New Classical Music Blog by Steve Metcalf

Oct 01 2014
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Ann Drinan
Ann Drinan

Ann Drinan, Senior Editor, has been a member of the Hartford Symphony viola section for over 30 years. She is a former Chair of the Orchestra Committee, former member of the HSO Board, and has served on many HSO committees. She is also the Executive Director of CONCORA (CT Choral Artists), a professional chorus based in Hartford and New Britain, founded by Artistic Director Richard Coffey. Ann was a member of the Advisory Board of the Symphony Orchestra Institute (SOI), and was the HSO ROPA delegate for 14 years, serving as both Vice President and President of ROPA. In addition to playing the viola and running CONCORA, Ann is a professional writer and editor, and has worked as a consultant and technical writer for software companies in a wide variety of industries for over 3 decades. (She worked for the Yale Computer Science Department in the late 70s, and thus has been on the Internet, then called the DARPAnet, since 1977!) She is married to Algis Kaupas, a sound recordist, and lives a block from Long Island Sound in Branford CT. Together they create websites for musicians: shortbeachwebdesign.com.

Ann holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Read Ann Drinan's blog here. web.esm.rochester.edu/poly/author/ann-drinan

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Arts Advocacy, Classical Music, Staying informed

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I’d like to call your attention to a new weekly blog post by a renowned name in classical music writing. Steve Metcalf, former music critic of the Hartford Courant and curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School, has started writing a weekly blog on classical music for Hartford’s local NPR station, WNPR. Of necessity, much of what he writes about has to do with events in Hartford, but Steve is a most thoughtful person, with a vast understanding of classical music, and his blog is very much worth bookmarking.

His first post contained a discussion of the new managerial association between the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and my orchestra, the Hartford Symphony. The jury is certainly still out on whether this was a good or bad idea (it’s a two-year agreement), but Steve’s perspective is interesting. He also interviewed our new Director of Artistic Operations and Administration, Steve Collins. (Steve Collins is a percussionist, a member of the New Haven Symphony, a frequent performer with the Hartford Symphony, and most recently was Executive Director of the Waterbury Symphony in CT, where he founded Bravo Waterbury, a most successful El Sistema program.)

Steve Metcalf refers to Steve Collins as “The Guy Everybody Now Turns to When There is an Issue That Requires Some Knowledge of Professional Orchestras.”

He also had a nice tribute to Robert deMaine, now Principal Cellist of the LA Phil and former AP Cellist with the Hartford Symphony, and a nod to Leon Fleisher’s new CD.

His second post has a welcome to Latvian-born Andris Nelsons, the BSO’s new conductor. I love his parting shot, “So to you, maestro, we say: Veiksmi! Lai tev veicas! (Good luck and good fortune!) And also, since you are a newcomer to Boston, please know that the Red Sox are not always as aizgrabjoss (pathetic) as they were this year!”

I will point you to Steve’s blog from time to time — he’s well worth reading!

About the author

Ann Drinan
Ann Drinan

Ann Drinan, Senior Editor, has been a member of the Hartford Symphony viola section for over 30 years. She is a former Chair of the Orchestra Committee, former member of the HSO Board, and has served on many HSO committees. She is also the Executive Director of CONCORA (CT Choral Artists), a professional chorus based in Hartford and New Britain, founded by Artistic Director Richard Coffey. Ann was a member of the Advisory Board of the Symphony Orchestra Institute (SOI), and was the HSO ROPA delegate for 14 years, serving as both Vice President and President of ROPA. In addition to playing the viola and running CONCORA, Ann is a professional writer and editor, and has worked as a consultant and technical writer for software companies in a wide variety of industries for over 3 decades. (She worked for the Yale Computer Science Department in the late 70s, and thus has been on the Internet, then called the DARPAnet, since 1977!) She is married to Algis Kaupas, a sound recordist, and lives a block from Long Island Sound in Branford CT. Together they create websites for musicians: shortbeachwebdesign.com.

Ann holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Read Ann Drinan's blog here. web.esm.rochester.edu/poly/author/ann-drinan

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