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11/4/2009

Welcome to the first of what will be many introductions of members of the National Symphony Orchestra. We would like to first give you a glimpse of our musicians who recently began playing with us during the 2009-2010 season, and we start with Barry Hearn. Barry won the position of Assistant Principal Trombone last winter and officially started with the NSO this fall. Here's a bit more about him!

Position:

Assistant Principal Trombone/Acting Principal

Type of trombone:

Edwards

Education:

BME, University of Texas at Arlington

MM, University of Illinois

Tell us about your audition experience:

I took eleven auditions prior to winning the Assistant Principal spot with the NSO. Looking back, each audition in its own way taught me a little more about the necessary preparations to win an audition. I am truly a lucky and blessed man!

What was the first thing that went through your mind when you found out you had been hired?

"Wow! I really can't believe this! I can't wait to tell my family!"

Favorite piece to play:

Mahler 2

Favorite piece to listen to:

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra

What concert are you most looking forward to this season?

Dvořák 8. This has always been a favorite of mine.

Name your top five favorite tunes on your mp3 player:

Anything by Nickel Creek. Nickel Creek has probably three of my top five tunes. I'm a sucker for bluegrass. My kid even likes bluegrass! I know it sounds strange, but I absolutely love Christmas tunes. I listen to them all year round. My two remaining tunes are from the Christmas albums of Mindy Smith and Mercy Me.

What was the last concert you attended that you weren't playing?

Billy Joel. Although I wish I was playing!

What did you want to be growing up?

A doctor. In fourth grade our local paper was presenting a story about the future in our community. I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew older. I said "a doctor, because I want to cure diseases that haven't yet been cured." I definitely have the penmanship.

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt now?

Professional athlete. There are no World Series Championships in trombone.

What profession would you not like to do?

Telemarketing. I hate receiving the calls, so why would I want to be one?

What is your favorite thing about living in the DC area?

Everyone seems so educated and arts conscious. It's a little piece of heaven. Plus, the museums are free!

Do you have any pets?

Two cats: Gershwin and Satchmo. Both a little too interested in being around us. Satchmo, our youngest, looks like a bobcat. He is huge. His voice is so high pitched I thought about naming him Aaron Neville.

When not working, you can find me:

Working on my house or at the park with my 2 year-old son, Spencer.

Favorite movie:

The Mission

Last movie you saw:

The Informant

Favorite book:

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Favorite sports team:

I like watching most sports on TV, but my absolute favorite is college football. Texas A&M is a perennial favorite.

Barry on the job. Photo courtesy of Daryl Donley.

Favorite word:

"You're hired!" Sorry, I needed two words.

Least favorite word:

Any word with a nagging or whining tone behind it.

What do you whistle when no one is listening?

I really don't whistle. I'm more of a half singer/half mumbler and I sing/mumble whatever tune is on the TV or radio.

Where do you go to think/not to think?

The car is a perfect place to do both.

What turns you on?

The smell of my grandfather's old Ford pickup's interior.

What turns you off?

Traffic congestion when I need to get somewhere fast.

What sound do you love?

My kid laughing.

What sound do you hate?

Any alarm clock!

Posted at 12:49 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Category: Meet Our Musicians | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/19/2009

“A Couple” of Happy Listeners, by Glenn Donnellan

Glenn Donnellan is a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra

In a recent blog, I offered for patrons to come say hi at the stage if they want, that I love to chat with them. After the concert on Thursday, October 8, as I was putting my violin in my car, a woman named Rachel approached me with a question, which turned into an interesting 20 minute conversation with her and her husband, Jason, about the concert and the NSO, neither of whom had read my blog offer! I always want to know what brought a listener to a particular concert, and their story was a mix of serendipity and their passion for music. Rachel often gets Jason NSO tickets for his birthday, and for this year's present picked that night's concert: Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, and Martinů's The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca.

Turns out she struck a chord with the program pick - Jason had heard the slow movement of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in the car on the radio a few weeks ago and loved it so much that he bought a recording right away. So they were both really happy to catch this concert. I asked what they thought of the Martinů, the more challenging listen on the program, and Jason said he liked it, notably that "it had some great chord changes that were beautifully fulfilling yet were injected with jabs of other harmonies" (he put it better). That was amazing to hear from a non-musician, because I felt that really summed up one of the most interesting things in the Martinů menu. Kind of like a drink of lemonade - refreshingly sweet and satisfying yet with a tartness to enliven it. Then he said something really amazing. He said the concert experience made him feel like his molecules got rearranged, realigned, as in a better way. Wow. Who could imagine such an impact on our audience?

So, what did Rachel ask me in the first place? "Why don't people clap after the first movement anymore - whatever happened to that tradition?" She was disappointed that after the huge and declamatory 1st movement of the Brahms, which is like a whole work unto itself, no one let loose with ovation during the pause before the slow movement. We talked about that for a while and came up with some ideas, but I would love to hear what other people think about that. Why not clap and cheer in between movements when it really grabbed you? And what of that "tradition?"

Posted at 5:22 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Category: 09-10 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/6/2009

All the World’s a Stage, by Karyn Garvin

Karyn Garvin is the Operations and Special Projects Coordinator of the National Symphony Orchestra

Photos courtesy of Daryl Donley, Production Manager of the National Symphony Orchestra

Before we dive in to the new season, we thought we would give you one last look at how the outdoor concerts at the U.S. Capitol are staged, courtesy of the NSO's Production Manager and Photographer Extraordinaire, Daryl Donley.

Until the unexpected downpour just minutes to show time, it was a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Crews started setting up the giant tent for Sunday's concert the Friday before. Not even the most skilled meteorologist could have predicted that such splendid weather would suddenly transform into what Emil de Cou deemed "a dark and stormy night at the U.S. Capitol" without warning. But I digress.

The West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol has permanent anchor points in the ground just for this tent, which is used for our annual Labor Day concert, the last in our Capital Concerts series. For Memorial Day and Fourth of July, an even bigger tent is used that requires a completely different set of permanent anchor points.

Here we see the crew in the early stages of set up:

The tent is first connected to the support trusses.

A view of the tent with the Capitol Building in the background. Daryl took this shot from what is to become our "backstage" area once everything is in place.

Almost there…

Lift off!

The final product in action.

The entire process takes about four hours from start to finish, and that's just the tent! The crew still needs to set up the stage, backstage areas, lighting, sound…the list goes on. When the show's over, the crew will stay at the Capitol all night tearing down the set so that by the Tuesday morning after the holiday weekend, those who work on the Hill will never even know we were there.

As for the tent, it has gone into hibernation at Castle Mini Storage of Rockville, MD. Look for it next Labor Day!

Posted at 12:11 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/24/2009

Good bye, Summer Concerts, Hello New Season! By Emil de Cou

Emil de Cou is Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra

Labor Day is the NSO's final outdoor concert of the summer and the last of our three on the West Lawn of the US Capitol. Performing outdoors in the DC Area is always a roll of the musical dice since storms can (and do) pop up without notice. But we were virtually guaranteed that this summer’s Labor Day Sunday (September 6) would offer picture perfect weather with the National Weather Service and all of the television weather reporters saying that we would have clear skies through the following weekend.

Emil and Gus Mitchell (trombone)

To the Capitol I go and onto our rehearsal with the NSO and the US Army Chorus in our program of anniversaries. Gypsyturned 50, South Pacific 60 and Gone with the Wind 70, but most important of all, Abraham Lincoln 200! All went as planned and the pieces sounded wonderful in the best outdoor concert venue in the world. Like many in the NSO I too make a pilgrimage to that temple of transportation Union Station - and down into the temple of all-you-can-eat eateries, the food court! Coming out in a post sushi stupor we noticed the skies behind the Capitol were now pitch black. Thank you for that, Adam Caskey.

The Capitol before the Concert

Then the rain started - everyone got soaking wet including our brave audience who had begun to assemble hours before the scheduled concert start time. After a command central meeting in a tent (my mind wandered back to that famous picture of Lincoln at Antietam!), we decided on a one hour concert of the best from the program. We made it though the musical selections and John Williams film scores during which we remembered our late friend Erich Kunzel. Murry Sidlin, former NSO assistant conductor and now dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University, read the words of Lincoln movingly as we played the famous Copland score. And then the wind shifted and into the shell the rain came. Musicians protected their instruments from the downpour and I told the audience that we had to take a short break (I thought that they were going to storm the stage because they thought that we might not come back).

It was a dark and stormy night at the US Capitol

So more emergency meetings and it was decided that, once again, the US Army (chorus) was going to save the day! The men of the chorus, under the expert direction of Captain Scott McKenzie, performed a cappella for 20 plus minutes through one tune after another - all from memory. I sat on stage behind them watching the rain and our glorious capitol dome as happy, and wet, as could be. It turned out in a funny way, to be one of the most memorable Labor Day Concerts I have done.

Emil and Captain Scott McKenzie after the concert

Then back inside for the opening concert of the season, the Kennedy Center Open House with the NSO this time joined by two French Canadian actors from L'Arsenel to perform their extended version of Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. The stage was setup with two large multi colored beach umbrellas turned on their sides, two folding ladders behind them, and several stuffed animals behind their makeshift stage. It all had the look of a vaudeville show crossed with the messiest child's bedroom in the world.

Emil and the NSO staff play with Carnival props while the crew sets the stage. From left: Karyn Garvin, Patricia O’Kelly, Emil de Cou, and Stephanie Astilla

The orchestra is small for this piece so we were half way up stage leaving a great deal of room for the actors who sang, jumped, whistled (a loud police whistle that made me jump more than once), and pantomimed their way through a magical childlike rendition of the Saint-Saëns' imagined circus. The small children were especially beguiled. During the most famous number "The Swan" which featured a lyrical Glenn Garlick on cello and our two pianists, Lisa Emenheiser and Audrey Andrist, I went into the house to listen and see what it all looked like. The stage lights turned to blue and the actors, lifting a sheet between the ladders, transformed the stage into a magical moonlit pond. They then became a white and black swan courting on this pretend water - with only socks on their arms and a feathered fan as their body to cover their faces. At the end they embrace (as much as swans can embrace, I suppose) and then came a line of black and white feathered chicks over the final arpeggio of the movement. Watching it from my vantage point behind the "water" during the performance, I was struck at how very beautiful this simple music is but also how stagecraft as old as the first days of theater is still so effective, more so than the most elaborate of flying scenery.

Emil with our actors and some props

Concert Hall chicks

Off into the Grand Foyer to meet and greet my miniature audience - something that makes me so happy. Along with a very generous History of the National Symphony Orchestra book giveaway I signed photos and violin shaped fans. I met not just our young audience members but also out of state visitors, subscribers, music teachers, and first time Kennedy Center concertgoers.

Emil and a young fan

With various friends

With two gentlemen from China

Since my first Open House in 2002 I have always felt that this inspired idea is one of the most important events at the Kennedy Center. Every nook of that great building is open and alive with theater, dance, music, and art of all every kind. The halls are packed with families and what my teacher Leonard Bernstein liked to call "extraordinary ordinary people." Which is to say, us. Families, singles, young, old, Washingtonians, Americans, people of the world, coming together for an afternoon of what makes life more livable, a celebration of man's most precious creation. The Arts. And what a celebration it was.

Posted at 3:59 PM by Hunter, G. Ethan | Category: Summer 2009 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/23/2009

Welcome to Our Home, by Warren Williams

Warren Williams is the Manager of Community Relations of the National Symphony Orchestra

If you enjoy inviting guests to your home, then you will appreciate the excitement the National Symphony Orchestra felt when 20,000 people converged upon our home at the Kennedy Center last week for the 25^th Annual Open House Arts Festival.

Staff, interns, a dedicated retired NSO musician and 10 volunteers from our Women's Committee group set-up bright and early to greet guests and provide information at the NSO Welcome Tables in the Grand Foyer. Located near the John F. Kennedy bust, our tables were highly visible and soon became magnets for people wanting to know more about upcoming NSO concerts, events for families and teachers, and of course to partake of "free stuff." We were happy to oblige, handing out hundreds of brochures, NSO history books and 1,000 miniature violin-shaped fans which included the slogan "I am a Fan of the NSO." We had some stiff competition from our neighboring table, which provided zebra-striped goody bags containing adorable red recorders (the flute-like musical instruments). This coveted item soon became the envy of all parents whose children began to witness their peers filling the air with the sounds of even more music, but I digress.

Susan Hayes Long, President of the Women's Committee for the National Symphony Orchestra, welcomes visitors.

After meeting and greeting the early-birds, we began encouraging people to attend the Festival kick-off performance at noon, featuring the National Symphony Orchestra in the Concert Hall. The Orchestra performed Carnival of the Animals in a unique presentation with actors and life-size puppets from French Canadian company L'Arsenal à Musique. I managed to pop-in for a second and I must say the house was packed, the orchestra sounded great and young people seemed to be completely drawn-in by the combination of music and costumed characters on stage. I love the NSO's performances at Open House as we attract a large number of new audience members, many who are experiencing a live orchestra for the first time.

Immediately following the concert, we escorted our Associate Conductor, Emil de Cou, to the Grand Foyer to sign autographs. Maestro de Cou was so gracious and giving with each individual, taking pictures, answering questions and making friends. What an amazing ambassador for the NSO! We had to whisk him back in time for the NSO's second concert at 2pm as the crowds began to swell in preparation for the next performance. Indeed, there was a line that started at the Hall of Nations entrance leading up to the Concert Hall ramp!

As the NSO's next performance began, I went out on the North Plaza to peak-in on the Instrument Petting Zoo managed by our Women's Committee volunteer group. Hundreds of children (and some adults) were trying-out a variety of instruments and it was quite a sight to see. Perhaps these photos will help tell the story!

An Open House visitor tries the cello

A Women's Committee volunteer and a new friend making music

On to the brass section!

NSO Education Intern Theresa Hubbard demonstrates the embouchure needed to play the trumpet.

Make some noise!

A budding clarinetist

The Instrument Petting Zoo is an ongoing project of the Women's Committee and takes place at every NSO Family Concert and Kinderkonzert at the Kennedy Center throughout the year. Without a doubt, the Open House draws the largest audience for the Petting Zoo, requiring nearly 100 volunteers and 200 instruments. This is a vital part of the NSO's engagement with the community as it affords young people opportunities to gain hands-on access to the instruments they see and hear the NSO playing onstage.

We continued making personal connections with hundreds of interesting people throughout the course of the day. It was a rewarding feeling to know so many cherish the arts and our great Orchestra. Overall, the Festival was a tremendous success as the NSO welcomed both new friends and loyal fans to our home.

Warren Williams (second from left) gathers with NSO staff, volunteers, interns, and Associate Conductor Emil de Cou for a group photo at the end of a memorable Open House!

Posted at 6:07 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Category: 09-10 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/11/2009

Monkey Music, by David Teie

David Teie is a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra

I have spent a lot of time during the past few years leading my perfectly reasonable wife, Pavla, to think that I have lost my marbles. I have been given to extended periods of time sitting in my chair looking like a dozing cellist, only to pop up mumbling and sketch something into my little book or log onto an internet search. I was putting together ideas pertaining to how music affects the emotions. After two years of that and another year of writing a book on the subject I started writing music for monkeys. Pavla stayed with me, nevertheless.

I sent the book to Charles T. Snowdon (at the University of Wisconsin – Madison) in January of 2007 and proposed that we test the effect of species-specific music on members of the colony of cotton-topped tamarin monkeys he had there at the time. If my ideas were right, I surmised that I could compose tamarin music based on tamarin development and vocalizations. In April I flew out to Madison to record the tamarin calls and lay the groundwork for the testing. I stayed with Chuck and Ann in their beautiful home and spent a couple of days recording hours of tamarin vocalizations. They are literally jumpy monkeys – it is a part of their natural defenses that they are constantly hopping around and chirping to each other – moving targets.

In the tests we played aggressive human music (Metallica), ballad human music (Barber Adagio), aggressive tamarin music, and ballad tamarin music for them. Basically, they had little or no reaction to human music and significant and appropriate reactions to the tamarin music, they were anxious following the playing of the tamarin aggressive music and were calmed by the tamarin ballad. We replicated the test using different human and tamarin music and got the same results again. BOOOOYAAAH!!! Can I say that? I had done a little preliminary test of tamarin music during my visit in April and got such a strong reaction from the little critters that I did a celebration dance in the lab office. I don't think they get a lot of that there…

We submitted the paper to two other journals before being accepted by the highly prestigious Biology Letters. Mind you, we are delighted with the journal that took the paper! Biology Letters is published by the Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific society – these are the guys who invented the peer review system. It is great to be published by Charles Darwin's crowd.

For those interested in the theory and the study, David Teie will post another blog that will be divided it into sections to allow for skimming/skipping: 1) an outline of the basic ideas behind his theory of music, 2) a description of the study, and 3) some possibilities for the future of species-specific music. The story has now been carried by: NPR, The Washington Post, the Discovery Channel, and other major news outlets around the world.

Posted at 6:45 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/4/2009

What the Concert Hall did on its Summer Vacation, by Barbara Gartley

Barbara Gartley works in the Project Management Office of the Kennedy Center.

The National Symphony Orchestra keeps the Concert Hall teeming with music and musicians throughout the year: rehearsals, concerts, auditions and more.

So what's happening with the Concert Hall while the NSO tours? Or moves out to Wolf Trap?

This:

And This:

After (literally) watching the paint peel for some time, especially from the Second Tier, a major Concert Hall ceiling refurbishment began this summer. The project was done through the Kennedy Center's Facilities Department. Planning began in June to have a contractor ready to work on August 10.

Since there was just a three week window when the auditorium was dark every day, only 1/3 of the ceiling could be restored this summer. The scaffold, almost 50' high, was put up in four days and taken down in three days.

Now you know how we clean the chandeliers and replace light bulbs, too!

There were two shifts of workers for both scaffolding and painting for most of the project, working 6am to 10pm to expedite the work. The result is a fresh, clean ceiling ready for the music to begin!

Posted at 7:07 PM by Garvin, Karyn E | Category: Summer 2009 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/28/2009

The “Batolin” adventure, by Glenn Donnellan

Glenn Donnellan is a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra.

This Batolin adventure all began when I was asked to play a demo on an electric violin (borrowed from Foxes Music) for the NSO Young People's Concerts we did last fall at the Kennedy Center, where science and music was the theme. I had never played an electric fiddle before then and had fun messing around with it. I thought it would be fun to make one myself, so one week prior to our March American Residency in Arkansas, I started work on a Louisville Slugger with the NSO stagehands' drill press before and after concerts. Since I was rotated off the Mozart piano concerto [for the concerts of March 19-21 with Herbert Blomstedt and Jonathan Biss], I even did some drill work in my tails during the concert. I worked on it more at home that weekend - when my wife returned from an outing Saturday and encountered my project in the garage for first time, she commented "you could have cleaned the garage" (instead of messing around with such a thing). Finished it up in hotel rooms in AR and premiered it at the NSO Young People's Concert in Helena, AR. In April, NSO cellist Jim Lee introduced me to a Nats owner (Bob Tanenbaum) at an Autism Speaks benefit concert done by Jim's chamber music series at Episcopal High School. A few months later I made the YouTube video to send to Bob so he could consider having me play for the Nats. That happened on July 1^st. Others found it and it took on its own life from there.

The Nats contacted me via Facebook via their mascot, Teddy, an amusing face-man use for him, and I ended up playing the Star Spangled Banner for the Nats on 8/8.

I really can't say enough about the Nats - they were great to me, happy to have me there, and made me and my family feel completely welcomed. I've always had a good fan experience there, and from my positive experience behind the scenes playing the Anthem, it seems like that friendly, helpful demeanor goes all the way to the top. And it was fantastic to play for game 7 of their 8-game winning streak. Go Nats! NSO players Pam Hentges (assistant principal second violin), Ira Gold (bass) and Vern Summers (violin) all happened to be at the game, which made it all the more fun, and I was able to bring some family and friends and some of the NSO stage hands who were helpful in getting the Batolin started through the use their tools, in addition to letting me play with the amps and sound systems at the KC and in AR.

The comments posted to my YouTube video have been nice to read, which is nearing 200,000 views. I delete only those that are extremely profane or where people fight with other commentators, like the vicious attacks that follow after someone says they don't like the S.S. Banner or dislike American attitude, etc. I like that early on, folks would comment that it wasn't real (air-bowing a bat, etc.), and multiple defenders would swoop in with responses, citing things they saw in the video that convinced them it was real. One question I have is why so many people have to use expletives to underscore their positive comments...I'd like this to be a kid-friendly endeavor, so some of those get zapped as well.

One of the great experiences that has come out of this is being so close to the action at the ball park, both on field at the warm-ups before the game and up close behind home plate during the game. I do a sound check 3-4 hours before the game starts to get sound levels set and then I get to hang out and watch batting practice, etc. The "dressing" rooms I've had so far have been right next to the dugouts, so I can watch right from that amazing vantage point. I had never been up that close, where you can watch the ball launch and spin off the bat, arcing through the air, sometimes even cutting a slow corkscrew as it sails away.

Catching up with Nats fans after playing William Tell atop the dugout for the Presidents race:

An odd part of the experience is that there is a delay in the sound system, understandably. You hear your sound a split second after you play a note, and that can be very distracting. It also makes it hard to fix intonation, since your fingers are on to the next note by the time you hear what they just played. So there is no real-time adjusting, especially since the bat itself makes almost no sound - no sound box; just the quiet sound of the strings vibrating the air around them. This leads me to use foam earbud-type headphones, which are like a foam construction earplug (like what we use in the symphony for loud music) that you squish in your fingers and then insert in your ear, where they expand and block out sound. They have little speaker tubes in them that allow you to hear an iPod, etc. in a noisy environment, like on a plane. I stick these in my ears and plug them into my amp modeler and I have a direct line to hearing just me. It doesn't sound like what comes out of the speakers, either. It's amazing how the sound changes from one speaker source to another (think of hearing a song on your cell phone and then hearing it on a good stereo). So that in itself is a little distracting, because I don't get the same sound feeling that I designed for the speaker system. Intonation is difficult to hear in this application as well, but I'm getting a little better at it.

So, people ask "how much does it pay?" I haven't made a dime at this so far - MLB clubs don't pay for the Anthem to be performed, nor do they cover any travel expenses, so I find. It looks like producing and selling this new instrument to memorabilia collectors would be the way to recoup the couple G's I've put into it so far. I recently drove myself to Atlanta and put myself up in hotels to play a Braves make-up game on the 17th, just for the experience. That was fun, and throughout the game Hall of Fame announcer Don Sutton was very complimentary of my performance, which made it all the more worth it. Ballpark fans really like seeing the bat, so I walked around the stands with it after I played. I'd love to play for other teams, but can't afford to take the time and expense of getting to anything farther away than Atlanta, esp. when the NSO is playing. All the teams have their anthem dates booked for the remainder of the regular season, so I anticipate no more calls this season, except that I may play again for the Nats - I hear they would like to rebook me. Maybe we can redo the William Tell Overture during the Presidents race - on 8/8 I played it from atop the Nats dugout, but it hardly came through the sound system, so no one was aware of the race's "soundtrack".

A curious side-endeavor developed last Friday, August 21st, after a "Let's Talk Live" interview with Newschannel 8 in Arlington. Charlyne Yi from the film Paper Heart was also at the interview, so we got talking, she tried the bat, and then asked me to play it at her standup comedy gig at Arlington Cinema Draft House that night. I had no idea what she planned to have me do, and it was strange to get up on stage in the middle of her act and insert a couple tunes, like a sudden straight man with no one to play off. I had a good time, though, and she was a lot of fun to hear. She is a very musical entertainer herself, accompanying her quirky, comical vocals with electric guitar and playing hand bells or a mini toy keyboard (think Ross Geller before the prom, shrunk down). After the show she said that she usually has a friend do a few numbers on a hand saw when she plays in L.A. It was then that I realized that I've officially entered the world of funky musical entertainment.

I am always happy to talk to any audience members at the KC or elsewhere - I think people should feel free to come up and ask players questions, and I'd like to get to know our fans (oh, sorry - concertgoers) more. We appreciate that you come to our concerts, and I always wonder what drew you to that particular concert program, or what things you like about music or the symphony. So when you see me on stage, come up and say hi!

Showing some Levine School summer campers the ropes of the amp modeler equipment that gives the bat its sound:

Links to some of the major news coverage:

Examiner.com New York

WAMU (DC radio station) Man About Town announcement

NPR All Things Considered

Newschannel 8 interview on 8/21 (local D.C. news show) - Look under Friday, August 21.

MASN (Mid Atlantic Sports Network) interview at 8/8 Nats game

Posted at 11:37 AM by Steele, Cynthia P | Category: Summer 2009 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/18/2009

Wolf Trap is a-Twitter, by Emil de Cou

Emil de Cou is the Associate Conductor of the NSO, and the NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor.

After our 'dark and stormy' Carmina I thought that our final week of the NSO @ Wolf Trap would be a cloudless breeze. The few remaining storms during the week had cleared - and our last three shows of July were fairly uncomplicated - or so I thought. As we approached the Sarah Chang/Beethoven concert we began to get an increasing internet avalanche of press about the Pastoral / Twitter program. [The NSO performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral” at Wolf Trap on July 30, and offered audience members in a designated section of the lawn the opportunity to receive live “program notes” via Twitter.]
It seems that a live and in time Twitter feed providing pop-up program notes directed at an audience of intrepid iPhone concertgoers (lawn seating only) caught the attention of not just the Washington Post but also the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Baltimore Sun, News Hour with Jim Lehrer (online edition), USA Today, not to mention papers in Australia, South America, and Canada, and countless blogs. I was thrilled at the prospect of having a sizable number of young audience members hearing the NSO and this great music for the first time - all the more so since we had had such a success with our Fantastic Planet concert (and our first ever in time podcast) in 2007. So I arrive at the Filene Center early to meet some friends at Ovations (them dinner, me too many Diet Cokes) and then to say hello to our soloist Sarah Chang who was dressed to the 9's down in the air conditioned comfort of the dressing room level.

Terre Jones (President and CEO,Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts) Sarah Chang, me:
Terre Jones, Sarah Chang, and Emil de Cou

Our opening work, Copland's Four Dances Episodes from Rodeo, went wonderfully. For me there is nothing better that listening to and watching the musicians play Hoe Down - something that they have done with the composer many times and over the years has become a sort of a signature piece for the NSO.

On comes Sarah Chang dressed in a slinky pink evening gown (the only soloist I know who gets flowers before the performance - well earned). The humidity was really starting to get intense on stage, made that much worse with the bright light. Sarah begins the Mendelssohn beautifully and plays for around four minutes before the heat and dampness begin to dislodge her chin rest (which keeps the violin comfortably at face level as opposed to elbow level - like in, well, Hoe Down). She has one bar of rest to get it back in working position before - pop! - off it comes sent flying onto the ground . At first I thought that I could pick it up for her but it was a little out of reach - and besides, I was sort of busy at the time. Another bar of rest and Assistant Concertmaster Ricardo Cyncynates comes to the rescue with his chin rest - leaving Sarah to comfortably finish the concerto and Ricardo to be the dashing knight (left to country fiddle his way through the accompaniment - brilliantly of course). As we all walked off stage laughing, Sarah only asked Ricardo backstage "where did you get your chin rest? - It's really comfortable."

The Beethoven Pastoral came off without a hitch - Kim Witman, Director of Wolf Trap Opera and Classical Programming, sent out the Twitter messages on time to the delight of hundreds on the lawn (Twitter designated section). It turned out to be a very good experiment - and hats off to both the NSO and Wolf Trap staff for being so adventuresome. We got a lot of press for this - much good - some confused (like 'what in the heck is Twitter?') and some less good ('why do we need this at all' - 'to get the attention of young people who will be the audience of the future' I respond). But more importantly we opened up a world of music to young first time future music lovers.

Moon over Wolf Trap (photo by me) "Broadway Rocks":
The Moon over Wolf Trap

The following night was our second movie night at Wolf Trap. The Wizard of Oz being one of the most complicated concerts I have ever done, I thought that Blue Planet Live, with its fluid music (George Fenton) and equally fluid images (courtesy the BBC), would be a walk in the park (pants rolled up). The rehearsal went well - then off to a party at NASA on E Street as a thank you for our "Salute to Apollo" which, I am told was the hit of the 40th anniversary weekend.

Back to Wolf Trap and my final show of the summer. On stage I go with our narrator Bob Heck. I look at my television monitor to start the music with the image of a gigantic fish tail - and my personal little screen is dark. I wait for a while hearing the unsettling sound of the splash of huge waves - then above my head I sense something.... a whale swimming in silence. I get off of the podium to take a look and indeed it is the beginning of Blue Planet Live but with no click track (in my right ear to coordinate the music with the picture) and no TV monitor. So feeling a little like a cross between a vaudeville musician and Captain Ahab I jokingly tell the audience that we are experiencing technical difficulties and exit 'stage right'. Our brave technical crew fix the problem and off we go into the deep music and images now in sync. But while the TV monitor is working fine the metronome-like clip track is silent. I get through the whale overture, and while Bob sets up the next segment I sneak off stage left this time - to ask for the click to be restored. Confident that our last problem has been solved I put on the ear piece only to hear 10 seconds of country and western music and then eerie silence.

Argh me says to meself! We get through the next piece after a slight mishap involving microscopic deep sea fish and all is well. Our audience never knew that anything was wrong (minus the opening whale summer rerun) - which is the great part of working with top notch pros on and off stage. I have found myself with a temporary aversion to Miss Paul's fish sticks these past few days, but I suspect that it (along with seeing my baton as a 14 inch harpoon) will pass.

Me with narrator Bob Heck and his family:

I should mention briefly that following our "Salute to Apollo" concert I was asked to speak at the International Mars Society convention at the University of Maryland as part of an arts and science panel. I found it all great fun - and maybe some other time I can go into that experience in more detail. Let’s just say for now - conducting with a 53 foot whale above my head paled in comparison on the unusual factor. And I didn't even get to my Ray Walston joke.

Thank you NSO for yet another amazing, fun, moving, and all together unforgettable summer at Wolf Trap - where the arts (and more than a few fish, monkeys, witches, Twitter, and chin rests) come out to play.

Emil de Cou
NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor

Posted at 5:28 PM by Hunter, G. Ethan | Category: Summer 2009 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/13/2009

Why Music? By Sae Kyoung Jang

Sae Kyoung Jang is an 18 year old cellist from Okemos, Michigan. She was one of the young musicians, ages 15-20, chosen from across the United States and abroad to participate in the 2009 Kennedy Center/NSO National Trustees' Summer Music Institute (SMI). This past summer 56 students from 32 states, D.C., and 3 countries (Russia, Paraguay, and New Zealand) participated in SMI. All students are on full scholarship as supported by the National Trustees of the NSO. For more information on the Summer Music Institute, please go to www.kennedy-center.org/nso/nsoed/smi.

Sae Kyoung Jang, photo by Margot Schulman:

How many musicians think about why they do music when they pick up their instruments for daily practice? For me, practicing the cello has become a mere daily routine – scales, repertoire, sixths and octaves. It's been that way for eleven years and I never question why I do it.

Before coming to the NSO Summer Music Institute (SMI), I asked myself the question – why music, especially if I'm studying to be an engineer in college? When I tell people I'm studying science in college, some assume I chose science for the job security and music for the soul. In reality though, science is my passion, and if I really think about it, I've turned music into a logical activity – something that will help the dexterity of my hands and the flexibility of my mind.

When I arrived at SMI, I was blown away by the amount of talent, passion, and dedication around me. To my surprise, I was the one falling behind in the Stravinsky, forgetting to count and missing notes, the one with the obnoxious vibrato in the Dvorak. Why was my concentration falling behind? Why couldn't my fingers follow scales I'd practiced for years? Our conductor, Elizabeth Schulze, said that as rehearsals progress, we should feel more at ease, but my left arm only seemed to get clunkier and my bow arm heavier and heavier.

My peers, on the other hand, played effortlessly, so much that their instruments seemed almost like extensions of their limbs and bodies. Towards the beginning of the program, eleven finalists were chosen for the concerto competition. As the finalists performed, they showed no sign of effort or thought; their muscles followed the line of the music, as if the movements were ingrained in them by nature. I could feel a gradient of their energy and their presence, their concentration in the musical lines and the emotions provoked by them. Were they aware of the audience as they performed? I couldn't tell. It seemed that the music had painted them into reality, in front of the audience's eyes, that it was the music controlling them, instead of them controlling the music.

Over the years, I had forgotten why I do music. I had forgotten that moment in a performance when the music takes over your body, the moment when you have to trust your muscles completely to hit that high note or that perfect chord, when emotions are spilling out of your heart into your chest and crawling out of your throat. And I realized that music wasn't just an extracurricular activity or a hobby - it was a lifestyle. It was a lifestyle of work - of hours of practice going into muscle memory - of emotional fulfillment, and physical training. It was a lifestyle of being able to give it your all in the one moment that matters, out in the concert hall. People became musicians not because of some obligation thrust upon them by parents, society, or religion, but because they loved being in the moment and letting the music carry them.

It has been around a week now since SMI ended. I can look back to two orchestra concerts, four nights of chamber music concerts, many seminars and master classes, and memories shared with incredible people. I've learned many things – to "dance" in my chair, to listen to the other sections, to concentrate, to let go of the tension in my body, to cook frozen pizza, to juggle, among many other things. I'm still searching for my next moment of musical abandon in front of an audience. I know I've done it before – because that's when I fell in love with music.

Sae Kyoung Jang, MIT Class of 2013

Posted at 12:15 PM by Steele, Cynthia P | Category: Summer 2009 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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