I just wanted to call attention to them here before I stick them in that list over there:
one is my friend Carolyn's lovely blog about about the life of a musician in the city.
and the other is for news about my friend William's incredible Music for the People project. A recent post mentions how he read a government paper of cultural diplomacy that had him turning pages like it was a Harry Potter book.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
snooze cruise (i'm on it)
It's almost 1 in the morning, and I'm sitting on the floor with a runny nose and bowl of (instant) chicken soup. I never can go straight to sleep after I get home from a concert. Last night I fell asleep hours after the concert and still woke up in the middle of the night with tunes from the program running through my head.
The concerts were with Tel Aviv Soloists, and we were the backup band for this incredible counter-tenor, Andreas Scholl. I'd never been in the presence of a real live counter-tenor, that I know of, certainly wasn't prepared for this big burly German guy to come to the first rehearsal, clear his throat with a deep gutteral growl, and then let loose notes that , ok, enough of the fancy language, are high! Way high. I almost started laughing. Most of the other players were big fans of Mr. Scholl, so I felt very gauche and ignorant. I got used to it, and the performances went well. Maybe the biggest audiences I've seen for this group. Shows the power of opera fans. I thought it would be hard to get big crowds for something this... esoteric. But whatever folks' reaction to a grown man singing in boy soprano territory, the music (Handel and Vivaldi) speaks for itself. And we're very lucky to have gotten to work with him.
I'm just raw, though, worn down from this cold I haven't been able to shake for a week, and stress about my recital, which is coming up in 10 days. So to play this particular music on gut strings with a Baroque bow all felt pretty out of the way for me. This morning the quartet started off rehearsal with our instruments upside down (well, not the cello, the cello's always upside down) to work on the parts of George Crumb's "Black Angels" where we have to play behind our left hands, our bows way up next to the scrolls. Such a cool effect. So disgusting when I can barely play it at all, let alone even close to in tune. The others memorized this piece as their first project as a quartet, and my first time playing it with them will be at another first for me: my first competition. We're playing at the Gaudeamus in Amsterdam, which is just for new music. It's in April. Anyway, after that and work on some sections in the piece in which we imitate insects (musically, not behaviorily) we played through Steve Reich's "Different Trains," another piece the girls put on their first, legendary concert, that I'm doing for the first time. Not for the competition, but at a Kibbutz concert. Playing it through is so intense. It really is a journey, and the viola more than any other instrument plays with the voices on the tape track, all the people telling their stories of where they were during WW2. It's only tiny fragments that are caught ("1941 I guess it must have been," "No more school," and the creepiest one for me to play with, "They shaved us.") and Reich writes out for us his approximation of the voices' rhythms. Speech patterns become melodies that somehow are incredibly, annoyingly catchy. We'll play it with a beautiful video piece, and we'll sit in a row like we're on a train. There are pictures of the quartet's performance of it on the website.
After that, taught. Suzuki, Twinkle, Humoresque. I'm spent now. I'd meant for this to be a musing on the variety of music my day saw. But, really, that's not so remarkable these days. We all are involved in crazy stuff. My friend Judd told me he got a commission from a choir in Rome for a piece involving the Hebrew alphabet. I've gotta hear that one (this is how tired I am- I just typed I gotta here, than I gotta heart) maybe it'll help me actually remember the order.
good night.
The concerts were with Tel Aviv Soloists, and we were the backup band for this incredible counter-tenor, Andreas Scholl. I'd never been in the presence of a real live counter-tenor, that I know of, certainly wasn't prepared for this big burly German guy to come to the first rehearsal, clear his throat with a deep gutteral growl, and then let loose notes that , ok, enough of the fancy language, are high! Way high. I almost started laughing. Most of the other players were big fans of Mr. Scholl, so I felt very gauche and ignorant. I got used to it, and the performances went well. Maybe the biggest audiences I've seen for this group. Shows the power of opera fans. I thought it would be hard to get big crowds for something this... esoteric. But whatever folks' reaction to a grown man singing in boy soprano territory, the music (Handel and Vivaldi) speaks for itself. And we're very lucky to have gotten to work with him.
I'm just raw, though, worn down from this cold I haven't been able to shake for a week, and stress about my recital, which is coming up in 10 days. So to play this particular music on gut strings with a Baroque bow all felt pretty out of the way for me. This morning the quartet started off rehearsal with our instruments upside down (well, not the cello, the cello's always upside down) to work on the parts of George Crumb's "Black Angels" where we have to play behind our left hands, our bows way up next to the scrolls. Such a cool effect. So disgusting when I can barely play it at all, let alone even close to in tune. The others memorized this piece as their first project as a quartet, and my first time playing it with them will be at another first for me: my first competition. We're playing at the Gaudeamus in Amsterdam, which is just for new music. It's in April. Anyway, after that and work on some sections in the piece in which we imitate insects (musically, not behaviorily) we played through Steve Reich's "Different Trains," another piece the girls put on their first, legendary concert, that I'm doing for the first time. Not for the competition, but at a Kibbutz concert. Playing it through is so intense. It really is a journey, and the viola more than any other instrument plays with the voices on the tape track, all the people telling their stories of where they were during WW2. It's only tiny fragments that are caught ("1941 I guess it must have been," "No more school," and the creepiest one for me to play with, "They shaved us.") and Reich writes out for us his approximation of the voices' rhythms. Speech patterns become melodies that somehow are incredibly, annoyingly catchy. We'll play it with a beautiful video piece, and we'll sit in a row like we're on a train. There are pictures of the quartet's performance of it on the website.
After that, taught. Suzuki, Twinkle, Humoresque. I'm spent now. I'd meant for this to be a musing on the variety of music my day saw. But, really, that's not so remarkable these days. We all are involved in crazy stuff. My friend Judd told me he got a commission from a choir in Rome for a piece involving the Hebrew alphabet. I've gotta hear that one (this is how tired I am- I just typed I gotta here, than I gotta heart) maybe it'll help me actually remember the order.
good night.
Monday, January 01, 2007
2007
In honor of the new year, I have to tell about two of my students' adorable responses to it. Yesterday as I flipped through 9-year-old Dor's notebook to find the next blank page to write his homework, I came to an explosively illustrated "Happy New Year" in pen waiting for me on that very page. So so cute. Dor doesn't speak English is the thing. As I exclaimed at how great that was that he wrote it, he said "In Australia it's already over." And then he proceeded to tell me all about the crazy celebrations in Australia. I understood not a word until he got to "Opera House" and "bridge." So I said something acknowledging I knew he was talking about Sydney, which just encouraged him so he talked even faster about those crazy Australians. I asked if he'd ever been there, and he said, "No, I've never been outside of the country." In Israel, there's a compound word for that: Khool, standing for "Khootz" (outside) La'aretz (of The Land- Aretz is a very important word here). It's often spoken in almost reverent tones. At any rate, Dor was very, very embarrassed he hadn't been to "Khool." I said, don't worry, when I was 9 I hadn't been either. Then I remembered I'd been to Canada. But that's practically the U.S. anyway (I know I'm going to catch some flak for that!) It just made me think again how crazy it is to be living here. Christopher and I have been to Jordan and Egypt, and it's no problem for us with our passports. Israelies can't even go to Jordan without a special visa, forget about the rest besides the Sinai part of Egypt. And this country's the size of New Jersey!
I know I'm stating the obvious, and repeating what's been said many times before. I find myself becoming more Israeli not just as I get more fluent in Hebrew and start to slip slang phrases from it into my English ("I'm dead from that!" = I love it) but more so in terms of distances. I used to have no problem with the back-and-forth to Jerusalem. It's the same as, like somewhere in Long Island or even parts of Brooklyn, into Downtown Manhattan. But now I'm finding it more and more draining. Maybe I'm just tired!
Back to my other student. Reut is my only violist now that Evyotar not only quit viola for violin (shame on me!!) but moved to Zurich. She's also 9, and one of triplets- and her brothers play violin and cello! How cute is that?! IT's a religious family, and Reut is always in long skirt and sleeves, in the brightest, loudest color combinations. She attends a religious school, and laughs whenever I date her homework page in her notebook. "I don't know what that is" she says. She only knows the Hebrew calendar! Isnt that incredible? I don't know why I get such a kick out of it. The idea of people living in the middle of this metropolis, on their own schedule. Anyway, yesterday I asked her, by any chance did she know what today was? "Oh, it's a fast day!" I was shocked. "For what?" I asked her. Again, I didnt quite understand her explanation. Something about one of the temples being destroyed, on top of it being a special Yom HaShoah (day commemorating the HOlocaust) only for the Haredim (that is, ultra-Orthodox). Just confirming my suspicion that every day on the Jewish calendar is a fast-day for something!!
Just want to wish everyone a very happy 2007, full of abundance, explorations, good health, love, and good conversation. Keep in touch.
I know I'm stating the obvious, and repeating what's been said many times before. I find myself becoming more Israeli not just as I get more fluent in Hebrew and start to slip slang phrases from it into my English ("I'm dead from that!" = I love it) but more so in terms of distances. I used to have no problem with the back-and-forth to Jerusalem. It's the same as, like somewhere in Long Island or even parts of Brooklyn, into Downtown Manhattan. But now I'm finding it more and more draining. Maybe I'm just tired!
Back to my other student. Reut is my only violist now that Evyotar not only quit viola for violin (shame on me!!) but moved to Zurich. She's also 9, and one of triplets- and her brothers play violin and cello! How cute is that?! IT's a religious family, and Reut is always in long skirt and sleeves, in the brightest, loudest color combinations. She attends a religious school, and laughs whenever I date her homework page in her notebook. "I don't know what that is" she says. She only knows the Hebrew calendar! Isnt that incredible? I don't know why I get such a kick out of it. The idea of people living in the middle of this metropolis, on their own schedule. Anyway, yesterday I asked her, by any chance did she know what today was? "Oh, it's a fast day!" I was shocked. "For what?" I asked her. Again, I didnt quite understand her explanation. Something about one of the temples being destroyed, on top of it being a special Yom HaShoah (day commemorating the HOlocaust) only for the Haredim (that is, ultra-Orthodox). Just confirming my suspicion that every day on the Jewish calendar is a fast-day for something!!
Just want to wish everyone a very happy 2007, full of abundance, explorations, good health, love, and good conversation. Keep in touch.
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