Assi El Helani, Rowaida Attyeh, Amani Swiss Mawal

This kicks American Idol’s ass

Australian-born composer Leah Kardos is in the process of taking her place in the already sizeable club of composer/performers, and is another harbinger of the days now where the worlds of new classical and indie music are barely separated by a blurred-over line. Initially a founder of the band Helzuki, she currently has 2 other indie acts: My Lithium & Me and Spider & I. Along with these activities, she also has been writing film scores and occasionally assists other bands with orchestral, choral or chamber arrangements on their songs. Recently the composer decided to make a self-recorded CD of short compositions threaded together as a thematic statement on her life and relationship with her first love, the piano, and this was ...

Classical music is traditionally thought of as a quiet, reserved, and dignified world. Formal wear and polite silences are the standard, and it would certainly be considered a faux pas to dance around during a concert or yell "play freebird" at the orchestra . However, every once in a while the cummerbunds and formalities are traded for boos, jeers, and fist fights in the aisle. The "classical music riot" has been a consistent enough phenomenon over the years to warrant its own Wikipedia article - the most famous example being the Paris première of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite Of Spring in 1913. The Rite Of Spring caused such a disturbance that the police were brought in at intermission, but were unable ...

Ensemble ACJW collaborates with NYC students in this look at Interactive Performances, created each year by ensemble members for their work in public schools. Find out more about Interactive Performances in this blog series by an Academy fellow.




Related:
ACJW.org
Ensemble ACJW on Facebook
Leelanee Sterrett: Interactive Performances Part 1
Leelanee Sterrett: Interactive Performances Part 2 

What happens in a vocal coaching session?

The singer arrives warmed up, with the music translated and learned. Along with possessing a beautiful voice, these are the basics.

On occasion, a singer receives a call for a last-minute audition. If the call comes after dinner and the audition is the next morning at 10, that constitutes a true emergency. In that case, it would be understandable for the singer to be less prepared.

In the great majority of coaching sessions, a coach does not expect to teach notes, rhythms, and do the translation from scratch. When the singer is prepared, there is so much more that can happen.

If all a singer (or instrumentalist or actor) brings to a performance is her/his beautiful ...

The challenges of learning composition in academia

I’ve always said that I learned despite my education and not because of it, and after my master’s degree I decided to put my money where my mouth was and not pursue a PhD—much to my relief, the commissions and composing continued anyway. A few months ago I read a great article in Slate by William Pannapacker that really struck home for me. The basic premise was not that new: universities are making themselves irrelevant in the humanities, arts, and sciences. What was refreshing, however, was that this wasn’t an anti-intellectual rant, it was just an honest examination of what higher education as an institution is trying to do and how it thinks it should fit into ...

“I began piano lessons at age five and practiced on a Steinway that my father was restoring. Four years later I was handed my first violin at elementary school and received music lessons from the trombone teacher, who was the band director. I then took lessons from Heidi Yenney, who lived around the corner from my home in Palo Alto and was a member of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. I soon entered into their training orchestra Super Strings and continued to work my way up in the ranks, playing string quartets with my violist sister Heather and other members of our youth orchestra. We had a competitive comraderie that provided many opportunities for performing solos, chamber music and orchestra, and coaching with visiting soloists ...

The Contestants:

Gustav Mahler said that symphonies should be like the world and that they must embrace everything. This is, of course, statistically impossible (unless I’m missing the bits in Mahler about Hillbilly Hand Fishing), but that doesn’t mean that the percentage that actually did make it in couldn’t include a wide range of musical styles. In his attempt to encompass everything under the sun, Mahler crafted symphonies and song cycles that speak to an ever-increasing group of people. I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest that his symphonies are as popular as Beethoven’s now, and if I would said that 65 years ago, I would have been kicked in the groin by men in pork-pie hats.

I’m in the midst of doing the bowings for a performance I’m conducting of Beethoven 9 in November. It’s been just over ten years since I last conducted the work- during that time I’ve conducted all of his other symphonies several times, and it feels long overdue for me to get another crack at the piece.

Of course, Beethoven 9 is not just any piece. I thought it would be fun to try to write  a few blog posts exploring my ideas and opinions about the work now, well before the first rehearsal, then to come back after the November concert and see if I’ve made any major discoveries or experienced any changes of heart.

Beethoven 9 should be a piece that inspires powerful responses and strongly conflicting ...

It used to be argued that listening to Classical music made you a better person.

After World War II, Americans were full of confidence about their ability to improve themselves, and immersion in the arts and literature was touted for its elevating effects.

Over the latter decades of the 20^th century, that assertion was no longer an accepted fact – more and more it became ridiculed as propaganda.

Ultimately, the idea that listening to Classical music made you better was unprovable, and it was easy to point out counterexamples.  After all, Hitler listened to Classical music.  Clearly, becoming a better person, whatever that may mean on an individual basis, involved something other than listening to the “right” ...