February 2010
19 posts
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GPOYW
Yet another spot on the webs EDITION
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Reading into Music →
Follow the link for an in-depth look at the LO’s MakingMusic program for elementary school students.
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Stop selling scarcity
Orchestra professionals, pay close attention to these words from Jeff Jarvis:
The real story in nonphysical goods is one of deflation. Value in once-scarce — well, once-controlled — commodities like news, information, and advertising decline as the internet explodes creation and competition. The internet also destroys the ability of many to control distribution and thus value. But at the same...
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Anonymous asked: Has the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony played Holst's The Planets recently?
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Genadi. Gary. Gershwin.
My good friend Genadi Zagor joined us at the WCFSO a few weeks ago for a scintillating rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, presented alongside a suite of indelible images created for the occasion by Gary Kelley. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our rehearsal and performance, from photographer Noah Henscheid. [View the set on Flickr.]
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Hope springs atonal
And speaking of emerging musicians doing things differently, violist Nadia Sirota fits the bill better than most. Nadia is a superb player, committed genre-buster, and, I am honored to say, former orchestra student of mine at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Get to know her on Q2 internet radio; I especially like the concept behind her new segment on post-tonal music, Hope Springs Atonal.
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joeduddell asked: I think we're doing similar things. check www.joeduddell.co.uk or joeduddell.tumblr.com
Cheers
Cheers
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Metropolitan madness
The A-Train Gary Kelley, 2009
George Gershwin claimed that he conceived the ‘metropolitan madness’ of Rhapsody in Blue ‘on a train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang.’ That same raw rhythmic inspiration was at the heart of our recent period-orchestra rendition at the WCFSO with pianist Genadi Zagor. The image by Gary Kelley is one of a series commissioned...
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10 free downloads →
Sample the work of one of the world’s finest orchestras for the cost of your email address. Found via i hate music!
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128 Soloists
And via said blog: Most orchestras can’t manage one cool picture, and these guys just rolled out more than a hundred.
True. More recent coolness from the Berliners here and here.
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Proper Discord →
My new favorite classical music blog strikes a chord … or should that be discord?
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Strings Attached
Fabulous views of my recent Louisville Orchestra concert with Calexico and The Airborne Toxic Event, by O’Neil Arnold. [View the set on Flickr.]
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Kelley's Blues →
A celebration of African-American music, featuring works by William Grant Still, Duke Ellington and J Dilla and art by Gary Kelley. Read a concert preview by Melody Parker of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
African Dancer Gary Kelley, 2009
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Meshing jazz, classical, hip-hop →
From Michael Morain’s Des Moines Register preview of tomorrow’s WCFSO concert:
Weinberger pointed out that the hip-hop tradition of borrowing, or sampling, ideas from other artists isn’t so different from what happened in the era of Beethoven or Brahms, and that’s what he finds so interesting.
‘I’m totally fascinated with influence in the artistic process,...
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Connecting over Dilla
The following is an excerpt from my interview with Joy Yoon at The Sounds of VTech about tomorrow night’s WCFSO concert. Follow the link or click the photo below for the full article and a cool slideshow of us in rehearsal.
People are listening, and those who can try to the best of their ability to find a way to share. This is what this show represents to me, sharing something new that...
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Coexist
That’s what blues, jazz, hip hop and orchestral music do this weekend in Iowa.
Click to listen →
Interview with Hollis Monroe – mp3
Iowa Public Radio – February 2010
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Meet Miguel
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a multi-talented instrumentalist and composer from Los Angeles and the man responsible for Suite for Ma Dukes, the orchestral arrangements of J Dilla’s music we’ll be performing this weekend at the WCFSO. Did I mention he tears it up on the viola, too?
This is Miguel’s own arrangement for the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble of Rene Costy’s Scrabble, a...
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Musical roots
This weekend the WCFSO will perform the 1920s theater orchestra version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, on a special concert tracing the paths that African American musics have taken into the concert hall. But the influence of Gershwin’s own compositions on subsequent generations of musicians of all ethnic and aesthetic backgrounds is also striking to behold. If you have any...