Concert Smorgasbord

The Knoxville Symphony has several concerts coming up this week, including two free concerts.

Tonight at 7:00 the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra will perform their final concert of the season at the Tennessee Theater. Several orchestras of all levels will perform from kids who have only been playing a few years to high school students who have been seriously studying their instruments for many years. All the ensembles present a polished performance. This concert is free.

Tomorrow string players from the KSO will partner with the orchestra students at Farragut High School to present a side by side performance at Farragut High School. The concert begins at 7:30 at Farragut High School.

Wednesday at 6:30 we will be playing on Market Square. This concert was rescheduled from last Friday due to rain. This concert is free.

Finally, on Saturday Peter Cetera is coming for the KSO's final pops concert of the season. This is the concert I'm looking forward to the most this week. Peter Cetera has written hit after hit after hit. It should be a great evening.

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.

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.

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.

Side by side

The KSO has been doing side by side concerts with various area high schools for quite a few seasons. A side by side is a program that pairs professional musicians with high school students. We are able to help with the nuts and bolts of playing an instrument such as fingerings, bowings, sound production, etc, and we are also able to do some mentoring to students who might choose to make music their career. In the past the side by side concerts have consisted of one or two rehearsals followed by a concert.

Last year my quartet did a side by side with the orchestra from Austin East. I admit I panicked a bit when I got the music. There were quite a few pieces and the music was enough like jazz to make me sweat. I like to listen to jazz and I have great admiration for those who play jazz. Playing jazz is not my forte. There were directions in the music I had never seen before, such as “bow slap.” The AEHS orchestra had been rehearsing for awhile but we only had a few rehearsals with them to put the concert together. In the end, though, the kids were flexible, Jonathan East who directs the orchestra was very laid back, I expanded my musical comfort zone and the concert came off fine.

This season the KSO is partnering with Austin East High School for an extended side by side program. For several months, five string musicians from the KSO have attended a rehearsal once a week at AEHS. Working with the students on a long term basis has allowed the musicians from the KSO to forge a stronger connection with the students. The students enrolled in orchestra at AEHS are not in the class for an easy A. They want to be there. There are times when there are not enough materials, such as instruments, for every student to have their own. They take turns or they improvise, using a violin bow to play the cello when a cello bow is not available. They make it work. Their hard work has paid off. Several students have been able to pursue college opportunities that may not have been available or affordable to them without the skills they gained through their work with Jonathan East and the AEHS orchestral program.