Violinist Emily Ho
just got back from Chicago
where she was playing with the CSO over the summer and immediately went into
mild shock at the heat and humidity back home. But after the she got acclimated,
or air conditioned, she gave me another one of her top picks for this season: "Strauss
Burleske. I first heard it on a DVD of a Berlin New
Year's Eve concert (with Claudio Abbado and Martha Argerich) and I've been
dying to play it ever since." Emily gets to play it with David Robertson and
Emanuel Ax, and you get to hear it January 30-31, 2009.
So Emily's back. Amy Kaiser's
back. I've seen Danny Lee in the Central West End.
Nicolae's wearing his SLSO polo. But if you were heading to Colorado or Idaho
over the next few weeks you could barely cast with your fly pole without seeing
a Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra musician along the river bank or up above
climbing some rock.
The following list is in no way complete, so anybody who is
left out, please forgive me, or better yet send me a line and let me know where
you are and what you're up to.
Aspen Music Festival and School has a number of SLSO
musicians on its eminent faculty and playing with the Aspen Chamber Symphony: David Halen (violin), Mark
Sparks (flute), Kathleen Mattis
(viola) and Tom Stubbs (percussion) are there. For information go to www.aspenmusicfestival.com.
Steamboat Springs,
Colorado hosts the Strings Music
Festival, where cellist Cathy Lehr and horn player Tod
Bowermaster and his wife Cynthia (violin) are playing in the
Strings Chamber Orchestra: www.stringsinthemountains.com.
Tod and Cynthia make their way up to Sun Valley, Idaho
for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony (Tod's a soloist this summer) after
Steamboat Springs. They join the SLSO Idaho contingent, including husband-and-wife
teams Kristin Ahlstrom (violin) and
Peter Henderson (piano), and Anne Fagerburg
(cello) and Morris Jacob (viola). Also at Sun Valley
are violinists Asako Kuboki and Shawn Weil, cellist Bjorn
Ranheim, and Tod hooks up with horn-mate Greg Roosa.
Sun Valley inaugurates a
very cool, new facility this summer as well: www.svsummersymphony.org.
So if you are missing the SLSO, go west.
