orchestra21

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GPOYW Ready to be back at work with the WCFSO! edition

[Photo from a week of 2009 rehearsals by Noah Henscheid]

Kid conductors!

One of my deepest professional passions is presenting music to young people. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had consistent opportunities to do just that since I was a high school music student at The Colburn School, and there is no aspect of my current work I take more seriously than the concerts I give with the Louisville Orchestra and the WCFSO for over 30,000 students annually.

This past April three of those young people joined me onstage to conduct the WCFSO at our youth concerts. In the midst of a concert exploring the legacy of Aaron Copland student volunteers from Orchard Hill, North Tama and Sacred Heart elementary schools tried their hands at leading the composer’s most famous piece, Hoe-Down from Rodeo. Check out the results above. [Tumblr and RSS readers, click through to the actual post for video.]

Link → Stretching boundaries

Audio

Mozart – Clarinet Concerto, Adagio – mp3
WCFSO – April 2010

For your Saturday listening pleasure, a recent performance of the most sublime music ever written for the clarinet. [I am playing and conducting.] Apologies about the less than perfect sound quality – we didn’t have our normal recording set-up available for this concert.

Comment on this music at my SoundCloud.

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From the stack of amazing thank yous written by elementary school students who attended last month’s WCFSO educational program on Aaron Copland. [I will have some wonderful video of the kid conductors to share soon.]

To the student who sent this: my favorite piece on the program was the other movement we played from Rodeo, Buckaroo Holiday – I love Copland’s use of rhythm and syncopation in the main theme – and my favorite instrument is of course the clarinet.

And to the readers of this blog: you don’t have to attend our youth concerts to ask me a question and have it answered here.

All that jazz

Back in February I led the WCFSO in one of the most unforgettable evenings of art and music I’ve ever been a part of. Tonight that jazz- and blues-inspired concert, featuring music by William Grant Still, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and J Dilla, will stream in its entirety on Iowa Public Radio [8pm EST, link is an mp3 stream]. In addition to featuring some unique programming, our performance continued a ground-breaking partnership with illustrator Gary Kelley [whose work for the show is pictured below and at my Flickr].

More photos, info about Dilla’s symphonic debut, and a download of our performance of the 1920s theater-orchestra version of Rhapsody in Blue are here.

Symphonic stormtroopers

Looking for some orchestra with your Star Wars?

The WCFSO can help with that this weekend.

Did I mention we’ll have stormtroopers?

[Images by Stéfan from his galactically quotidian Stormtroopers 365 series, previously linked here]

GPOYW

Just gave the last [of 27] in-school presentations for the 2009-10 orchestra season EDITION

Also … Fortunate to partner with so many great educators in engaging young people through the arts EDITION

Also … Fellow music directors: This needs to be a central element of your service to the orchestras you lead, and besides what could possibly be a better use of your time? EDITION

[Image from my 2009 visit to Edison School in Waterloo by Noah Henscheid]