non divisi

Columbus’ Last Voyage?

Published on June 2, 2008 · Comments { 1 }

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -Pierre Beaumarchais I’ve been avoiding writing about Columbus because unless I’m directly involved in a situation like this one, I’ve found that I usually don’t have enough of an understanding of the specifics to say anything meaningful. Plus there are already lots [...]

Dude, Where’s My Violin? Ch. 2

Published on May 12, 2008 · Comments { 0 }

I’ve had more than a few conversations and emails on this topic since the first chapter two weeks ago, so I thought I would post a quick update. First off, last Tuesday Philippe Quint played a concert at the Newark Airport for the local cabbie populace. Cynics might call this a PR stunt, but I [...]

Dude, Where’s My Violin?

Published on April 28, 2008 · Comments { 5 }

A week ago the violinist Philippe Quint took a taxi from the Newark airport to his apartment in Lower Manhattan. The taxi arrived at about 12.30 AM and Mr. Quint watched as it drove away with his most important piece of luggage still inside- the 1723 “ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivarius violin, on loan to him from the [...]

Orchestral Fines

Published on April 14, 2008 · Comments { 2 }

With all this Music Director discussion it seems like a good time to post something in a little more humorous direction. Several years ago someone sent me a wish list just in case a policy is ever put in place for monetary penalties during orchestral services, and I’ve updated and revised it a few times [...]

MD Hide and Seek Part 4

Published on April 7, 2008 · Comments { 0 }

Our management managed to find a couple of services in early December 2007 where we could at least have him in front of the orchestra, even if we didn’t do an actual concert. At this point the committee was thinking that (at a minimum) the orchestra could get a sense of that intangible chemistry we [...]

MD Hide and Seek Part 3 (finally)

Published on March 17, 2008 · Comments { 2 }

I spent the 2002-03 season as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a fantastic orchestra often overshadowed by the Concergebouw Orchestra (unfairly, in my opinion). At the time, the Music Director was Valery Gergiev, but there was a steady stream of wonderful guest conductors including Edo de Waart, who was their Music Director from 1973-79.

Practicing instead of writing

Published on February 22, 2008 · Comments { 0 }

MD Hide and Seek Part 2

Published on January 28, 2008 · Comments { 1 }

In early 2007 the search committee was starting to get a clearer picture of just what we were looking for. One member of the committee was the CFO for Rockwell, and came up with a great idea from the business world- lock ourselves in a conference room for eight hours or so until we come [...]

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