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.

Picardy is Back!

I think this has been the busiest week of the season for me. We have had rehearsals all week for our Masterworks concerts last night and tonight. Tomorrow we will have more rehearsals, this time for our first Family Concert of the season.

I'm excited. Tired, but excited.

KSO family concerts are delightful. There are all sorts of things to do before the show. The lobby and some of the dressing rooms at the Tennessee Theater are turned into a sort of musical playground for children and their parents. Kids can make crafts, see instruments close-up, pretend to run the box office or be the conductor... It's really a lot of fun. If you're heading to the concert this Sunday you should definitely come early. The concert is at 2 but the activities start at 12:45.

My favorite part of the Family concerts is not the pre-concert activities. (Possibly because the orchestra is having a sound check during that time!) My favorite thing about the Family concerts is Picardy Penguin. Picardy is an animated penguin who is projected on a large screen above the orchestra. He interacts with the orchestra and guests by singing, talking, playing instruments, and even conducting. This family concert is all about dance and dance music, so I expect we'll see Picardy dancing, too!

KSO family concerts are geared toward children between the ages of 3 and 8. The concerts are played without intermission and are just the right length for antsy kids. My daughter has been coming to the concerts since she was three. She is now five and she always enjoys them. The concerts are enjoyable for adults as well.

The first KSO family concert will take place this Sunday at 2:00 at the Tennessee Theater. Picardy's Playground will be open at 12:45.

November in a Nutshell

There is a lot going on with the KSO in November!

Last week the KSO performed educational concerts for thousands of area school children. Beginning this week and continuing through the month, small ensembles of musicians will be touring the Knox County Public Library branches for special musical story time presentations. These are always very entertaining. I have participated in story time concerts both as a musician and as an audience member with my daughter. It's hard to say which was more fun. There are many opportunities for the children to participate, from singing along with familiar tunes to playing small percussion instruments. It is a great (and free!) way to introduce young children to live classical music. The full story time schedule can be found here.

This week is also the KSO's debut Chamber Classics Series performance of the season. Sunday afternoon's concert is a concert of string serenades by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, and Suk. Don't let the parking situation around the Bijou deter you from attending this concert. Once again the KSO will be providing a shuttle service from the State Street Garage (behind the Tennessee Theater) to the Bijou.

On the 16th the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestras will give their first performance of the season. These kids work incredibly hard and their concerts are not to be missed.

Later in the month is the November Masterwork's Concert featuring pianist Benjamin Hochman playing Mendelssohn. We'll also be playing Der Rosenkavalier Suite by Strauss, the gorgeous Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Haydn's 16th Symphony.

Also mid-month is our first Family Concert of the season. Picardy Penguin will be back in a program entitled, "Shall we Dance?" Our family concerts are more like events than concerts. There are plenty of activities for children and their families to participate in before the actual concert. It's a nice way to spend a cold afternoon.

Finally, the end of the month brings two free community performances. On November 27th (aka, "Black Friday") at 6:00 the KSO Brass Quintet will be performing in Krutch Park near Market Square for the City of Knoxville Celebration of Lights. The next day a string quartet will be at West Town Mall playing holiday music.

YPC

This week the KSO is performing a series of concerts for area school children. Young People's Concerts, or, YPC's for short, have a very special place in my heart. I love kids and I love teaching kids about music. Before they attend a YPC, most of the students have been working with a docent and have had some symphony musicians visit their classroom. The kids learn about the repertoire in advance. There are CD's for the music teachers to play for the students and sample lesson plans. The symphony members visit the class to give the kids an up-close preview of what they will hear at the concert. Before I came to Knoxville I had performed in numerous young people's concerts in other cities. I think that of all the places I've played, Knoxville has the best educational concerts. The KSO's education department and our area music teachers do a fantastic job preparing the students for the concert. The students are familiar with the music they will hear and are eagerly anticipating their favorites. They participate and are engaged. They know the basics of audience etiquette and are a joy to play for.

Aside from the kids, I love YPC's because people in the orchestra let their hair down. Not to say that the playing is sloppy, it's just that it's hard to be completely serious when you're wearing a fake mustache. Or listening to Principal Trombonist Sam Chen "talk" to long-deceased Richard Wagner on his cell phone. Or when you're keeping one eye on your music and the other on the real live donkey and praying that when it gets scared and runs off-stage it decides to run AWAY from you. People smile during YPC's. We laugh. We wear costumes that we would never be caught dead in otherwise. We dance the macarena and the can-can. And it's all in the name of education. How can you beat that?

KSO at Borders

Friday night marks another opportunity to see musicians from the KSO performing in the community. At 7:00 pm, a string quartet from the symphony will be performing at Morrell Rd. Borders. This is a free concert and will preview some of the things that are coming up this season. While you are at Borders, why not check out some music-related books? Here are a few of my favorites:

For Adults:
The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works by Ted Libbey
Memoirs by Georg Solti
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs
Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony by Arnold Steinhardt
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy
Piano - The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand by James Barron
Edly's Music Theory for Practical People by Ed Roseman

For Children:
Mole Music by David McPhail
The Music Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler and Jared Lee
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman
The Jazz Fly by Matthew Gollub and Karen Hanke
I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello by Barbara S. Garriel and John O'Brien
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes and Karmen Thompson
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont
Tubby the Tuba by Paul Tripp and Henry Cole
The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow and C. F. Payne

Ijams

Last night the KSO played at Ijams Nature Center for the 24th annual Symphony in the Park fundraiser. It was a beautiful evening.

Cathy Leach, Principal Trumpet, warming up before the concert:


Jill Allard, flute:


John Michael Fox, violin:


The KSO viola section (minus yours truly). Jen Bloch, Bill Pierce, and Eunsoon Corliss:


A somewhat rare picture of me, courtesy of Eunsoon...


First violinists Lisa Muci, Sean Claire, and Yin Wu:


Timpanist Mike Combs with cellist Ihsan Kartal:


Ijams is a beautiful place.




Mark Tucker, our wonderful stagehand Paul, Maestro Richman, and Jennifer Barnett waiting for the concert to begin. Percussionist Clark Harrell is in the foreground looking suspicious of my picture taking...


It was a great night and I think we're all looking forward to the 25th anniversary concert next fall!

It's the Smart Place to Be!

When a musician is completely engrossed in a piece everything around them disappears. You lose yourself in the music. It's a lot like reading a good book. You forget your surroundings and join a world that, while only words, is completely real in your mind. For this reason I have always loved reading. I also love libraries. (And librarians... I married one!) The library has always been one of my favorite places because you can walk out with a stack of books, a few CD's and a movie or two, peruse them at your leisure in the comfort of your home and then go back and repeat the procedure all for FREE.

The Knox County Public Library system is great. First of all, it's huge: in addition to the main library downtown there are 17 branches all over Knoxville. If the branch in your part of town doesn't have the materials you want, it's not a problem. You can reserve them and have them delivered to your chosen branch. If you need a book that the KCPL doesn't own they will try to get it for you from a different library system.

The library offers many programs from story time for children (including musical story time with members of the KSO!), to family game night, to computer workshops for adults. There is something going on every day at the library and the variety of programs is so wide there is something for everyone.

I am a veteran library user, but until very recently my experience with KCPL's website was limited to reserving books and checking the due dates on my books. Boy was I missing out.

The library's media collection is called Sights and Sounds. They have a sub-page online called The Music Room. It has all sorts of databases you can access online from the comfort of your home with your library card. There is a source for classical music scores, African American Song, a classical music library with audio you can listen to right at your computer, the Smithsonian Global Sound for libraries, and several others. There is a link to their collection of CD's by local artists, local music venues (including the KSO!), and a list of upcoming events by AC Entertainment. The Sights and Sounds web pages are a great way to stay on top of the Knoxville music scene.

Hidden Talent

Lamar Alexander can play the piano.

I know he is slated to perform with the symphony later this month, but sometimes when we have celebrity guest artists perform with us, their performance is, well, secondary to their name recognition. I just checked out Lamar Alexander's interview on NPR's Weekend Edition and he can *play* the piano.

In fact, as governor he traveled around Tennessee performing with 21 symphonies and community orchestras as a way to unite people. He's a classically trained pianist but he is able to play all different styles from Mozart to gospel. As a young man he played on Bourbon Street in New Orleans for extra money. He has even recorded The Tennessee Waltz with Patti Page. As senator he doesn't perform often, so it will be a real treat to hear his performance on June 13th.

Festival of Reading

The Children's Festival of Reading is taking place this Saturday in World's Fair Park to kick off the Knox County Library's summer reading program. There will be all sorts of activities for children and their parents including a petting zoo, hayride, and a mad scientist. A string quartet from the Knoxville Symphony will also be presenting a story time. I have attended KSO story time performances with my preschooler and they are always entertaining. The quartet and soprano Jennifer Barnett (who also happens to be the symphony's director of community outreach) present several stories with a musical theme. The quartet provides sound effects to go along with the storyline and also plays a short piece or two. There are usually opportunities for kids to participate by playing instruments like egg shakers, tambourines, triangles, etc. The Festival of Reading is free and takes place from 10am to 3pm at World's Fair Park this Saturday. The KSO story time will take place from from 11:45 to 12:30.

Also, don't forget that time is running out to order your tickets to the Cades Cove concert. The deadline for ordering a parking pass is next Wednesday, June 3rd.

We Need YOU!

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale announced his proposed budget for 2010 on Tuesday. It's not pretty. Actually, it's downright ugly. This year the symphony received over $43,000 in county funds. Next year we are slated to receive just over $6000. (No. I didn't forget a zero. I wish the problem was that easy to fix.) Our friends at Knoxville Opera and the Knoxville Museum of Art are in worse straits: neither organization will get any funding from the county if Mayor Ragsdale's budget is approved.

Here's the thing: the funds that the symphony receives from the county don't fund our subscription performances. They don't pay for guest artists. They don't go into a general slush fund. The funds that the Knoxville Symphony receives from the county go right back into the community. They pay for things such as free community concerts, sending small ensembles into the schools to expose and teach children about music, bringing children to our Young People's Concerts, sending musicians into area hospitals as part of our award-winning music and wellness program, and our long-term side by side partnership with Austin East High School and other area public schools. These are all programs that directly benefit the community that will have to be severely restricted or even cut out all together without adequate funding from the county.

For the data-minded, here are some numbers. This year:

• 200,000 people were reached through all of the Knoxville Symphony's activities.

• 60,000 were reached through our community outreach and education programs.

• 10,000 children in Knox County were reached through our Young People's Concerts.

• 5,000 children in Knox County had a KSO musician visit their classroom.

• 1,000 preschool children in Knox County were exposed to classical music through the KSO's story time program.

• 2,000 patients at UT hospital took part in the KSO's music and wellness program.

I love to perform, true, but in my opinion the most important work we do as musicians is community outreach. Music is for everyone, not just people who understand Webern or who can afford the best seats in the house. The idea that lack of funding could turn some of these numbers into big fat zeros is absolutely unacceptable.

The budget has not yet been approved by the board, so it's not too late. The board will meet on Monday and will vote on the budget in the next few weeks. If you are a Knox County resident, I urge you to write to your elected officials. Tell them you expect them to support the arts in our community. A trickle of dissent won't change anything. We each need to take responsibility to let the commission know how we feel. Only then can we hope to restore county funding to the arts.

To email Mayor Ragsdale, click here.

For a list of commissioners, districts, and email links, click here.

To email the Knox County Commission, click here.

I thank you in advance for your support.

The Great Outdoors

Did I miss something? Spring, for instance? It seems to me that we went from unusually cold weather to temperatures in the mid-80's and skipped everything in between. Ah, well, I won't complain. The truth is, I love this time of year. It's sunny and warm, but not too warm, and everything is lush and green: perfect weather for spending time outside.

The late spring warm-up has arrived just in time for two outdoor concerts the KSO has coming up later this week. At 6:30 on Friday, May 1st, we will be playing on Market Square as part of First Friday, and at 7:30 on Saturday, May 2nd, we will be performing in Maryville at the Greenbelt Amphitheatre. Both concerts are free. The program for these concerts is a good mix of light classical pieces including a Rossini overture, a few movements from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and selections from The Sound of Music.

For the Market Square performance there are usually some chairs set up near the stage. In Maryville, you would be wise to bring your own lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on. A picnic basket full of goodies is a nice touch, too.

By the way, these are excellent concerts to bring children to because of the relaxed atmosphere. If a child gets antsy, it's very easy to get up and walk around without disturbing your fellow concert-goers. My husband has been bringing our daughter to the KSO's outdoor performances since she was an infant.

WDVX Performance

My quartet performed live on WDVX today. I was intimidated going in to today's radio performance. As I recently admitted, I am not very well versed in any music aside from classical music. I had never attended a Blue Plate performance and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I shouldn't have worried, because everyone was super nice and very helpful. We had a blast. The quartet started the show. We played a few selections and then Lucas and Jennifer Barnett took the stage to perform some of the songs they will play at the chamber concert on Sunday. Jennifer is an amazing soprano. She also happens to be the Director of Education and Outreach for the KSO. I especially enjoyed the song Amore by William Bolcom. Very humorous.

You can't exactly see it in this picture, but the thing that most impressed me was how many microphones we had on stage. We each had our own, plus there was another one to speak into.


Andy and I:


Jennifer:


Thanks to Stephanie for taking pictures today!

Chamber Week

With three concerts in the next seven days, my quartet has a busy week ahead. On Thursday we will join Austin East High School's orchestra for their “Taste of Music” concert / fund-raiser. The symphony has an ongoing partnership with AEHS. Since the beginning of the season, five KSO musicians have attended rehearsals with the students. The goal is to mentor the string students on a continuing basis. We help them master technical aspects of the pieces that are being rehearsed as well as give them an idea about what it is like to be a professional musician. My quartet started it's rotation through the side by side program in January. I have enjoyed getting to know the students as well as their teacher, Mr. East. He does an incredible job with them.

Earlier in the day on Thursday the Principal Quartet will be performing live on WDVX's Blue Plate Special. I'm both nervous and excited about this performance. The quartet finalized our repertoire choices this morning: an excerpt from the Barber string quartet we're performing on Sunday, a Dixie tune, Ashokan Farewell, and a tango. The really neat thing about this performance is that you don't need to be in the WDVX listening area to tune in. They stream their broadcast live on their website. If you can't make it to the studio for the performance, tune in on the radio or web at 12 pm ET on Thursday.

Finally, on Sunday the Principal Quartet will be performing the entire Barber String Quartet (which includes the famous Adagio for Strings) on the KSO chamber concert. The concert features American chamber music with a variety of instrumentations. In addition to the Barber quartet there will be a piano trio, a series of songs featuring soprano Jennifer Barnett, a woodwind quintet, and a piece for flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, and string quartet which was written by Timothy Cooper, winner of the Knoxville Symphony's composition competition. Don't let the parking situation deter you from attending this performance: the KSO is providing a free shuttle service from the State Street Garage to the Bijou before and after the concert.

Hunger

1 in 8 people in our country do not have enough food to eat. In East Tennessee the numbers are worse: 1 in 6 people will go hungry tonight. In Knox county alone there are over 16,000 children who are at risk for hunger. Many people struggling with hunger are members of the “working poor.” They fall in the crack of being too wealthy to qualify for many social services but too poor to make ends meet.

No one should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. You can help. Tonight and tomorrow the Knoxville Symphony is one of 240 orchestras across the country that are participating in a nation wide food drive. Helping is easy. When you come to our concert, bring a can of non-perishable food with you. Heck, bring as many cans as you can carry! We DO live in the Volunteer state, after all. Wouldn't it be great if we all filled the lobby of the Tennessee Theater with donations? What might seem like a small gesture to you will make an enormous difference to someone in need.

The concert, by the way, will be awesome. Elena Urioste is an amazing and dynamic violinist. Her playing is powerful and she's fun to watch. The rest of the program is equally impressive. There is no piece that demonstrates the sheer force of the orchestra like a live performance of Bolero. I can't describe it, it's something you just have to experience. A recording does not do the piece justice. Come, and bring a canned good. You won't be sorry.

No blues!

Yesterday was a big day for me. The chamber orchestra performed at the Bijou theater and for the first time in a long time I got to stand in front of the orchestra as a soloist. I had a blast. In my previous performances as a soloist I always felt a bit like the orchestra was going to sweep me away. This was not the case yesterday. I'd like to say thank you to Lucas and my colleagues for their sensitivity and good humor throughout the rehearsal and performance process. It made a huge difference in my comfort level. I'd also like to thank Jim Fellenbaum. Being heard over the orchestra is something all violists struggle with and it was nice to have a set of ears that I trust listening for balance.

Generally when I have a big performance I have a touch of the post-concert blues in the days following the concert. Today is different. Today I woke up and instead of sulking and thinking, “what's next?,” I woke up and thought, “AH! What's next?!” I'm usually pretty on-top of my schedule, but I was so focused on yesterday's performance that I really didn't look at what's coming up this week until this morning. For me, it is a week with a lot of repertoire packed into a few days. Tuesday the KSO strings will travel to Maryville to perform with the Maryville high school students, Wednesday my quartet begins our rotation in the side-by-side mentoring program at Austin East High School, and on Thursday the KSO strings will be participating in the Bijou theater's 100^th anniversary celebration. For that performance, my quartet will be playing excerpts from the first movement of Barber's string quartet as well as the entire adagio from the second movement (the famous Adagio for Strings). I also have a thick stack of bowings I've neglected that desperately need attention. I am happiest when I am busy, and especially when I have something particularly juicy to practice, like the Barber quartet, so this should be a good week.

If you would like to find out more information on the KSO's performance for the Bijou Theater's 100^th anniversary, you can look here.

Side by Side in Maryville

Last night the string players of the KSO had our first side-by-side rehearsal with Maryville High School. The idea behind a side-by-side is to pair up professional musicians with students in a mentoring situation. The KSO currently has a long-term side-by-side program at Austin East High School where a quintet of string musicians attend their orchestra class once a week. The side-by-side at Maryville High School is different because the relationship is short-term (two rehearsals plus a concert), and more KSO players are involved.

Every time we go to Maryville High School, I'm shocked at how many students they have in their orchestra program. The room was full. Not only that, but our concert is split in two parts so that more students can participate. We rehearsed two pieces, took a break while the first group of students left and then finished up the rehearsal with the second group. These days it is unusual for schools to offer an orchestra program and very unusual for there to be as much student participation as there is in Maryville.

My favorite aspect of the side-by-side program is that when improvements are made they are very noticeable. In the day-to-day rehearsal of the KSO there is the usual tweaking of dynamics, tuning of chords, smoothing out transitions, etc, but unless we “crash and burn” (which doesn't happen often, thankfully) our first reading of a piece is generally not radically different than the eventual performance. There wasn't much crashing and burning taking place last night, although there were a few things that were a little rough around the edges. The students responded well to instruction from Lucas as well as from their KSO musician stand-partners. I was especially impressed by the wind, brass, and percussion students. I don't think they normally play in the orchestra and they all did a great job. I'm looking forward to our second rehearsal with them tonight.

December

December is an unusual month in the KSO's season. Other months of the season are predictable concert-wise. We have a Masterworks concert and then usually a Chamber or Pops concert along with a smattering of community outreach performances by small ensembles. In December, we turn away from our usual schedule of classical music and direct our attention to the upcoming winter holidays. Even though we don't perform concerts in our usual series, we manage to keep plenty busy. Last week we performed a holiday concert at Lincoln Memorial University. This past weekend we performed the Nutcracker with the Appalachian Ballet Company. On Thursday we will perform a holiday concert in Morristown. Next week we will begin rehearsals for the Clayton Holiday Concert. There are also small ensembles from the symphony that are doing special outreach performances at area businesses and hospitals.

While the music we play for our holiday programs is not as technically difficult as our usual fare, I actually think December is one of the most challenging months in our season because everything gets turned on it's head. In other months we tend to have the luxury of having rehearsals for one or two programs at a time which are followed closely by performances. In December this is not always the case. For example, last week we rehearsed the Nutcracker on Tuesday and Wednesday and then performed it Saturday and Sunday. In between the rehearsals and performances of the Nutcracker we had a rehearsal for our runout concerts which we performed last Thursday at Lincoln Memorial University and will perform again this coming Thursday in Morristown. In the midst of those programs, the quartets have had recent performances at Oak Ridge National Lab, First Friday at the Emporium Building, and other area businesses and hospitals.

The time lapse between rehearsals and performances is not a big issue musically, it's just different than our usual schedule and requires a different mindset. December is about keeping all the balls in the air without dropping any.