If you had told me six months ago that one of the most mentally and physically exhausting concerts I’d play during the 2011-12 season would be a pops concert, I would most definitely have laughed at you. Pops shows can … Continue reading →
When I was in graduate school at Yale, much of my time studying composition was spent with Ezra Laderman, the elder statesman of the composition faculty and one of the most open-minded composers that they’ve ever had at that institution. … Continue reading →
Back at the beginning of this fall, I promised to sit down with our newly named concertmaster, Erin Keefe, and have a conversation about who she is and how she came to be here with us. This week, Erin’s work … Continue reading →
It’s been a whirlwind week for the orchestra, and a bit discombobulating as well. Last Monday and Tuesday, we rehearsed in Minneapolis for a concert that we would play for the first time at Carnegie Hall. (This was a switch … Continue reading →
Here in Minneapolis, we started up rehearsals for the first classical concerts of our 2011-12 season today, and in what’s become an annual tradition, the morning began with our wonderful personnel manager, Julie Haight, coming to the front of the … Continue reading →
Well, this is just awesome. Over the three years since Jorja Fleezanis announced that she’d be leaving the orchestra at the end of the 2008-09 season, I don’t think I’ve fielded a single question more often than “When are you … Continue reading →
No matter how busy I may get during our orchestra’s so-called “winter season,” even during Inside the Classics concert weeks, there’s just nothing that compares to the hectic pace of our Sommerfest schedule. I know I write about this pretty … Continue reading →
It’s been an intensive weekend of patriotic-themed concerts (all conducted by the distinctly British Courtney Lewis, who played his accent for laughs more than once during the week,) and tonight, we wrapped things up before a crowd of thousands on … Continue reading →
Over the years, Sarah and I have made a habit of sharing some of the Minnesota Orchestra’s more, shall we say, peculiar traditions and inside jokes. Whether it’s yanking all our instruments skyward when someone in the brass section drops … Continue reading →
It feels odd to be starting up the orchestra’s summer season only a week after we wrapped up what is officially our “winter season” (despite beginning in fall and ending in early summer,) but that’s the way the calendar fell … Continue reading →
