Like many cellists across the world, I was deeply saddened this past Sunday to learn of Janos Starker’s passing. For me, however, his death didn’t only represent a cultural loss, but a personal loss as well, for I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Starker on multiple occasions, and I’m actually distantly related to him–my[…]
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“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” -Leonard Bernstein Why? That was all–just a single word. Why? It was the afternoon of Monday, April 15th, and I had casually logged onto Facebook to see a blizzard of status updates all bearing the same[…]
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T.S. Eliot famously described April as “the cruelest month,” and I suspect that a lot of college music students would wholeheartedly agree with him. Already exhausted following the summer festival/college auditions of January and February and the taxing waiting period of March, we students often find ourselves running on empty at the exact time that[…]
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A ripple of fear courses through your veins as the porcelain white mail truck makes its way up the street. The results from your top-choice music school/summer festival are due to arrive any day now, and a letter containing the information you’ve longed to know for months could very well be buried within the voluminous[…]
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Many of us have been closely following the strike of the San Francisco Symphony, but the clamor of critics accusing the musicians of being unreasonable in their demands has gone largely unheard. Until now, that is. On March 18th, San Francisco resident, musician, and minister Melinda McLain posted a poignant and deeply heartfelt response to[…]
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There are fewer places better suited for forced social interaction than the cabin of a commercial airplane. Where else do you find yourself required to remain seated within inches of a total stranger for a significant length of time, reluctantly enduring such unusual predicaments as delays, turbulence, and spilled apple juice? Such a situation has[…]
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Last week, the classical music world lost a truly great musician. Van Cliburn, best known for his unprecedented victory at the 1958 Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, passed away on February 27th at the age of 78. For me, Mr. Cliburn’s passing struck a personal note, because I had the privilege of sharing a stage with[…]
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So, you did it–you got into a great music school, maintained healthy relationships with your teachers and colleagues, and maximized your productivity during summer vacations. But now, with preparations for your degree recital in full swing and the Office of Student Services requesting measurements for your cap and gown, there’s no denying it any longer:[…]
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“So, where are you applying to for this summer?” The question seems to be on everyone’s lips this time of year, and for good reason: although we’re still enduring the bitter winds of a late February cold snap, we’re only one week away from the beginning of March, which I like to refer to as[…]
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I’ve always found there to be a certain amount of irony about Valentine’s Day. It’s supposed to be a holiday commemorating the life of a venerated Catholic saint, but popular culture has turned it into a superficial hallmark holiday that threatens to throw a wrench into relationships around the globe. One wrong move–forgetting to buy him a card, buying her earings[…]
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Summer Festivals: How to Choose Credo Music
[…] Summer Festivals: How to Choose […]