Latest Blog Posts
South African Vuvuzela Philharmonic Angered By Soccer Games Breaking Out During Concerts
JOHANNESBURG—Members of the South Africa Vuvuzela Philharmonic Orchestra, widely considered to be among the best large-scale monotonic wind instrument ensembles in the world, told reporters Friday they were furious over the recent outbreaks of international soccer matches during their traditional outdoor concerts. From The Onion (warning: satire) Look for the reference to Arvo Pärt.
Next Wave for ACDA
I was born in the same year as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. And with that, the resemblance ends. As a member of their demographic, however, I can’t help but be fascinated by their work. I would have been content only to be an observer and consumer of many things Apple and Microsoft […]
The Rest is Applause
Alex Ross, music critic for New Yorker magazine and author of the excellent book The Rest is Noise which I reviewed recently, gave a fascinating lecture to the Royal Philharmonic Society in March on the subject of applause, which can now be read online (PDF). He reminds us that audiences in Mozart's time applauded not […]
The First Thousand Years
Jeffrey Tucker points us to a new book on the history of music in the church in the middle ages: This book is an absolute inspiration. I feel profound gratitude to the author. It is readable and not merely an academic work. The prose is elegant and warm. The "apparatus" in the back is just […]
What we cannot control
Chris Rowbury has been reading Ben Zander’s book (one that I also heartily recommend!). Chris was inspired to blog about one of the lessons from the book – not worrying about what you cannot control. From Chris: This incident reminded me of the many times in rehearsal when people are late or don’t […]
Slatkin Responds
If you follow this blog or pay attention to any of the other classical blogs, then you may remember the controversy surrounding Leonard Slatkin a couple of months ago. I pointed to the controversy in this blog post from April 21. Slatkin has responded to the controversy and points to one of the […]
What so proudly we raised . . .
Happy Independence Day!
Arse! The Joy of Left Hand Love
Yes, we’ve shown it here before, but maybe not on a Monday! A great reminder about diction. Enjoy:
How strange . . . .
. . . to see your former job advertised. Look everyone, a great university position open in Birmingham, Alabama. Choir sang at ACDA in Spring 2010 – wonderful students and incredible performing venue! For more information.