Like Father, Like Son

I'm looking forward to the concert this week, Simply Classical. Louis Langree will be our guest conductor. He conducted us in the Mozart Requiem a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed him then. One of the interesting parts of our job is to be able to experience the inspiration of guest artists, both conductors and soloists. They come from all over the world to make music here in Baltimore and at Strathmore (and occasionally, like this week, in Wye Mills on the eastern shore.)

Simone Dinnerstein will make her BSO debut with us, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23. I have heard that her playing is wonderful. By the way, she also happens to be a beautiful young woman. Today she has an interview on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi show at 1:30 pm. Listen live at wamu.org! Should be very interesting.

We will also perform Haydn's Symphony No. 44 and Beethoven's 4th Symphony. I love the 4th: it isn't performed as frequently as many of Beethoven's others, but it is a great piece. The outer movements are lots of fun, and the slow movement is gorgeous! Coincidentally, my son Stephen, a student a Yale University and an aspiring conductor, will be conducting a student orchestra in Beethoven's 4th Symphony this Saturday evening, too. We will be comparing notes, I'm sure.

The BSO and -State Your Name Here-

Have you ever fantasized about playing alongside Emily Skala on flute, or perhaps thought about sharing some nice harmonic support with Chris Dudley in the brass section? Well, here's your chance, but you'll need to sign up early on November 2.

The BSO is auditioning "Rusty Musicians" to play the fourth movement of the Tchaik 4. I've seen this kind of publicity before, but not with such a top tier symphony orchestra. This should be interesting...

Reflections on Bartok

Last week we recorded Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, a 20th Century masterpiece. Bartok used folk elements in his music; he combined them with an amazing mathematical sense for structure. Bartok is rarely "easy listening." The first time I heard a Bartok string quartet I thought it was noise. The music becomes intelligible when the listener can grasp some of the unusual harmonies through repeated hearing. Marin showed Bartok's connection to Eastern European folk music and its harmonic language by having the group Harmonia perform on stage before the BSO played the Bartok.

The Concerto, like most music Bartok wrote, is a very difficult piece. I think that, with lots of good practice and four performances, we were able to do it justice. In June we will record another piece by Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. Eventually we will release those two pieces together on a CD.

This week Jack Everly returns for his always entertaining Pops programs. The program this week is "Hollywood: The Epics," and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society will be performing with us.

Come have fun with Jack and us this weekend!

Diversifying Your Musical Portfolio

After hearing the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season opener, with special guests, Time For Three, I have become a full supporter of the prevailing philosophy that classical musicians should do more than just dabble outside of western classical music. In other words, they should diversify their "musical portfolios" to include folk music, jazz, bluegrass, and other such similar genres to appeal to a wider audience.

I went to a lecture by Alex Ross, music critic of The New Yorker Magazine, a few years back during National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland that advocated this same message. The more versatile you are, the more likely you will be able to succeed in the classical music climate of the twenty-first century.

Just take the group, Time For Three, for example, who performed Jennifer Higdon's Concerto 4-3 with the BSO Saturday night (and held a jam session in the lobby following the concert). The group is composed of three talented young musicians who were classically trained at The Curtis Institute of Music. While at Curtis, they began meeting after orchestra rehearsals to let loose and play some bluegrass music. Their casual jam sessions developed into a group with a sound that bridges the classical and bluegrass realms. Time For Three has gone on to produce two successful albums and they maintain a busy touring schedule. (Higdon composed Concerto 4-3 specifically for them.)

There are many other classical musicians that have had enormous success specializing in different genres, such as the group, Pink Martini (most of their "little" orchestra are former top tier symphony orchestra members ), and don't forget, Wynton Marsalis has a degree in classical music performance from Juilliard. In the end, it just makes the musician more desirable when they possess an expanded musical pallette.

And sticking around for a bluegrass crossover jam session in the lobby following the powerhouse Tchaik 4 is always an added bonus:

Opening Night!

Today we start rehearsals for the piece by Jennifer Higdon, "Concerto 4-3." I'm looking forward to seeing what it is like. I almost always enjoy learning and performing contemporary music, and Marin does a nice job of finding interesting, accessible music of today. It is a different experience to learn and perform a new piece.

When we play something familiar, there are certain expectations that most of us have when we go into the first rehearsal: the tempos should be so and so, we will slow down in this spot, etc. etc. When we attack an entirely new piece there are fewer expectations. This can free us to make music in a different way. In one sense there is more risk to us as performers. We don't know how well we will perform the piece, or even which sections might prove to be most difficult. We don't know whether or not the audience will enjoy the piece.

On the other hand there is less risk. Since there aren't 15 recordings by famous conductors and orchestras that we and the audience may know of the piece, it is "ours" to make what we will of it, both from the performers' and from the audience vantage points. And if we miss a few notes here or there, will anyone but us know?

Enjoy life's little surprises. Come hear the Higdon Concerto 4-3 this week. And by the way, we are playing great standards by Tchaikovsky and Brahms, too!

BSO 2009-2010 Season Kick-off

After several weeks break, I am looking forward to playing the violin with the BSO this weekend for the Gala concert. Lang Lang will be the pianist. He is a big audience favorite, and he hasn't been here for awhile. The Tchaikovsky Concerto should be a great piece to hear him play.

I have been practicing hard for the last many weeks, even though the orchestra hasn't performed since late July. It is essential to keep up my skills, and this quiet period for the orchestra gives me a chance both to prepare repertoire for the upcoming BSO season and also, to work on pieces that I will perform this year as a soloist and a chamber music performer.

One piece I have worked very hard on the Sibelius Concerto, my favorite romantic violin concerto. I will perform it December 11 in New Haven with my son, Stephen, conducting the Berkeley College Orchestra, a student orchestra at Yale University.

There are lots of great programs to look forward to this fall. Hope to see you all at JMSH and Strathmore!

Click here to view the season.

Live Classical Music on the Cheap?

My bank account has been hurting the last few months. That west coast vacation I went on took a tole on my "going out" funds, not to mention this "recession" phenomenon. It has sadly been too long since I was able to see some live classical music, so I went online to see if there were any events in the DC/Baltimore area coming up. As the 2009-2010 concert seasons are raring up, it is the perfect time to list some good deals. Here is what I came up with:

• Many people do not know that the Kennedy Center has a FREE concert every day on the Millienium Stage. Check out their series here. They also have deals for the 17-25 age range through the Attend Program once you set up an account.
  

• The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has two ways to save, depending on your age range: (1 $10 Student tickets to most concerts in the 2009-2010 season (valid Student ID required), and 2) BSO Forte events (Friends Under Forty), which include parking deals, free food, and discounted concert tickets.

• Free Fall Baltimore- I just discovered these FREE open rehearsals on the BSO website this fall.

• The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland offers free Engagement Events every week during their 09-10 season, including 5:30pm weekday concerts if you want to grab a concert right after work.

• The University of Maryland School of Music has many student performances throughout the year, as does many other colleges and universities in the Baltimore/DC area. The Peabody Conservatory of Music is another local music school with exceptional student performances.
  

• Many museums in DC have FREE concerts (many with world music) several nights a week. All you have to do a reserve your free ticket or arrive early (first-come, first-serve): the Freer and Sackler Galleries series, American Art Museum Concerts (including their every-other-Sunday Steinway Series in McEvoy Auditorium), National Gallery of Art Concert Series, and many others (google Smithsonian Institution concerts).
  

• The Library of Congress has more than books, archives, and every newspaper in existence. Their FREE Concert Series is held in the Coolidge Auditorium located in the gorgeous Jefferson Building. The LoC also requires you to pick up advance tickets. Information will be up soon on their 09-10 season.
  

Do you know of any other live classical music deals in the area? Post a comment and I'll add yours to the list.