Podcasts about rochester philharmonic

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring trumpeter, Allen Vizzutti, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. You can also watch this interview on Youtube. About Allen: Equally at home in a multitude of musical idioms, Allen Vizzutti has visited 70 countries, Japan 49 times, and every state in the union to perform with a rainbow of artists and ensembles including Chick Corea, Doc; Severinsen, the NBC Tonight Show Band, the Airmen Of Note, the Army Blues and Army Symphony Orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Woody Herman, Japan's NHK Orchestra and the New Tokyo Philharmonic, the Budapest Radio Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig Wind Symphony, the Slovenian National Orchestra and the Kosei Wind Orchestra. Performing as a classical and a jazz artist, often in the same evening, he has appeared as guest soloist with symphony orchestras in Japan, Germany, St. Louis, Seattle, Rochester N.Y., Dallas, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Phoenix, Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle and Minnesota to name a few. Music lovers in Germany, Poland, England, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Australia and the United States have heard his brilliant sound over the airwaves of national television. Allen's status as an artist has led to solo performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, Banff Center for the Performing Arts, Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Teton, Vail, Aspen and Breckenridge Music Festivals, the Charles Ives Center, Suntory Hall & Opera City Hall in Tokyo and Lincoln Center in New York City. From his home in Seattle Washington, Allen's current career activities embody an impressive schedule of recitals, concerts, recording and composing. His continued commitment to music education and the value of music in everyday life results in an extensive schedule of guest appearances throughout North America, South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, Asia and New Zealand. Allen's many recordings include “Ritzville” featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke,(available at www. vizzutti.com and on iTunes). Other solo jazz recordings include “Trumpet Summit” and “Skyrocket” from Summit Records. Classical recordings currently available (DeHaske Classical Recordings), are “The Emerald Concerto and Other Gems”, with the Budapest Radio Orchestra, “Vizzutti Plays Vizzutti” and “Vizzutti and Soli On Tour”. His “High Class Brass”, (on iTunes), is a wonderfully unique classical and jazz blend co-produced, co-written and performed with fellow trumpet artist, composer and conductor, Jeff Tyzik along with a 90-piece studio orchestra. (on iTunes) Other outstanding Vizzutti recordings are “Baroque and Beyond”, (CBS/Sony), “The Carnival of Venus”, (Summit Records), and “A Trumpeter's Dream, (Ludwig Music Publishing). As Artist in Residence, Allen has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the University of North Texas, the University of South Carolina, the Banff Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, West Texas State University, the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and the Trompeten Akademie of Bremen Germany. His extensive treatise, “The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method” and his “New Concepts for Trumpet”, (Alfred Music Publishing), have become standards works for trumpet study worldwide. Many more of Allen's jazz and classical books, play along recordings, and student and recital compositions are published by DeHaske/Hal Leonard, BIM Switzerland, and Village Place Music. His writing includes solo pieces for piano, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, tuba, and harp, chamber groups, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and symphony orchestra. Allen's love of expression through composition has led to premier performances by the LosAngeles Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic of London, the Nuremberg Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, London Symphony, the renowned Summit Brass, the Royal Philharmonic Brass and others. After the world premier of his “Emerald Concerto” with the Syracuse Symphony Allen's writing was described in review: “The Emerald Concerto sparkles!...a vivacious treatment which speaks well for both his dramatic instinct and technical prowess as a composer.” While growing up in Montana, Allen was taught by his father, a self taught musician and trumpet player, until he left home to attend the Eastman School of Music on full scholarship. There he earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, a Performer's Certificate, a chair in the Eastman Brass Quintet faculty ensemble, and the first Artist's Diploma ever awarded a wind player in Eastman's history. Allen has performed on over 150 motion picture sound tracks, (such as Back To The Futureand Star Trek), as well as countless TV shows, commercials and recordings with such artists as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Chick Corea, the Commodores and Prince. His soaring sound can be heard on recent the movies, “Mirror, Mirror”, “Furry Vengeance”, “40 Days and 40 Nights”, “Unfaithfully Yours”, “Gridiron Gang”, “Scary Movie Four”, “The Hulk” and the “Medal of Honor”, “Gears of War”, “World of Warcraft” ,and “Halo” video games. More information is available at www.vizzutti.com  Allen Vizzutti is a Yamaha Performing Artist

Fundraiser link here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1026719635067?aff=oddtdtcreator On October 29th, 1931, The Rochester Philharmonic in New York State presented the world premiere of a new symphony by the composer William Grant Still. A symphonic premiere is always something to look out for in musical history, but this one had an even greater significance. The premiere of Wiliam Grant Still's First Symphony, subtitled  “Afro American,” was the first time a symphony written by a Black American composer was performed by a leading orchestra. William Grant Still was a man of many firsts, whether he was the first Black American conductor to conduct a major orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major company, the first Black American to conduct an orchestra in the South of the United States, and much more. Today we're going to focus in on Grant Still's first symphony, a symphony that Grant Still had long thought about, conceptualized, and dreamed of. It was also a symphony wrapped up in the roiling currents of Black America at the time, with the Harlem Renaissance in full swing and Alain Locke's tract The New Negro sparking discussion and debate all over the country. It was a symphony that attempted to do something no one had ever done before; that is, to marry together the genre of the Blues with that of symphonic music. Until 1950, it was THE most performed symphony written by an American composer. But until 10 or 15 years ago, it had all but disappeared from the stage, but due to the explosion of interest in Black American composers of the past and present, this brilliant symphony is making its way back onto stages all over the world. The way that Grant Still constructed this meeting of two genres of music was ingenious and innovative from start to finish, and so today on the show we'll explore all of the historical context of the symphony, what Grant Still was trying to do with his monumental new endeavor, and of course, all of the music itself. I want to thank John McWhorter for his brilliant contributions to this episode, as well as the Aalborg Symphony for embarking on a fantastic recording of the symphony, which you will hear throughout this episode.  

In this deeply insightful interview, host Tony Plog chats with Wes Nance, trumpet with the Rochester Philharmonic, about the often-overlooked artistry behind Sleigh Ride's iconic horse whinny. Wes reflects on his time at the Eastman School of Music, his unconventional teaching methods, and the annual Horse Whinny Challenge — a competition as fun as it is fierce. Along the way, they explore what really resonates with audiences, proving that a well-timed whinny can steal the show!Would you like more inspirational stories, suggestions, insights, and a place to continue the conversations with other listeners? Visit anthonyplog-on-music.supercast.com to learn more! As a Contributing Listener of "Anthony Plog on Music," you'll have access to extra premium content and benefits including: Extra Audio Content: Only available to Contributing Listeners. Podcast Reflections: Tony's written recaps and thoughts on past interviews, including valuable tips and suggestions for students. Ask Me Anything: Both as written messages and occasional member-only Zoom sessions. The Show's Discord Server: Where conversations about interviews, show suggestions, and questions happen. It's a great place to meet other listeners and chat about all things music! Can I just donate instead of subscribing? Absolutely! Cancel at anytime and easily resubscribe when you want all that extra content again. Learn more about becoming a Contributing Listener @ anthonyplog-on-music.supercast.com!

Nicole DeGuire is Associate Director of Orchestras at Carmel High School, Indiana ASTA President, and an avid free-lance violinist with numerous orchestras across the state of Indiana. Earning her B.M. in Violin Performance with Honors at Butler University, she went on to complete her M.M. in Violin Performance and Literature, and an Orchestral Studies Diploma from The Eastman School of Music. Teachers include Charles Castleman, Ilya Kaler, Lisa Brooks, Davis Brooks, Larry Shapiro, Geoffrey Applegate and Paul Kantor. Previously, she served as Director of Orchestras at Fishers High School. Her groups earned gold ratings along with “With Distinction” at both ISSMA District and State Qualifications. It was under her direction that the FHS Symphony Orchestra made the ISSMA State Finals for the first time in 2017. She absolutely loves working with middle and high school students, and truly enjoys serving as a guest clinician and adjudicator, Nicole has extensive orchestral experience performing with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic. Other professional orchestral experience includes Rochester Philharmonic, Erie Philharmonic, Albany Symphony Orchestra and South Bend Symphony Orchestra.  Ms. DeGuire is the Indiana ASTA All-State Orchestra Coordinator, an ISSMA State Board Member and was also the 2020 Indiana ASTA High School Orchestra Teacher of the Year.  Nicole is available to serve as a clinician, presenter, and guest conductor and can be reached at ndeguire@ccs.k12.in.us. -- Your support is appreciated! If you are enjoying The Orchestra Teacher Podcast, please consider becoming a supporter for as little as 99 cents per month. I am working hard to bring on some amazing educators who will share ideas, tell their story, and offer some support for all of you. I have invested a lot of time in putting it all together and money purchase equipment that will help provide the best possible listening experience. Here is the link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orchestrateacher/support Thank you for your continued support! If you have suggestions for podcast guests, please let me know by providing a name and contact information. Subscribe to The Orchestra Teacher Website, YouTube Channel, and Podcast! Website: http://www.orchestrateacher.net YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/theorchestrateacher Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5pvAWs3uftZ5FJ2KyZYU0z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-orchestra-teacher-podcast/id1489358262 — Looking to advertise a product or service to string and orchestra teachers? Consider an audio advertisement on the Orchestra Teacher Podcast! Proceeds from your ad will help offset costs of equipment and web hosting.  Please contact Charles at charleslaux1@gmail.com for more information. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orchestrateacher/support

In the second hour of "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Thursday, February 29, 2024, guest host Mona Seghatoleslami leads a pre-recorded conversation with RPO conductors Andrea Delfs and Jeff Tyzik about the orchestra's 2024-2025 season, announced on WXXI.

The Cello Sherpa Podcast Host, Joel Dallow, interviews cellist Steven Doane, Professor of Cello at the Eastman School of Music. They talk about his experience as Principal Cellist of both the Milwaukee Symphony, and the Rochester Philharmonic, through his  appointment to the Eastman School of Music. Steven shares his teaching philosophy, offers music school audition advice, and much more.  For more information on Steven, visit: https://www.esm.rochester.edu/directory/doane-steven/For more information on our sponsor: www.CLEAResources.com If you are looking for in person/virtual cello lessons, or orchestral repertoire audition coachings, check out www.theCelloSherpa.comFollow us on Instagram and Threads @theCelloSherpa

 Bassist David Rodriguez has worked with groups ranging from Isaac Hayes to Tito Puente to the Rochester Philharmonic. He studied at Juilliard, the Eastman School of Music, and Mansfield University. David is currently the Executive Producer and Executive Vice President of The New Jersey Performing Arts Center where the Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass is held. The Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass is an immersive week of master classes, performances, small ensemble work, studio sessions, lectures and workshops on the campus of Montclair State University. Instagram / Twitter / Youtube / Website / BSA / View More Episodes

Trumpeter Dave Bilger has had a stellar career as both a performer and also as an educator. He was principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony, and following that, principal trumpet with the Philadelphia Orchestra for many years. In addition to the 27 years he's taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, he's also Professor of Trumpet at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music and has given master classes around the world.As an example of how music can have a profound influence on a person's, and even a family's, life, we begin our conversation with my asking Dave about how he was able raise funds in order to bring Baset Azizi from Afghanistan to the United States and how that impacted not only Baset, but his family as well. Dave continues by talking about his two main teachers and their different approaches to teaching, David Hickman and Mark Gould... in addition to his week of study with Tom Stevens. As a student, Dave was a member of the summer student orchestra, the Colorado Philharmonic, and talks about what it was like to have Michael Sachs (principal trumpet, Cleveland Orchestra) and Doug Prosser (principal trumpet, Rochester Philharmonic) as room-mates during his second year. We end part one with an extended discussion of auditions, including musical preparation, mental approaches, and some current issues with the orchestral audition process.Dorico Professional music notation and composition software from Steinberg. Download a free 30-trial today!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Would you like more inspirational stories, suggestions, insights, and a place to continue the conversations with other listeners? Visit anthonyplog-on-music.supercast.com to learn more! As a Contributing Listener of "Anthony Plog on Music," you'll have access to extra premium content and benefits including: Extra Audio Content: Only available to Contributing Listeners. Podcast Reflections: Tony's written recaps and thoughts on past interviews, including valuable tips and suggestions for students. Ask Me Anything: Both as written messages and occasional member-only Zoom sessions. The Show's Discord Server: Where conversations about interviews, show suggestions, and questions happen. It's a great place to meet other listeners and chat about all things music! Can I just donate instead of subscribing? Absolutely! Cancel at anytime and easily resubscribe when you want all that extra content again. Learn more about becoming a Contributing Listener @ anthonyplog-on-music.supercast.com!

On October 29th, 1931, The Rochester Philharmonic presented the world premiere of a new symphony by the composer William Grant Still. A symphonic premiere is always something to look out for in musical history, but this one had an even greater significance. The premiere of Wiliam Grant Still's First Symphony, subtitled  “Afro American,” was the first time a symphony written by a Black American composer was performed by a leading orchestra. William Grant Still was a man of many firsts, whether he was the first Black American conductor to conduct a major orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major company, the first Black American to conduct an orchestra in the South of the United States, and much more.  Today we're going to focus in on Grant Still's first symphony, a piece that Grant Still had long thought about, conceptualized, and dreamed of. It was also a symphony wrapped up in the roiling currents of Black America at the time, with the Harlem Renaissance in full swing and Alain Locke's tract The New Negro sparking discussion and debate all over the country. It was a symphony that attempted to do something no one had ever done before, that is, to marry together the genre of the Blues with that of symphonic music. At the time of its premiere and afterwards, it was quite a success, and until 1950, it was THE most performed symphony written by an American composer. After 1950, the symphony practically disappeared from concert stages, but due to the explosion of interest in Black American composers of the past and present, this brilliant symphony is making its way back into the repertoire of orchestras all over the world. The way that Grant Still constructed this meeting of two genres of music was ingenious and innovative from start to finish, and so today on the show we'll explore all of the historical context of the symphony, what Grant Still was trying to do with his monumental new endeavor, and of course, all of the music itself. I'm also joined today by the great writer and linguist John McWhorter, who discusses the 4 Paul Laurence Dunbar poems Grant Still added to each movement as epigraphs, as well as their cultural context. Join us!

Bob talked to the Rochester Philharmonic assistant conductor, Jherrard Hardeman, about classical music and an upcoming show. Bob and Rylie talked about apple cider.

Today's episode is the second half of my conversation with a long-time friend, Kevin Fitzgerald, current Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony.Last week we spoke about preparing for job applications and auditions, and today we will continue the conversation and hear all the behind the scene stories of navigating the business.As 2021 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow and four-time recipient of Career Assistance Grants from The Solti Foundation U.S., Kevin Fitzgerald is at the forefront of the next generation of conductors. Recently, Kevin was invited as one of the twenty conductors to participate live in the 2023 Mahler Competition with the Bamberg Symphony.In addition to his post as Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, Fitzgerald has recently guest conducted the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. In his commitment to uplifting communities through music, Fitzgerald conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 2017 with musicians from the Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids Symphonies to raise over $10,000 for the International Rescue Committee and Freedom House Detroit. In 2016, he also co-organized and conducted an impromptu performance called “Requiem for Orlando,” which featured over 400 volunteer musicians in a dedicated performance for victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.Since then, he has participated in masterclasses with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Andris Nelsons and Alan Gilbert at Tanglewood among many others. Kevin is based in Raleigh, NC, with his husband, violist Kurt Tseng, and their two dogs Bennie and Chipper. Kevin also teaches and coaches conductors privately online and in person.All About Chaowen Ting & The Conductor's Podcast (Website)

In today's episode, you will hear the first half of my conversation with a long-time friend, Kevin Fitzgerald, current Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony. We went way back to my years at the Eastman School of Music, and it's such a pleasure to speak with him on the topic of preparing for job applications and auditions.As 2021 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow and four-time recipient of Career Assistance Grants from The Solti Foundation U.S., Kevin Fitzgerald is at the forefront of the next generation of conductors. Recently, Kevin was invited as one of the twenty conductors to participate live in the 2023 Mahler Competition with the Bamberg Symphony.In addition to his post as Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, Fitzgerald has recently guest conducted the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. In his commitment to uplifting communities through music, Fitzgerald conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 2017 with musicians from the Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids Symphonies to raise over $10,000 for the International Rescue Committee and Freedom House Detroit. In 2016, he also co-organized and conducted an impromptu performance called “Requiem for Orlando,” which featured over 400 volunteer musicians in a dedicated performance for victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.Since then, he has participated in masterclasses with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Andris Nelsons and Alan Gilbert at Tanglewood among many others. Kevin is based in Raleigh, NC, with his husband, violist Kurt Tseng, and their two dogs Bennie and Chipper. Kevin also teaches and coaches conductors privately online and in person.All About Chaowen Ting & The Conductor's Podcast (Website)

SynopsisAt 6:05 p.m. on today's date in 2007, the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, plunging dozens of cars and trucks into the Mississippi River. Thirteen people died. Investigators said a design flaw was to blame, and the event served as a wake-up call about America's crumbling infrastructure.It also inspired a new piece of music.In 2007 Minnesota composer Linda Tutas Haugen had been commissioned to write a piece for solo instrument and organ for performance at the next American Guild of Organists' national convention. Haugen had been looking at various hymn tunes for inspiration when the I-35 bridge collapsed.As she recalled, “I had family members who'd been over the bridge a day before. Many were feeling, ‘It could have been me.' I reread texts of the hymns I had been considering, and there was one that talks about ‘God of hill and plain, o'er which our traffic runs' and ‘wherever God your people go, protect them by your guarding hand.' That inspired my writing.”Haugen scored her new piece for trumpet and organ and titled it “Invocation and Remembrance.” “For me,” said Haugen, “it's a prayer, an invocation for protection, and also a remembrance of what happened.”Music Played in Today's ProgramLinda Tutas Haugen Invocation and Remembrance Martin Hodel, trumpet; Kraig Windschitl, organ Augsburg Fortress Music CD (with ISBN: 9780800679118)On This DayBirths1779 - Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key, who in 1814 wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner," setting his text to the tune of a popular British drinking song of the day, "To Anacreon in Heaven," written by John Stafford Smith; The text and the tune became the official national anthem by and Act of Congress in 1931;1858 - Austrian composer Hans Rott, in Vienna;1913 - American composer Jerome Moross, in Brooklyn;1930 - British pop song and musical composer Lionel Bart, of "Oliver!" fame, in London;Deaths1973 - Gian-Francesco Maliperio, Italian composer and first editor of collected works of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, age 91, in Treviso;Premieres1740 - Thomas Arne: masque, “Alfred” (containing “Rule, Brittania”), in Clivedon (Gregorian date: August 12);1921 - Hindemith: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 16, by the Amar Quartet (which included the composer on viola) in Donaueschingen, Germany;1968 - Webern: "Rondo" for string quartet, written in 1906, at the Congregation of the Arts at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire;1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra, at the Bravo! Music Festival in Vail, Colo., by soloist David Jolley with the Rochester Philharmonic, Lawrence Leighton Smith conducting;Others1892 - John Philip Sousa , age 37, quits the U.S. Marine Corps Band to form his own 100-piece marching band;1893 - In Spillville Iowa, Antonin Dvorák finishes his String Quintet in Eb, Op. 97 ("The American") during his summer vacation at the Czech settlement. Links and Resources On Linda Tutas Haugen

After losing her hearing to Ménièr's disease, Gaelen McCormick pivoted from her position in the double bass section in the Rochester Philharmonic to become Director of Eastman Performing Arts Medicine. EPAM's four pillars are to Heal, Inspire, Care, and Learn. Through these four pillars, EPAM combines music with healthcare by promoting music therapy, conducting research into music's effects on cancer treatments, and offering performance opportunities for musicians in hospital waiting areas. In this episode, Gaelen joins Christine to share her story, and to share the remarkable effects music can have in the healthcare field. Topics include: • What is the difference between Music Therapy and Music Performance • What are the benefits of Music Therapy? • Musicians and hearing loss • Finding meaning in a new normal • Connecting Eastman School of Music Students with hospital volunteerism • Creating a service mindset in music making • Know your “why” https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/eastman-performance-medicine.aspx https://frostedlens.com/musicians-vs-the-world

Amy Andersson is an Internationally recognized, Grammy-winning conductor and producer. Named by British music critic Norman Lebrecht as “America's most watched Symphony Orchestra Conductor,” Andersson has been praised for her dynamic musicality, expressive technique and cross genre repertoire. She has toured to over twenty-two countries conducting concerts and recording sessions in symphonic, operatic, film, musical theatre and video game genres. She has appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Morning News, CBS Evening News and has garnered press coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Variety, Forbes, and Huffington Post. Andersson is founder and conductor of Orchestra Moderne NYC, which debuted at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and has won critical acclaim for her charismatic and visionary accomplishments as creator and conductor of Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, a live-to-picture symphony production and documentary film. Women Warriors has won over twenty-four international film and music awards including four Telly Awards, a Hollywood Music in Media Award, a GRAMMY in “Best Classical Compendium, a 2022 BMI “Impact Award,” a 2023 SCL “Jury Award” and has screened at film festivals in more than twelve countries, including the Fimucité International Film Music Festival in Tenerife. Known for her commitment to the music of living composers, she has conducted the works of composers Neal Acree, Elitsa Alexandrova, Peter Boyer, Nathalie Bonin, Jessica Curry, Miriam Cutler, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Greg Edmonson, Isolde Fair, Sharon Farber, Steve Jablonsky, Grant Kirkhope, Penka Kouneva, Bear McCreary, Martin O'Donnell, Kol Otani, Starr Parodi, Lolita Ritmanis, Garry Schyman, Yoko Shimomura, Jeremy Soule, George Strezov, Chance Thomas, Nobou Uematsu, Jack Wall, and Austin Wintory, among others, either on the concert stage or in recording sessions. Andersson has made guest appearances the St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Spanish Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Stockholm Concert Orchestra, Spanish National Youth Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Classic FM Radio Orchestra of Bulgaria, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Neiderrheinsche Symphoniker, LOH Orchestra Sonderhausen, Giessen Philharmonic, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Macedonian Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, National Orchestral of Mexico, and at free-lance orchestras in Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Ireland. Andersson regularly conducted opera productions in Germany at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, National Theater of Mannheim, Stadttheater Aachen, Weikersheim Opera Festival, Rheinsberg Chamber Opera, and Schlosstheater Schwetzinger. In 2017 Andersson completed a two year, world tour of the live-to-picture concert Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. Andersson is a devoted teacher and educator and known also for her work with youth orchestras. She was adjunct conducting faculty at the Universität der Künste Berlin, music director of the famed CPE Bach High School of Performing Arts in Berlin, and adjunct faculty in Media and Film Scoring at Brooklyn College/Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. In Germany she conducted the Rheinberg Chamber Opera Festival and Weikersheim Opera Festival for four summer seasons of productions that featured rising opera singers and youth orchestras. She is currently conducting faculty at the USC Thornton in the Screen Scoring department, and the Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria. Current projects include Andersson as co-Executive Producer on the soon to be released film (2023)Tahlequah The Whale: A Dance of Grief, by filmmaker Daniel Kreizberg, featuring the music of Lolita Ritmanis. She is also conductor and co-producer of the soon to be released soundtrack.

Today, the Spotlight shines On David Rodriguez, Executive Vice President and Executive Producer at NJPAC - the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. David works in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and has led a fascinating life in the performing arts. He was a full-time musician on the road with groups ranging from Isaac Hayes to Tito Puente to the Rochester Philharmonic. He studied at Juilliard, the Eastman School of Music, and Mansfield University. He worked at Carnegie Hall, Aaron Davis Hall, AOL Live, and the Apollo Theater. At NJPAC, David creates diverse programs that resonate far beyond the four walls of the venue — into the very heart of the community it serves and the lives of the musicians it works with.David takes us through his life, career, philosophies, and the important work he and others do at NJPAC. Enjoy. ------------------Dig DeeperCheck out the New Jersey Performing Arts Center onlineFollow NJPAC on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TwitterMax Roach | The Life and Music of a Bebop PioneerHip Hop NutcrackerA Guide to the Ironbound: Newark's Culinary GemThis Park Near NYC Has More Cherry Blossom Trees Than Washington, D.C.Christian McBride, Revered in Jazz, Is Playing the Long GameMax Roach - We Insist! (Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite)George Clinton Makes Triumphant Return To Newark SchoolNJPAC opens back up after the pandemicChristian McBride Discusses TD James Moody FesitvalInside the prestigious Sarah Vaughan competition for vocalists------------------• Did you enjoy this episode? Rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the Spotlight shines On David Rodriguez, Executive Vice President and Executive Producer at NJPAC - the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. David works in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and has led a fascinating life in the performing arts. He was a full-time musician on the road with groups ranging from Isaac Hayes to Tito Puente to the Rochester Philharmonic. He studied at Juilliard, the Eastman School of Music, and Mansfield University. He worked at Carnegie Hall, Aaron Davis Hall, AOL Live, and the Apollo Theater. At NJPAC, David creates diverse programs that resonate far beyond the four walls of the venue — into the very heart of the community it serves and the lives of the musicians it works with.David takes us through his life, career, philosophies, and the important work he and others do at NJPAC. Enjoy. ------------------Dig DeeperCheck out the New Jersey Performing Arts Center onlineFollow NJPAC on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TwitterMax Roach | The Life and Music of a Bebop PioneerHip Hop NutcrackerA Guide to the Ironbound: Newark's Culinary GemThis Park Near NYC Has More Cherry Blossom Trees Than Washington, D.C.Christian McBride, Revered in Jazz, Is Playing the Long GameMax Roach - We Insist! (Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite)George Clinton Makes Triumphant Return To Newark SchoolNJPAC opens back up after the pandemicChristian McBride Discusses TD James Moody FesitvalInside the prestigious Sarah Vaughan competition for vocalists------------------• Did you enjoy this episode? Rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second hour of "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Thursday, February 16, 2023, we talk with Jeff Tyzik and James Barry from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra about the 2023-2024 season.

Relief efforts for the fatal earthquake in Turkey and Syria are moving on at an urgent pace, the Rochester Philharmonic is offering a concert titled “Rooted in Rochester," and attorneys for Payton Gendron, the Buffalo shooter who admitted to targeting a Tops last May, say he wants to be transferred to federal custody.

Eryn LeCroy is currently playing Martha Jefferson & Dr. Lyman Hall in the highly anticipated Broadway Revival of 1776 directed by Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page in association with Harvard University's American Repertory Theatre Company and Roundabout Theatre Company. Prior to her Broadway debut in the iconic role of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, Eryn made her Off-Broadway debut in two back-to-back Stephen Sondheim productions in New York City - Assassins with the New York City Center Encores Off-Center! under the direction of Anne Kauffman, followed by portraying the role of Johanna in the critically acclaimed immersive production of Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street Theatre. Other career highlights include the World Premiere in Toronto of Sousatzka as Young Sousatzka (Dir. Adrian Noble and Choreographer Graciela Daniele), Brigadoon as Fiona with the Pittsburgh CLO, and the National Tour of Jekyll and Hyde as Emma Carew. As a concert artist, Eryn has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Ocean City Pops in addition to touring internationally in Israel with Isaac Sutton and Broadway Israel. Follow @ErynLeCroy for the latest! Engineered by Jeremiah McPadden Produced by @onairwithQ

Hello once again everyone I'm your host Ray Shasho and welcome to another edition of Interviewing the Legends. Brought to you by The Publicity Works Agency specializing in authors & musicians Remember We shine only when We make you shine! Call us today at 941-567-6193 for a free PR evaluation!  Elliott Randall's illustrious career has encompassed a wide and varied cross-section of World Musical forms. These include record production, composition, electronic research and development, lectures and teaching, and of course, a legendary contribution to popular guitar performance and recording. His guitar solos on Steely Dan's “Reelin' in The Years” and “Fame” (the motion picture) have entered Rock history annals. Elliott has recorded and performed with artists as diverse as The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, Seatrain, The Blues Brothers, Carl Wilson, Peter Wolf, Peter Frampton, James Galway, Richie Havens, The Rochester Philharmonic and The American Symphony Orchestra, among many others. In addition, he is a favorite of esteemed songwriters Jimmy Webb, George David Weiss, Don Covay and Laura Nyro. Other credits include music consultant for NBC Saturday Night Live and Oliver Stone, and projects with producers Jerry Wexler, Joel Dorn, Steve Lillywhite, Eddie Kramer among many others. In addition to artistic projects, Elliott has also played, produced, and composed advertisements (jingles) for television, radio and cinema. Please welcome legendary session guitarist and musician ELLIOTT RANDALL to Interviewing the Legends FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ELLIOTT RANDALL VISIT www.elliott-randall.com Official website https://twitter.com/elliottrandall Twitter www.facebook.com/elliottrandallmusic Facebook www.linkedin.com/in/elliottrandall?original_referer= Linkedin www.youtube.com/ejrandall YouTube https://elliottrandall1.bandcamp.com/ Elliott Randall Bandcamp     Discography Eric Mercury "Electric Black Man" 1969 Avco Randall's Island (1970) Polydor, catalogue number 2489 004 Rock 'n' Roll City (1973) Polydor Randall's New York (1977) Kirshner Still Reelin' (2007) Private Collection Records HeartStrings (2011) Private Collection Records Virtual Memory (2012) Private Collection Records   Soundtracks The Warriors (1979) The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack (1980) Fame (1980) Heart of Dixie (1989) Looking for an Echo (2000)   Also appears on (partial list) Can't Buy a Thrill (1972) – Steely Dan Frankie Dante & Orquesta Flamboyan Con Larry Harlow (1972) Satan – Sonny Stitt (Cadet, 1974) Ladies Love Outlaws (1974) - Tom Rush Katy Lied (1975) – Steely Dan Closeup (1975) - Frankie Valli Royal Scam (1976) – Steely Dan T Shirt (1976) - Loudon Wainwright III The Music Man (1977) - Paul Anka Gene Simmons (1978) – Gene Simmons Peter Criss (1978) – Peter Criss Live and Sleazy (1979) – Village People Connections (1980) – Richie Havens Rise Up (1980) - Peter Frampton It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982) – Yoko Ono Down On The Road by The Beach (1982) – Steve Hiett Hello Big Man (1983) – Carly Simon Youngblood (1983) - Carl Wilson Milk and Honey (1984) – John Lennon, Yoko Ono The Animals' Christmas (1986) – Art Garfunkel & Amy Grant Electric Landlady (1991) – Kirsty MacColl Walking on Thin Ice (1992) – Yoko Ono Walk the Dog and Light the Light (1993) – Laura Nyro Arena (1996) – Asia Spirit of Christmas (2009) – Northern Light Orchestra Left, (2016) - Monkey House       Support us!

Synopsis Most classical music lovers know and love Dvorak's “New World” Symphony, Opus 95, and his “American” String Quartet, Opus 96, but fewer know the work he wrote next: his String QUINTET, Opus 97. We think that's a shame, since all three rank among the finest things the Czech composer ever wrote. Dvorak's Quintet is also nicknamed the “American” – and for good reason: It was completed in 1893 on today's date in Spillville, Iowa, during the composer's summer vacation in that small, rural community of Czech immigrants, where he and family could escape the noise and bustle of New York City and his duties there at the National Conservatory. Dvorak had been brought to America to teach Americans how to write American music, but, like any good teacher, Dvorak was as eager to LEARN as to teach. In New York, Henry T. Burleigh, a talented African-American Conservatory student taught Dvorak spirituals, and in Spillville, Dvorak eagerly attended performances of Native American music and dance by a group of touring Iroquois Indians. Traces of those influences can be heard in Dvorak's “American” works. In his Quintet, for example, unison melodic lines and striking rhythms seem to echo the Iroquois chants and drums Dvorak heard during his summer vacation in Spillville. Music Played in Today's Program Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) – II. Allegro vivo, fr String Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 97 (Vlach Quartet Prague with Ladislav Kyselak, viola) Naxos 8.553376 On This Day Births 1779 - Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key, who in 1814 wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner," setting his text to the tune of a popular British drinking song of the day, "To Anacreon in Heaven," written by John Stafford Smith; The text and the tune became the official national anthem by and Act of Congress in 1931; 1858 - Austrian composer Hans Rott, in Vienna; 1913 - American composer Jerome Moross, in Brooklyn; 1930 - British pop song and musical composer Lionel Bart, of "Oliver!" fame, in London; Deaths 1973 - Gian-Francesco Maliperio, Italian composer and first editor of collected works of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, age 91, in Treviso; Premieres 1740 - Thomas Arne: masque, “Alfred” (containing “Rule, Brittania”), in Clivedon (Gregorian date: August 12); 1921 - Hindemith: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 16, by the Amar Quartet (which included the composer on viola) in Donaueschingen, Germany; 1968 - Webern: "Rondo" for string quartet, written in 1906, at the Congregation of the Arts at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; 1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra, at the Bravo! Music Festival in Vail, Colo., by soloist David Jolley with the Rochester Philharmonic, Lawrence Leighton Smith conducting; Others 1892 - John Philip Sousa , age 37, quits the U.S. Marine Corps Band to form his own 100-piece marching band; 1893 - In Spillville Iowa, Antonin Dvorák finishes his String Quintet in Eb, Op. 97 ("The American") during his summer vacation at the Czech settlement. Links and Resources On Dvorak

Sometimes, being a woman means having to handle a lot of things on your plate.  For conductor Sarah Ioannides, these responsibilities prove that she can conquer so many mountains while being able to express herself in music and art.  In this week's episode of The Conductor's Podcast, Sarah talks about the art of being ready, the essence of leadership, and the wonders of being a mom. Currently Music Director of Symphony Tacoma, Ioannides has also led orchestras extensively in the United States including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Hawai'i Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony, where she was the first woman appointed to a full-time conducting position. Passionate about education, Ioannides continues to coach orchestras at high-level conservatories such as Yale University and the Curtis Institute. She is Founding Artistic Director of Cascade Masterclass for conductors and composers.Born in Australia, of Greek and Scottish descent, she was raised in England, studied at Oxford University and The Juilliard School, earning Master's degrees at both. Ioannides came to the USA as a Fulbright Scholar and graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music, a protégé of the late Otto-Werner Mueller. Married to Scott Hartman, renowned trombonist, they have three children, including twins, Elsa and Karl, and Audrey. An avid long-distance runner, she was first overall woman in the 30k The Defiance in 2021.

Hosts John Devlin and Enrico Lopez-Yañez discuss how to thrive musically and in your day-to-day both at home and on the road in the 4/4. Then, UpBeat welcomes Rochester Philharmonic Concertmaster Juliana Athayde and Principal Oboe Erik Behr who share invaluable advice to conductors of all levels: how to best handle rehearsals with professional orchestras, creating camaraderie with staffs and players, and what they view as the future of successful concert design. You don't want to miss this conversation!  

Intro: teenage hackersLet Me Run This By You: setting limits with KanyeInterview: We talk to Josh Sobel about Cal Arts, Travis Preston, Yale School of Drama, Robert Brustein, Fig and the Wasp, Oberlin College, The O'Neill Theater Center, Michael Cadman, Royal Shakespeare Company, Chicago ensemble theatre, Strawdog Theatre Company, Ianesco's Rhinoceros, Rochester NY, Brighton High School, A Chorus Line, Cabaret, horizontal hierarchies, The Wooster Group, change talk vs. change action, Chris Ackerlind, Light in the Piazza, Paula Vogel's Indecent, Samantha Behr, Haven Chicago, The Den Theater, Rochester Philharmonic, Lorenzo Palomo, Ian Martin, Hal Prince, Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches, John de Lancie, Rochester Academy of Medicine, radiation oncology, The Xylophone West by Alex Lubischer, Isaac Gomez's The Displaced, Center Theatre Group, Jeremy O'Harris' Slave Play, Rashaad Hall, Chris Jones' review of Ms. Blakk for President.FULL TRANSCRIPT (unedited):3 (10s):And I'm Gina Pulice.1 (11s):We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it.3 (15s):20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all.1 (21s):We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet?2 (32s):I think, I think my son has fig he's gotten into sort of like the hacking side of things and he always wants to get around all of the restrictions we put on him. Like we have content restrictions, we have time limits. And I think he's just made it his mission. I mean, this is like the theme of his life. He has made it his mission to subvert the paradigm as my husband would say. And it's exhausting because all I can do is try to be like 10 steps behind them and learn like what's a VPN. That's what I, I think what he did. I think he installed a VPN to bypass the internet control that I have.2 (1m 20s):Oh1 (1m 20s):My God.2 (1m 22s):And it somehow how that relates to, I can watch, I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that if I turn off the wifi, I can watch it on my cellular data.4 (1m 33s):It's insane.2 (1m 35s):Yeah. It's, it's beyond insane. I, and you know, I like, I'm always on this thing where I'm vacillating between letting it go and just trying harder to, you know, impose the limit. I mean, you, I wouldn't, before I had kids, I would not have imagined it was this hard to impose limits on people, you know, because you don't want them to not have what they want. Right.4 (2m 6s):Right.2 (2m 7s):And, and it's a real battle to like, make myself, give myself and my children limits. It's really hard.4 (2m 17s):My God. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing I'm stuck on, it's like maybe there was okay. I think I'm like trying to figure out the thing, which is like, I know what I think I know what happened. So you have restrictions on content. Like, and I think a genius, the Kanye trilogy, like completely has all those triggers in it. Like all the things are in it. There's sex, suicide. There's, there's, it's all the things you, I wouldn't want a susceptible teenager to watch. Right. Like just for various reasons, not, not for anything other than triggers. Right. So like my nieces and nephew, the same thing, so, okay.4 (2m 57s):So then you set that right? And you're like, no, no, but then the kid or anyone can get a VPN, which then resets, I think the con, but I think you're still on the, you're still, you're still on the content warning site, which is blocking genius. You from watching genius. That is fucking, I mean, it's kind of genius in a way, but it's also so infuriating. It's like, come on, dude. I'm just trying to watch my fucking Kanye west bullshit.2 (3m 26s):It's literally just this race of like today I'm on top. And then the next day it's like, oh my God, they, they, they run the show. I'll never forget. There was a scene in the first season of the Sopranos where Tony and Carmel are having a problem with Anthony, or maybe it was with the daughter, a meadow and they're in their bedroom. And he goes, if she finds out, we have no power. We're screwed. And I laughed. It was the time I had watched it after I had teenagers. Yeah. Like that's what it is. We actually have no power. And yet the, the, the con that we're forced to do is pretend like we have all the power.2 (4m 12s):It's4 (4m 13s):Like2 (4m 13s):Covering4 (4m 14s):A metaphor also for life about like my mom's friend sent me something that said, you know, I forget it was like her friend had passed away and it's not fair and it's not fair. And I, and it isn't, and that's the thing. Like it, the truth is not fair. Like it sucks. But like, and, and we pretend that things are fair because if we don't, it's absolute chaos. Like if we didn't pretend really that red means stop and green means go, we'd have a real fucking problem. If we all rebelled and said, you know what, fuck you, green means go. And red means stop. And we all sent a mass media thing around.4 (4m 56s):There would be chaos. It would be2 (5m 13s):The bus. And I guess that's just the headline right there. That's like the headline in the story. Like you took the bus from LA to San Fran, Fran, because gas is so expensive.4 (5m 22s):Well, many things. Okay. So driving, it's really a grind on the five coming home, especially it's like, so rough, like, it can be a nine hour instead of five, six hours situation. It's crazy. Cause the five sucks. So, so that was the first like, and then gas. So I wasn't gonna drive cause I did the drive Thanksgiving and it was like, oh God. And then, so I was like, okay, well I'll, I'll just, I I'll fly. But then I'm afraid to fly. Even though the flight is literally 45 minutes. And then I was like, okay, but then because of gas, I said, okay, I'm going to just get my balls into it. I'm going to build up my balls and I'm going to fly. But then because of gas, you know, does jets use gas fuel though?4 (6m 6s):The flights really went up six San Francisco. You shouldn't even get a flight for a hundred bucks on Southwest round trip, like 120. No, no, two 20. So I'm like, oh no. So then I say, okay, well I'll take my Amtrak. Of course, which is actually what I, what I looked at first. But the track of it, it's a beautiful ride. It takes forever, but it goes up the coast and it's gorgeous. And you can like bid to get a fancy room,2 (6m 28s):Right? Yeah.4 (6m 29s):Well, okay. Well the tracks being repaired, so then you'd have to take a Greyhound. I'm not taking a Greyhound. So then I was like, okay, what would it take a fancy bus? And it's a flick2 (6m 38s):Of a fancy4 (6m 39s):Flex bus flicks. And Flix is big in Europe and they're charter buses and they have bathrooms and it's like assigned seating. And I bought two seats because I was like, fuck you. And it's so inexpensive, but still listen. I just, you know, and I worked, my dad was an addict. I have food addict issues. I get addicts. So don't come. People don't come at me for saying this. But the bus is a place where heroin, heroin, addicts thrive. Like that2 (7m 9s):Is the heroin addict doing on the4 (7m 11s):Bus nodding out. So there's two, there was a couple and I was like, oh, these are heroin addicts. They just looked so like, their luggage was all fucked up. They couldn't barely get on the bus. They were fighting young people, LA style tattoos. Fine. I am tattoos. It's not that they, but it was like this very specific look thin bedraggled, but not, not, not a curated look like more like, I'm just fucked up inappropriate clothing for the weather. Like big. Although in San Francisco is cold. Maybe they need something. I didn't know. They had like heavy coats on it's like 90 degree, all their shit. Right? Like they're, you know, I've got one little carrier. They've got like bags, like big things.4 (7m 52s):Okay. And that you can check, but you have to pay more for it. And their suitcases are falling apart. Okay. Fine. But they have cell phones, which is so, but a lot of people have cell phones. I mean, I I'm always shocked when people have cell phones that look like they shouldn't, I'm like, what? How do you maintain that? But anyway, so they get on an immediate, they sit in the, they got the seats in the way back, which is like a little bigger, but also your brother bathroom's gross, but they just not out immediately. They get on and like midfoot, mid fighting. They just like pass out and I'm like, oh my God. Like not out like out. And then don't wake up until we get there. Like literally it's an eight hour ride.4 (8m 32s):They don't get up at all.2 (8m 35s):Wow. They'd probably been awake. Yeah. Or I guess maybe not4 (8m 41s):How2 (8m 42s):It works with the4 (8m 42s):Heroin. Well, it depends like, I mean,2 (8m 44s):Not the heroin.4 (8m 46s):That's my new band name. That's our new band name. The heroin's got mics on two levels.2 (8m 51s):Yeah,4 (8m 53s):That was good. Gina. Okay. So no for me and my, my, my clients were a lot of them on heroin. And what would happen is like, you can't always get heroin. Right. Because it's expensive. And because I mean, it's cheaper than whatever, but it's expensive. And then, so you go without it and you start to detox and then you're up, you can't sleep. You're a mess. And then when you finally score again or whatever, get your heroin, then you just feel great for about half an hour. Then you pass out. It's just so it's such a waste, but okay. It's a process.2 (9m 25s):You know, although I would never want to be a heroin addict. I will say something like what's occurring to me. As you're talking about this couple is like, you know how with addicts, their life is very focused around just scoring or whatever. So to be able to have your life goals in these little chunks is really appealing to me.4 (9m 47s):Yeah. Well, it's a very, very, very specified job2 (9m 52s):World. Right? You make, I think when you're a heroin addict, you must have a really small world and your objectives are like, get score. That's at a place to4 (10m 1s):Sleep and don't get arrested and don't2 (10m 3s):Get, don't get arrested. Like there's something and I, I'm sorry to be cheeky about it. Cause people have really suffered with heroin addiction. I, I'm not suggesting that people, anybody should be an addict. I'm just saying like the idea4 (10m 14s):Yeah. To you. It's like, yeah, me too.2 (10m 17s):Actually even just the other day I was thinking I was watching somebody who had, what I imagined was probably a minimum wage job. And I don't remember what the job was now, but I just, I was looking at the person doing their tasks and I was thinking, yeah, maybe I should get a job like that. You know? And then 30 seconds in, I'm really trying to imagine myself. And I'm like, what am I talking about? Oh, people don't love working at McDonald's. Don't love, you know, whatever the4 (10m 47s):Jobs. And I will in, in adulthood in 30 dumb, in 40 dumb, like the last one I had at that fucking donut shop, I was like, oh, this seemed quaint. The chef was a jerk. I got in like a fight with the chef was so rude. Like here I am 42, right. Or 43 or something. And I was working at this place in Rogers park for like cash only under the table owned by these two young SIRS. They, whatever their business was working. But like the fucking chef was like talking shit about me. Like,2 (11m 23s):Is that a doughnut chef? No,4 (11m 28s):I should have said that. No, they also serve sandwiches. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. I was2 (11m 33s):Just thinking to myself, like, do you have to be a chef?4 (11m 36s):No, that's hilarious. But she was like, or they were, they were talking shit about me. And I was like, oh no, no, no. And I was basically volunteering there. I was so outraged. I was like This person that2 (11m 51s):To read an essay about that, you've got, write an essay about your donut shop stint.4 (11m 55s):Oh, I will. And I want to name names. They were fucking assholes. And also they, like, when I went to confront the PR, like I was like, I like when you walk behind someone you're supposed to stay behind. Right. But if you've never worked in the restaurant industry that does not come naturally. And also I'm really fast moving. So like I just met, she goes, you have to stay behind. And I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna fucking kill you. And then she would under her breath talk shit to me about to the other people. And so, and so I finally, you get them, you get them every time, this way. So I pulled the owner aside and I was really upset, like crying because she was treating me like shit. And I said, listen, what the fuck is this? And then the next, the person wanted to then that the owner was like, look, this lady is doing as a favor by working here basically because we have no one and she's working on under the table.4 (12m 42s):So then the, the, the person wanted to talk to me, the chef and I talked to her, I'm like what? She goes, I'm sorry. If I come off a little, I go, oh no, no, you don't come off. You are. And I said, I don't know what's happening here. I'm like, just try to do my job and go the fuck home and make my money to pay my cell phone bill, bitch. Like I wrote that and then I just quit. I was like, fuck all. Y'all. So, no, it sounds really quaint, which is why I fucking get those jobs. And then you get in there and you're like, oh, this is how on earth.2 (13m 11s):Oh God, I am sure it was, I4 (13m 15s):Don't do2 (13m 15s):It. Yeah, no, no, I won't. I will not do it. It just, it just periodically, it just occurred to me4 (13m 20s):Because there's a set skill set set of tasks that no one eat you ma I imagine that no one is like on their high horse. No, no. People are still on their fucking high horse in minimum wage jobs. There's a hierarchy of fucking assholes anywhere you've.2 (13m 37s):But then I did get to watch the third episode of the Kanye documentary and then, okay, well, I didn't finish it though. I'm only like 20 minutes into it. It's so sad. Right? It's going to go on. It's going to turn4 (13m 50s):It. It does. But in also in an unexpected way, what I will say, I think we should talk about the third episode next time. Okay.2 (13m 58s):But4 (13m 59s):The first two, for me, fucking amazing in the storytelling, whether, regardless of how I feel about Kanye west, which I don't feel any kind of way other than, I mean, I just, I I'm talking about the, since we're about to make a documentary, right? Like I'm looking at, I love the first two. I love cooties filmmaking. And the first two episodes, it then takes a turn on the third, but like the first two are so packed with information and visuals and, and storytelling.4 (14m 39s):Like, I loved it. You and you also get a S he such a great job of like showing a slice of time, you know, and, and, and all the characters in it and real life people we know and get glimpses of. And I just thought, and for me, the most moving part of it, I mean, I have real lot of feelings about Donda and Connie's relationship and Donda herself. I have a lot of diagnoses for both of them, but I'm not, you know, like, I feel like she's got bipolar. Like, I think there's a whole thing going on there, but what I found, I have never, I have never been so moved for, for the hustle and the perseverance of a human being and the just sort of neutral and unwavering.4 (15m 32s):We know it's not really true, but like they're like, but the unwavered, what I saw was an unwavering unshakable, almost naive belief in oneself.2 (15m 42s):This is what I wanted to talk to you about. This is what I wanted to run by you. Cause the, the connection between talking about that, me working on the documentary and, and this a, I agree with you, Cody is an amazing documentarian. And we could totally learn a lot from the way that he weaved his own personal story into that, his relationship with this, you know, mega personality. But yeah, you know, the scene where he's talking to a bunch of kids and he's, he's talking about self-compassion, I mean, he, he has a point, you know, what, what should you, you created an amazing piece of art and somebody compliments you on it and you you're supposed to pretend like you're dumb.2 (16m 29s):You all, you don't agree that it's, that it's amazing. You know, like there's something to be said for that. And there's something to be said for what you're just describing the unshakable confidence, but I want to hear what your thoughts are about their relationship.4 (16m 45s):It was interesting to watch the process of what I would call a simultaneous process of infantilizing him as well as idolizing him as well as parental defying him, as well as believing in him. It's a combo platter. And I believe from watching her and watching what I noticed in her mannerisms and his that I think they both had a mania thing going on, like in her eyeballs. So I have become really good at looking at people's eyeballs.4 (17m 26s):And I notice in the documentary, as it goes along when Kanye is manic, his voice goes up in pitch and his eyeballs looked different and she had this eyeball situation, which is this sort of darty, Desperate eyeballs. And I noticed it in my clients all the time and I'd be like, oh, they're manic, they're manic. It's not an, and it's like, hypomania, it's not for her. But like, I saw that in her. And I was like, oh, like, what's happening? Where am I going? What's happening? Who can I okay. And, and covered with a bit of like, you know, self-help, you can do it this and perseverance, but it's, it's all a combo platter, but that was my take.4 (18m 15s):What was on their relationship was like a, I need you, you need me, what's happening. I'm worried about you, but I'm going to then hope that by, by really pumping you up, that I'm going to pump up the mental illness away.2 (18m 31s):. Yeah. Well, I, I agree with what you say about the, their relationship, their dynamic, and it makes sense that yeah, maybe she had a touch of the bipolar too. What I was thinking about it is, and like I say, I haven't gotten through the third episode, but what I was thinking is it's so evident how meaningful their relationship was to both of them, but in this case for, for him and that he could just maybe spend the rest of his life, chasing that relationship, chasing a woman who will fall over him, the way that she did.2 (19m 14s):I mean, really what it seems like, what he needs is a person who kind of use it as their sole purpose in life to, to, to support his genius, which is why he probably makes a terrible partner, But that the, she gave him like this, like she was mainlining love to.4 (19m 35s):Yeah.2 (19m 37s):And you know, he's unlikely to find that any place else. Right,4 (19m 41s):Right.2 (19m 41s):But he's still looking, I think, Well,4 (19m 46s):And then it's really interesting. So like Cody gave up his whole life to, to follow him and it wasn't enough. Like it, it becomes not enough. And then when the person literally is removed by death, then what do you do is what we're seeing in the documentary. But like the it's, it's a it's, it's so fucked up because I, I feel like from watching from the outside, she must've felt like she was his only hope. Right. Which is which, okay. Which I'm sure is it's2 (20m 18s):Hard to me was her only hope.4 (20m 19s):No, she was, she's like, I'm my son's only advocate. Right? My old, his only hope for love and happiness comes from me ultimately. And whatever went down in his childhood, I have to make up for what other, all of them, with the other, all the mothers stuff happens. Right. I can imagine. And then it's like, yeah, it sets him up to be, like you said, chasing that the rest of his entire life. And she's not going to be around forever. And she did the best she could. And she did so much compared to what a lot of people do. And he's, it's just, it, you throw in mega stardom in there and it is a recipe for absolute meltdown.2 (21m 6s):It actually, it really relates to the thing we were talking about when we started talking today, which is about limits and limit setting. And I think I mentioned to you that I'm also reading this book about Sandy hook conspiracy and the straight line between Sandy hook conspiracy and the January 6th instruction. But in the part of the book where they're talking about Adam Lanza and his mother, I hadn't heard this before that, you know, he, he he'd been flagged in the psychiatric system, you know, going back since he was a young boy and I don't know why she opted out of treatment for him. But what I do know from this book is that what she strove to do was keep meeting his needs wherever they were.2 (21m 53s):But because he was so mentally ill, his needs were things like w w when he had his, the intake at Yale, the clinician noted that he said to his mother, you need to stand with no part of your body touching the wall and that she just did it. And that at home, it had gotten too, there were things he couldn't have cooking odors, curtains, door knobs.4 (22m 23s):Yeah.2 (22m 24s):And she just kept meeting the need. And this was something that I really relate to. Hopefully I have not going off the rails like that, but when your child is suffering and what they're telling you is I want this thing, the decision to say, I know better than you. You think you want this thing, but that is not the right thing for you and for that child to be screaming in your face or not. But, you know, with all of their energy, all of their conviction, they're coming to you saying no, this with my kids, it's the screens.2 (23m 4s):No, I need my screen time. And I'm going. Yeah. But you, you can't know what I know, which is that you, it's not good for you. It's simply not good. And it's just so hard to tolerate when your child is enraged or hurt by you4 (23m 22s):Suffering the suffering.2 (23m 24s):So nobody said any limits for Kanye, and he's now floating like a balloon in the ether, right?4 (23m 32s):Yeah. It's, it's really bad. He's now he's now has restraining orders. And now he's got the Grammy said he can't perform there. So now the limits are being imposed that are huge. And I don't know what's going to, and I also, from working in Hollywood, what I noticed was it is so easy when you have money and power yeah. To, to develop a team that will, will do what you're saying. That, that Adam Lanza's Mrs. Or miss Lanza did. It's so easy to have that bought and built in.2 (24m 15s):And I will tell you this, my, one of my very most successful treatments that I did when I was at private practice therapist is I treated somebody with very, very severe borderline personality disorder. And it was a kind of situation where the client would quit all of the time, you know, quit, quit therapy. And then, and then you would do this dance of like, they, you know, they don't really mean it. So you don't, you don't give up their appointment time because they're going to show up. Sometimes they're going to show up and act like nothing happened. Like they never said they were going to quit. So with this one person that I've been working with for a really long time, and we had a good relationship, which, which is to say yes, she was very, very sick.2 (25m 4s):And she was very, very difficult, but also she had so many great qualities that it kept me. Like, it kept me really invested in her, but the 50th time or whatever it was that she quit after I, she was also in this group that I was running and she like got violent Sharna in the group and left and whatever. Anyway, this time around, when she quit treatment, I said, okay, we're done now. And then she showed up for her next appointment. And I said, no, we're, we're done now. And that precipitated a year long hospitalization for her, but this person is now doing amazing, honestly.2 (25m 49s):And I knew in her family dynamic, her parents were afraid to set limits with that because she was a very, very strong personality, but it was only through the limit setting anything. It had to go all the way to the end, right. For her and, and to, to reject and decry and be victimized and blah, blah, blah, for then her to like follow her dream College. She, she, I can't say what it is obviously, but she has a job that was the job of her dreams and that she learned, she only discovered was the job of her dreams in treatment and that she could have only gotten to do after having really had to contend with actually living with the limit.0 (26m 42s):Well,3 (26m 55s):Today on the podcast, we are talking to Josh . Josh is graduating this year with his MFA in directing from Cal arts. And he formerly had a whole career in Chicago as artistic director of the Haven in Chicago. And he has a lot of interesting insights about his experience of being in school again, after having well launched into his career. So please enjoy our conversation with Josh Sobel.2 (27m 36s):So Josh was just explaining the Cal arts is, I was saying, is it a conservatory? And he was saying, it's an art school in the truest sense. So go ahead and repeat what you're saying.6 (27m 44s):Yeah. So like Travis, who's an alum of like Yale back from the Robert Brustein days of Yale. He he's like, look, Yale school of drama is always considered like, Ooh, Yale school of drama, but he's like, if you think about it within the larger Yale structure, you've also got like the business school and like, you've got the journal, you've got the medical school, you've got all these things. So like within the theater universe, it's huge, but within the structure of the university, it Yale, you know, and so the beauty of Cal arts in a way is that it exists outside of that larger sort of academic structure. It isn't part of a university. It is an art school with a theater department.6 (28m 27s):And there's something that, that is really freeing honestly about that. And the Cal arts in particular sort of leaned into in terms of its sort of generative and, and experimental sort of Ben it's, it's been an interesting experience. Yeah, please.2 (28m 45s):Gina Bridget went there. Yes. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I think she's the another co Cal arts alum we have.6 (28m 51s):Well, and it's funny, cause you mentioned they were an acting alum and the acting program I have to say is in particular fascinating and unique. And I love it because unlike a lot of programs I've encountered and I've like taught in academia a little bit before I went in, before I started as a student in it, it's like very few programs encouraged teach and want their actors to be generative artists in their own. Right. And bring that to the table in the room. And honestly, as a director, I'm like, it's a gift. It is such a goddamn gift in terms of the collaborative process. Like I, I can sometimes when I'm hitting my own moment, like really feel comfortable being like, I need like a physical gesture representing a panic attack in slow motion that moves across the stage this way, take third, take 30 minutes.6 (29m 44s):Here's some music and an object.4 (29m 46s):Oh God, that sounds like the greatest thing I've ever heard.6 (29m 51s):I did something similar with a particular actor in my thesis show thesis show, quote unquote. And like she killed it. Oh my God. Avalon Greenberg call. She's about to graduate from the BFA program and she's, or a couple of years. And she's incredible. But like she ran with it and these actors are sort of prepared to take that and like, just make shit and be like, is this what it is? What does it need? And then I can sit there and like sculpt, we can then like work together to be like, Ooh, let's expand that moment out. Let's tighten that bit. And we're then working collaboratively on this other thing.4 (30m 25s):So amazing Josh, like, like I, I, I do this every time we talked to someone that I really like, and I like their vibe and I like how they're talking about their education. I'm like, oh, I'm going to apply there. And then I remember that I did apply to Cal arts for undergrad and I got a call back, which was like the greatest thing, because I was a terrible actor. And I like in the truest sense, like what you're talking about, I would have been like, so, so I am, so I am so glad to talk to you because I, when you say things like that, about how you direct as well, and I'm not a director, Gina directs, I don't direct, but like I want to work with someone who says shit like that.6 (31m 7s):Well, I, I really, I don't know. It's funny. I, you know, outside of like grad school, when I was in undergrad, I went to undergrad at Oberlin college, which is really sort of a diamond in the rough school for theater. It's like, and it's a lot of OBS do well out there. And it's weird because it's like, it's not known, but it's really good. But while I was there, I also did a semester at the O'Neill and I don't know if you're familiar, the national theater Institute. Yeah. So I, I did fall 2007 and like, I really lucked out my partner and I were a year apart actually, before we ever met weird small world, but we both walked out because we've got there right at the time as this particular artistic director was there, Michael Cadman, who was a, an alum himself of the Royal Shakespeare company.6 (31m 52s):And like he understood ensemble. It's funny. Cause I always like, what am I, I love Chicago and I miss Chicago so much, but one of my like little gripes with Chicago is that the word ensemble gets thrown out a4 (32m 6s):Lot.6 (32m 7s):And I, I have a very particular opinion about that because it's like, I think ensemble sometimes it's just meant to mean or thought to mean like a collection of actors, you know, or the company members, you know, the, the Steppenwolf ensemble or the straw dog or whatever. And I'm like ensemble is a value. I think ensemble is, is some it's about how one sits in the middle of a collaborative process. It's about how the threads are drawn. Not even just in the actors, it's about the threads are drawn outside to stage management, to producing, to designers, to everything. Like, and we're all coming together to sort of generate something together, right?6 (32m 49s):Like that's ensemble and Michael understood more than anyone I've ever met in my life. Like how to nurture, how to build, how to find the ensemble impulse in people. And he would just build semesters of the young students and sort of demonstrate that for for four months. And yeah, that's sort of been a foundational thing from that point forward. So I'm, I'm always ready to like chill for the O'Neil. Like, I love the, I love being,2 (33m 16s):Yeah. I actually live kind of near there. I live in Connecticut. Yeah. Oh, that's6 (33m 21s):Brilliant.2 (33m 21s):So you just made me think about something. Has any group of theater artists ever called the ensemble? Also the, the whole entire staff, like everybody on crew, because it is such a group effort. And we as act, this is one of the big things about, you know, going through an acting program, you just, and maybe it was just me, but you just think like, it's all about this. It's all about the actors and you just think everybody else is there supporting what you're doing.4 (33m 55s):Well,6 (33m 56s):It treats it like a technical term, right? It's like, it's a category. And rather than like, no, it's actually about an energy. It's about a trust. It's about something else. And I will say to answer your question like that w when I was a strong dog ensemble member, that that was one of the things I loved most about being on the straw dog ensemble was you had designers, you had managers, you had people like from every aspect of the creative process, sort of understood as part of the ensemble. It was all framed that way.4 (34m 24s):It's interesting. Like, I feel like what happens maybe is like, so take Steppenwolf because everyone talks about Steppenwolf as the original ensemble, which really you're right. A side note tends to mean in Chicago. And I can say this because I'm from there means that nobody is prettier or more famous than, than other actors. Like, that's what they mean by ensemble. Like that's how people talk about that. They're like, no, this is an ensemble piece. Meaning that even though you're really pretty, you're not going to be the star, like to someone, they never say that to me. You know what I mean? Okay. But anyway, side note, but ensembles. So when it's interesting, because it's like when a theater gets bigger, meaning a broader audience, more money, I feel like there becomes a really strong, clear delineation between technical staff and the actors.4 (35m 15s):And it comes, becomes compartmentalized probably because they have to run a freaking business with a multimillion dollar budget as we're like straw, dog. Like you can kind of stay it's like that storefront. It kind of, you can really get in there, which is how stepping will start it. So I think what we're talking about is the capitalization of the,6 (35m 33s):Oh, always, I mean, honestly, always all the time,4 (35m 37s):But yeah, but I'm, I'm curious about she and Gina, did you say2 (35m 42s):I did and I'm so sorry. I forgot to say Josh Sobell congratulations. Your surviving theater school. You're almost done4 (35m 49s):Art school theater school, you know, it's all the thing, but yeah. So I wanted to ask, I guess, take it back before I get on the runaway train of like, did you start out as a direct, like where you would act what's what was your path to the school of Cal arts? I guess6 (36m 7s):I've, I've been a director most of the time. I of course did a little bit of actually got rather late. Like I'm not one of those people who was like really involved in a lot of things when I was really, really little, but I had sort of a formative experience in high school as an audience member. My school was really remarkable. I, I unfortunately should catch up with them and see what they're doing in their theater department. But at the time, like we were a high school that was doing like Ian ESCO and Tom Stoppard and shit. Like, it was pretty cool. I assistant directed rhinoceros my senior year of high school, like Steve Rochester, New York, right in high school, shout out to Steve angle, Mr. Angle.6 (36m 47s):He was incredible. He also was the AP lit teacher and ran an incredible AP lit class. Like, oh my God, we, we read and watched just incredible stuff. And so actually his show, but he was one of the other directors there did chorus line and they did like an unedited chorus line in high school, which I also very much admired. And Paul's monologue hit me like eight when I don't know how familiar you are with, with the show. But like, you know, it's a classic Broadway, 1970s. It was sort of groundbreaking at the time because it was all real interviews of people who were all fighting chorus.6 (37m 27s):Of course, Paul Paul's monologue when he sort of finally breaks down and tells the story about his, his parents meeting him at the drag show in the back of, I lost it. Like I was a weeping mess. I don't know. And I had not had that particular experience before. And I walked out, I remember going home nerdy, like misfit fucking high school student hadn't found themselves yet and was like, I feel different. I don't know how I don't, I can't quantify it, but I feel like I am moving through the world differently than I was before I had that experience.6 (38m 8s):Wow. I want to do that. And that was, that was the moment. And so I started auditioning a little bit, but I always got interested in directing because I, it was the idea of like creating that holistic experience for an audience member, the way it was created for me. And so we also had, I think it was like an official partnership, like you could license with the 24 hour plays in New York. So my high did the 24 hour plays every year. And so I would stay overnight at the fucking school and, and do and direct. And that was sort of my first directing configuration. I was terrible. God. And my first few shows like first few shows at Oberlin were terrible.6 (38m 55s):Why, why? Oh my God, too, in my own head, I'm still too in my own head. It's the main thing I'm working on. I'm a very cerebral artist and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I just am seeking balance. That's part of the reason I went to Cal arts and Kellogg's was actually really the right choice for that in a lot of reasons to sort of break down some of my more cerebral and rigid habits. But I just didn't like, I, I was in my own way. It was that classic. Like it, my insecurity, I was second guessing. I was, it was actually Michael Cadman. It was the O'Neil. That was the turning point of that as well. So like I, anyways, I went through high school, got into it, went to Oberlin, was sort of jumping between theater and film got focused in theater because I liked the linearity of the process.6 (39m 40s):It just fit my brain better. You can really build the Dominos in order and watch them fall. And I love that from a process standpoint, joy. And so I went to the O'Neill and I was still like, I was overthinking and I was over like complicating and convoluting and Michael Cadman who I'm the final day of the program. I was like, you asshole, you couldn't have said this to me like weeks ago. I'm the final day of the program was like, you're very, very smart stop trying so hard to prove it.7 (40m 19s):Ah,6 (40m 20s):And that was, that was another game changing moment for me. And I, I started sort of stepping back and letting myself have more fun with it and just found myself sort of like what were my passion projects? What were the things that made me feel the way I did it, chorus line in a way. And my first show back in undergrad was a cabaret. And that was, that was a really huge, huge show for me. And I was very proud of that show and still have, like, I watched the video sometimes I was like, oh God, those transitions fucking suck. But, but yeah, directing, directing has always been sort of my thing because of that idea of like, I get to sort of, I don't know.6 (41m 4s):I, I, it's funny because so many people think about directing in this very hierarchical standpoint, right? Like they like the sort of like top-down, they get to sit at the head of the thing and create their vision. I challenged that constantly. And it's funny because people think by challenging that you give up the sort of directorial authority I call bullshit. I I'm interested in what I like to refer to as horizontal hierarchy. I say, I refer to it. I didn't invent the phrase, but like I've sort of taken it and I really love applying it to collaboration. I like the idea that as the director, I'm sort of sitting in the middle, I'm the same plane as everyone else surrounded by all of these brilliant fucking artists.6 (41m 48s):And I get to be like, Ooh, yes, it's a bit of that. It's not quite that. Can we bring it over there? I, yes, let's bring that in and pulling all of it towards the middle. And I still get to, by virtue of being in the center of a doll, just make decisions I get to make, be the arbiter of the quote, unquote vision or whatever you want to call it. But it's not that it breaks down the hierarchy in a way I'm not above anyone else that doesn't have to be my idea. It has to be the coolest idea. And so by sitting in the middle of it, I just get to sort of help tie the threads together in a way that feels like the audience experience we're going for. Like, that's my job to God.4 (42m 30s):Interesting. So it's so, oh yes. And I'm so curious as to why more directors don't do a horror. Is that, is it just an ego thing? A horizontal.6 (42m 47s):Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of like, I'm not even going to call it insecurity. Cause I actually think that doesn't do it justice and I think it's too easily dismissible. I think it's fear. I think there's a lot of fear. I mean, if I'm really Frank, I'm confronting it in certain areas of my program right now.4 (43m 25s):Okay. Wait, so you're saying that I just want to reiterate for my own brain because this happens all the time in all organizations across the board. So I'm really, and we're like, we were talking about it yesterday sort of. So, so you, you, you, there is an atmosphere of like, we want to make change, right.6 (43m 43s):Faded a stated goal,4 (43m 46s):Right? Not an atmosphere. Okay. So a stated goal, which a lot of theaters that I am familiar with and institutions are making these statements right now that the statement on paper or on the web or wherever it is saying, we want to take your feedback and make change. And it usually revolves around the word change. Like we're open to change. And if we're always, if we're honest, nobody's fucking open to change. We fucking,6 (44m 14s):And that's what we're talking about. It's the same fear to me. It's the same fear that you find in directing. It's a fear of some, some kind of loss of authority. It's a fear of some kind of loss of control. It's the fear of, I don't know. And it's so funny, like all of the ways you encounter it, because then yeah, you go and you actually say, here's the thing. And like I did this recently and I got yelled at, I got, and again, I've been, I've been working in Chicago theater for a decade before this. I don't give a shit. I was an artistic director, right. Like I was artistic director of Haven, Chicago. I don't like, this is, I don't need your ego. So I think it was actually kind of fun.6 (44m 56s):I think whether it's directing, whether it's artistic directors and institutional leadership, whether it's corporate leadership, whether it's, it's all of this, it's, it's, it's a full each year that, that somehow you're going to lose your Control.4 (45m 10s):This is so classic in, in terms of, so Gina and I were both therapists for years and look, and obviously we were children of parents. So I would go to my mom and say, this is the exact same thing. I would go to her and say, Hey mom, you're pretty abusive verbally. And she would say, but I'm the best mom. I know how to be. And at least you're not being beaten. Like I was beaten. And I'm like, okay. Yes, true. That all that is true. I, and you're still abusive to me. You're hurting me and sh and whether or not you want to make changes. That's the thing.4 (45m 50s):So we, we are literally reenacting parent child relationships in every walk of life. Like this sounds like a conversation a kid might have with their father where the father is like, well, I provide, we we're great.6 (46m 8s):And it's not about perfection. Like, it's not about like everyone and just like, we're all human beings. Right? Like I, I never wanted to feel like, and that's sometimes my problem with like, like I'm, I'm as left to center as you can get in a lot of ways, but it's like my one problem with sometimes a lot of left wing stuff is w where it's like, I think there is a purism that sometimes get, gets into it. And it's like, no, like we're all fucking human beings, right? If we believe in the ability to change and restorative justice and all of these things, then we have to actually believe that people can improve and get better. But it's like, there needs to be that honest interest in improving and getting better. There needs to be that genuine interest in it. And it's like, it's one of the things I was really proud of that we built it at Haven in Chicago with4 (46m 47s):Such a great theater. Gina Pavan is amazing. We're going to be there in the summer. So maybe we'll check it.6 (46m 53s):Ian Martin, like it's so funny. Cause it was such a, it was also a gift to really be able to do a transition process with Ian, you know, cause we really tried to be in, I've been part of some really unintentional transition processes. So like there were a lot of reasons where I really felt like Ian was exactly like, not, it wasn't even about sustaining what Haven had been doing. It was about how do we build and evolve on what Haven had been doing. And so Ian was sort of perfect. And we built the structure that you don't see very often where I, he was, yeah, he was my art, my associate artistic director for half the final season. And then we switched and he became artistic director and I was his associate artistic director for the other half of the season.6 (47m 36s):So he could have the responsibility and be in the decision-making position, but have the institutional memory sort of right at hand. And then it's like, and then I step away. So like I bring that up because there was an intentionality that we tried to bring to, like, we're going to be a theater company, let's be a theater company. Like you mentioned the business. Like let's, let's try to be a business, but let's try to be a next generation business.2 (48m 2s):And by the way, statements statements are to change as you know, sex is to relationships. Like it's a good start, but like you have to do more6 (48m 12s):Exact than just exactly.4 (48m 13s):So I guess the question is, what is it for me for me anyway? What is it in you, Josh? That is the kind of person because what is it? And there's a reckoning, obviously that I talk about a lot in, in terms of American theater and theater in general and the movie industry, the reckoning that's coming or in is, is that part of your drive right now to do this? Or it sounds like you've always been this sort of way, but why the fight? What, what, what about the fight?6 (48m 43s):Yeah, I think, I think, I think it's got it. That's such an interesting question because it's making me think in a chicken egg way, like is my ethics and my politics, like in here, like I don't know, the weirdest thing just came to mind and I'm going to follow that impulse.4 (48m 58s):Great.6 (48m 59s):Do it. And forgive me if I get a little bit emotional right now, it's it's my dad. If I'm really being honest, my dad is actually, he's not in the arts, but he's very artistic. He's a cellist. He's a musician. His odd actually, if you go to the Dem theater in Chicago, where Haven is the space that Haven exists in is the Bookspan theater specifically, the Janet Bookspan theater. Janet Bookspan is my aunt, his sister who was a major opera director, vocal coach, teacher, performer, actor assisted how prince back in the day, like holy4 (49m 40s):Shit.6 (49m 41s):Yeah. So like, and I have it on my mom's side as well, but my mom actually is an artist. She's a painter, but my dad, my dad is a radiation oncologist. He's a cancer physician, but music and art has always been a very big part of his life. His family, my life, he actually sidebar. Cause this is just a fun thing. And I hope this gets included. Cause I love bragging about this. My dad talk about politics and, and art colliding and art ed creative ethics. My dad has always been a big fan of Dr. Seuss's the snitches, this exists. You can go online. It's amazing. I'm so inspired by this. He was part of the Rochester academy of medicine and they have this amazing old building that has a roof.6 (50m 23s):That was basically, it's like a mansion that was donated and it's got this that was built for chamber music. And he developed relationships with the Rochester Philharmonic re developed friendships with musicians and created basically a chamber trio to play at the Rochester academy of medicine. And through this met a composer as Spanish composer, living in Berlin, named the Lorenzo. Palomo, who's pretty bright. His music is pretty outstanding and ended up commissioning a piece of music for this trio. And one thing led to another. And we found out that since my dad was young, he had believed that Dr.6 (51m 6s):Seuss is the snitches one. It was one of the most impactful, universal and effective lessons about acceptance and like anti-racism that you could find. And it was always his dream to have a piece of music, Allah, Peter, and the Wolf that was composed to be performed in tandem with a narration of Dr. Seuss's the snitches. So you can license this now on music theater international, because he did it. He commissioned Lorenzo to compose a piece of music for Dr. Seuss's the snitches. And we also by hooker by crooked premiered at my Alma mater at Oberlin and has since played around the country actually.6 (51m 52s):And I believe internationally. And, and it was all because he wanted to spread the message. It was because he wanted to use art to create an anti-racist piece of art. And the other cool thing is through a connection with his niece who ran the department of cultural affairs in Miami Dade county. She had a connection to John Delancey, who you might know as Q from star Trek, the next generation who did the original narration, the premiere. And so actually it's all on YouTube. You can hear John Delancey doing the speeches. And so like that's an aspect of my dad right there.6 (52m 33s):Another aspect was that I'll never forget this story. He actually built, he in Clifton Springs, New York built the cancer center, finger lakes, radiation oncology, because there, you know, there was a large elderly in particular community out there if I recall. And so, you know, as people are getting later in life, you know, biology happens and access to cancer treatment was non-existent except like 45 minutes or more at least minimum drive out of the way, if not hours out of the way. And especially as you're getting older, that becomes less and less sustainable for radiation treatments, for chemo treatments for all of these things.6 (53m 15s):So he found funding and worked his ass off as I, in some of my youngest days and built this cancer center from the ground up. And there was a day that I remember very distinctly hearing this story where as we've all been in any doctor's office, they were just running like, you know, three, four hours behind and sorry, I get emotional tug this story. It's so funny because it's like, that's, that's my true north in a way. You know, he, he sent his technicians out. This was back in the day when like Rent-A-Center was still a thing and blockbuster and shit, and like went out to get like sent them out to get like a television, sent them out to get a bunch of movies, sent them out to get like a sandwich platter and just showed up and basically were like, Hey, we're sorry.6 (54m 11s):We're we know we're running behind. We just want you to know, we haven't forgotten that you're here. You know? And like when does that happen at a doctor's office? Like when has that ever actually happened? Right. That's my,2 (54m 27s):Not for nothing, but my dad sold x-ray equipment. I've met a lot of radiation oncologists, and it's very unusual. Like there tends to be kind of a personality type with people who go into radar and it, it's not that what you're describing. So your dad must be a really remarkable person,6 (54m 45s):But yeah, no. And so I think it was a values thing. If we really want to talk about it, it's a values thing. It's, it's, it's a sense of how can we make this better? Like how can we be people first? How can we like again, we talk about Haven, right? One of the things I used to say, and I, and I would try, I tried to work hard to embody was like, oh, sorry, this does plug into our original conversations to bring it back perfectly on topic. One of my first shows I did in Chicago, I did a production of a play called xylophone west by Alex who's becoming a leg. Yeah. Alex is great. He's he's rising really well.6 (55m 26s):And like, we, he was actually, when I was the associate director of the summer Oneal program, he was a playwriting student when I was associate director. And that was our first. So it's cool. Just like, as we've sort of grown together, it's been amazing. And we did a reading of it and I, we have very strong opinions, especially because of the O'Neil being sort of a hub of new play development about what new play development is. There's a lot of bad, new play development. There's a lot of bad talk-backs, there's, there's a lot. And really it comes down to the difference between responsive feedback versus prescriptive feedback and how to cultivate that and understanding the difference.6 (56m 6s):And these, this artistic director did not understand this. And well, similar to what we're talking about, we were like, Hey, can we structure the talk back this way? Can we, this would really help Alex, Alex would say, this would really help me, like understand my play better. And artistic director's response was, I'll never forget this. Just remember who's the employer and who's the employee.4 (56m 34s):Right, right,6 (56m 35s):Right,4 (56m 35s):Right.6 (56m 36s):Case in point to everything we're talking about. And so like, I, it's sort of, when I think about like the sort of challenge to, sorry, I completely lost my train of thought.4 (56m 49s):No, no. What we're talking about is no, no, it's fine. It's when we're talking about a lot of things.6 (56m 53s):So4 (56m 54s):That's okay. What we're talking about is like this whole idea of like that your mentor wasn't your mentor anymore and why people don't want to change and the message versus what is actually happening in.6 (57m 6s):Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to remember why I specifically brought up xylophone west, but it was like this idea of, I don't know. I think about this, this, I owe my, my dad my values. Yeah. Value system. That's right. Thank you. I just needed to hear about, yeah. Yeah. It's a value system thing. It's like, that tells me what that person's value system is. Right. That tells me sort of the culture that they built. And for me as at Haven, sort of taking a note from my dad, right? Hey guys, that you're here. We see that you're here. The way I would phrase that as an artistic director was like, yes, you are our employees. Let's be like, it's not that, that isn't real. Like we are, you were signing a contract to work for us.6 (57m 49s):We have expectations based on their contract. You are also a guest in our home. And that is our responsibility. Like as leadership as a company, as an institution, as a director, like you are, you are a guest in our home. This is our home. We are responsible. Especially if we want to talk about mentorship in academia, some of us are paying $50,000 a year,4 (58m 14s):Right.6 (58m 15s):Be in your home. Like you have all of the control of this space. You can, you can make this, whatever you want it to be, and we're paying you to exist inside of it. And, and it becomes a question for me of how do you take that responsibility? Like what if, whether it's an academic responsibility of like, we are literally paying for the privilege of this, or in a professional standpoint where it's like, it's, it's a little bit in the reverse either way. It's like you are in the position of power. You are in the position where you can like build culture that I use, that I find that word comes up a lot. When I rant about this, which I rant about4 (58m 53s):Culture, building culture,6 (58m 54s):Building culture, whether it's academic, whether it's professional, like that's the responsibility. And if you don't take that as the responsibility it's so,4 (59m 3s):Okay. The, the, the other thing that I was going to say is you had a moment where, so I have these moments where I say to myself, usually not out loud, but you kind of almost said it out loud, but you didn't either. Which is I say, my mama did not come to this country as an and work her ass off for this shit. And your moment was, my dad did not build a fucking radiology oncology center and then get Rent-A-Center furniture and sandwiches for me to be doing this shit like that is that moment. Well, I think, well, that's what I heard there. Everyone has a line and a true north of like, wait, wait, my legacy is not going to be, this is not going to be not saying anything to you.6 (59m 47s):And legacy is, is something I think about sometimes, but it's like, it's not even about that per se. It's like, I see what it means to people. Right? And like, if, if we believe in our own bullshit, like, especially as artists, you know, because artists are, are at the forefront of talking a lot of shit about like empathy, right. About community, about humanity, about seeing each other about uplifting each other about making the world a better place. And it's like, well, that's all well and good. But like, are you like how? And it's not even just like, again, like there's so many ways to do it, but I think sometimes we take for granted the small ways of doing it.6 (1h 0m 29s):I think sometimes we take for granted the like, what if we just buy everyone dinner? What if we like make a concerted effort to pay people a little bit better? Like, what if we, what if we show our work in that? Like, what if we actually believe in the transparency that we add? Like so much, like we talk about transparency so much in our industry, like, or rather not in our industry, I should say like artists talk about transparency in the world, right? Like we want corporate transparency. We want more governmental transparency. What are some of the least transparent motherfuckers?2 (1h 1m 4s):Yeah. I feel like I know why that happens in theater too. It's because there's no money. So everybody goes into it with all of their, like very theoretical and ideological approaches. And when you get very cerebral, very theoretical, you forget about things like, oh yeah, people don't want to do 10 out of twelves anymore because it's, it's, it's too fatiguing. And it actually works against the thing that they're there to do, which is create a new each performance, like being able to offer something fresh each time. So it, it, that is actually an area in which it's helpful to think about theater as a business.2 (1h 1m 47s):Because if this, if you were running a seven 11 and you had an employee, you'd have to have a bathroom, like it's, you know, you just think about the pragmatic things more when you're thinking about it as a business.6 (1h 1m 57s):Right. And, and it's like, I, and for me, it's like a lot of these things are considered mutually exclusive for some, or they're treated as mutually exclusive, but like, you have to, it's like the business and the sort of like cultural, ethical side, somehow don't mix. And I just don't agree. I don't agree for a lot of reasons. I don't agree in part through the Haven experiment. You know, I it's like, look, we, we're still not making money. And we, we, I want to say we were very privileged to have particular financial support. I don't want to take that for granted that we were not starting in the same place as a lot of other people. And I, and I don't take that for granted. It's not a brag. It's like a, like the bootstrap Smith. Like I want to make sure that it's not like, you know, taken for granted, but it's also like, there's still this idea that people won't show up sometimes like that, like literally I've had other artistic directors talk to me about Haven work in Chicago being like, what are you sure there's an audience here.6 (1h 2m 53s):I'm like motherfuckers. We just sent like 15 people away at the door for Isaac Gomez, horror play. But no one else would produce like, like why, what are we it, and those decisions are made because of business, right? Because, because how are we going to sell it to Chris Jones? Because like, how are we going to, and I, I, we found time and time again, that there is an audience for this work that we were able to at times even make money on, like compared to what we, what our show to show budget work. We were able to make money back, like, and we were paying people, you know, it still stipends, you know, not what they're worth. I don't want to pretend we were ever able to pay people what they worth.6 (1h 3m 35s):But we were able to pay people, usually double the typical storefront stipend it's like, and, and still keep ourselves on a typical like budget that I was used to for other storefronts. So it's like, it's this question of like, why are these things treated as mutually exclusive on a bigger scale? Look at center theater group right now, an article just got written. I got to see slave play out here, which amazing production also Chicago, shout out. I got to see cause he's under studying. And I got to see him perform that night. Rashad hall. Brilliant, brilliant. And his2 (1h 4m 11s):Shot6 (1h 4m 11s):Is brilliant. Oh my God, his Phillip just broke my goddamn heart. Oh my God. He was so good. That's a show that is deeply controversial, deeply challenging queer by PAC sexual BDSM oriented, racist, racist, racist, or in terms of its its topic matter like racism in the United States. And historically, and today it's it's and they gave away like 5,000 or more like free and discounted tickets. And they still made money.2 (1h 4m 48s):Jeremy DOE he recently just put something up on social about this that he made. He made accessibility like the most important feature of his, you know, this play being produced and it worked and it worked better still made money on this scarcity model, which is, I mean, that's a lot of this just comes from the scarcity model, influencing how everybody feels. So constantly afraid of losing the one little sliver of the pie that they have that, you know, all they can think about is how to make that tiny little sliver. How to divvy it up instead of saying no, how can we get more pie people? We want more pie. We want to just keep getting our tiny little slivers we want, we, we want to add.2 (1h 5m 28s):So I'm mindful of the time because I know we're about 50 and we're going to be having to wrap up and I want to hear about it's your last semester and you're working on a project and you're going to have spring break next week. What is your, is it a thesis? Is that, is that,6 (1h 5m 43s):That, that was actually last semester. That last semester. Yeah. That's so that's done. I've I've kept myself a little bit busy. I don't know. I, I found myself strangely in spite of the pandemic lab, maybe because of the pandemic last year and now being back in in person and, and all of that. I just, and also I think because of like big was amazing and like my designers were incredible. The students here are unbelievable, but it was also because of some of the things I shared, like an exhausting process, excuse me. And so I sort of took a break and then got into the semester and for some reason just was like, I want to make shit. I want to be involved in making shit.6 (1h 6m 24s):I want to, I want to be involved in my own shit. I want to get involved in other people's shit. I just want to make shit. And so I'm like, I just finished up working on a collaboration with a doctoral student in the music school where we created a, I worked with a lighting designer and we worked collaboratively to create a light based sort of design journey, like a sort of light experience in conversation with the music called busking style in real time, as part of his doctoral thesis.2 (1h 6m 60s):Wait, you're saying it was busking like that the project was6 (1h 7m 4s):The, the style of, of calling the lighting. Was it wasn't like, it was sort of like, Yeah, it was a, yeah. So it was board op up in the booth watching and listening for particular moments. And the music was also highly improv. The reason is because the composition had moments of high improvisation. So there were moments where it was literally like just listening for certain things to shift the lighting responsibly to the music as it was happening. And it was just something I had never done before. So I'm like, let's try this out. And then I'm, I'm drama turking and assistant directing a play that an acting MFA student who's a dear, dear friend has written in his performing it.6 (1h 7m 48s):So I can be sort of the outside eye while she's on the inside of it. And then I might have another project cooking for right before graduation. I'm I'm figuring that out right now. And then I've also got things outside. I'm thrilled to say my partner is actually going to be going to USC for film school next year. So she and I are actually working collaboratively on a couple of things with another acting alum from, from Cal arts, actually a which I'll be able to share a little bit more, actually there's some stuff online with little like BTS stuff it's called goon and I'm actually really pumped about it. Yeah. I'm really, it's, it's, it's super fun, super quirky.6 (1h 8m 30s):We found a great cinematographer. Right. We shed who's just has an inspired eye. And so, yeah, just, I don't know, just finding myself in that moment of like, I think also out of frustration, maybe with Cal arts at times, like I just want to get with the students here and make some shifts. Let's just make some,2 (1h 8m 47s):I think your thing is you want to helm your own ship, always. You want to kind of be in charge of your own destiny and which is a very good, I mean, I see you're making a face about it, but I just, from my prime saying that's a very good quality to have. And it actually leads me to another question I was going to ask you, which is, are you, age-wise about there with your peers in this MFA6 (1h 9m 9s):And that's been interesting. Yeah. Older, older. Yeah. I'm in my mid thirties. And that has been a, an interesting difference of experience at times. Yeah.2 (1h 9m 19s):Yeah. Well, we've talked to a lot of MFA's who, because they were in their thirties, we're able to see the whole thing about school in a m

Hip-Bone Music is proud to release this month's bone2pick interview with trombone virtuoso Lisa Albrecht. Lisa graciously discusses a variety of topics and highlights from her illustrious career including the early years in the San Antonio Symphony, becoming the first woman appointed to the brass section of the New York Philharmonic, returning home and joining the Rochester Philharmonic, crafting a successful career as a soloist and chamber musician and how one goes about becoming an Adirondack 46er. Enjoy!

Synopsis “English Horn” is an odd name for an instrument – for starters, it's not English and it's not a brass instrument like the French horn. The English horn is, in fact, a double reed instrument, a lower-voiced cousin of the oboe. The “English” part of its name is probably a corruption of “angle,” since it has a bend to its shape. Until late in the 20th century its primary role was to add a darker tone color to the reed section of the orchestra, and performers who played the English horn had precious few solo concertos written to showcase their dusky-voiced instrument. One performer, Thomas Stacy, decided to do something about that. He's commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for his instrument. One of them – a concerto by the American composer Ned Rorem – Stacy premiered on today's date in 1994 with the New York Philharmonic. Ned Rorem is perhaps best-known as a composer of art songs, but has also composed successful orchestral and chamber works. “My sole aim in writing the Concerto for English horn,” said Rorem, “was to exploit that instrument's special luster and pliability... to make the sound gleam through a wash of brass and silver, catgut and steel.” Music Played in Today's Program Ned Rorem (b. 1923) — Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra (Thomas Stacy, eh; Rochester Philharmonic; Michael Palmer, cond.) New World 80489

Our sponsor: Houghton Hornswww.houghtonhorns.comHoughton Horns virtual equipment consultation video -Equipment consultationDr. J. Peyden Shelton has emerged as an accomplished performer, teacher, and clinician throughout the United States.  In 2014, he was the winner of the National Trumpet Competition's Graduate Soloist Division performing Joseph Turrin's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. Since that time, he has performed recital and solo performances at numerous universities and music venues across North America. As an ensemble and chamber musician, Dr. Shelton has performed with ensembles including the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Washington Chamber Opera, Syracuse Symphony, New World Symphony, U.S. Army Field Band, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He is one of the newest members of the internationally renown, Mirari Brass Quintet (miraribrass.com), and is one of the founding members of both the electro-acoustic chamber ensemble, Fifth Bridge (fifthbridge.org),  Ascent (@ascentensemble), and the new Nova Trumpet Collective (novatrumpets.com).As an educator, Dr. Shelton currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Trumpet and the University of Utah's School of Music.  Dr. Shelton has also served on the faculties at the University of Rochester and Cornell University. He is a frequent guest at festivals and clinics throughout the United States providing a unique and effective approach to fundamental brass development. In addition, Dr. Shelton is a strong supporter of new music, especially that which reflects a contemporary compositional voice for trumpet and piano. If you have any interest of studying trumpet performance at the University of Utah or taking private lessons, please feel free to contact Dr. J. Peyden Shelton in the Contact Me section of this website, or find out more information at The University of Utah's School of Music website. Support the show (https://thatsnotspit.com/support/)

Synopsis For many professional musicians, summertime is spent away from home at one or more summer music camps and festivals. And if the camp or festival just happens to in a gorgeous mountain or lakeside setting, well, so much the better. Since 1987, world-class musicians and ensembles have made the climb to scenic Vail, Colorado, at this time of year for the Bravo! Music Festival. And on today's date in 1993, it was at the Bravo! Festival that this new Concerto for Horn and Strings by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich received its premiere. The concerto was a triple commission from the Rochester Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the New York-based French horn virtuoso David Jolley, who was the soloist for the Vail premiere. Zwilich writes: “While I think of the solo horn as a heroic figure, I enjoyed the interplay and dialogue between horn and strings and allowed the character and nature of the horn to influence the strings and visa-versa… For me, the combination of solo horn and string orchestra is rich and evocative, as is the unique nature of the horn: its warmth and color, its dramatic legato as well as it pungent staccato, the sheer breadth of its sound.” Music Played in Today's Program Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939) — Horn Concerto (David Jolley, horn; MSU Symphony Orchestra; Leon Gregorian, cond.) Koch 7487

Synopsis In July of 1936, this notice concerning an upcoming Hollywood Bowl concert appeared in The Los Angeles Times: “William Grant Still will conduct two of his own works.” The nonchalance of the paper's music and dance critic overlooked the fact that the occasion marked the first time that an African-American conductor would lead a major American orchestra. On the second half of that July concert in Los Angeles, Still conducted his orchestral piece “The Land of Romance,” and the “Scherzo” from his “Afro-American Symphony.” The entire symphony had been premiered in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic – another landmark event, being the first time a symphonic work by an African-American composer was performed by an American orchestra. Meanwhile at a 1947 outdoor concert in Philadelphia, composer and pianist Duke Ellington joined forces with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra to play his “A New World a Coming,” marking Ellington's first appearance with a symphony orchestra.  It wouldn't be his last. In 1963 an album appeared entitled, “The Symphonic Ellington,” featuring Ellington and his band in recordings of original compositions recorded in Europe with symphony orchestras from Paris, Stockholm, Hamburg, and the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan.   Music Played in Today's Program Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) (arr. Peress): "New World A-Comin" (Sir Roland Hanna, p; American Composers Orchestra; Maurice Peress, cond.) MusicMasters 7011

Synopsis In July of 1936, this notice concerning an upcoming Hollywood Bowl concert appeared in The Los Angeles Times: “William Grant Still will conduct two of his own works.” The nonchalance of the paper's music and dance critic overlooked the fact that the occasion marked the first time that an African-American conductor would lead a major American orchestra. On the second half of that July concert in Los Angeles, Still conducted his orchestral piece “The Land of Romance,” and the “Scherzo” from his “Afro-American Symphony.” The entire symphony had been premiered in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic – another landmark event, being the first time a symphonic work by an African-American composer was performed by an American orchestra. Meanwhile at a 1947 outdoor concert in Philadelphia, composer and pianist Duke Ellington joined forces with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra to play his “A New World a Coming,” marking Ellington's first appearance with a symphony orchestra.  It wouldn't be his last. In 1963 an album appeared entitled, “The Symphonic Ellington,” featuring Ellington and his band in recordings of original compositions recorded in Europe with symphony orchestras from Paris, Stockholm, Hamburg, and the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan.   Music Played in Today's Program Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) (arr. Peress): "New World A-Comin" (Sir Roland Hanna, p; American Composers Orchestra; Maurice Peress, cond.) MusicMasters 7011

The President and CEO of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Curt Long, spent some time with us talking about how the RPO navigated the pandemic, what they've learned, and what's to come!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A native of Dallas, Texas, retired Los Angeles Philharmonic trumpeter Boyde Hood received his BM degree in trumpet performance from the Eastman School of Music and master of music degree in theory and composition from Ball State University. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and performs regularly with the Philharmonic's New Music Group and the Philharmonic Brass Trio. Mr. Hood has played principal trumpet with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theater and has recorded extensively for major motion picture and television studios. He has been a member of the Dallas and Milwaukee Symphonies, assistant principal of the Rochester Philharmonic, and first trumpet with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra. Mr. Hood joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in January 1982 and has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl; as a conductor, he has led Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra brass musicians in several fanfares. Since his retirement from the LA Philharmonic and USC, Boyde taught at the Eastman School of Music for one Semester, has resumed his compositional activities, and continues to teach privately from his home and on Zoom. The show notes for this episode can be found at bobreeves.com/blog/boyde-hood-trumpet-interview

In this episode, Grace Browning, principal harp of the Rochester Philharmonic, shares stories about her life as a harpist.  We discuss audition preparation, the history of harp pedagogy, the innovations of the modern harp, and how social media is making the harp cool.

Roger Bobo is a brass legend and is recognized as an orchestral tubist, soloist, and teacher. He was first a member of the Rochester Philharmonic, then the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and finally the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist he has performed around the world and was a member of the famed Los Angeles Brass Quintet. At a time when tuba was not considered a solo instrument, he raised the level and standard to new heights.In Part 1 of our conversation, Roger talks about his friendship with fellow tubist Tommy Johnson, playing with the Rochester, Concertgebouw, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. We also talk about when he played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Brass Quintet and why he turned down George Szell when Szell asked him to join the Cleveland Orchestra.

In honor of Black History Month, I am putting a spotlight on influential Black Americans that paved the way for others. Our next Black History Month spotlight is American Composer, William Grant Still. William Grant Hill was an American composer who composed more than 150 works, including five symphonies and eight operas. William was known as the Dean of African American classical composers, as well as one of America's foremost composers.  He was born on May 11 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a bandleader. After his father's death, the family moved to Arkansas, where his mother remarried, Williams formal music education began with violin lessons, and his love of music grew due to a stepfather, taking him to operettas and buying classical music recordings.  As a young man, William went off to college to learn to become a doctor. However, he soon found himself conducting the university band, writing music, and teaching himself to play various instruments. He left his traditional college before graduating, so he could attend Oberlin Conservatory of Music. William served in World War One, and after the war, he moved to Harlem where he worked for WC Handy's Band. During this time, he was involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement. And through the 1920s, he composed and arranged music for various musicals and band leaders. By the 1930s he was writing popular music for radio programs and movies. In 1931, his first major orchestral composition, Symphony number one Afro American, was performed by the Rochester Philharmonic.  It was the first time a complete score of work by an African American was performed by a major orchestra and by the end of World War Two, the piece had been performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Berlin, Paris and London. Until 1950 it was the most popular Symphony composed by an American. William also composed Song Of A City for the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. And in 1949, his opera troubled island was performed by the New York City Opera. It was the first opera by an American to be performed by that company, and the first by an African American to be performed by a major company.  In this episode Thea discusses:William’s inspiring storyHow William broke barriers in the music industryThea’s love of music and why she enjoys listening to classical music Ready to get out of your rut? Click here to download my FREE guide to getting out of your rut!Resources and Links Music selections and interview were all sourced from YouTubeSummerland (Three Visions) — William Grant StillGaminInterview with the Afro-American Composer William Grant Still Connect with Thea CharlesTo learn more about Thea, please visit www.thearenel.comHead over to www.pushorpivot.com to learn more about this podcast and dive into previously released episodes.Follow Push or Pivot on Facebook: @PushorpivotTake a screenshot of your favorite episode, share it on your Instagram story, tag me @pushorpivot, and let me know your biggest takeaway!

My guest today is Digital Fiddler, Global Netizen, Reinvention Coach and Cultural Devotee, Todd Reynolds. How's that for an into title! What can I say about this episode…Todd is the ultimate storyteller, both through his music and his words. While you're going to get some seriously technical information during this interview, it's also like, “story time with friends”. Todd's going to give you a straight up masterclass on how broadcast quality microphones work, you're going to hear his awesome Jascha Heifetz impression…your welcome. And if you're afraid of improvising on your instrument, he's going to give you an awesome hack use can use today, right now, in your practice room. And if you're like me and dislike the term “classical music” Todd is going to explain what HE likes to call, "present music”, and how successful performance is directly related to mindfulness, and even meditation. Oh, and one more thing…I've got a brand new training coming up in two weeks, so you'll want to listen all the way to the end. OK…Let's dig in to my conversation with Todd Reynolds. About Todd I, Todd Reynolds, am a solo classical violinist gone horribly wrong. I started on a violin made of a standard elementary school ruler taped onto a Grape Nuts box and grew up playing all the sonatas and concertos that all the other kids did. I played in church by my father's side for what seemed like an eternal adolescence, and by some stroke of good fortune, found myself in one of the last classes of the great Jascha Heifetz where he counseled me to sell insurance for the sake of my own happiness. In college, I became completely enamored with playing the music of living composers - it got me completely hooked on non-historic ways of thinking about music, stretching me beyond my planned trajectory. But then I won an audition and completely dropped out of school. In my third year of playing Principal Second Violin in the Rochester Philharmonic, I broke. Since the very moment I quit my job, I've reinvented myself four times, at least. First as Broadway musician, then as the creator of a new kind of amplified string quartet, then as a ‘composer in the woods' recording artist, and finally, refocusing as an educator - not that that's anywhere near the end of things. Now, and for the past 25 years, I've called myself a hybrid musician. I play with some of my long time idols - singer/songwriters, global musicians, minimalists, electronica artists, rock stars, New Music heroes, classical music heroes - I count them all my friends, colleagues and collaborators. I record, teach, and perform with my studio onstage and off, study Indian music, jazz, music programming, psychology, and mindfulness to varying degrees as disciplines. I'm as much a student as a teacher. That will never change. If you ever find the opposite? Run. Four years ago, I felt the industry changing yet again. CDs - gone, Broadway jobs - gone, commercial work - gone. My health was starting to go as well. My partner, Isabelle, and I moved to a beautiful place in the country, to pull it all together and build a community for teaching and supporting those seeking to do the same - to develop the tools for reinvention and expansion, and to look deeper into what it all means to be a musician today. You see, we musicians, we're not our instrument, we're not the music we studied, we are creators through and through, whatever form that expression takes. It is with the questions that we slay the dragon, not with our virtuosity. The Hero's Journey exists for us as it does for anyone else, and we need only to walk forward with eyes open and a backpack full of good questions (and great gear), and we'll find our next dragon. I've created this program, the inaugural one for my new(ish) online academy, for fellow musicians who feel that same nagging suspicion that ‘the box' they currently inhabit is too small to contain them, that the times we're living in are calling them forth to something larger, that they too want to think of themselves as creators, as storytellers, as activists, and agents of change. Todd's Links http://www.toddreynolds.com http://facebook.com/toddreynoldsmusic http://instagram.com/digifiddler  http://twitch.tv/digifiddler todd@toddreynolds.com Todd's gear: https://kit.co/digifiddler Other Links Drone Practice App “Droneo” Honesty Pill Links The Online Business Accelerator-6 Month Group Coaching Program Free Resource Library Facebook Group Mailing List

Ep. 141: David Korevaar, "You can access the world, it's not easy to reach the world..." Let's Talk Off The Podium with Tigran Arakelyan. In this episode Korevaar talks about his studies with Earl Wild and David Diamond, recordings, teachings and much more. Hailed for his “wonderfully warm, pliant, spontaneous playing” by the Washington Post, award winning pianist David Korevaar is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborator. Korevaar has performed and given master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Recent highlights include recitals and master classes in Taipei, and a tour of Brazil, with recitals and master classes in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, João Pessoa, Recife and Natal. He has also concertized and given master classes in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan as part of the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Envoy program and taught at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul. Korevaar’s active career includes solo performances with the Rochester Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Japan’s Shonan Chamber Orchestra, Brazil’s Goiania Symphony, and with acclaimed conductors Guillermo Figueroa, Per Brevig, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Jorge Mester. His performance of John Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Paul Zukofsky was praised by the New York Times “as admirably projected in the devoted and lovely performance of David Korevaar.” David was honored to work with Cage to prepare the concerto. © Let's Talk Off The Podium, 2020  

Guy Piddington joined the San Francisco Symphony trumpet section, occupying the Ann L. & Charles B. Johnson Chair, in 2012. He has held positions with the Metropolitan Opera and the Syracuse Symphony, and he has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Mariinsky Orchestra. He studied with Charles Geyer at the Eastman School of Music and Northwestern University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He holds a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Philip Smith.Support the show (https://thatsnotspit.com/support/)

####Bio- It seems especially difficult to summarize the life and career of William Grant Still. At the simplest, Still performed, conducted, composed, orchestrated, and arranged music, earning him the title “Dean of Afro-American Composers”. But what he was as a man is so much deeper and more complex. His compositions give us a brief glimpse of his personality and philosophy (and I am grateful for that). Beyond this, Still's words and those affected by him do a meritorious job in striving to complete the picture of the man. Yet, in the end, he is too multidimensional to be easily labeled.- Still began as a performer and arranger for W.C. Handy, the self-proclaimed “Father of the Blues.” This association brought Still to Harlem in 1919, during a pivotal moment in American history, at the peak of the “Harlem Renaissance.” Though the Harlem Renaissance would lay a foundation for the Civil Rights movement roughly 30 years later, at the time it was as an explosion of African American art and philosophy after the Civil War and during the period when “Jim Crow” laws were sweeping the South. It was a time of individuality, self-assertion, and rich expression in the face of current segregation and oppression, while slavery was not just a memory for most. - Still was absolutely unique at this moment, as the most well-known—and often the first—African-American to compose works in the European art music fashion. Other African-American “firsts” for Still included having a symphony performed by a professional orchestra, conducting a major symphony orchestra, and having an opera performed by a major opera company.- Still's massive portfolio alone is impressive, totaling nearly 200 compositions, which in addition to the well-known symphonies and operas, includes ballet and chamber music. The most well-recognized works are likely his “Afro-American” Symphony No. 1, the opera Troubled Island, and his ballet Sahdji. The symphonic poem Africa, written in the same year as the Symphony No. 1 and Sahdji (1930), is a notable hidden gem as even after revising it numerous times following a successful performance by the Rochester Philharmonic and Howard Hanson—a long time champion of Still's works—Still eventually withdrew the work, unpublished(!).####Culture- That label of “first” is tricky, needing a broader view to the context and implication. Musicologist Gayle Murchison was a colleague of mine at the College of William & Mary, and in fact has agreed to be a guest on this show to talk about American composers. She addresses this issue of duality for Still:Quote The title “Dean of Afro-American Composers” is Still's due. Yet it does not aptly describe his accomplishments or the artistic and aesthetic ideals he pursued in his work. Such a title is easily bestowed on Still, who crossed many racial barriers during a period in American history when the achievements of African Americans were measured by firsts as a marker of racial progress and improvement in race relations. But to see him in this way is to accord him a place in American music history largely on the basis of his race and to consider only one facet of his accomplishments.End quote. After all, I believe Still was a genius, and should be recognized for that at any moment in history.- The piece we will hear today, _Africa_, obviously weighed on Still's mind for a long period, having begun composition in 1924, and philosophically tied in with the Harlem Renaissance. Writing to George Barrère, the conductor to premiere the work, Still gives insight into the programmatic content:An American Negro has formed a concept of the land of his ancestors based largely on its folklore, and influenced by his contact with American civilization. He beholds in his mind's eye not the Africa of reality but an Africa mirrored in fancy, and radiantly ideal.###Analysis of piece####Overall scope- Now to the music itself- Written in 3 movements, titled “land of peace”, “land of romance”, and “land of superstition”. As we talked about, the work is programmatic, and Still put a great deal of thought into this aspect.- So, before we go further I want to make a personal statement involving Programmatic music. If you are not sure what that is, at it's simplest, programmatic music follows a story. Usually, the concept originates with a story, and the composer writes music to emulate the atmosphere described or follow, outright, the drama as it unfolds. Bizet's “Symphony Fantastique” and Elgar's “Enigma” Variations are classic examples. So, I want to make it completely clear what my thoughts are on programmatic music. I LOVE the stories, they are interesting, usually enjoyable, and often give us insight into the composer and what they were thinking when writing the piece. However, I believe from the standpoint of enjoying and consuming the art, I believe the program to be completely superfluous. It is a nice dressing, but neither enhances nor serves the music directly when receiving a performance of the work. My anecdotal argument is this: Elgar wrote his Enigma variations 1899, and practically ever since it has been played by orchestras all over the world, enjoyed by countless audiences, and studied to death by every serious orchestral musician. Therefore, we do know a few tid-bits about the people on whom the variations were based, most notably Jaeger from the 9th variation, titled ‘Nimrod', which refers to the hunter ++need more context++. They were very close friends, etc. etc. I hold that this story and external information would be completely unknown to us if the music was not as good, powerful, and moving as it is. Therefore, the program is extra, non-essential, like a performance venue during a global pandemic!- And it is for this reason that though I will discuss both, separately and in tandem, when analyzing a piece, my philosophy is squarely attached to the sounds themselves, while respecting the fact that the composer him or herself made the connection to the story.- Ok, tangent over. Now, on to the music.####Excerpts- These excerpts are from a 2005 NAXOS recording of the Fort Smith Symphony, conducted by John Jeter.- Ironically, after saying all of that, there is a strong programmatic tie to the very opening bars of _Africa_. Distant, rhythmic drums. This certainly sets a serene background for the flute solo that follows. It is hard NOT to conjure an image in the mind of heat rising against the distant sunset on a vast African plain. [play opening to 1:05]- Titled “Land of Peace” this movement goes through what seems like progressive vignettes of calm scenic African events. Still uses this format to show all of his strengths, European Romantic style writing, jazz influenced lyrical moments, soloistic writing, and crafty orchestrational mixture. [3:10-3:46]- At the second theme, Still opens into a rich, satisfying horn led melodic line, with harp and string accompaniment. It instantly reminds me of the 2nd theme of Hanson's 2nd Symphony, and it's not a stretch that Still was influenced by that piece considering how much Hanson championed Still's compositions. [5:04-5:49]- “Land of Romance”, the middle movement, includes even more of a jazz/dissonance clash. In this spot, the chromatic melodies seem to have a pleasurably erratic nature, and the harmonic movement below, while the pulse is steady, seems to constantly be slipping in a similar chromatic fashion. [1:58-3:09]- At the overflow moment, the volume does rise with full brass and percussion. Though, the previous characteristics remain, creating a both unsettling and satisfying climactic moment. [3:54-5:01-ish]- Finally, in “Land of Superstition”, Still introduces a bit of forward motion. Still continues to show his orchestrational prowess in this movement, along with his particular blend of styles. Hear how he moves back and forth between sections of the orchestra, all while moving the energy forward and creating a jazzy flavor at the same time. [2:38-3:47]- The only time Still comes close to a big band moment is at the high point of this movement, when the bottom of the orchestra cycles a recognizable walking bass pattern and practically everyone else sings out a long, loud bluesy melody. Yet, Still doesn't lose his voice entirely, using a very unique mode mixture, constantly going back and forth between major and minor. [5:10-5:57-ish]###Closing- Even without any of this explanation of the programmatic aspect, the piece itself has a mysterious character, aurally engaging from the opening drum beats and flute solo, the hypnotic bluesy rhythms, the easy downward slide of chromatic movement in the strings, to the often celebratory mood of the last movement. As in his other orchestral works, especially his five numbered symphonies, Still shows complete mastery of orchestration and suitable timbre use for every instrument, section, and combination thereof. Like all other great composers, his adeptness in this area is so deft that one does not even think of it while enraptured in the moment. I can't think of a better compliment.Music:'Africa'By: William Grant StillPerformed by: Fort Smith Symphony, John JeterCourtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/american-muse-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Keith Benjamin joined the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance as professor of trumpet in 1989 with a Doctor of Musical Arts and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. While in New York, he performed with the Rochester Philharmonic and held principal chairs in three other orchestras. Current orchestra positions include principal trumpet in the Colorado MahlerFest, guest principal trumpet in Orchestra Iowa, and extra trumpet for the Kansas City Symphony.In addition to orchestral playing, Benjamin is an active recitalist and chamber musician, and is first trumpet in the Missouri Brass Quintet. His recitals frequently feature contemporary music, and he has commissioned and premiered numerous works, including compositions of Samuel Adler, James Mobberley, Peter Hamlin, Stephen David Beck, Eugene O’Brien, and many others. Recital and concert appearances in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and more than 35 states are “traveling” highlights, and Kansas City also affords him the opportunity to have a lively professional career as a commercial, studio, and lead trumpet player; recent performances have been with Ben Folds, Peter Gabriel, and Idina Menzel. Benjamin has presented master classes and clinics at dozens of universities and colleges in the United States and overseas.Benjamin is partnered with Los Angeles organist Melody Steed in Clarion, a trumpet and organ duo that emphasizes twentieth-century music. The duo has released two CD recordings on Gothic Records; the second recording, Clarion: New Vintage, is comprised of five commissioned American works. The duo completed a highly successful performance tour of Hungary in summer 2006. Plans for a third CD recording of all commissions are in place, with new works by Adler and Mobberley, as well as commissions from Steven Bryant, Anthony Plog, and Adam Schoenberg.Benjamin is an artist-clinician for the Selmer/Bach companies. He makes his home in Kansas City with his wife Jennifer and their two sons, Duncan and Rowan.Support the show (https://thatsnotspit.com/support/)

Show Notes: Robert Franz Website Stella's Magical Musical Balloon Ride Robert Franz Bio: Acclaimed conductor, Robert Franz, recognized as "an outstanding musician with profound intelligence," has held to three principles throughout his career: a commitment to the highest artistic standards, to creating alliances and building bridges in each community he serves, and a dedication to being a strong force in music education.  As Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, and newly appointed Artistic Advisor of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, he has achieved success through his focus on each of these principles. His appeal as a first-rate conductor and enthusiastic award-winning educator is acclaimed by critics, composers, and audiences of all ages.  Composer Bright Sheng praised Franz for his "extremely musical and passionate approach towards music making."  Franz is in increasing demand as a guest conductor, whose upcoming and recent engagements include appearances with orchestras in Austin, Buffalo, Fort Worth, Winston-Salem, Reno, and Opera Idaho.  Additional recent guest conducting appearances include the Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and Italy's Orchestra da Camera Fiorentinas.  Franz is equally comfortable and effective coaching more than 50 student orchestras each season.  His versatility has led to collaborations with a wide array of artists, including James Galway, Joshua Bell, Rachel Barton Pine, Chris Botti, Idina Menzel, and Judy Collins.  An eloquent speaker, Franz recently presented a TEDx Talk entitled Active Listening and Our Perception of Time. In his eighth season as Music Director with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Franz was recognized by the Windsor Endowment for the Arts with its Arts Leadership Award.  Highlights of the 2019/2020 season include a presentation of Madama Butterfly in concert and Canadian composer Tobin Stokes' Symphony No. 3 'The Piper.'  Recent collaborations include the Windsor International Film Festival, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor Public Library, Canadian Historical Aviation Association, and the University of Windsor. Franz serves as Artistic Director of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, which will include collaborations with Opera Idaho in a semi-staged performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea featuring Grammy Award winning tenor, Karim Sulayman, the Boise the High School Chamber Orchestra and the Boise Philharmonic Master Chorale.  Under his leadership, the orchestra will undertake its first ever commercial recording project of Classical Oboe Concerti for Centaur Records featuring rising star oboist Bhavani Kotha. This season Franz celebrates his 13th year as Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony where he was recently honored as the first member of the orchestra conducting staff with the Raphael Fliegel Award for Visionary Leadership.  It was presented to him in recognition of his immense success in advancing the organization's education and community engagement activities. As Founder and Music Director of the Idaho Orchestra Institute, now in its fourth year, Franz takes young musicians on an exploration of major orchestral repertoire that explores the complete musician. In addition to his current posts, Franz served as Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic from 2008-2016, and the Mansfield Symphony (OH) from 2003-2010.  When not on the podium he can be found on the slopes, skiing slowly and carefully, stretching in a yoga class, and non-competitively trying his hardest to win at a game of cards with his family.   Afternoon Ti Blog Instagram - @highafternoonti   Intro/Outro Music Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes  

Trumpeter Paul Merkelo has a new record out on the Sony Classical label titled The Enlightened Trumpet.The album includes recitals of concertos by Haydn, Hummel, Telemann, and Mozart.He is joined on the album by Oxford Philharmonic.Recently, Merkelo spoke with the Rio Grande Guardian about the new recording. The interview can be heard on the attached podcast.Merkelo has been Principal trumpet for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 1995. He has held the same positions with the Rochester Philharmonic and New Orleans Symphony. He gained early orchestral experience as an extra with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. Merkelo is on the music faculty at McGill University.Merkelo has been hailed as ‘the new Maurice André’ by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Montreal Gazette called him “a spectacular soloist... a most impressive master of his instrument.” Gramaphone magazine said he has “unusual lyrical gifts.”He was the first member of OSM to be invited to record a debut solo album with the orchestra (French Trumpet Concertos - Kent Nagano).

047 James VanDemark: Technical Discipline & Interpretive Magic This episode is full of inspiration and extremely useful information!  Eastman School of Music Bass Professor, James VanDemark, offers us tip after great tip to bring our practice and performance to the next level! Among many topics, James talks to us about creating a technical discipline that leads to interpretive magic, and about on how crucial it is to have clear goals and setting the intention to build up our entire identity as an artist whenever we enter the practice room.  He elaborates on the importance of: using the bow in an imaginative way (having the bow be an extension of our imagination) while having a left hand that is as immaculate as can be acutely playing in the present moment establishing a great basic posture slow practice using the mirror having interpretation be at the center of the technical work create the concert experience in the practice room ear training - through listening to recording actively and with imagination, and through exercises having a schedule, have a clear intent, and be kind to others   MORE ABOUT JAMES: Eastman School of Music: https://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/james-vandemark/ YouTube Videos: Here Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bassfilm1/     "Some people seemed destined to lead unconventional lives, and James VanDemark is certainly one of them," said the New York Times in the first of its three profiles on VanDemark. Performer, academic, boxer, producer, and entrepreneur - these are the principal roles VanDemark has successfully played in a highly diverse career spanning nearly four decades.   VanDemark's arts and culture projects have been featured in the New York Times, Connoisseur Magazine, on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the BBC, CBC, NPR, and in many other media outlets around the world. In considerable demand as a speaker on entrepreneurial skills at colleges across the United States and Canada, VanDemark has also received great acclaim for his frequent role as narrator with many prominent symphony orchestras, including more than 40 performances with the Rochester Philharmonic and 15 with the Texas Festival Orchestra.   Appointed to the Eastman School of Music at the age of 23, VanDemark was the youngest faculty member ever appointed to a professorial position at a major American music school. His students perform in many of the world's great orchestras – the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic – and many more. His students have also been nominated for—and won—numerous Grammy awards in various categories, including classical, contemporary, jazz, and bluegrass.   VanDemark's students have also held positions at major music schools, including Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University, Carnegie-Mellon, Peabody Conservatory, University of Delaware, NYU's Steinhardt School of Music, Michigan State University, University of Colorado, University of Alabama, University of Tennessee, and many others.   VanDemark's performing career has included solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, National Symphony of Mexico, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and many more. Chamber music appearances have included the Cleveland, Guarneri, Muir, Colorado and Ying Quartets, the Gryphon Trio, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, as well as legendary pianists Andre Watts, Alfred Brendel, and Gary Graffman. VanDemark has also been featured on Lincoln Center's “Great Performers Series” on three occasions, including in recital with Andre Watts.   VanDemark is also the recipient of commissioned works by many composers, including three Pulitzer Prize winners: Gian-Carlo Menotti, Joseph Schwantner, and Christopher Rouse. As a founding member of Square Peg Entertainment, VanDemark developed and represented screenplays and properties of Oscar winners Ernest Thompson, Horton Foote, Eiko Ishioka, Ron Harwood, Oscar nominee Hesper Anderson, Stu Silver, Paul Theroux, and many others. VanDemark also developed the World War I story CODE BROTHERS for CTV (Toronto), THE WAYNE AND SUE SHOW for Tribune Entertainment, produced the album and music video THE GIFT with singer Linda Eder for Atlantic Records, and with television legend Sir David Frost, developed the Frederick Forsyth novella THE SHEPHERD in conjunction with Shaftesbury Films (Toronto). VanDemark also co-produced and cast SPEAK LOW, the highly successful Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Gala featuring Jerry Orbach, Donna Murphy, Duncan Sheik, and other stars of Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera in the music of Kurt Weill. VanDemark has also served as Music Supervisor for John Cougar Mellencamp's film, AFTER IMAGE.   Acclaimed for his extensive work in the Native American community, VanDemark commissioned and developed the Native collaborative musical work CIRCLE OF FAITH, profiled in The New York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Detroit Free Press, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Denver Post, Lakota Times, and on NPR's Morning Edition. VanDemark has helped produce more than 40 performances of the work in the United States and Canada.   As an accomplished amateur boxer, VanDemark was recently profiled on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, The Strad, on CBC's "Q," WNYC's "Soundcheck," and was featured at length on ESPN's E-60. VanDemark's conditioning and boxing program for students, musicians, and the general public has also brought him considerable worldwide acclaim. His recent boxing/ conditioning presentations include the University of Tennessee, the University of Alabama, Louisiana State University, Loyola University New Orleans, and the University of Santiago (Chile).   VanDemark attributes the longevity and diversity of his career not only to his own athletic training, but also to his work in the the health care field in the 1970's, when he worked extensively under the renowned neurologist Dr. Howard S. Barrows at the McMaster University School of Medicine in Canada in developing the groundbreaking Simulated/Standardized Patient Program (SPP). As a result of these achievements, VanDemark was named to the Industry Board of the American Health Council in October 2017.     If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice. Join the Mind Over Finger Tribe here!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfingertribe/     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/

Talking Tchaikovsky 4 at The Rochester Philharmonic

Mark Maliniak joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Fourth/Utility Trumpet in September 2018. Mr. Maliniak has toured both nationally and internationally with The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic. He has appeared regularly as guest principal trumpet with the Detroit Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, and Tucson Symphony, where he was also a featured soloist. Mr. Maliniak has also performed with the Kansas City Symphony, New World Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Utah Symphony and has recorded with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony and Utah Symphony.A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Maliniak received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Baldwin-Wallace University Conservatory of Music as a student of Jack Sutte and a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Michael Sachs. He has had additional studies with Jack Brndiar, Michael Miller, and Lyle Steelman. Mr. Maliniak has attended the Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Verbier Festival and Tanglewood Music Center, where he was the recipient of the Roger Voisin Trumpet Award. Mark Maliniak is a Conn-Selmer Performing Artist.Jaclyn Rainey was appointed Associate Principal horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2018. Prior to her appointment Ms. Rainey served as Third horn with the Atlanta Symphony for four seasons, Acting Principal horn with the Naples Philharmonic as well as Associate Principal horn with the Louisiana Philharmonic. Rainey, a Louisville, KY native, has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra and spent two summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Rainey was a winner of the MTNA Senior Brass Solo Competition. During the summer of 2015 Ms. Rainey joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and on their European Tour. Ms. Rainey has also served on the faculties of Georgia State University and Emory University.She received her undergraduate degree in horn performance from the Eastman School of Music, followed by a masters degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has studied with W. Peter Kurau, Richard Sebring and James Sommerville.Support the show (https://thatsnotspit.com/support/)

Kenneth Grant is principal clarinet of the Rochester Philharmonic and Professor of clarinet at the Eastman School of Music.  This episode includes countless stories about Marcellus, Hasty, Wright, and many other performers and teachers who shaped today's clarinet community.  

I'm really happy to continue this series on the pedagogues that shaped me as a violinist with a discussion about another giant in musical journey, Zvi Zeitlin. Unfortunately, Professor Zeitlin passed away in 2012, but I had a wonderful time talking about him with Michael Klotz, violist with the Amernet Quartet and Senior Instructor at Florida International University in Miami. Michael and I were colleagues in the Zeitlin studio at both Eastman and at the Music Academy of the West and, in this episode. we discuss our experience studying with Mr. Zeitlin and his lasting influence on our lives. It was a true pleasure for me to talk with Michael and I think you'll enjoy our chat!   More about Michael Klotz   Website: http://michaelklotzmusic.com/ Amernet String Quartet: http://amernetquartet.com/ Florida International University: http://carta.fiu.edu/music/ Heifetz International Music Institute: https://www.heifetzinstitute.org/   Biography Born in 1978 in Rochester, NY, Michael Klotz made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17 and has since then appeared as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, and chamber musician, and orchestra principal worldwide. After a performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with violist Roberto Diaz, the Portland Press-Herald proclaimed, “this concert squelched all viola jokes, now and forever, due to the talents of Diaz and Klotz”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently proclaimed Michael Klotz to be “a superb violist, impressive, with an exceptionally attractive sound,” and the Miami Herald has consistently lauded his “burnished, glowing tone and nuanced presence.”   Michael Klotz joined the Amernet String Quartet in 2002 and has toured and recorded commercially with the ensemble throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Colombia, Belgium, and Spain. Klotz has performed at some of New York's most important venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, MoMA, Bargemusic, and the Kosciuzsko Foundation. His festival appearances have included Seattle, Newport, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Mozaic, Great Lakes, Cervantino, Festival Baltimore, Piccolo Spoleto, Sunflower, Martha's Vineyard, Skaneateles, Virginia Tech Vocal Arts and Music Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Beverly Hills, Music Mountain, Bowdoin, Madeline Island, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, and Miami Mainly Mozart. Passionately dedicated to chamber music, Klotz regularly performs with many of today's most esteemed artists, having appeared as guest violist with the Shanghai, Ying, and Borromeo String Quartets, the Manhattan Piano Trio, and collaborated with artists such as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Vadim Gluzman, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, Michael Tree, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, Roberto Diaz, Joseph Kalichstein, Franklin Cohen, and Alexander Fiterstein, as well as with many principal players from major U.S. and European orchestras. In 2015 he was named a Charter Member of the Ensemble with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth and regularly appears on this series. In 2002 and 2009, he was was invited by Maestro Jaime Laredo to perform with distinguished alumni at anniversary concerts of the New York String Orchestra Seminar in Carnegie Hall. Michael Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the Performer's Certificate. In 2002 he became one of the few individuals to be awarded a double Master's Degree in violin and viola from the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, he was the recipient of the Tokyo Foundation and Gluck Fellowships. His principle teachers and influences include Zvi Zeitlin, Lynn Blakeslee, Lewis Kaplan, Toby Appel, Peter Kamnitzer, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Michael Klotz is a dedicated teacher and serves as Senior Instructor and Artist-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami, where he teaches viola and chamber music. Klotz has recently presented highly acclaimed master classes at the New World Symphony, Cincinnati Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Penn State University, University of Nevada – Las Vegas, Ithaca College, Texas Christian University, and West Virginia University. He is currently a member of the faculty of The Heifetz Institute and a viola coach at the New World Symphony. His former students currently attend and are graduates of prestigious conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music and are already achieving leading roles in the music world. Michael was featured in the November 2013 issue of the “Alumni Spotlight” in the Juilliard Journal and as the subject of Strad Magazine's “Ask the Teacher” column in the November 2013 issue. Michael Klotz resides in Hallandale Beach, FL with his wife Kelly and sons Jacob and Natan, as well as two dogs and a cat.     ZVI ZEITLIN (1922-2012) A faculty member at Eastman from 1967 to 2012, Zvi Zeitlin (1922-2012) was revered for decades as a violinist, pedagogue, chamber musician, and champion of contemporary music. Born in Dubrovna, Belarus, Zvi Zeitlin was raised and educated in Israel. At age 11, he became the youngest scholarship student in the history of the Juilliard School, studying with Sascha Jacobsen, Louis Persinger, and Ivan Galamian. He served in the RAF (1943-46) and concertized for troops throughout the Middle East and Greece. He made concerto appearances with such great conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Antal Dorati, Jascha Horenstein, and Christoph von Dohnanyi, and gave frequent tours of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South America. One of Zeitlin's signature pieces was Arnold Schoenberg's fiendishly difficult, seldom performed Violin Concerto; his 1971 Deutsche Grammophon recording of this work with conductor Rafael Kubelik set the standard, and is still available. Zeitlin also premiered concertos by Gunther Schuller, Carlos Surinach, and Paul Ben-Haim, besides performing and recording a wealth of other repertoire in his long career; the Toronto Star called him “one of the violin world's grand old men, a true musical Methuselah.” Along with his solo appearances, he was a founding member of the Eastman Trio (1976-1982). Zeitlin taught annual master classes at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Yehudi Menuhin School. He was a faculty member at the Music Academy of the West since 1973, and a visiting professor at Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, England) since 1992. Zeitlin was named Eastman's first Kilbourn Professor in 1976 and Distinguished Professor in 1998. In 2004, he received the University of Rochester's Edward Curtis Peck Award for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduates. Zeitlin's students occupy leading positions in major orchestras in the United States and throughout the world; hold important positions in universities and music schools worldwide; and are major prizewinners in international and regional competitions. Zvi Zeitlin died on May 2, 2012 in Rochester, at the age of 90.   THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme! Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/   If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes! I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice. Join the Mind Over Finger Tribe here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfingertribe/

In this episode, Amy Beth Horman discusses guiding young musicians toward a professional career and, more specifically, the mindsets and practicing habits she thinks they should acquire in order to reach their goals. Amy Beth has wonderful wisdom on the dispositions that can make a huge impact on the progress of young (and less young!) musicians and you will find this chat highly valuable! Amy Beth elaborates on: Her journey from a budding violinist to an accomplished violinist and teacher and how it comes full circle with her nurturing her own daughter through her own musical endeavors Beyond the Triangle – why she created the podcast and how she hopes it can help parents negotiate the demands and struggles of raising a young artist The mindsets and habits that help rapid progress: o   The importance of growth mindset o   Healthy commitment to the fundamental work o   How to efficiently spread work over time and keep track to make sure we cover everything o   How using etudes as exercises can help fix specific issues in repertoire How important our disposition is in our development and how prioritizing this can really positively affect progress and enjoyment of music making Spaced repetition technique and how extremely effective it can be when established What she noticed about Ava's development and how we can apply it to our own practice The importance of performing a lot, seek out opportunities, in order to learn and get comfortable with performing How to use a timer in our practice The importance of grit   ALL ABOUT guest: On Instagram (avaluwho): https://www.instagram.com/avaluwho/ Articles on violinist.com: https://www.violinist.com/directory/bio.cfm?member=hormanviolinstudio Beyond the Triangle: On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-the-triangle-podcast/id1435435674?mt=2 On Podbean: https://beyondthetriangle.podbean.com/ A few YouTube performances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbN78MIe6RQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgjA-4oRv54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Jcx2rH2y8 Her book recommendation: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Angela Duckworth   Biography Amy Beth Horman's appearances are always eagerly anticipated. The Washington Post has described her as being both a "winter tonic" and “having the stuff of greatness.” A graduate of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, Ms. Horman won the highly coveted Premier Prix. A winner of both the high school and college divisions of the National Symphony Orchestra's Young Soloists Competition, she debuted with the NSO at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall at the age of sixteen, performing the third movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Among many other awards, Ms. Horman received the Deane Sherman Award (2000) as one of Maryland's most promising young artists and the Amadeus Career Grant (2001) from the Amadeus Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including The Fairfax Symphony, Piedmont Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Orchestre de Meudon, Washington Sinfonietta, Symphony of the Potomac, McLean Symphony, Northwest Indiana Symphony, Amadeus Orchestra, Loudoun Symphony, Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, and The New Mexico Symphony among others. Amy Beth served as resident soloist in The PanAmerican Symphony for four years. Other engagements in the Metropolitan area include those at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater and on its Millennium Stage, Constitution Hall and at the Strathmore Hall for the Performing Arts. She has been featured on French-Swiss television and on American cable television and radio broadcasts.   If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice.   THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a huge thank you to my awesome producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/   Join the Mind Over Finger Tribe here!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfingertribe/

He's got major cred: he actually studied with Jascha Heifetz, at age 20 he played principal second violin for the Rochester Philharmonic, then went on to work with Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Joe Jackson, Todd Rundgren, the Mahavishnu Project... he founded a string quartet you might have heard of called Ethel. Whether he's on Broadway or in Bang On A Can he kills it every time, I went to his house in Massachusetts.

In this episode, Paul Merkelo, principal trumpet with the Montreal Symphony, active soloist, pedagogue, and philanthropist, talks about how, as musicians, we need to take ownership of our careers, nurture opportunities, focus on developing out artistry and our voice, and have a “quality over quantity” approach to practicing. Paul offers amazing insight, great practicing tips, and extremely valuable advice on how to take your playing and career to the next level. He elaborates on: His experience as principal trumpet of the New Orleans Symphony How the orchestra's bankruptcy prompted his first ventures in the self-marketing world and opened the door for his entrepreneurial spirit How social media can help promote artists, if done the right way and if one is offering high value How, as musicians, we need to take ownership of our careers, nurture opportunies, and put together our own projects The way he sees himself as an artist and why the different projects he pursues keep him energized and inspired How he advises young artists to not just focus on their careers, but to focus on their artistry, their personality, and their voice How we need to be proactive for our dream ideas to come to life – his own example of how he made a solo recording with the Montreal Symphony happen How a “quality over quantity” approach to practicing is crucial How he uses a timer to stay focused and organized in the practice room How he selects his fundamental work to fit the needs of the repertoire he is working on How he shapes a practice session/day How he uses “PSP” when doing isolation work: 1) Precision 2) Speed  3) Power How we need to “practice our nerves”   ALL ABOUT PAUL: Paul Merkelo's website Paul's YouTube channel Facebook page Instagram profile Montreal Symphony Orchestra Paul's recordings Tomasi / Desenclos / Jolivet: French Trumpet Concertos with the Montreal Symphony A Simple Song Baroque Transcriptions: Trumpet & Organ   Tunable app The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.  by Daniel Coyle   Renowned as one of the finest trumpet players of his generation, Paul Merkelo is recognized for his 'pure technical prowess'' (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle) as well as his ‘'unusual lyrical gifts'' (Gramophone). Principal trumpet with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 1995, Mr. Merkelo is regularly praised by the Montreal press as ‘'a spectacular soloist… a most impressive master of his instrument'' (Montreal Gazette), a “great virtuoso… dazzling'' (La Presse). He has been featured frequently with the OSM, including tours to South America and Lincoln Center in New York. He has been featured with orchestras, and in recital, throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, France and Thailand. He has been featured with orchestras, and in recital, throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, France and Thailand. In 1999, he was appointed Canadian musical ambassador to China for the inauguration of the Montreal Park in Shanghai, and as soloist with the Shanghai Broadcast Orchestra in a national telecast. Mr. Merkelo made his New York debut at Lincoln Center with the New World Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas in 1998. He has also worked with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Sir Georg Solti and Valery Gergiev. Mr. Merkelo's first solo recording, A Simple Song was ranked #1 in Quebec's classical recording chart in 2000. In 2004, Analekta released a highly praised second CD, Baroque Transcriptions, which was nominated by ADISQ for Best Classical Album of the Year. Previously, he was Principal Trumpet with the Rochester Philharmonic and New Orleans Symphony and gained early orchestral experience as an extra with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. Paul Merkelo attended the University of Illinois and Eastman School of music, where he was awarded the Speth Scholarship for outstanding orchestral musician. Mr. Merkelo is on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and McGill University. He is on the board of directors for the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (Canada), and is the founder of the Paul Merkelo scholarship. Paul Merkelo is a Yamaha artist.   If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice. THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a huge thank you to my producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/   (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps cover some of the costs associated with the production of the podcast.  Thank you for your support.)

Welcome to Harp Column Podcasts, where we go behind the stories in Harp Column with your host Kristina Finch. In this episode, Kristina chats with renowned performer Yolanda Kondonassis about her collaboration with composer Jennifer Higdon, whose Harp Concerto is set to be premiered by Kondonassis with the Rochester Philharmonic on May 10 and 12. Read our [...] The post Harp Column Podcast Episode 39 appeared first on Harp Column.

Welcome to Harp Column Podcasts, where we go behind the stories in Harp Column with your host Kristina Finch. In this episode, Kristina chats with renowned performer Yolanda Kondonassis about her collaboration with composer Jennifer Higdon, whose Harp Concerto is set to be premiered by Kondonassis with the Rochester Philharmonic on May 10 and 12. Read our [...] The post Harp Column Podcast Episode 39 appeared first on Harp Column.

There are aspects of life and music that simply take patience and time. Many times we're blinded by the plethora of helpful videos and internet information available to us. Yet the subtle message we receive is that with the surplus of details and opinions at our fingertips we should learn this sought after information quickly and easily since everyone can already do it. Not so fast. Even with the best instructional examples obtainable you'll discover it's doubtful that the original poster/author divulges how long it took them to master this lesson. The art of patient persistence is something that should be included in all of these online instructional videos. In this episode Phil and Jon talk about taking your time while embracing and trusting the process of learning. Some of the topics they cover are: learning the basics at an early age, partial learning of material and lack of musical depth, trying to learn advanced concepts and techniques without mastery of earlier foundational material, and simultaneously working on too many methods at once. We also broach the topic of rushing and forcing personal relationships in order to gain higher social, educational, and work status. We finish off the show with each host picking a great underrated drum track. Jon picked: "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright with Jim Keltner on drums. Phil picked: "Boulevard" by Jackson Browne with Rick Marotta on drums. One last note. We misspoke regarding John Beck. Mr. Beck is the long time percussionist of the Rochester Philharmonic and legendary instructor at the Eastman School of Music. Don't forget to join us every week for a brand new show. We publish feature episodes every Monday with "Accountability Thursday" mini-episodes every first and third Thursday of the month. Go to www.drummersweeklygroovecast.com to access everything DWG. On our site you can listen to all our shows, watch our videos, manage your podcast subscription, interact with our social media, and contact us through email. Subscribe today!

A podcast listener recently suggested that I re-interview Colin Corner about how he has managed to win audition after audition.  It turned out that I would be in Portland, Oregon for a couple weeks, and Colin and I sat down for a terrific deep-dive into auditioning, the role of a principal bassist, and much more. Prior to his current positions of principal bass for the Oregon Symphony and Grant Park Symphony, Colin played principal bass for the Atlanta Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic.  He also held positions in the Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic. I originally interviewed Colin back in 2007 when he was playing in the Minnesota Orchestra, and I caught up with him briefly in 2009 after he’d moved into his role as principal bass of the Rochester Philharmonic.  It was such a pleasure to dig into Colin’s experiences over this past decade.  There are a tremendous amount of valuable takeaways from this conversation! Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle! Contrabass Conversations is sponsored by: Upton Bass String Instrument Company Upton's Karr Model Upton Double Bass represents an evolution of our popular first Karr model, refined and enhanced with further input from Gary Karr. Since its introduction, the Karr Model with its combination of comfort and tone has gained a loyal following with jazz and roots players. The slim, long “Karr neck” has even become a favorite of crossover electric players. D'Addario Strings This episode is brought to you by D’Addario Strings! Check out their Helicore strings, which are are designed, engineered, and crafted at the D’Addario string factory in New York and come in orchestral, hybrid, pizzicato, and solo string sets.   A440 Violin Shop An institution in the Roscoe Village neighborhood for over 20 years, A440's commitment to fairness and value means that we have many satisfied customers from the local, national, and international string playing communities. Our clients include major symphony orchestras, professional orchestra and chamber music players, aspiring students, amateur adult players, all kinds of fiddlers, jazz and commercial musicians, university music departments, and public schools.   Contrabass Conversations production team: Jason Heath, host Michael Cooper and Steve Hinchey, audio editing Mitch Moehring, audio engineer Trevor Jones, publication and promotion Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!

Rich Thompson is an Associate Professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music and is a member of the Eastman Jazz Trio and Quartet with Harold Danko, Clay Jenkins and Jeff Campbell. He has toured and recorded with  the Count Basie Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic and many major orchestras throughout the United States and Canada. Rich has given concerts and masterclasses and concerts all over the world. He sat for this interview on a road date with the Byron Stripling quartet featuring renowned trumpeter Doc Severinsen. This is his second appearance on Drummer Nation.   Website             Newsletter         Become a Patron

James VanDemark just celebrated his 40th year of teaching at the Eastman School of Music. His students have held positions with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Minnesota, San Francisco, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Rochester Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and the orchestras of Syracuse, Buffalo and Wichita. We dig into many topics, including: boxing and what it has done for James as well as his students the experience of being a principal bassist of a professional orchestra at 17 how he came to join the Eastman faculty in his early 20s studying with cellists like Paul Katz and Leonard Rose learning how to play for a bigger hall - lessons learned from Leonard Rose learning how to vary sound and color to blend in or to project out There’s also a great feature on Backstage Pass from Classical 91.5 celebrating James and his 40 years at Eastman. Thanks to our sponsors! This episode is brought to you by D’Addario Strings! Check out their Kaplan strings, which have versatility and control throughout the dynamic spectrum, rich tonal color palette, superb bow response, and beautiful balance. Enter our latest string giveaway for Kaplan strings at contrabassconversations.com/strings! Thank you also to the Bass Violin Shop, which  offers the Southeast's largest inventory of laminate, hybrid and carved double basses. Whether you are in search of the best entry-level laminate, or a fine pedigree instrument, there is always a unique selection ready for you to try. Trade-ins and consignments welcome! Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!

Florida State University percussion professor John W. Parks IV is really passionate about the importance of teaching and learning the "right way" and this becomes a recurring theme throughout this remarkable conversation. Topics: John's musical background Trophy hunting in music education and putting the students first The type of students John brings to FSU and how he disarms "problem" students Use the local college to find a percussion teacher to come into your band room. Qualities necessary to becoming a successful teacher and having a plan! Teach skills, not pieces Percussion resources for teachers 2000 Eastman Wind Ensemble Japan tour Garnet House Productions Why college football coaches need to stop cursing so much! Links: Daniel's Orchestral Music Raynor Caroll: Symphonic Repertoire Guide for Timpani and Percussion Black Swamp Percussion Videos Vic Firth Percussion Videos John teaches the Porgy and Bess xylophone solo Percy Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry Anthony Iannaccone: Sea Drift (Mvmt I) 2017 Orange Bowl Bet with Jonathan Ovalle Garnet House Productions John W. Parks IV Biography: John W. Parks IV, Professor of Percussion at The Florida State University, holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and Furman University and has studied with Patricia Dash of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, John Beck of the Rochester Philharmonic, Michael Burritt, Paul Wertico (formerly of the Pat Metheny Group), and John Beckford. He is artist/clinician for Malletech, Avedis Zildjian Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion, and Remo. ​ Parks made his Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall in May of 2007, and has performed with diverse performing organizations ranging from the Eastman Wind Ensemble on their 2000 tour of Japan and Taiwan and the Schlossfestspiele Orchestra of Heidelberg, Germany to the Kansas City, Alabama, Key West, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras as well as the Florida Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, and Eastern Music Festival Faculty Orchestra. Dr. Parks also leads the FSU Percussion Ensemble, winners of the 2007 and 2011 Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competitions and the subject of four critically-acclaimed recordings (Volume One, Volume Two: Not Far From Here, Volume Three: Ten Windows, and Volume Four: Unknown Kind), and has appeared as performer/clinician at the 2011 Basilica Festival in Belgium, 2009 Thailand Brass and Percussion Conference in Bangkok, three Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinics, twelve Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, NACWPI, National Public Radio, and state MENC conventions. In 2006 he won a university-wide teaching award at FSU, and in 2013 was inducted into the Engineering Wing of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as a voting member of the Grammy Awards. 

Join us for our discussion with Tony Levin. Famed for his work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson, bass virtuoso Tony Levin was born in Boston on June 6, 1946. At age ten, he began studying upright bass, also playing tuba in his high-school marching band and even forming his own barbershop quartet; as a member of a local youth orchestra, Levin additionally performed at the White House for President John F. Kennedy. After attending the Eastman School of Music, he appeared with the Rochester Philharmonic, but over time turned away from classical music to play rock and jazz, relocating to New York City in 1970 to join Aha!, ex-Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston's band.

Episode 52: "Keep the phrase going" - a conversation with Charles Daval Trumpet player Charles Daval has held positions in some of North America’s most prestigious orchestras including the Boston Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony and the Seattle Symphony. His principal appointments have included the Boston Pops and the Solo Trumpet position of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, Mr. Daval was appointed Professor of Trumpet at the University of Michigan. Mr. Daval moved to Pittsburgh in 1998 to enable his wife to accept the Principal Second Violin position in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Since the move he has been appointed Principal Trumpet of the Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater Orchestras and continues to maintain an active teaching and performing schedule. In the spring of 2008, Mr. Daval fulfilled a lifelong dream when he received the degree of Juris Doctor (Cum Laude) from the Duquesne University Law School, where he enrolled in the fall semester 2004. As a law student, Mr. Daval worked to secure benefits for Veterans and their families through his participation in the Duquesne University Veteran’s Benefits Clinic in 2006-07, and he participated in the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic at Duquesne University’s Center for the Bill of Rights. After passing the bar examination in the summer of 2008, Mr. Daval was admitted by the State Supreme Court to the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the winter of 2009 he passed bar exams in Colorado and Wyoming, and is admitted to the bars of both states. Highlights from his performing career include appearances on PBS broadcasts of “Evening at Pops” with conductor – composer John Williams and the Boston Pops from 1984 to 1988. In 1986, he was featured on Maryland Public Television’s “Live from Wolftrap” as cornet soloist with Keith Brion’s “New Sousa Band.” Additional appearances as soloist include concerts with the Boston Pops, the Cincinnati Pops, the Toronto Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the Carmel Bach Festival. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Jose State University, Mr. Daval went on to study with Vincent Cichowicz at Northwestern University where he earned his Masters Degree and was elected to the Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society. While in Chicago, he also performed with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and studied with Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony, Adolph Herseth. The trumpet playing of Charles Daval has been met with much critical acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle called him “downright sensational”, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised his “musical finesse and technical polish”. His performances on the piccolo trumpet at the Carmel Bach Festival hailed this response from the Monterey Peninsula Herald; “Daval’s sound is all that can be asked of the Baroque trumpeter: He is polished, accurate, and articulate.” And the San Francisco Examiner says; “He made every note a personal treasure.” Email: cdaval@illinois.edu    

We are featuring double bassist Gaelen McCormick on today’s episode. Gaelen is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic, teaches at Nazareth College and the Eastman Community Music School and is the author of Mastering the Bow, a two-part series for bass. Part one is based on the violin studies of Franz Wohlfahrt, and part two features off-the-strings strokes. We had a wonderful conversation about her early years in music, studying with Jeff Turner for graduate school (and you can listen to Jeff on the podcast—he was a guest back on episode 26), structuring practice time, the George Vance Progressive Repertoire series, and many other topics. Before and after the interview, we feature Gaelen and Ed Paulsen performing a couple of Dave Anderson’s wonderful duets, and you can check out our interview with Dave on episode 75 of the podcast. About Gaelen: Ms. McCormick has been a member of the Rochester Philharmonic’s bass section since 1995. Before joining the RPO, she held positions with regional orchestras such as the Erie (PA) Philharmonic, the Binghamton Philharmonic and the Albany Symphony. Ms. McCormick has performed regularly with other major orchestras, including the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Syracuse Symphony. She holds degrees in performance from the Eastman School and Carnegie Mellon University. Teaching the double bass to students of all ages has become a significant part of Gaelen’s life. She joined the faculty of Nazareth College in 2010, and has been the bass instructor for the Eastman Community Music School since 2001. She enjoys working with talented high school aged string players in the summer at Eastman’s Music Horizons program where she teaches chamber music and gives bass lessons. In 2003, she was invited to teach for the year at Duquesne University’s City Music Center, a program for talented, pre-college students. Gaelen has given masterclasses and recitals at Ithaca College, Williams College, the College of St. Rose, and Roberts Wesleyan College. In 2013, she gave classes on double bass technique at both the International Society of Bassists convention in Rochester and the NYSSMA Winter Conference. “Mastering the Bow”, the first of three books on double bass bow technique, was published by Carl Fischer in 2013, and the second will be published during the 2014 season. Playing chamber music has been a passion for Ms. McCormick. Before moving to Rochester, she often performed with the St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra (Albany, NY) as their sole bassist. During her tenure in Pittsburgh, she became the founding bassist of the Pittsburgh Live Music Chamber Orchestra. She was the founding member of the innovative string quintet “Gibbs and Main”, and recorded a cd of tango standards with them, and commissioned a new work for the ensemble by Judd Greenstein. In recent summers, she has been performing with the Music in the Mountains chamber orchestra, a festival based in Durango, Colorado. She is frequently invited to play chamber music with musicians from around the country in festivals such as the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival and the Syracuse New Music Ensemble. This summer, Ms. McCormick will make her debut appearance at the Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival. Gaelen has been involved in volunteering and arts advocacy, and is proud to be the representative for the RPO in the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians. She is honored to be a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lambda, groups recognizing and supporting excellence in the humanities and in music specifically. In her spare time, Gaelen enjoys kayaking, Argentine tango and West Coast swing dancing, and spending time with her toddler Clara.

Each day during February, we posted a “Classical Music Moment in Black History” on our Facebook page to show the contributions of black artists to classical music throughout history. We’ve collected our twenty-eight February entries in this article. By the way, these entries were originally part of an episode of the Classical Classroom podcast (audio included below).  Composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges.  In the mid-to-late 1700’s, Chevalier de Saint-Georgeswas an Afro-French composer who was also France’s best fencer. After Napoleon re-instituted slavery in France, de Saint-Georges’ works were rarely played, though lots of his work has been recorded since the 1970’s. In 1803, virtuoso violinist George Bridgetower, who had studied under the leader of the Royal Opera, played with Beethoven. Beethoven then dedicated his Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major to Bridgetower, and they premiered the piece together. Later, the two had a falling out – something to do with a lady – and Beethoven changed the piece’s name. It’s now called the Kreutzer Sonata. Poet Rita Dove wrote a book about Bridgetower and Beethoven’s relationship. Soprano Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, “The Black Swan”.  In 1853, soprano Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield – people knew her as the “Black Swan” – made her New York debut at the Metropolitan Hall. While she could sing, her skin color would have denied her entrance to the concert. But that didn’t slow Greenfield down: In 1854, this classy lady sang a command performance before Queen Victoria. Composer Scott Joplin.  In 1868, innovative composer and pianist Scott Joplin was born in Texas. Joplin wrote 2 operas, one ragtime ballet, and 44 original ragtime pieces before he died. Composer Harry Thacker Burleigh.  From 1892-95, Antonin Dvorak – not black as you might know, but stick with me – was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. The woman who founded the school, Jeanette Thurber, opened the school to men, women, blacks, and whites – pretty unusual for that time. Dvorak felt that a true American style of music should grow out of African- and Native-American music. Harry Burleigh, one of the earliest African-American composers and one of Dvorak’s pupils, introduced Dvorak to American spirituals. In 1898, Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor wrote the musical Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. It was wildly successful during his lifetime. Coleridge-Taylor also visited the States and inspired American blacks to become composers. Tenor Roland Hayes.  In 1921 tenor Roland Hayes gave a performance before King George V of England. In 1923, Hayes debuted at Carnegie Hall. He was the first African American man to become famous worldwide as a concert performer, and he became one of the world’s greatest Lieder interpreters. In 1926, Undine Smith Moore graduated cum laude from the Juilliard School. She was the first graduate of Fisk University, a historically black school, to receive a scholarship to Juilliard. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Moore became “…one of this country’s most prominent composers and arrangers of choral works, many based on or inspired by Negro spirituals and folk songs.” Composer William Grant Still.  1931 was the year William Grant Stillbecame the first Black American composer to have a symphonic work performed by a major American orchestra. The Rochester Philharmonic performed his Afro-American Symphony. Stills had another big “first” in 1949 when his opera Troubled Island – based on a libretto by Langston Hughes – was performed by the New York City Opera, becoming the first opera by a black person to be performed by a major company. William Grant Still was also the first black man to conduct a major orchestra (LA Phil) and he won 2 Guggenheim fellowships. In 1933, Caterina Jarboro became the first black woman to appear in a leading role with a major American opera when she again played the title role in Aida with the Chicago Opera.  Composer Florence Price. Also in 1933, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed Florence Price’s Symphony in E Minor. She was the first female African-American composer to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra. Baritone Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. Culver Pictures/file 1935. In 1935, George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opened on Broadway, with baritone Todd Duncan as Porgy, and sopranos Anne Brown as Bess and Ruby Elzy as Serena. In 1945, Todd Duncan became the first African American to sing with a major American opera company, when he played the role of Tonio Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci with the New York City Opera. Contralto Marian Anderson In 1939, both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the District of Columbia’s Board of Education refused to allow contralto Marian Anderson to use Constitution Hall and Central High School auditorium for a recital respectively. So, she gave her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial instead, drawing a crowd of 75,000 – not to mention the millions who listened on the radio. (To read more about the performance, go here.) Lyric Soprano Camilla Williams (l) with Margery Mayer. Courtesy of Fred Fehl/New York City Opera. Also in 1945, lyric soprano Camilla Williams signed a contract with the New York City Opera in 1946, becoming the first African American to do so with a major American opera company. She debuted with the role of the heroine in Madama Butterfly. And in 1947, soprano Helen Phillips was the first African American to sing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1951 William Warfield and Muriel Rahn were the first black concert artists on TV – they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Soprano and educator Dorothy Maynor. In 1953, soprano and educator Dorothy Maynor was the first black person to sing at a US presidential inauguration when she performed the national anthem for Dwight Eisenhower. Composer Margaret Bonds. Wikimedia Commons. Margaret Bonds, who frequently collaborated with Langston Hughes, was one of the first black composers and performers in the US to gain recognition. In 1965, when the Freedom March on Montgomery, Alabama took place, she wrote Montgomery Variations for orchestra, dedicating it to Martin Luther King, Jr.. For more information about Ms. Bonds, check out this piece from WBUR 90.9 FM. Conductor Henry Lewis. In 1968 Henry Lewis became the first black conductor and music director of a major American orchestra when he was appointed to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He was also the first African-American to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. 1972 saw Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha finally premiere – 55 years after his death – at the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center. In 1976, Joplin posthumously received a special Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to American music. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Photo by Luigi Beverelli. Courtesy Mr. Marsalis’ website. In 1983 and 1984, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis became the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical records. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997 for Blood on the Fields, a three-hour oratorio for 3 singers and a 14-member ensemble. The oratorio follows the story of an African couple sold into slavery in the US. In 1987, conductor Paul Freeman became Founding Musical Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta. This orchestra’s mission is “Musical Excellence Through Diversity”. Dr. Freeman served for 24 years. Violinist Aaron Dworkin. Courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation website. Violinist Aaron Dworkin founded the non-profit Sphinx Organization in 1996 to cultivate the development of young black and Latino musicians in the classical music profession. The Sphinx Competition, spotlights young black and Latino string players on a national platform. Composer George Walker received the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, a work commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra as part of its tribute to tenor Roland Hayes. This was the first time a living African American won the prize for music. Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves. Courtesy of the artist’s website. In 2001 mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sang “America the Beautiful” and “The Lord’s Prayer” at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service at the Washington National Cathedral following the September 11 attacks. James DePriest conducting the Oregon Sympony. Courtesy of the Sympony’s website. In 2005, James DePriest, one of classical music’s most accomplished conductors who at the time of his death in 2013 was Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony and Director Emeritus of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School, received the National Medal of Arts. Tim Brooks won a 2007 Grammy award for Best Historical Release with his Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, which includes performances by Harry Burleigh, Roland Hayes, and Edward Boatner. Tenor Noah Stewart. Photograph: Mitch Jenkins Mitch Jenkins/PR. In 2012, tenor Noah Stewart became the first black musician to top the UK Classical Album Chart. Of course, we had to leave a GAGILLION people out of our daily Black History Month Facebook posts because (duh) there are just not enough days in the month. Like Jeffrey Mumford, Awadagin Pratt, David Baker, Imani Winds, André Watts, Chelsea Tipton, Thomas Wilkins, Morris Robinson, Lawrence Brownlee, Valerie Coleman, Rachel Jordan, and Tona Brown. And Daniel Bernard Roumain. And Black Violin. And… you get the idea!  But, blacks are still one of classical music’s most under-served communities. As of 2011, according to the League of American Orchestras, only 1.83% of our nation’s orchestras’ makeup was black. Aaron Dworkin has pointed out that African-American composers are often missing in traditional classical music station programming. But people like Dworkin and many others are working to change that!  We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about all of these awesome artists.

Bob Smith speaks with conductor Wade Stare, narrator Paul Burgett and Eastman School of Music Dean Douglas Lowry, about The Rochester Philharmonic’s upcoming performance of Rhapsody in Blue by pianist Terrence Wilson, and the contributions of African Americans to the arts. WXXI's reporting on RACE: Are We So Different? is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities .

We're featuring a quick update and some performances from from double bassist Colin Corner, a previous CBC guest. When we first interviewed Colin back in 2007 he was performing in the Minnesota Orchestra, but he now serves as principal bass of the Rochester Philharmonic. In addition to his orchestral duties, Colin maintains an active career as a composer and jazz bassist, and he currently performs with the modern jazz trio Blood Electric (DeVon Gray, keys; Peter Leggett, drums; Colin Corner, bass). Learn more about Colin at his website colincornermusic.com.

Colin Corner was appointed Principal Bass of Atlanta Symphony in 2015, after playing in the same position with the Rochester Philharmonic for seven seasons. He previously played with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony and the Louisiana Philharmonic. He received first place in the 2003 ISB Orchestral Competition, which led to a one week internship with the Detroit Symphony, and he received third place in the same competition in 2001. Mr. Corner was also a recipient of the Interlochen Double Bass Class Studio award in 1997, which has since been renamed The Colin Corner Bass Award in his honor. Mr. Corner is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, and he received his bachelor's degree from Indiana University, where he studied with Lawrence Hurst. While in Rochester, he served on the faculty at The Hochstein School and played with Chamber Music Rochester, The Rochester Chamber Orchestra, and The Finger Lakes Opera Festival. He has also served as Guest Principal Bass with the NAC Orchestra. Mr. Corner also enjoys playing electric bass and many different styles of music, mainly jazz. In Rochester, he played with The Shuffling Madness, a Jethro Tull tribute band, The Debbie Kendrick Quartet, a soulful acoustic blues group, The Greener Grass Band, a funky jam band, and various other groups. Mr. Corner is passionate about teaching and has presented masterclasses/recitals at ISB Conventions, Ithaca College, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Shenandoah Conservatory, and Palm Beach Atlantic University. In 2015, he joined the faculty at the Golden Gate Bass Camp in San Francisco, where he was a founding faculty member in the NorCal Orchestra Studies Academy. Proud of his instruments, he plays a bass made by Joseph Hill, c. 1780, and a bass made in Atlanta by Luthier Albert Jakstadt.