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Terry Teachout and how we go from Zero to Hero! – plus a mini tribute

Ernest Fleischmann passed and I had one treasured experience with him that I want to share, but first to Terry Teachout.  Terry I say thank you for your article raising the question of eliminating regional orchestras, yes thank you!  He opened an even bigger debate than in my Context/Urtext post (it is somewhat related) which [...]

It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!!

At Cliburn last year I kept hearing “it has to be about the music”.  I’m sorry MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT MUSIC, it’s about everything else!  We spend so much time focusing on trying to get people to fall in love with music and with what we do.  This will only happen when we do the [...]

The Three Am”egos”…..

The common wisdom is to always look forward, live in the present, never in the past, whats done is done and so on.  However at the Springfield Symphony’s season opening concert last Saturday, we brought the past to life in celebration of the our 75th anniversary season.  We didn’t bring out archives to display in [...]

Having our Cross-over to Bear: Concert Snapshot – Chris O’Riley

A funny thing happened on the way to the Dakota: a new magazine came across my path.  It’s called “Listen – Life With Classical Music.” Actually I don’t know if it’s new but it’s definitely new to me.  What caught my eye was an article on Erich Korngold and his travails for having the …… [...]

Response to Joe: Bursting the Programming Bubble…on the road again!

Joe over on Butts in Seats challenged our blogging community regarding programming and Bill as usual hit a slam dunk. My take is that we place too much faith in programming as being the answer to our woes when the real problems lie in the attitudes and motivations behind the programming.  This notion we have [...]

“Hoops, there it is!” – a response to Joe

Our blog-brother Joe (Butts In The Seats) has posted a most interesting question in his last blog and it just screams out for a response.  Fortunately I can compress my response down to two words: Michael Jordan.

Cliburn Soundoff! – It’s OVER – wrap with James and wild closing!

I wanted to post Monday, but it was such a blur!  For the final post from this year’s Cliburn, I post the final two parts of my conversation with James Conlon, and I edited a two part audio clip of the closing ceremony complete with wild (and very frank) opinions, Van speaking, the awarding of [...]

Cliburn Soundoff! – Richard on Webcast/final rehearsals/BIG ANNOUNCEMENT – Audio

In the final part of my chat with Richard Rodzinski we talk about the grueling schedule and how it will benefit a pianist, plus our perspectives on the web-cast and its educational benefits.  There’s also excerpts from 4 of the finalists final rehearsals and BIG ANNOUNCEMET (drum roll), starting tomorrow I will post part one [...]

Cliburn Soundoff! – Post Cliburn/Vacatello/Piano issues/Zhang/Wu – Audio!

Yesterday was the last full day of rehearsals and tonight the performances begin.  My continuing chat with Richard focuses on the grueling schedule and how that helps a Pianist post Cliburn.  I was able catch finalist Haochen Zhang (who is 19 today!) asking The USA chief Steinway technician Ron Coners about an issue with the [...]

In order to move forward, first you must “retreat”….plus handing the keys to the musicians!

We had Drew here this week for the purpose of beginning the process to re-structure our organization to be ready for the future.  Being that we are in a strong position and not in crisis makes this the perfect time for that process.  In other words, rather than waiting for the fires to start, we are attempting to [...]

Concert Snapshots: Dr. Piano Man’s Circus

Wow, last week was a busy week.  Between the massive practicing I’m doing (recording projects in the future) and doing the parental thing I managed to catch three concerts, two of which I was directly involved with.  They have caused me to muse out loud……

Speed Dating BSO style and “I see Old people!”….

Is there still a school of thought that says just get them to the hall, you know the young ones and they will be hooked forever? Seems like the Boston Symphony marketing folks are doing their best to prove Einstein’s theory of insanity: ……..doing the same thing over and over again and expecting  different results…….