Almost every year, our principal horn player, Mike Gast, throws an all-orchestra Hallowe’en bash at his Uptown abode, and every time he does, there wind up being some truly excellent costumes. So here, for your All Hallows Eve enjoyment, are … Continue reading →
Weirdest thing happened this morning at our Coffee Concert featuring MN Orch conductor laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Intermission had ended, the orchestra tuned, and Stan, who is about to turn 85 but has more energy than I do, came striding out … Continue reading →
One of the things that people who don’t work in the music business probably don’t have a firm grasp on is the sheer number of musicians a major symphony orchestra employs. And I’m not talking only about the 95-100 musicians … Continue reading →
A quick follow-up to Part I, which covered the choice of repertoire for my subscription concerts last week. During the first rehearsal last week, I opened by mentioning to the Orchestra that over the course of my two seasons with … Continue reading →
Unlike, say, actors and rock stars, classical musicians aren’t known for taking public stands on political issues. In fact, most of us try to avoid partisan subjects entirely when we’re in public view. Part of the reason for this is … Continue reading →
As Sam noted in his recent post, I’ve been a little preoccupied this week with my subscription debut with the Orchestra. In many ways, it’s a big deal; it’s my debut on a series that’s considered both “front-ranking” and the … Continue reading →
In case you’re wondering why you’re not hearing a lot from our Ms. Hicks on the blog this week, the answer is that, well, she’s kinda busy. This is a huge week for Sarah – her subcription debut with the … Continue reading →
David Patrick Stearns had an interesting piece in this past Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer (one of the few American dailies that still employs not one, but two full-time reporters covering the classical beat,) in which he points out a puzzling new … Continue reading →
The hand-wringing over the “graying of classical music audiences” seems to crop up fairly cyclically – as it has this month, in various print and online publications. An interesting back and forth has been going on, spurred by Leon Botstein’s … Continue reading →
In yesterday’s post, I talked a bit about conductors and arrangers who “speak the language” of orchestra musicians, and how important that can be to the success of a non-classical orchestra performance. And that got me thinking back to an … Continue reading →
