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Thursday, December 22, 2005
Chicago Roundup
In a brilliant nod to our collective future of webcasting, The Midwest Clinic has a video of last Tuesday's CYSO Metropolitan performance up on their site. It took like a day or something crazy fast like that. Watch it, if only to see how Maestro Allen Tinkham leads 100-some musicians to do 2/4 - 3/8 - 3/16. The heroine of that day was Summer, actually one of the CYSO's violinists, who was asked at the last minute to fill in for a missing pianist. By last minute, I mean, we faxed her the part a few hours before the performance, after I had frantically gone through the score in JB's dining room, marking up the parts which were essential* for her to practice. (*And by essential, I suppose I mean, I wanted to hear them.). Summer was a multi-talented. multi-tasking trooper, banging her way through the part with gusto after feverishly practicing it all afternoon. I love it. I not only can make these kids sweat over one part, but two.
Lest we get caught up in my CYSO obsession, there was plenty of action for us Fans of Band — Scott Stewart's Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony aired both SB's gorgeous Dusk (again, webcasted video ... ya gotta think this is cool, right?), and JM's raucous Sasparilla (his photo blog doesn't miss a trick, by the way—many thousands of words there). Unsurprisingly, Jenny Higdon's young band piece Rhythm Stand, written for the American Composer Forum's excellent series, struck me as working brilliantly for young players, but the AYWS's opener is what really pricked up my ears ... a new work by Richard Prior, called Icarus. Great piece. Tight and gritty and colorful — totally dug it.
In other Midwest news, Ye Ol' BCM Booth went digital this year with iPods and a laptop, but the most newsworthy addition was the golden assistance of composer Daniel Montoya, and his own fabulous Better Half, Sarah Stern. These two marvels were invaluable — with everything from booth setup to preventing me from freaking out and poking a sharp stick in my eye. But mostly, they were both simply a terrific to hang out with all week.
And of course there were meals and quality time with as many friends and colleagues as I could manage, all of whom it was terrific to visit. (Again, others have not only beaten me to relaying this full saga of entertainments, but also have done it with pictures) ... It's become a bit of a once-a-year reunion, in fact.
Next year, though, can we have it in Acapulco?
Monday, December 19, 2005
Placeholder
A week in Chicago equals a couple of days off ... what with my running around like a wind-up-toy all the week, too overwrought and frantic to post during the week. I know I know, this defeats the purpose of blogging ... (at least I understand the spirit of thing, if not always executing it as I should). So while waiting for the unsolicited Newman perspective, others more hardy have beaten me to it, with a flourish. And pictures.
If after perusing these and other reports you feel ready for more, I'll be here typing mine...
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Cup runneth over
A pile of terrific recordings coming in the mail these days ... the latest courtesy of the good people at the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra: it's the Metropolitan premiere performance, with the CYSO under the direction of Allen Tinkham, in Orchestra Hall last month. This is an absolutely fantastic performance, and you, gentle notebook readers, get to hear it here. The piece sounds great, the hall sounds great—I'm just kvelling over here.
Next Tuesday evening the CYSO performs the work again, at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. It's a bit of an odd venue, really. Well, it's less of a venue, and more of a carpeted hotel ballroom. Let's just say we'll be concentrating on the music-making, not the aesthetics. And the audience will be a captive one, dedicated educators from around the country, and my sincere wish is that while enjoying the work, the piece bores a hole and plants the seed of rhythmic gymnastics in our country's music curriculums. One can dream.
The program is chock-full—the Sibelius and Smetana carry over from the last concert, but now we add in Massenet and Rimsky-Korsakov. A little sprinkle of French dressing (Russian music is French, too, don't let anyone tell you different) to lighten up the salad.
And I didn't forget about the new Avenue X recording I mentioned early—a mastered version to tickle your ears is forthcoming...