orchestra21

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

• The way they started the orchestra
• How big the bassoon was
• That the bow is made of horse hair
• How fast the musicians plucked the strings
• That we got to sing along with the orchestra
• How singing with the orchestra sounded so different from singing with the piano
• The different timbres of instruments
• How high the violins could go
• How awesome they were
• That the conductor could keep his arms up for so long

What I learned

• About different kinds of instruments
• That some instruments have a double reed
• The bigger the instrument the lower the sound
• It’s fun to be quiet and listen
• What some of the instruments were made out of
• That brass instruments can play softly
• That not all conductors use wands

What I liked best

• The way the conductor talked to us and told us about different instruments
• Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
• How gracefully everyone played and how bows went up and down at the same time
• Singing – it made me feel part of something special
• How the musicians were so passionate about what they were playing

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.

Gustav Mahler, born 150 years ago today. During his lifetime Mahler was more widely known as conductor than as composer, and that’s how his contemporary Emil Orlik captured him in this 1902 sketch.

Click for much more Mahler.