Archive - 2009

1
Not quite as nice as endowing them, but still…
2
This actually might work for Bach
3
A webcast worth watching
4
A Coup-de-Festival
5
Tab dump 11/18/2009
6
And Omaha Beach was a skirmish
7
Concert or Show?
8
Tab Dump 11/17/2009
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A Librarian's View From the Audience
10
Nerds? You Betcha!

Not quite as nice as endowing them, but still…

A local insurance company has recently bought chairs for the musicians of the Winnepeg Symphony: Thanks to long-time corporate sponsor Wawanesa Insurance, the Winnipeg Symphony proudly introduced new orchestra chairs earlier this season. “These chairs were specially designed for each WSO musician, taking into account their respective height and ergo-dynamic requirements. We went the extra[…]

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This actually might work for Bach

I’m thinking last movement of the C major sonata, not the Chaconne, of course. (Hat tip to BBB Charles Noble):

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A webcast worth watching

Tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 20), the NEA is sponsoring a meeting on Artists in the Workforce. It will be webcast live at 9 AM EST. The info page on the NEA website is here.

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A Coup-de-Festival

A friend of mine alerted me last week to a recent series of events at the New Hampshire Music Festival. I’ve been trying to make sense of what I’ve read in news articles, on the Festival musicians’ website, and from a outside organization of dissident supporters called SOON (Save Our Orchestra Now). The only adequate[…]

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Tab dump 11/18/2009

I think the principal violist should sit to the conductor’s immediate left. Mozart’s life in 5 seconds, as seen by Hollywood. Lots of people still want to be opera stars. I’m glad one orchestra recognizes that technology might make the audition process better (and greener). Norman thinks that the Met is a wuss. He doesn’[…]

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And Omaha Beach was a skirmish

The Indianapolis Symphony just reported a substantial deficit: A year of declining contributions and ticket sales left the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra with a $2.8 million deficit. Symphony officials say its current budget has been cut by $3 million, to $26 million, in part through a 12 percent pay cut accepted by musicians in a new[…]

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Concert or Show?

This past week the Broadway show “Chicago,” was in Rochester. It was the national touring production, and I contracted it and also played it. It’s a great show. Those Bob Fosse choreographed dance segments are spectacular. What a genius that man was. His choreography is unmistakable. Talk about having a style! The music is 1920’s[…]

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Tab Dump 11/17/2009

A common feature on blogs is a “tab dump.” It’s a play on the old programming term “core dump”; a printout of the contents of a computer’s memory intended to help figure out why a program blew up.

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A Librarian's View From the Audience

As a non-playing orchestra librarian (well, mostly anyway), I don’t get to hear the orchestra on stage as much I did when playing more often and in the midst of the music.  Yes, we always have the monitor on so we “hear” the rehearsals and concerts, but that’s clearly not the same as either participating[…]

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Nerds? You Betcha!

When I wrote the following on “From the Orchestra Library” I didn’t realize Robert had posted the video of a young accordion virtuoso playing the last movement of  Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto back in September.  So, here’s a little view into orchestra librarians’ minds when they see such a thing:

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