Crowdsurfing the Messiah-Who Crossed the Line?
The other day, an American got thrown out of a concert in Britain for crowdsurfing - surely not the first time that's happened. Here's the catch - it was at a performance of Handel's Messiah, and the offender was a Stanford University expert in "non-equilibrium...
I like Big Crowds and I cannot lie…
Recently, Sir Mix-a-Lot appeared with the Seattle Symphony to perform his signature song "Baby Got Back," with orchestration by Gabriel Prokofiev (composer and grandson of the famous Russian). Video of the performance has gone viral on Youtube, with over 2...
“Quit thinking like a classical musician.”
"Quit thinking like a classical musician and start thinking like a rock musician." So says Ivan Trevino, one of the cellists in the band Break of Reality. In a blog post on the website of The Strad magazine, Trevino shares his thoughts on how classical...
Classical Innovators – Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra
From the New York Times review of the Budapest Festival Orchestra concert on Monday: "(The orchestra) was almost halfway into its performance of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No. 8 (Op. 72) on Monday evening when Gaspar Szente, one of its percussionists, ambled through the...
Monday playlist – And another thing…
Yesterday, I played on a concert of opera favorites with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the excellent soprano Sarah Coburn. The program included the famous Rossini overture to "The Barber of Seville," which frankly is hard for me to get through without giggling...
Classical Innovators – Juilliard
Last week, I got my copy of the Juilliard Journal in the mail, and I was very proud to see this article about Bach and Boombox. A big thank you to Susan Jackson for taking an interest in what I’m doing, and giving it...