When you grow up in a family of classical musicians, you don’t get to hear a lot of pop music. After all, why would any self-respecting musician parent put on the latest Nickelback album when they could instead expose their children to Itzhak Perlman’s acclaimed recording of the Sibelius concerto? Such was the case in[…]
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It was an ordinary spring afternoon in my freshman year at the New England Conservatory, and like many of my colleagues, I was on my way to a lesson. All the necessary music was stuffed into my backpack, the tape in my tape recorder was rewound and ready for recording (yes, I actually used a[…]
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Spillville, Iowa is not exactly a popular tourist destination. Located in the northeastern part of the state in the midst of endless cornfields, it’s the quintessential rural midwestern town: a main street with small, family-owned stores, a couple of sleepy neighborhoods, and a few churches as old as the town itself. But that’s as typical[…]
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Where did the summer go? It seems as though the festive spring season of graduations, parties, and end-of-year performances transpired only a week ago, yet my calendar is stubbornly insisting otherwise. The end of August is upon us once more, and for America’s youth, that can only mean one thing: it’s back-to-school season, that dread[…]
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Earlier in June, I posted a blog about my initial experiences as an intern with the Midsummer’s Music chamber music festival in Door County, Wisconsin, and how the events of the first week alone caused me to view the process of organizing and presenting concerts from a fresh perspective. Now, six weeks, twenty-five concerts, and[…]
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You don’t need the radio on for very long today to hear it: the jubilant rhythms of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the triumphant strains of “The Star Spangled Banner,” or, if you’re listening to a classical station, the majestic opening viola solo of Dvorak’s “American” quartet. Independence Day has come again, and patriotic music[…]
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The other morning, I arose at the ungodly hour of 7 A.M. to bid farewell to my sixteen-year-old brother, who is headed off to music camp for the next four weeks. As I blearily hugged him good-bye, I was reminded of the many summers I traveled to camps myself, dragging my suitcase and instrument through[…]
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For us musicians, performing a concert is nothing unusual. We know the routine–arrive an hour or so before start time, find a practice room, warm up, get nervous, go onstage, play, de-stress briefly at intermission, play some more, accept the applause, mingle with audience members at the reception (if there is one), get in the[…]
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It’s over! The end of the school year has arrived at last, and now that you’ve finished your exams, passed your jury, and hopefully passed your dorm room inspection (“you’re quite sure that drawer was broken before you moved in, Melinda?”), you’re free to take a break from work and enjoy some much-needed R&R. As[…]
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Perhaps no obligation required of music school students is more daunting than that of the jury. A relatively brief, but seemingly interminable end-of-year examination, the prospect of undergoing this necessary evil entails a multitude of potentially unpleasant experiences: countless hours of tedious practicing, the anxiety-ridden night before, the veritable “march to the scaffold” when your[…]
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