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.

Knoxville Jazz Orchestra

For a musician, playing an instrument is like breathing. Not meaning that it's effortless, but that to play means to live. Even in retirement it is rare for a musician to completely give up playing unless they are forced to stop for physical reasons. Playing is an emotional outlet, a way to connect with people that transcends language. The ways to express one's self through music are numerous and most musicians don't limit themselves to a single genre. I've mentioned before that many KSO musicians moonlight in other groups. Tonight the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra is giving a concert in the Bijou Theater. About half the musicians who will be on the stage also play in the KSO. Of course, the numbers are somewhat skewed because the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra is using strings for this concert. I will be playing, along with several colleagues from the KSO string section. It's rare for string players to get to play along with a jazz orchestra and we're all excited to have the opportunity. The soloist for tonight's concert is vocalist Deborah Brown. Her voice is pure and her sound is absolutely effortless. I think I could listen to her all day. I have also been awed by KSO clarinetist Mark Tucker (playing saxophone) and trombonist Tom Lundberg. The mere thought of improvising makes me break into a cold sweat. I much prefer the security of notes on a page. They make it sound easy.

This is going to be an awesome concert. (I know I always say that, but it's true!) If you plan to buy a ticket at the door I advise you to get there early because Knoxville Jazz Orchestra concerts are quite popular and often sell out.

Fairy Godfather

The results are in and the winner of the opera twitter contest is Stephen Llewellyn, a former barrister who is now the blogger for the Portland Opera. His winning entry tweeted Wagner's Ring Cycle: “There was a young lady called Fricka Who... who... *snore* 'Wake up-- its over.' It's good, I just wish it were quicka.”

Many opera companies ponied up prizes for this contest, which had over 500 entries. Llewellyn chose a generous prize offered by the Washington National Opera which included tickets to the final performance of the season as well as to the annual opera ball.

Then he gave it all away.

He felt that he has plenty of opportunities to enjoy opera and decided to give the package to someone who might not be able to attend as often. He decided to give the prize to a music teacher as a way of thanking them for exposing children to the arts. With some help, he chose Priscilla Barrow who has been teaching music in the D.C. Schools for 22 years. She is passionate about teaching and every year goes out of her way to immerse her students in the arts, often seeking out partnerships with area arts organizations.

Llewellyn found a donor to take care of incidental expenses and arranged for the Washington Opera's costume department to provide a ball gown, so Barrow will truly have a Cinderella experience. I hope she has a fabulous time.

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.

The Pit

Some of my fondest memories are from playing in pit orchestras for various musicals. The atmosphere in the pit is a lot different than when we are on the main stage. People relax. It's not that the music is necessarily easier than our usual symphonic fare. Actually, scores for musicals can be quite challenging. The songs are scored for the comfort of the vocalists, not the musicians, so keys like B major (five sharps) or D-flat major (five flats) are quite common. Really, I think the musicians relax in the pit because the focus is not primarily on us. Our job is to make the people on stage look good. If we are noticed it's not always a good thing.

Just about every musical I have played for has had some near-disaster during production. (I don't think I'm the violist equivalent of Typhoid Mary, but who knows....) Most disasters happen without the audience ever knowing, but a few memorable times things have gone horribly wrong for everyone to see or hear. The worst (or best, depending on how you look at it) disaster that I witnessed happened during a run of Oklahoma when I was freelancing in the Chicago area. We were giving a special presentation for a packed house of school children. It was a doomed venture from the overture. A picnic basket was kicked into the pit (if you come see the Knoxville Opera next week, you will notice that there is a net above part of the pit to catch falling objects), a actor forgot an entire verse of a song, and several people missed entrances or forgot lines.

Clearly, it was not going well, but the show didn't reach full fiasco status until near the end. Curly, the leading male, had a fast costume change. Apparently no one was around backstage to help him get dressed and when he came back out on stage it was clear that he hadn't had time to properly put his pants on. For a few minutes he made it work by keeping one hand on his pants and using the other in his fight scene with the evil Jud Fry. Given that handicap, you would think that Jud would have had a better chance, but Curly still got the best of him. When the actors playing the police came out to arrest Curly they didn't notice he was holding his pants up. Or maybe they just didn't care. They turned him around and forced his hands behind his back. His pants fell down around his ankles to the screaming delight of over 700 elementary school children. Cowboys really shouldn't wear polka dot boxer shorts.

This weekend we are not in the pit, but we are staging a Valentine's pops show full of Richard Rodger's greatest hits. It should be an enchanted evening full of great music. And, hopefully, no fiascos.

Singing Bees

Next week we start rehearsals for Knoxville Opera's production of Rigoletto. The following clip is not something you'll see in that production (I hope), but it is one of the funniest things I have seen. Ever.

Virtual Concert Hall

Now you can attend a Berlin Philharmonic concert in the comfort of your living room. For about the cost of a movie ticket you can watch the Berlin Philharmonic perform in their virtual concert hall. This blows my mind. Classical music is a field that has not been dramatically changed by technology. Yes, the internet has revolutionized marketing strategy, and recording artists have benefited from new developments, but when it comes down to the actual performance, attending a concert in 2009 is much like attending a concert in 1989. Until now if you wanted to see an orchestra outside your region you would have to travel to their home town or hope that they would tour close to your home. Tickets were bought according to travel plans, not necessarily because of the music or artist on the program.

As exciting as this technology is, a virtual concert will never be the same as physically attending a concert for the same reasons that watching a DVD is not the same as watching a movie on the big screen. Scale, ambiance, and volume are all factors, but the biggest difference is you, the audience. The collective energy of an audience is an amazing force. I have attended concerts that were an amazing experience despite a luke-warm performance because of an engaged, energetic audience. On the flip side, I have also attended tremendous concerts that fell flat because the audience was sleepy. The heart pounding drama that ensues when a soloist breaks a string, holding your breath and leaning forward to hear a particularly quiet passage, experiencing the force of sound when the whole group is playing as loud as possible: these are all things that I expect would be lost with a virtual broadcast.

Still, I plan to scout out Berlin's season and find a concert or two to virtually “attend.” Like the DVD, virtual concerts have their place, and it's a whole lot cheaper and more convenient to attend their concert in my living room that to fly to Berlin.