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At the Cap, by Karyn Garvin; photos by Cynthia Steele
Posted by Karyn Garvin

Karyn Garvin is Operations and Special Projects Coordinator for the National Symphony Orchestra; Cynthia Steele is the NSO Orchestra Manager.

It's that time again! The NSO has temporarily moved from its home base at the Kennedy Center, traveling just down Constitution Avenue to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the second time this season. With Independence Day upon us, our musicians, staff, and crew are looking forward to a busy yet exciting weekend celebrating 30 years of "A Capitol Fourth!" In addition to the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jack Everly, our friends at Capital Concerts have arranged for Sunday's event to include performances by Gladys Knight, Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker, David Archuleta, John Schneider, Lang Lang, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, all hosted by Jimmy Smits. Oh, and of course: fireworks!

Below you will find several behind-the-scenes photos from our most recent Memorial Day Concert to get you in the "Capitol" mood. If you can't make it to the D.C. area this weekend, you can still catch the show, cannons and all, on PBS stations this Sunday, July 4th at 8:00 PM EST.

 

Members of the Kennedy Center Stage Crew take a well-deserved break. From left: D.C. Valentine, David Langrell, Glenn Turner, and Robert Tillett.

 

Where the magic happens: musicians, staff, and crew utilize this tent for instrument trunk storage and coffee breaks.

 

Best seat in the House…and the Senate. Principal Timpani Jauvon Gilliam warms up prior to rehearsal.

 

NSO Principal Bass Robert Oppelt prepares to go onstage.

 

 

For more information on "A Capitol Fourth," please visit www.pbs.org/capitolfourth.

Dame Evelyn Glennie’s Entourage, by Erin Kacenga Ozment; photos by Daryl Donley and D.C. Valentine
Posted by Erin Kacenga Ozment

Erin Kacenga Ozment is Artistic Administrator for the National Symphony Orchestra; Daryl Donley is Production Manager; D.C. Valentine is Sound Engineer for the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

In a typical week the soloist arrives in Washington with a piece of luggage and perhaps a violin case.  This is not a typical week.  Dame Evelyn Glennie returns to appear with the NSO as percussion soloist in Symphony No. 4 (Magma) by Erkki-Sven Tüür, a piece which requires a lot of equipment.  On Monday a large van full of individually wrapped pieces arrived at the Kennedy Center: 4 cymbals, bass drum, tam tam, campanelli, vibes, 4 roto-toms, mark tree, cowbell, 6 tomtoms, drums, 3 woodblocks, wind chimes, marimba, congas, 4 temple blocks, and 3 bell plates.  Dame Glennie arrived a day early to work with the Concert Hall stage crew to precisely place each instrument, 10 music stands, and 4 stick trays so that she can play them all properly. 

A second performance is watching the stage crew set and remove the instruments properly during the concerts.  If you are sitting in one of the tiers, you might notice lots of small pieces of colored tape across the floor of the stage.  This is called, "spiking the stage," and the pieces of tape are simply reference points so that each piece of equipment can be placed exactly where it was the night before.  There is so much to move and it needs to be done quickly and accurately.  We are fortunate to have very experienced crew members and I often find their "ballet" as interesting as the musical program.

Here are a few photos of the instruments you will see at the concert:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evelyn Glennie will be performing with conductor Kristjan Järvi and the NSO tonight at 7:00 PM, and Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM. For tickets and information, please visit our website.

An Invitation from Composer, Conductor, and Creative American, John Adams
Posted by John Adams

I'm a composer with a very American name who writes music with very American themes. Over the two weeks of my NSO residency I'll present three of my major orchestral works, placing them in context with music by other composers who helped shape me—Stravinsky, Copland, and Britten in particular. The idea behind my symphonic and operatic work has always been the American experience, and I think the works we'll be doing reflect that. The Wound-Dresser is a setting of Walt Whitman's recollections of wartime Washington, a moving testimony of his intimate experiences as a caregiver for wounded Civil War soldiers who were housed in tents that filled the Mall for the duration of the war. Eric Owens, the marvelous bass-baritone for whom I've composed two operatic roles, will join us to sing these beautiful and disturbing Whitman words.

The Doctor Atomic Symphony is drawn from my opera about the creation of the first atomic bomb and the complex genius, Robert Oppenheimer, who brought this epochal event to fruition. And The Dharma at Big Sur is an homage to the great Beat poet Jack Kerouac in the form of a wild jazz-inflected concerto for electric violin and orchestra, played by one of the most charismatic young violinists around, Leila Josefowicz.

I hope you come to experience these concerts and all that my Kennedy Center residency has to offer.

John Adams

Photo by Margaretta Mitchell

John Adams will conduct two programs with the National Symphony Orchestra, May 13-15 and May 20-22.  For information and tickets, please visit our website or call the box office at 202-467-4600.

Read more from John Adams at his website: www.earbox.com.

Sondheim at 80: From Start to Finish, by Erin Kacenga Ozment
Posted by Erin Kacenga Ozment

Erin Kacenga Ozment is the Artistic Administrator for the National Symphony Orchestra

Producing an NSO Pops show is always a whirlwind of activity and this week, a celebration of the music of American icon Stephen Sondheim, is especially exciting.  Although we started discussing this show over a year ago, Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch is constantly full of new ideas and it takes a team to keep up with him.  He works hard to craft every detail of a concert to make it a unique experience for the audience.  While we do as much advance work as possible, we do not all meet in the same room until the day before the first concert.

 

The soloists this week are fantastic in every way, incredible singers and a joy to work with.  Maria Friedman flew in from London on Monday so she has had time to settle in and explore the city a bit - it is her first time in Washington!  She and Marvin arrived at the Kennedy Center at 9:15am to review her repertoire.  At 10:00am Marvin worked with the Orchestra and Maria before breaking for lunch.  Maria is a newlywed (mazel tov!) and shared some photos of her recent wedding celebration before heading out to wander through Georgetown on foot.

 

Michael Cerveris, Liz Callaway and Patricia Noonan arrived in DC on Wednesday morning and at 2:00pm they made their way to the Kennedy Center for a piano rehearsal and talk-through of the show with Marvin, the assistant conductor, stage manager, and lead sound engineer.  Maria arrived a few minutes later with cupcakes for everyone, what a treat!  The singers ran through their numbers with Marvin playing the piano and we made a plan for entrances and exits, blocking, and microphones.  I made a short list of last minute items to be addressed including attending to some dresses that need pressing and mending, creating revised running lists for everyone, and finding a few props: a nosegay, bed sheets, and a faux straight razor (I am sure you all can guess what that is for).  I also alerted our library staff to some possible cuts Marvin wanted made to three of the orchestra charts.

 

 

The soloists arrive and meet in Marvin Hamlisch's dressing room for a run-through of the program:

 

 

 

Marvin goes over logistics with the soloists, NSO staff, and stage crew:

 

 

Patricia Noonan and Liz Callaway take direction from Marvin, while Sean Patrick Flahaven observes (Flahaven is Associate Editor of The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine, and Vice President of Theatre and Standards Repertoire for Warner/Chappell Music where he manages Mr. Sondheim's catalog.  Sean has served as a consultant for these performances):

 

 

Michael Cerveris and Maria Friedman go over their parts with Marvin while stage crew members DC Valentine (left) and Don Tillett take notes:

 

 

Then it was off to a piano rehearsal with The Choral Arts Society of Washington (they were well prepared so it was pretty quick), a run to the Kennedy Center cafeteria for a snack, and back to a second rehearsal with the Orchestra.  We made it through nearly everything when Brian d'Arcy James arrived.  Brian is going back into Next to Normal this month and is in the midst of rehearsals in New York so we are fortunate that he was able to take a few days off to join us this week.  Ever the pro, he walked in, put down his bag, grabbed a microphone and headed for the stage.

 

Marvin Hamlisch and Norman Scribner, artistic director for the Choral Arts Society of Washington, take turns at the piano during the chorus rehearsal:

 

 

 

Thursday morning is our final run-through and the crew will be in early to write light cues.  We plan to run every chart and then send the cast back to their hotel rooms for a rest before coming back to prep for the 7:00pm show.  The crew and production staff will keep working through the afternoon to be sure that everything is in place.  I am always amazed at how everyone prepares separately in advance and then we can put it all together in just a few days - and I am very much looking forward to a celebratory toast after the concerts.

The NSO Pops with Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch presents "Sondheim at 80" tonight at 7:00 PM; Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8 at 8:00 PM. For information and tickets, please visit our website or call the box office at 202-467-4600.

Reflections on Sondheim, by Brian d’Arcy James
Posted by Brian d'Arcy James

Brian d'Arcy James is an actor and vocalist appearing as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra on May 6-8, 2010.

I am very happy to be returning to the Kennedy Center with my friend and colleague, Marvin Hamlisch, singing the works of Stephen Sondheim.  I've had the good fortune to sing Mr. Sondheim's music both in concert settings as well as in theatrical productions and each proves equally thrilling.  

 

 

The music of Stephen Sondheim, from my perspective, is always wonderful because it is always a challenge.  I mean that in the best way.  It requires attention and thought.  The music he writes is not haphazard; everything is constructed with such care that it demands the interpreter to respect the blueprint of the song.  Furthermore, the psychology of the character in the song always has a distinct and meaningful point of view.  The combination of his exquisite musicality with the life of the character in Sondheim's songs inevitably provides a feast for the singer.  Sondheim's music moves me as an actor because the contemplation of its structure is as equally fulfilling as finding the heart of the song while giving it life.

Brian d'Arcy James

 

Brian d'Arcy James will be performing in "Sondheim at 80" with Marvin Hamlisch and the NSO Pops, along with Liz Callaway, Michael Cerveris, Maria Friedman, Patricia Noonan, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington this Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 PM; Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8 at 8:00 PM. For information and tickets, please visit our website or call the box office at 202-467-4600.

Sounds Historic: Learning with the NSO, by Carole Wysocki and Melanie Gudesblatt  
Posted by Carole Wysocki

Carole Wysocki is Director of Education for the National Symphony Orchestra. Melanie Gudesblatt is the NSO Education Intern for the Spring of 2010.

With seven active theaters and performances held every day of the year, the Kennedy Center is always alive with the bustle of concert-goers. But often, the center is stirring with a new kind of energy: the footsteps and chatter of children. In the course of just a few weeks, nearly 32,000 students attended 16 specially-designed educational performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Associate Conductor Emil de Cou. With well over a thousand buses, 344 schools, and two performances each day, it's always a challenge, but our ushers and security staff work wonders.

The students are sent Cue Sheets ahead of time, and as they arrive in the Concert Hall, students in our training program – NSO Youth Fellows – demonstrate instruments and answer questions.

 

Students hurry from their buses to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall for the latest Young People's Concert.

 

These NSO Young People's Concerts are geared toward students in grades 3 through 6 and help them explore music in new and exciting ways. Titled "Sounds Historic," this season's particular series looks at the connections between history and music with pieces inspired by history, those that captured history, and also those that made history! Students experience some of the classics repertoire, like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, as well as more recent music, like Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra and Leonard Bernstein's On the Town. With such great music and all the kids' excitement, one thing is for sure: between the students and NSO, this is definitely history in the making.

Photos from the Road, by Emil de Cou
Posted by Emil de Cou

Emil de Cou is the Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra

The traveling portion of the West Virginia Residency has come to a close and it’s back to business as usual for NSO musicians and staff.  Before the trip becomes all but a distant memory, please enjoy this collection of photographs by the NSO's Associate Conductor, Emil de Cou.

Here we are right before getting on the bus – Aaron Goldman (Assistant Principal Flute), Leif Bjaland, and me - but if you look carefully there is Jauvon Gilliam (our newest member of the NSO family) dashing behind.  He added so much to the tour, musically of course, but also with his wonderful warm and fun spirit (as you can see - well, almost) - and it's only his first month! 

 

 

Here I am with the members of the University of West Virginia String Quartet and their teacher (middle) who serenaded us with the Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1 during our welcome buffet.  Very talented and nice guys who I enjoyed talking with during the reception (two of them are from the DC area).

 

 

Here are Barry Hearn (Acting Principal Trombone) and Kathryn Meany Wilson (English horn) on the oldest suspension bridge in the US - dating before the Civil War that was right next to the concert hall in Wheeling (it looks sort of like a mini Brooklyn Bridge).  An amazing sunset right before the concert started.  

 

 

I was driving the van to Glenville for a preconcert talk but had to stop and take a picture with this sign - the only city welcome that I have seen that had a violin (fiddle) and a banjo.  They have a bluegrass festival once a year.  

 

 

I like to call this picture "The West Virginians" with Ken Harbison (Assistant Principal Percussion) and Tony Ames (Principal Percussion), both native sons and State Senator Facemyer who conducted the Stars and Stripes march as an encore in Glenville. I gave her a short conducting lesson beforehand which was not totally necessary since she has a natural way with a downbeat.  

 

 

Here I am in our final city with the percussion section of the youth orchestra I worked with (Charleston).  It was in their beautiful new concert hall - the young musicians were all so happy to be able to play together - some of them drive for hours for the rehearsals.  

 

Here I am during my first ever "Vocal Master Class" in Morgantown, VW.  This talented young lady, who sang an aria from Barber's Vanessa, of the many talented future performers we come across on our residencies.  I mostly listened - happily.  

 

 

One of the very best side benefits of the American Residency program is that it gives NSO spouses and children the chance to tour with us as well.  Here I am after our Young Person's Concert in Charleston with Ruth Schaaf's (husband Paul also joined) and Pavel Perkarsky's (wife Stella was also on tour) adorable children.  They came to the YPC as well and had a great time (with a little nap for the youngest during a quiet moment).  

 

 

While Maestro Fischer enjoyed several afternoon bridge games with NSO members here we have a serious (!) game of cards during a long bus ride (no money changed hands however leaving me "shocked shocked").

 

 

 

As a tour veteran you learn how to thrown an impromptu after concert party with friends.  Here we have Marissa Regni (Principal Second Violin), Leif, Nick Stovall (Principal Oboe), me and Aaron Goldman (Assistant Principal Flute) outside on a beautiful spring night in Morgantown with our table cloth (hotel towel), stemware (plastic cups courtesy the hotel restaurant), chips and nuts (the local CVS).  Sitting along the Monongahela River that night was one of the nicest of the tour.  

 

 

Not only on the podium but on my music stand, Pavel's little angel beams following our YPC in Charleston, WV. She looks not only happy but strangely at home there with her "I'm an NSO Fan" sign.

 

 

 

With some of the people who helped make the tour happen and helped make it so much fun for musicians, staff, and our audience members: Randall Ried-Smith (Commissioner), Lou Karas (NSO Statewide Coordinator) and state senator Susan Facemyer.  I don't think anyone of us will forget Randall serenading the orchestra at the reception with about 10 songs all about West Virginia.  It was as generous as it was genuine, expressing his love for his beautiful home state and his appreciation of us coming to help support the arts.  

 

 

In addition to Emil's wonderful photos of the West Virginia Residency, please check out a partial list of press coverage from the tour:

Wheeling Intelligencer/News-Register: Wheeling City Council changes meeting time to see orchestra – April 3, 2010

Classically Speaking (blog): Here comes the NSO! – April 5, 2010

Charleston Gazette: Music in the Hills – April 7, 2010

Polyphonic.org: Orchestra Spotlight – National Symphony in West Virginia – April 8, 2010

State Journal: National Symphony to perform in Wheeling Tuesday – April 5, 2010

National Symphony Orchestra Continues W.Va. Residency Tour – April 8, 2010

Bluefield Daily Telegraph: National Symphony Orchestra moves with music – April 12, 2010

The Practicalities of Touring, or: Where Can I Find a Club Sandwich in This Town at 3:30 pm? by Jeffrey Weisner
Posted by Jeffrey Weisner

Jeffrey Weisner is a bassist in the National Symphony Orchestra.

Touring is a very weird mode of existence for an orchestra musician. Separated from your ordinary routine and support network, one finds oneself suddenly having to recalibrate some very basic life routines. Fortunately, with a little experience one can learn the ropes, and after awhile the touring lifestyle can even start to feel strangely normal. This is my fourteenth NSO American Residency and roughly my 25th NSO tour of some kind, so I think I finally feel qualified to give folks a brief glimpse into a few of the day-to-day survival aspects of the tour experience.

 

THE BOOK:

 

Shortly before we leave for any tour, we receive The Book. This little pamphlet, carefully prepared by the NSO staff, contains pretty much everything we NSO musicians need to know to have a good tour. Most critically, it indicates when we need to show up for everything - busses, trains, planes, concerts, rehearsals, hotel check-ins, vans leaving for education concerts, swanky receptions after orchestra concerts, everything! Since each day of tour can contain many of the aforementioned events, it is critical that you check The Book often. NSO musicians can be seen squinting at The Book's mysterious contents on a frequent basis, trying to calculate how long they have before they need to board another mode of transportation. We also use a wide variety of methods to stay on the right page of The Book - some rip out the page for each day after it ends, others have a complex hi-lighter marker system, some just riffle through and hope for the best.

 

FOLLOW THE SIGNS:

 

While reading The Book will tell you where each concert hall on tour is located and how you will most likely be getting there, it does not answer the crucial question of where to go once you have arrived. This is the task of the hardworking NSO signage team. From the moment you enter each evening's venue, a huge array of handwritten signs embossed with lots of tiny arrows direct you to all the various places in the hall that you need to know about. These include: where our concert clothes are located (they travel in special wardrobe trunks), where there might be somewhere to get a cup of pre-concert coffee, and most importantly, how to get to the stage itself! Without these signs, there would definitely be 100 very lost and bewildered musicians wandering the bowels of the building looking for the stage, the instruments, or the ladies room.

 

QUEST FOR FOOD: NSO bassist Paul DeNola has completed the Quest.

 

A basic truth of professional music life is that you have to travel and work at odd times. This is even more true on tour, when we often have to travel at all sorts of times to make it to concerts and hotels. As a result, a great deal of our fretting about The Book's contents centers around the crucial question of whether we can find somewhere to get something to eat. Musicians are obsessed with this topic and we tend to have all sorts of irrational worries that we will get to our concert and suddenly die of starvation. Thus, the Quest for Food occupies a bizarrely large portion of our time on tour. Even when The Book assures us that food is available in a particular place, we worry - What sort of food? Will I like it? How long will it take to get it? What if there's some sort of oversight and they run out of pasta in Charleston?

I hope you found these glimpses of the non-musical part of our trip to West Virginia interesting. I'd love to write more but I need to go find a sandwich that I can take on the next bus....

On the road…again? by Courtney Kelly
Posted by Courtney Kelly

Courtney Kelly is Assistant Production Manager of the National Symphony Orchestra.

 

For most of the NSO it's that time of year again for the American Residency, but for myself and a number of musicians new to the orchestra West Virginia is our first tour. Unlike most tours, this one is TRULY on the road - West Virginia is close enough to Washington DC that we're able to avoid planes entirely.  While I'm sure nobody is really looking forward to a 6 hour bus ride home from Charleston next Tuesday (charge your Ipod!!), I can't be the only person happy to avoid airport security, the potential for lost luggage, and flight delays.  As a bonus, West Virginia offers some really beautiful scenery. 

On Monday night most of us arrived in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University. The WV Division of Culture and History Commissioner, Randall Reid-Smith, along with faculty and staff from WVU's College of Arts held a great welcome reception for the orchestra, completely with WV flying cookies and as promised, a mashatini bar!! (initial reaction, "If it's gin, potatoes and gravy, count me out")  As it turns out, a mashatini bar involves three types of mashed potatoes and every topping you could imagine, all served in a mini martini glass - I didn't take a picture, so you'll have to use your imagination.  We were also treated to a great string quartet performance from high school students that studied with WVU teachers - chances are we'll see them all again at NSO masterclasses throughout the week!

Monday night was also the NCAA Finals - while we felt badly for our host state that WVU didn't make the final round, at least it allowed for better attendance at some of our Monday night outreach concerts in Rowlesburg and Morgantown (and perhaps fewer burning sofas in the streets?).  A few musicians joined our Butler University Alum Timpanist in the hotel lounge for moral support - others gathered in the lobby to warm up their bridge skills, or walked into downtown Morgantown to scope out our home base for the next few days. 

 

A view from the hotel, Morgantown, WV

A “Day Off,” by Yvonne Caruthers
Posted by Yvonne Caruthers

Yvonne Caruthers is a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra.

Though it was a "day off" for the NSO (no full orchestra concerts scheduled), there were 13 outreach events on Thursday, ranging from my talk to music education students at Fairmont State University (20 miles away) to trombone and clarinet master classes at WVU here in Morgantown, to an artistic exchange in Mill Creek (a little over 60 miles away). A wind quintet is playing a chamber music concert in Marlinton, (nearly 100 miles away), a string quartet is playing tonight in Fairmont, and a flute-French horn-piano trio is playing in Clarksburg (approx 30 miles away). Including events I didn't list here, the total mileage driven today comes to nearly 600 miles. That's a lot of long and winding roads.

A one room schoolhouse at the entrance to Fairmont State University.

 

 

My talk at Fairmont State University was supposed to be for music education majors, but only 3-4 of the students who showed up fit that description. I demonstrated some of the ways I connect music to classroom subjects, hoping I could inspire some of them to also do that with their classes when and if they get jobs. At the end I left time for Q&A. One of the guitar students asked how he should practice, I had a few questions about what it's like to travel with the NSO, and another student wanted to know what my favorite concert hall in the world was.

For lunch I stopped at Fairmont's famous Poky Dot diner, which has 50's decor. There are two residents at the counter, Martha and Marvin.

Martha and Marvin at the counter of the Poky Dot Diner.

 

The diner is famous for its 8oz burgers, but since I can't eat portions that size anymore I settled for a delicious bowl of soup and a killer apple dumpling.

 

 

To read more from Yvonne Caruthers, please visit her page at polyphonic.org.

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