The meeting place of ocean, land and sky here in my hometown of Santa Monica is the perfect backdrop for the start of a new year. I hope your 2012 brings similarly inspiring vistas!
[Images from various year-end bike rides around LA, including the stunning climb up to Saddle Peak summit]
Not sure which I like more – SoundCloud’s new iPad app or fresh HTML5 player:
'Musicians are usually not willing to withdraw their copyrights and their control over usage … they thus miss opportunities to contribute to the greater good and benefit from wider distribution of their works.'
Truth, from the Kickstarter mission statement for the fabulous Open Goldberg Variations, a project worthy of your support if you care about digital accessibility in the arts or even just the timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
[My colleagues in the orchestra business will have to come around to this concept or risk the continued waning of our relevance.]
One elementary school teacher in Louisville who attends the LO MakingMUSIC program annually with her students asked this year’s class for their thoughts on the experience:
What surprised me
What I learned
What I liked best
So great – this type of feedback keeps me more grounded in my mission as an artist than almost any other aspect of my work.
Duke Ellington – Three Black Kings, MLK
WCFSO – February 2010
A visual-orchestral tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King on the eighty-second anniversary of his birth, from one of the most memorable performances I’ve ever been a part of.
[Many thanks to the Duke Ellington estate for permitting the use of his music in this project and to artist Gary Kelley for his inspiration and partnership in this and other commissions.]
You know that whole thing about Mozart’s music arriving on the page fully finished?
No piece in the composer’s catalogue contradicts that pervasive notion more than Idomeneo, conceived in Munich between late 1780 and early 1781. Frustrated by the wordiness of his librettist and the musical quirks of the available vocalists, Mozart revised the opera extensively in preparation for its premiere [and again five years later for a performance in Vienna].
Read Mozart’s in-depth account of the composition of Idomeneo as documented in a series of letters to his father, and if you are in the area come check out the opera’s exuberant ballet music live tomorrow at the WCFSO.
![You know that whole thing about Mozart’s music arriving on the page fully finished?
No piece in the composer’s catalogue contradicts that pervasive notion more than Idomeneo, conceived in Munich between late 1780 and early 1781. Frustrated by the wordiness of his librettist and the musical quirks of the available vocalists, Mozart revised the opera extensively in preparation for its premiere [and again five years later for a performance in Vienna].
Read Mozart’s in-depth account of the composition of Idomeneo as documented in a series of letters to his father, and if you are in the area come check out the opera’s exuberant ballet music live tomorrow at the WCFSO.](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/jasonweinberger/1493205368/1/tumblr_lbd76pAnZx1qaocac)
