Boosey & Hawkes' latest promotional email just crossed my transom and my first thought was, "Damn, what ensemble got the great photo shoot?" Seriously, on its face it's nothing radical--just a group of people sitting/standing around looking moody in a richly appointed room. For classical music, this is not exactly a stretch beyond. And I mean, there's a chandelier and an oil painting in the background. Why does this not feel stuffy in the usual way? Is it the lighting? The arty detail of the … [Read more...]

As I might have mentioned, I've been invited by the League of American Orchestras to work on future of classical music questions via group blog over at Orchestra R/Evolution. We're talking about the orchestra industry specifically, obviously: dipping attendance graphs, presentation problems, and if/why communities even need orchestras in 2010. As you, dear friends and fair readers, tend to show yourselves to be the type who have big picture thoughts, I wanted to make sure this trickled over in … [Read more...]

There are some great, innovative ideas out there when it comes to the musical education of our nation's children, but sadly not every American kid is going to have the opportunity to participate in a kick-ass program like El Sistema USA or Baltimore's own OrchKids. So in this time of anxiety about the waning attendance figures for live performances of symphonic music, I wonder about something: how important is quality vs. simple exposure? Almost to a man when I interview someone in my age … [Read more...]

Glee spoiler alert (maybe?). Better safe than sorry, I guess, so fair warning but... Need a boost into your Thursday morning? This throw down between Glee's Matthew Morrison and guest star Neil Patrick Harris as they compete for the lead role in a community theater production of Les Misérables is sure to do the trick. … [Read more...]

Just before I gave up on the idea of becoming a professional player of notes and committed to becoming a professional typer of letters, I remember taking a college entrance audition at DePaul University in Chicago. At the conclusion, the violin professor made some kind comments concluding with the acknowledgment that I was a "young woman with a very interesting sense of internal rhythm." Maybe it's because of that, um, issue that I am so enamored with artists who have a bit more control of their … [Read more...]

Today the League of American Orchestras opens the doors on its Orchestra R/Evolution site which, in the weeks leading up to their conference in Atlanta in June, will be looking at the classic "How do you solve a problem like the state of the symphony orchestra?" question. The kindly folks over at the League have invited me to kick in a few ideas, so if things get a little slow over here it might be because we're having too much fun throwing sand around over there. I actually got in the mood to … [Read more...]

When I saw that Ashton Kutcher had tweeted about Greyson Michael Chance's amazing cover of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi," I wondered what it must be like to go to school dreaming of becoming a famous musician only to come home and discover you're a phenomenon. Also (betraying my age) I wondered how his mom felt. I mean, picture it: Dinner is on the table, parents ask how school was, and then "Well, um, mom, so I posted this video of myself playing the piano at that 6th grade assembly last week, and, … [Read more...]

I usually get totally 2nd-grade-violin-recital nervous for kids making public performances and can't watch, but trust me, no need to avert your eyes in this case. That's sixth grader Greyson Michael Chance at the keyboard. Cuter than Bieber and giving Gaga a run for it: This is a pop culturally current argument in support of making sure kids have access to instruments and music lessons if I've heard a good one lately (and sadly, a look at all the potential we probably let slip through the cracks … [Read more...]

Go ahead and dream without napping for two minutes. This video is the second place winner (and my favorite) in the Fisher Ensemble's just-concluded competition to create a film set to a soundtrack excerpted from Garrett Fisher's The Passion of Saint Sebastian. The complete list of winners and more videos are here. … [Read more...]

It wasn't until the day after I heard the Mousetrap parody of OK Go's relatively recent Rube Goldberg-esque video that the whole "original work vs parody/remake" devaluation argument started to gain any traction in my thinking. There was a song stuck in my head, and it wasn't the original. Is imitation still flattery if that's possible? This particular matter was already on my mind because just a few weeks earlier there was all that drama over the Downfall parody videos on YouTube. In a … [Read more...]