December 2009 Archives

I'm sure many of you who are confessed NPR junkies heard the same report that I did driving to work Wednesday morning, the story of how the new technologies are changing the ways in which writers write. Short, punchy prose that moves the narrative forward, no elegant or elaborate sentence structure, no reflection, a fixation on romance and violence, pulp fiction for the hand-held screen. In describing the way people read now, a commentator said that contemporary readers just "extract the data and move on." A phrase that made me shudder.

After being away as long as I have from my Powell Hall duties, I was uncertain as to what was being rehearsed today (Tuesday). The secret New Year's Eve program with the secret guest artist? The not-so-secret Disney program?

I wish all of you wonderful SLSO fans a very merry Christmas, etc.

My next post will be Tuesday, December 29.

Guest vocalist Lisa Vroman was backstage in a shimmery gown waiting for her entrance in the second half of the Holiday Celebration concert Saturday night, when who would appear but Santa Claus himself?

The Holiday Concerts get into full swing Thursday night with Gospel Christmas--a big SRO event.

Last week during my hiatus I ran into Principal Harp Frances Tietov at a local bookstore.

SBM over at the P-D gets into the topic that D. Wakin of the NYT stirred up when he referred to the CSO (the one in Cincinnati, not Chicago) as a "regional orchestra." You can read what she says here and she links to DW at the NYT so you can read about how the fuss got started.

The SLSO's Doctor Atomic Symphony CD has been making so many best of the year--and a best of the decade--lists, it was also good to receive a blast-from-the-past kudo from one of America's best actors.

I'm taking some time off. My next post will be Monday, December 14.

Message seen on an eighth-floor bulletin board Monday morning: 81 in-school presentations from September-December. A CP [Community Partnership] record.

Which means, SLSO musicians and staff have been in the schools doing the good work many times and in many ways.

I had the great pleasure of sharing lunch with Principal Double Bass Erik Harris and Associate Concertmaster Heidi Harris Thursday afternoon, at a break in the Brahms 2 rehearsal. Erik is the "Meet the Musician" subject for the January Playbill.

Conductors are given very set amounts of time to accomplish very expansive things: a Brahms symphony, the Barber Violin Concerto, a 21st-century fireball of a piece that the orchestra hasn't played before. Such is Peter Oundjian's task this week, but he has some advantages. As a guest conductor he's worked with this orchestra many times and conductor/musicians know each other well. Oundjian's soloist is the orchestra concertmaster, David Halen, and both know and respect each other enormously.

I've referenced Amanda Ameer's blog "Life's a Pitch" a few times on the slso blog. A provocative, good read Amanda always is. With the NY Phil sending out invites for bloggers for its new New Music series CONTACT!, she shot me an e-mail about the SLSO's bloggers' nights--we've done three, so far--and, because Amanda is an of-the-moment kind of blogger/tweeter, she inquired as to the possibility of the SLSO inviting folks to blog live at a concert.