ensemble for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) with new music director George Hansen.<\/p>\n

Then, finally, it’s a couple of weeks free before we do our annual Oregon Symphony Waterfront Concert<\/a>, and my 17th season is underway. Phew!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Monday marks the end of the Oregon Symphony’s 2011-2012 season. It’ll be my 16th season with the orchestra. Hard to believe! Time really does start accelerating at some point along the way, that is for certain! While there is time for R&R during the summer months, we don’t earn a salary during that time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[136,44,135,503,138,2],"tags":[3670,3671,3057,3056],"class_list":["post-7616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-chamber-music","category-freelancing","category-soloists-recitals","category-string-quartet","category-summer-festivals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-chamber-music","tag-summer-festivals","tag-symphony-orchestra","tag-time-off","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1YQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4709,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/31\/summer-music-in-portland\/","url_meta":{"origin":7616,"position":0},"title":"summer music in portland","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that the symphony's season is over, there's no reason to despair!\u00a0 No, in fact, there are many reasons to be happy, for there are myriad opportunities to hear live classical music nearly all summer long here in Portland and surrounding areas. Starting in just a couple of weeks is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "summer festivals"","block_context":{"text":"summer festivals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/summer-festivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/astoriamusicfestival-400x55.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24850,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/28\/summer-roundup-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":7616,"position":1},"title":"Summer Roundup (Part 1)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Summers are an interesting time for musicians - whether they are in a full 52 week orchestra, freelance performers, or members of orchestras that play less than 52 weeks each season. The Oregon Symphony plays 40 weeks a year - leaving 12 weeks where we find work where we can.\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\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8741-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22489,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2022\/08\/26\/dog-days-of-summer\/","url_meta":{"origin":7616,"position":2},"title":"Dog Days of Summer","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Lily enjoys the dog days! It's that time of year, summer is winding down. The summer festival circuit is coming to an end. Orchestras with 52-week seasons are just ending their 21-22 seasons or just about to start their 22-23 seasons. The weather is hot, the greenery is starting to\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\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_1414-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5247,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/01\/first-day-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":7616,"position":3},"title":"first day back","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was the first day back to work for the Oregon Symphony and the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. \u00a0It was good to be back in the Arlene, and there were both some new faces as well as missing familiar ones. Introduced at this morning's rehearsal were our new Principal\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":12662,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/22\/season-eighteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":7616,"position":4},"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. 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