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 →
Let’s play a game, shall we? I’ll show you a picture, and you tell me what it’s a picture of. Okay? Ready, go. Go ahead, click on it for the full-sized version. Take your time analyzing. I’ll wait. Stumped, hmm? … Continue reading →
Back in late April and early May, I wrote a few posts about this trio for flute, viola, and harp by Toru Takemitsu that I was getting ready to play on the orchestra’s chamber music series at the MacPhail Center. … Continue reading →
A few weeks ago, our orchestra librarians, in an effort to rid their cramped space on the third floor of Orchestra Hall of some needless clutter, decided to get rid of several stacks of old program books from decades past. … Continue reading →
The topic is conductors again over at the Washington Post, as Anne Midgette discusses Muti, Levine and the importance of the conductor in the whole scheme of things. All of which is fine, although, frankly, I get a little tired … Continue reading →
