Random Monday

* This week the KSO will once again be participating in Orchestras Feeding America. We will be collecting canned goods at our concerts on Thursday and Friday. There are children and seniors right here in our community who go to bed hungry because they do not have enough to eat. We can make a direct difference.

* Continuing in the spirit of giving to the community, Lucas will be participating in Knoxville's very own Dancing with the Stars on Thursday, April 1st. Although the event takes place on April Fools Day, it is no joke. This is a fundraiser for East Tennessee Children's Hospital. You can vote with your wallet; every vote costs $1 and all proceeds benefit the hospital. I've never seen Lucas dance, but my guess is he's quite dapper. Vote early and vote often!

* Have you seen these PSA's for the Arts? They seem to have been out for awhile but I've never seen them on television. Knox county is getting ready to ax some more arts programs in the schools. Perhaps they need a good dose of Raisin Brahms or Van Goghgurt.

Tchaikovsky Accordion Concerto

I feel a certain kinship with accordion players. The accordion is an under-appreciated instrument that is the butt of many jokes, sort of like the viola.... Really, great accordion playing is just as spectacular as any other instrument played well. Maybe even more because it is unexpected.

Lisa Muci brought this clip to my attention. All I can say is WOW! The 3rd movement of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto is a bear to play when you're just handling the solo part. This musician manages to not only play the solo part, but all the orchestral parts too. It is too amazing not to pass on to you.

viola-matic

Big Broccoli Ocarina

This was too bizarre not to pass on. I've seen people play with their food but I've never seen someone actually play their food. And quite beautifully, too!



If the broccoli rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High didn't get you in the holiday spirit, you should stop by the Borders on Morrell road tomorrow at 7. A string quartet from the KSO will be there playing light classics and holiday favorites. No vegetables required.

Monday Morning Pick-Me-Up

If you're dragging this morning like I am, this will wake you up and get you going in short order. Jazz is much better than coffee. Happy Monday!

Unfamiliar Works

This weeks Masterworks concert features three pieces that may be unfamiliar to listeners. Actually, the works are unfamiliar to many of the musicians as well. When I'm faced with an unfamiliar piece, I like to learn about it and listen to it. With the internet this is a lot easier to do now than it was 10 years ago!

Each of the pieces tells a story, and the program notes just happen to be on the KSO website.

The notes on Richman's An Overture to Blanche can be found here, the notes on Dvorak's The Golden Spinning Wheel are here, and the program notes on Stravinsky's Petrushka are here.

Also, you can listen to the podcast, which is located right under our sponsor for this concert, The Trust Company.

As I've mentioned before, the Knox County Public Library is a great source of classical music recordings. YouTube also has recordings of The Golden Spinning Wheel (here is part two and part three) and Petrushka (here are parts two, three, and four.)

Mozart 40?!

I've watched this clip several times and each time come away with more questions. How (and WHY!) did this musician come up with the idea to play tuned wine bottles while roller blading? How long did it take to figure out how to tune each bottle so precisely? How long did he have to practice to keep from knocking all the bottles over like dominoes? And, did he drink all that wine himself or did he have some help?

What do you think?

Giants

The month of September marked the passing of two giants in the classical music world. Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel passed away on September 1st after a brief battle with cancer. A musician to the very end, Kunzel conducted his final concert with the Cincinnati Pops exactly one month before he died.

Pianist Alicia de Laroccha died this past week in Spain at the age of 86. She was most famous for her interpretation of Spanish music, but her repertoire was vast.

Neither death received as much attention as the recent deaths of several celebrities, but they both impacted the classical music world at least as much as Michael Jackson did the world of pop.

Office Brass

I really liked this. It is proof that great music doesn't have to happen in a concert hall.

Glass Harmonica

My husband and I really love LP's. We love the oldness of them as well as the quirkiness of music available. Some of my favorites from our collection include Captain Kangaroo narrating Peter and the Wolf, a recording of Karajan rehearsing the Berlin Philharmonic on Beethoven's 9th Symphony, a recital by violinist Igor Oistrakh (son of David Oistrakh) of 20th century pieces, and various recordings of easy listening "jazz" from the 1950's and 60's.

Occasionally we will come across an instrument that we're not familiar with. Last weekend we picked up a record that features an ensemble of cello, viola, and glass harmonica. Surprisingly, it works quite well. Neither of us knew quite what a glass harmonica was, though, so we looked it up on Youtube.

Big Hands

Have you ever had everything break down all at once? This is what happened at my house this past weekend. I'll spare you the rant and promise a meatier post for Thursday. I've got my fingers crossed that by then I won't be sitting on the floor pecking out my blog on our third-in-line computer.

In the meanwhile, here is another youtube video that marries music with humor, in a much less painful way than Thursday's entry.

Queen of the Night

There are quite a few musicians who have made their careers based on comedy. Until today I had never known of a musician who became famous because they were so ear-shatteringly horrible that people came out in droves to laugh at them.

The first sentence in Florence Foster Jenkins' Wikipedia entry is, "Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American soprano who became famous for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability."

Ouch.

Jenkins' confidence in herself was unwaivering. She claimed that her critics were merely jealous of her talent. The heartly laughter coming from the audience while she was singing, she said, was from her rivals.

You be the judge.

Stressbusters

Being a musician is a stressful job. We don't have people's lives in our hands like heart surgeons or government officials do, but when we have a bad day it's witnessed by a hall full of people and gets written up in the newspaper. (Don't misunderstand: being a musician is also an incredibly rewarding job which makes the stress worth the pain.) Stress affects different people in different ways, however, I have noticed that musicians tend to use their creativity as a weapon against their stress. We get the musical sillies.

My first season here my viola had an unfortunate accident. We were rehearsing in the pit when something flew in from the audience side and smacked my viola while I was playing. It was quite the jolt, knocking all my strings out of tune, collapsing the bridge, and even cracking the sound post and belly of the instrument. It was horrifying. I was devastated. What did we do? We made a movie about it, of course! With a cast and crew entirely made up of KSO musicians and their families, The Brown Viola premiered that summer and made the rounds at several parties and music festivals. It's a strange experience to be in Michigan for non-musical reasons and have a complete stranger recognize you as “that girl from The Brown Viola.”

Last week was crazy for my quartet. I am exhausted today and I didn't even play on the Bernstein Trio yesterday! I can't imagine how Andy and Edward are feeling this morning. I dedicate this bit of musical silliness to my fellow quartet members. We survived, y'all!

A Soloist's Worst Nightmare

Sometimes the most exciting concerts are the ones where something goes wrong. A few seasons back we had a soloist whose e-string snapped while she was playing. As is custom, she grabbed the concertmaster's violin and continued playing while her instrument was passed back to the section to be re-strung. The performance (both hers and that of the section violinists who fixed her violin) brought down the house. Last season our former principal second violinist Eric Kline broke his e-string while soloing with the KSO on our annual runout to Greeneville. The audience was still talking about when we returned a few weeks ago. Recently violist Yuri Bashmet experienced one of those heart-stopping moments. It's okay to laugh: it looks like his million-dollar viola exploded, but it's really a pretty easy fix.

Monday Morning Levity

Enjoy!

YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Symphony orchestras all run auditions in much the same way. We have rounds where we hear candidates, eliminate some, and then hear them again until we decide who the winner is. In early rounds a screen separates the audition committee from the candidates to eliminate any bias. In the final round the screen comes down and we are able to talk to the finalists and see their resumes.

YouTube is doing things differently. They are in the process of choosing musicians for the YouTube Symphony which will perform at Carnegie Hall on April 15^th under the direction of San Fransisco Symphony's Michael Tilson Thomas. Over 3000 musicians from around the world have uploaded video auditions to be a part of the YouTube symphony. Judges reviewed the submissions and narrowed the entries. The videos of the finalists in all instrument categories are now up on the YouTube Symphony site and you can vote for your favorites through next Sunday. Thats right. It's a people's choice symphony.

If you'd like to browse the entries and vote for your favorites, here is a link to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra website.