Archive for December, 2011

The Botstein Problem

Friday, December 16th, 2011

by Sedgwick Clark Just the other night a colleague was saying how much we owe Leon Botstein for programming rarely (and often never) heard music. Nonetheless, my friend was nowhere to be seen at the conductor’s Sunday afternoon pairing of two 70-minute Romantic behemoths at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra: Busoni’s sole piano […]

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Is There a Network of House Concerts?

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. Dear Edna: I have been told by many of my musician friends that it is very gratifying and helpful to perform in house concerts because they allow for direct communication with a small and appreciative audience and an opportunity to play through repertoire in an […]

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What went wrong?

Friday, December 9th, 2011

By James Jorden After putting off for a week trying to make some sense of the horrific mess that is the Met’s new Faust, I’m finally just going to give up. There are some disasters that bear writing about as what you might call teaching opportunities: this season’s Don Giovanni, for example, as a cautionary […]

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The Student as Critic

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. Just a week ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Oberlin Conservatory at the kind invitation of Prof. Kathleen Chastain. Prof. Chastain teaches a course called Professional Development for the Freelance Artist and she has been encouraging her students throughout the semester to send […]

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Missed Opportunities

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

by Sedgwick Clark Soon after I moved to New York in the fall of 1968, Charles Munch brought the Orchestre de Paris on tour to Carnegie Hall. He programmed three of his favorites: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Barber’s Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, and the second suite from Daphnis et Chloé. The next afternoon, Jean […]

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Balancing Career and Family

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

By Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. Dear Edna: My name is Zoe Sorrell and I am a second-year flute student at the Oberlin Conservatory. Something that concerns me as I begin to consider my life after school is the balance between professional and personal life. I was wondering what advice you […]

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