jason weinberger

‘Whenever I have crossed the Pampa or have lived in it for a time, my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy, some full of euphoria and others replete with a profound tranquility, produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of a day.’ Alberto Ginastera, on the Argentinian plains that inspired his ballet Estancia.

Ginastera – Estancia, Danza del Trigo [Wheat Dance]
WCFSO – March 6, 2010

[Click the arrow to download]

Automatic reblog.

via Nerd Boyfriend

Guess the composer:

Now that’s what you want a musician to do: see into the future by listening to the past to remake the present.

Beethoven? Brahms? Try Madlib, aka the Beat Konducta.

The quote comes from a recent profile of the prolific beatmaker and avant-jazz explorer by Paul Morley of The Guardian. If you’re not familiar with Madlib – ‘master manipulator of history’ and one of the most essential young musicians in the world today – Stones Throw will take care of that for you.

Update: ST just offered up a few tracks from Madlib’s forthcoming Beat Konducta in Africa release.

… featured posts! Consider these representative of my approach to blogging about orchestral music.

To make room in the navigation bar I’ve removed the random post option, but you can always try your luck by typing the word ‘random’ after my domain, like so: blog.jasonweinberger.com/random.

Vernacular-inspired music from North and South America – get ready for some serious rhythm.

It’s easy to assume that new media is a strictly 21st-century preoccupation for musicians. Experience Aaron Copland’s Prairie Journal this Saturday at the WCFSO and you may reconsider that assumption.

In 1936 Columbia Broadcasting System commissioned an unprecedented six orchestral works for broadcast on its fledgeling national radio network, including a new piece by Copland. The composer, already writing in a variety of media and soon to embrace film, approached his first radio commission with an uncanny sensitivity to the amplifying power that so often accompanies the development of new media forms.

Enthusiastic about the ‘exciting new medium,’ Copland recognized that ‘the very idea of reaching so many people with a single performance’ would reward a specific type of music – ’profound in content, simple in expression and understandable to all.’

It is also worth noting that the original presentation of Prairie Journal featured a quintessential new media marketing ruse – the crowdsourced contest. The piece’s first subtitle, Saga of the Prairie, was chosen from hundreds submitted by listeners.

Manuscript via the Library of Congress Aaron Copland Collection. Top image shows Andre Kostelanetz with the CBS Radio Orchestra in 1930; Howard Barlow conducted the premiere of Copland’s piece in 1937. Quotes from Howard Pollack’s biography of the composer.

Kanye West, ever ready to express opinions, frees himself from their orthodoxy:

There’s no such thing as fact anymore, only opinion. The closest thing we have to fact is ‘common opinion’. Everything is an opinion. The way you dress is an expression of your opinion. Your religious beliefs are your opinion. The music you turn up loud is your opinion. For most people it’s easier to just agree. For me the hardest thing is to ‘just’ agree and that is what sparks creativity, the feeling that something can be better, the feeling that something’s missing. The feeling that something’s needed.

[Seen first at Put This On, and again at Frank Chimero has a blog.]

We are rehearsing Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia at the WCFSO this week, and as we work on imbuing it with as much rhythmic vitality and exuberance as possible I’ve suggested that everyone spend some time with these dynamic performances of the piece by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. I intended to post one of them here as well, until I stumbled across this from another of Venezuela’s El Sistema youth orchestras:

Bravo to TED for highlighting the Teresa Carreños, and to The Rambler for the link – whoa is right!

Click through the image for the table of contents to Alex Ross’ forthcoming Listen to This. I’m hoping that the second chapter, ‘Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History,’ includes a consideration of hip hop. Anyone been to one of Alex’s readings of that essay?

This one lit up the music writers’ blogs last week, for obvious reasons.

The New Statesman, in association with the Royal Academy of Music, is delighted to announce the launch of its Young Music Critic competition. We are looking for classical music writers under 30. If you have a passion for, and knowledge of, the canon, but are also interested in pop, jazz, politics or the wider culture, and if your love of music is equal to your love of the written word, submit your work to our distinguished panel of judges.

What I notice is the stark contrast between this endeavor’s encouragement of broad-minded and culturally relevant work in music writing and the almost complete lack thereof in standard conservatory curricula and competition guidelines for performers. [Found here on Tumblr via Yay, it’s Rob]

Yet another spot on the webs edition

Follow the link for an in-depth look at the LO’s MakingMusic program for elementary school students.

Orchestra professionals, pay close attention to these words from Jeff Jarvis:

The real story in nonphysical goods is one of deflation. Value in once-scarce — well, once-controlled — commodities like news, information, and advertising decline as the internet explodes creation and competition. The internet also destroys the ability of many to control distribution and thus value. But at the same time, the internet drastically increases efficiency thanks to platforms and open distribution and the ability — no, the need — to specialize and collaborate.

This is why the old controllers of scarcity have such trouble rethinking and remaking themselves for the economy of abundance. Their reflex is to control more, when that only decreases value.

So stop selling scarcity. Scarcity has no value.

As Jarvis points out the theory holds true for performers, many of whom are finally beginning to understand that ‘putting our content and information out there is how it gets distributed, how we find new people, how we build new relationships, how we realize new value.’ [via Frank Chimero has a blog.]

Funny you should ask, since our most recent event was the second in a series of amazing collaborations that began with our presentation of the Planets two seasons ago. These concerts have been insanely well-received and, based on the feedback, we are looking into the possibility of bringing back the Planets production for an encore live performance with an accompanying video release.

So, the programmer in me wants to know – would you come to a concert like this?

My good friend Genadi Zagor joined us at the WCFSO a few weeks ago for a scintillating rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, presented alongside a suite of indelible images created for the occasion by Gary Kelley. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our rehearsal and performance, from photographer Noah Henscheid. [View the set on Flickr.]

And speaking of emerging musicians doing things differently, violist Nadia Sirota fits the bill better than most. Nadia is a superb player, committed genre-buster, and, I am honored to say, former orchestra student of mine at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Get to know her on Q2 internet radio; I especially like the concept behind her new segment on post-tonal music, Hope Springs Atonal.

Indeed, it appears we are! Thanks for touching base.

For all the followers, check out Joe at the links above. Further proof that classically-trained no longer implies classically-minded.

A recent arrival on the Tumblr arts and letters scene, Letterheady today brings us this banger of a brand statement from 19th-century musical Vienna.

Letterheady: From 1892, a spectacularly enormous letterhead belonging to Walcker Orgelbau; a German company who have been building spectacularly enormous pipe organs since 1820.
E. F. Walcker & Cie, 1892 | Source

The A-Train
Gary Kelley, 2009

George Gershwin claimed that he conceived the ‘metropolitan madness’ of Rhapsody in Blue ‘on a train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang.’ That same raw rhythmic inspiration was at the heart of our recent period-orchestra rendition at the WCFSO with pianist Genadi Zagor. The image by Gary Kelley is one of a series commissioned for this concert and shown in a narrative video piece alongside the performance.

Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue with Genadi Zagor
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, February 6, 2010

Click the arrow on the right side of the audio player to download. If you are reading this somewhere other than my site, here’s the permalink for audio and commenting.

Sample the work of one of the world’s finest orchestras for the cost of your email address. Found via i hate music!

And via said blog: Most orchestras can’t manage one cool picture, and these guys just rolled out more than a hundred.

True. More recent coolness from the Berliners here and here.

My new favorite classical music blog strikes a chord … or should that be discord?

Fabulous views of my recent Louisville Orchestra concert with Calexico and The Airborne Toxic Event, by O’Neil Arnold. [View the set on Flickr.]

A celebration of African-American music, featuring works by William Grant Still, Duke Ellington and J Dilla and art by Gary Kelley. Read a concert preview by Melody Parker of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

African Dancer
Gary Kelley, 2009

From Michael Morain’s Des Moines Register preview of tomorrow’s WCFSO concert:

Weinberger pointed out that the hip-hop tradition of borrowing, or sampling, ideas from other artists isn’t so different from what happened in the era of Beethoven or Brahms, and that’s what he finds so interesting.

‘I’m totally fascinated with influence in the artistic process, with the concept of creating sound from other sounds.’

The following is an excerpt from my interview with Joy Yoon at The Sounds of VTech about tomorrow night’s WCFSO concert. Follow the link or click the photo below for the full article and a cool slideshow of us in rehearsal.

People are listening, and those who can try to the best of their ability to find a way to share. This is what this show represents to me, sharing something new that would have been overlooked. I emailed Jason Weinberger to find out how he first came to discover the music of Dilla.
I’ve been listening to Dilla since the beginning, before I even knew who he really was. I think I first became more directly aware of his story and persona through his work in the 90s with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Pharcyde, and from there my interest just grew with each new project. If I had to pick my absolute favorite Dilla records I’d probably go with Donuts and Jaylib, though I could easily spend days on end listening to his beats from the Slum Village Fantastic albums and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate. J.Rocc’s Thank You Jay Dee mixes are always close at hand too.

When did you first discover Suite for Ma Dukes?
I heard Suite for Ma Dukes when it first came out a year ago, and my first thought was that I needed to find a way to perform Miguel’s stunning reinventions of Dilla’s music. I’m always looking for ways to open up the traditional orchestra experience to new things anyway, so this seemed very natural. I looked around for Miguel on the web, found him on Facebook, and sent him a message to see if we could talk about getting these pieces in front of one of the orchestras with which I work. A few months later we met up in LA (where I’m from and where my family still lives) and connected over Dilla, Flying Lotus and Lutoslawski. The rest is history.

And about this upcoming Saturday…
I think one of the most special things about this weekend’s performance at the WCFSO - aside from experiencing the sheer beauty of Miguel’s orchestrations - will be the opportunity to appreciate Dilla’s achievements alongside those of other prominent African American composers who preceded him. To me it seems totally organic to hear Dilla alongside Duke Ellington and William Grant Still, and I think it’s a great way for audiences who may not be familiar with his work to get to know him.

That’s what blues, jazz, hip hop and orchestral music do this weekend in Iowa.

Interview with Hollis Monroe – mp3
Iowa Public Radio, February 4, 2010

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a multi-talented instrumentalist and composer from Los Angeles and the man responsible for Suite for Ma Dukes, the orchestral arrangements of J Dilla’s music we’ll be performing this weekend at the WCFSO. Did I mention he tears it up on the viola, too?

This is Miguel’s own arrangement for the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble of Rene Costy’s Scrabble, a tune that was sampled by Dilla. The video is by Mochilla, about whom I’ve posted here before. B+ and Coleman of Mochilla will be in Iowa this weekend to document our performances of Miguel’s Dilla arrangements; more on that soon.

Here is my earlier post about Suite for Ma Dukes, with links to information about the studio recordings and a history of the project along with my own mix of Nag Champa.

This weekend the WCFSO will perform the 1920s theater orchestra version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, on a special concert tracing the paths that African American musics have taken into the concert hall. But the influence of Gershwin’s own compositions on subsequent generations of musicians of all ethnic and aesthetic backgrounds is also striking to behold. If you have any doubt as to the composer’s massive influence in American musical culture, check out just how many artists trace their musical roots back to him:

Fascinatin’ Rhythm: A Tribute to George Gershwin, part 1 – mp3
APM American Routes, January 2, 2008

Fascinatin’ Rhythm: A Tribute to George Gershwin, part 2 – mp3
APM American Routes, January 2, 2008

Ever since I first came across the unforgettable clarinet wail that opens Rhapsody – and even more so after playing and conducting the piece a few times since then – I’ve been intoxicated by the uniquely American blend of infectious rhythm and multicultural reference that pervades Gershwin’s music. Clearly I’m not the only conductor who feels this way:

Marin Alsop’s Shared Musical Roots – mp3
NPR Weekend Edition, November 14, 2009

[American Routes program originally linked here the last time I performed Rhapsody.]

Who says orchestras don’t rock?

Tomorrow night I’ll lead the latest installment of the Louisville Orchestra’s most intriguing concert series, Strings Attached. Featured are two great bands, Calexico and The Airborne Toxic Event. Needless to say, I’m stoked to participate in yet another cross-genre concert and to collaborate with open-minded musicians from other quarters of the music business. [Poster by Madpixel]

LA TImes Go Mobile quotes BACH Technology Chief Executive Stefan Kohlmeyer explaining the company’s MusicDNA project:

What we are bringing back to the end user is the entire emotional experience of music… We think it got lost in the transition to the digital era. We think a beautiful piece of audio has been reduced to a number code. We want to enrich it again.

And how? Replacing the easy-to-share mp3 file format with a more proprietary one that can contain lyrics, images and even updatable news. The goal – whose transparency I find disturbing – is to curb piracy .

So do bells and whistles like this ‘enrich’ music? I think we need more people in the music business encouraging the creation of music that enriches listening. I’m afraid that MusicDNA’s approach encourages the opposite.

The Berlin Phil takes us inside the orchestra … way inside.

Yet another of this ensemble’s many creative approaches to engaging people in concert music. [via @LaceyH]

On the occasion of Mozart’s 254th birthday, the buoyant dance movement of his last and most exuberant symphony:

Mozart – Symphony K551, Menuetto-Trio
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, November 3, 2007

More Mozart from this blog here.

From designer Frank Chimero comes this bit of wisdom:

‘The digital revolution allows us to do mass-communication without mass-production.’

Reblogged here for its relevance to orchestras, who so often struggle with communicating the uniqueness of their product.

Just in time for the first symphonic performances of his music.

Why do I love using Tumblr so much? No doubt for the same reasons everyone else using it does. And also because its great staff decided the directory could use some orchestra:

Welcome to those of you who got here that way! And to those of you reading this elsewhere, why aren’t you here?

A cool new feature at Tumblr is ‘ask’ – if you have questions or comments about orchestral music, the maestro life, or anything else you can leave them here, and of course each individual post has its own Disqus commenting. Or keep it private and send me an email.

A page from Johann Sebastian Bach’s manuscript of the sinfonia from Cantata BWV 75. The movement’s four-part instrumental fugue crowned with a soaring chorale melody is nearly singular within Bach’s entire corpus of ensemble music. [Image via the fabulous Bach Digital project]

If you’re in Iowa hear it performed tonight alongside a selection of instrumental pieces from the composer’s secular and liturgical cantatas.

The instrumental music of Bach, including excerpts from the cantatas, presented in the acoustically superb sanctuary of First Congregational Church in Waterloo.

An engaging look inside the ensemble process, at rehearsals of Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto held in the same room where it was performed by the composer himself:

Previous Bach interpretations by the artistic director here, John Eliot Gardiner, have exerted a major influence on my ears over the past 15 years [particularly the vivid cantata pilgrimage concert recordings mentioned in the video]. So no surprise that at this weekend’s WCFSO performances of instrumental music by Bach we’ll do our best to follow the English Baroque Soloists’ lead and ‘play with abandon and real, pure enjoyment’ – even if we may lack a bit of their technical polish. [Emoticon here]

More Bach with Gardiner and the EBS here and here.

Someone tell me why so many institutions in this business - including many in my corner of it - still insist on acting this way. [Please don’t say ‘money.’]

Four years after we posted our first homemade videos to YouTube and they spread across the globe faster than swine flu, making our bassist’s glasses recognizable to 70-year-olds in Wichita and 5-year-olds in Seoul and eventually turning a tidy little profit for EMI, we’re – unbelievably – stuck in the position of arguing with our own label about the merits of having our videos be easily shared.

OK Go speaks about EMI’s insistence on prohibiting embedded playback of the band’s new self-produced video. Reblogged from Marco.org, quoting an excellent post at kung fu grippe.

Update: Mashable interviews OK Go’s frontman Damien Kulash about this issue. The line that caught my attention: ‘What we’ve always enjoyed about the Internet is that it’s not this marketer’s dream, it’s a creative person’s dream.’

NYC design firm Front Studio rethinks a book cafe, their slick pics of the space get a ton of exposure on visuals blogs, and classical music interlopes in the form of Alex Ross’ The Rest is Noise. Win!

Electronic pop music pioneer Brian Eno believes recorded music has lost its value, and he’s probably right:

I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.

Reblogged from Frank Chimero has a blog.

I just discovered designer Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, and several of its entries resonated strongly with me for the ways they echo my change-oriented approach to the ‘strange and complex’ world of symphonic orchestras:

Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Keep moving.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

Avoid fields.
Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

Collaborate.
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

Anyone interested in the creative process more generally should take the time to read the entire list.

From my hometown – at the intersection of Modernism and Hollywood – comes ‘a minor footnote to the annals of Schoenbergiana’ courtesy The Rest Is Noise.

Much of my week has been spent peering into the moonlit musical night of Verklärte Nacht. Here its composer peers back:

Arnold Schoenberg – Self-Portrait, ca. 1910

Featuring Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht in its first performance by the LO.

Frank Chimero has a blog.: It’s a wonderful time to be a maker because there are so many ways for people to appreciate your work.

ck/ck: I suppose that’s a major theme of this decade that has just been: the failure of companies to give consumers what they want, which in turn has resulted in a culture where illegality, piracy and hacking are the norm.

symphony no. 2 in e minor: That Sounds Clever.:
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5 - Autograph manuscript of the full score (1903)

This page as your ringtone? You’re welcome.

I was extremely fortunate to spend two years studying conducting with one of the most promintent living teachers of the art form, Gustav Meier. This week I’m reliving that unparalleled learning experience through his new book, The Score, the Orchestra and the Conductor. If you have any interest whatsoever in the art and technique of conducting this is a publication you should seek out.

March 27, 2010 11:00 am → Brown Theater, Louisville

Saint-Saëns – Carnival of the Animals with The Underground Railroad Theater and Jeffrey Jamner & Joanna Goldstein

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April 10, 2010 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Wharton – Symphony no.1 [world premiere]
Brahms - Symphony no. 2

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From the WCFSO website:
Capping off a week of special activities – including an area-wide high school partnership and the culmination of a season-long residency with Philip Wharton – is the world premiere of the Iowa-born composer’s first full-scale symphonic work. Meet Wharton and discover some of the most approachable and moving music being written for orchestra today. Brahms’ irrepressible Second Symphony completes the concert.

April 20, 2010 9:30 am, 11:00 am & 1:00 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man
Copland – Prairie Journal
Copland – Quiet City
Copland – Variations on a Shaker Melody
Copland – Rodeo

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Aaron Copland’s unique ability to absorb and transform a range of diverse musical styles into a perennially new yet recognizable American sound made his art emblematic of our country’s enterprising and inclusive spirit. Read my listening guide.

April 24, 2010 2:00 pm & 7:30pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Music from Amadeus, West Side Story, Star Wars, Cinema Paradio, The Wizard of Oz, Vertigo, Apocalypse Now, Lawrence of Arabia

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Concerts → Past

March 6, 2010 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Ginastera – Estancia, Four Dances
Ortiz – South American Suite for Harp [1996] with Alfredo Rolando Ortiz
Copland – Prairie Journal
Harris – Symphony no. 3

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February 20, 2010 8:00 pm → Whitney Hall, KCA, Louisville

With Cirque de la Symphonie:
Dvořák – Carnival Overture
Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre
Bizey – Carmen Suites nos. 1 & 2
Chabrier – España
Saint-Saëns – Bacchanale, Samson et Delilah
Dvořák – Slavonic Dances
Wagner – Ride Of The Valkyrie, Die Walküre
Shostakovich – Symphony no. 5

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February 6, 2010 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Still – Symphony no. 1
J Dilla, arr. Atwood-Ferguson – from Suite for Ma Dukes [2009]
Ellington – Three Black Kings with artist Gary Kelley
Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue [1920s theater version] with Genadi Zagor and artist Gary Kelley

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WCFSO’s recent concert ‘refreshingly unique’
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
February 11, 2010

‘Expect the Unexpected’ is the current motto of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, and an apt phrase it is, as shown by its most recent concert in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. As we have come to expect, this program was refreshingly unique.

The first half of the program was dominated by a sterling performance of William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 [Afro-American]. This was a first hearing for me, and quite likely for most people in the audience. It is a haunting, stirring work that deserves to be better known. For me, it passed the ‘CD test’: I immediately wanted to go buy a recording of it.

The orchestra also performed an interesting new arrangement of some sections of Suite for Ma Dukes by J Dilla. The arranger, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, was in the house and was given a warm welcome.

Another work on the bill was Three Black Kings by that master performer and writer of jazz and swing, Duke Ellington. In three movements, the piece is a tribute to three outstanding figures of history and legend: one of the Magi, King Solomon and Martin Luther King Jr. As backdrop to the music, paintings depicting the African-American experience appeared on a large screen behind the orchestra. The paintings were brilliantly conceived by artist Gary Kelley, and they did much to enhance the power of Ellington’s score.

The marriage of music and painting also was present in the final work of the evening: George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Here the images were mainly of New York City, particularly the lower East Side and Tin Pan Alley - the neighborhoods where Gershwin grew up. And here again Kelley’s artistry was fascinating.

But the star of this work that closed the program was Genadi Zagor, who played the piano part of Rhapsody. His glittering interpretation of the score [virtually a classical-jazz concerto] was a triumph as he swept through the score with incredible speed and sensitivity. Never have I heard the Gershwin played with such careful nuance, such exquisite attention to detail. Exhilarated, the audience roared its approval.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 30, 2010 8:00 pm → Whitney Hall, KCA, Louisville

A special performance with The Airborne Toxic Event and Calexico

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Airborne Toxic Event, Calexico with the Louisville Orchestra
Jeffrey Lee Pucket
The Courier-Journal
January 30, 2010

There are a couple of ways you can go when pairing a symphony orchestra with a rock ‘n’ roll band – augment or enhance. Either choice has its merits but the vast majority of bands go with augmentation, simply adding power or prettiness, depending on the song. The rare band takes it to another level of partnership, using everything an orchestra offers. Saturday night at Whitney Hall, the Airborne Toxic Event and Calexico made sure that a hyped audience of 2,000 got plenty of both.

Calexico opened the night by setting the bar high. The Tuscon, Arizona, band has long made use of sounds and rhythms familiar to southwestern border towns, but has also incorporated a broad palette of Gypsy music, early rock, surf, jazz and Ennio Morricone. It’s no surprise they’d jump at the chance to work with an orchestra, thus adding several dozen more sonic possibilities, or that they’d excel at seamlessly bringing it all together. Their too-brief opening set was the finest example yet of what the BB&T Strings Attached series can be. Under conductor Jason Weinberger, the orchestra glowed as it navigated Jay Whatley’s arrangments, combining with the nine-piece Calexico to create a vibrant, unified sound that really needs to be recorded.

The Airborne Toxic Event is much more of a straight-up rock band than Calexico – just check out bassist Noah Harmon’s relentless posing for proof – and it used the orchestra more traditionally but just as effectively. ATE is all about building momentum and the sheer weight of the orchestra drove the band’s songs to new levels of high drama, turning ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ into a pounding opera and ‘All I Ever Wanted’ into a rush of emotion. ATE leader Mikel Jollett was clearly jacked up having an orchestra on his side, and his excitement peaked during an encore of ‘Missy’ where the song’s closing lyric – ‘But I swear, I swear, I swear I’ll never get sad’ – actually began to sound feasible.

IF BB&T Strings Attached can get away from the singer-songwriters and offer more nights of genuine inspiration like this one, a national reputation could quickly follow, and the orchestra shouldn’t hesitate to become darlings of the indie-rock set. Like the man said, roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 23, 2010 7:30 pm → First Congregational Church, Waterloo

Bach – Overture no. 1
Bach – Instrumental music from Cantatas 18, 75, 182, 196, 209, 212
Bach – Brandenburg Concertos nos. 2 & 4

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WCFSO delivers for ‘Bach to Waterloo’
by Scott Kawelti
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
February 1, 2010

The WCFSO Chamber Orchestra played their ‘Bach to Waterloo’ concert last week, and that clever title was not only a reference to their Waterloo return, it was a signal that they had gone ‘bach’ to the basics of why they’re so respected and appreciated in the Cedar Valley. Any orchestra worth noticing combines solid programming, superb playing and audience appeal. Last Saturday’s concert at First Congregational Church provided a model for all three.

The program opened and closed with the most beloved of all Bach concertos, the Brandenburgs Two and Four. Anyone who isn’t familiar with these timeless masterpieces either has been locked in a soundproof room or can’t stand music written before the last century. I’ve listened to them countless times over the years, and have seldom heard them played better. Though baIance was an occasional problem, the opening Brandenburg Concerto – with its soaring soprano D trumpet line accompanied by complex arpeggios in the strings and winds – just took the breath away. First violinist Anita Tucker deserves special mention for negotiating Bach’s fiendishly difficult solo, as does flutist Claudia Anderson, bassoonist Kevin Judge and oboist Heather Armstrong. The church’s acoustics also made Bach’s five short cantatas and [the C major] Orchestral Suite ring, bounce and echo in in ways no recording can match.

Weinberger pays attention to audience appeal, first by programming accessible but cballenging music, no small feat. This, mixed with his detailed commentaries, might seem patronizing to sophisticated listeners, but I appreciated his articulate delivery as much as his helpful observations. All in all, it was a evening of Bach that showed these dozen excellent musicians at their finest. It was not only ‘Bach to Waterloo’, it was going for baroque.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 20-22 & February 10-12 & 25-26, 2010 10:30 am & 12:00 pm → Brown Theater, Louisville

Selections from:
Schickele – The Chenoo Who Stayed to Dinner [1977]
Glinka – Overture, Russlan and Ludmila
Copland – Billy the Kid, Suite

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Music makers bring sweet visions to Louisville classrooms
by Andrew Adler
The Courier-Journal
February 14, 2010

If you strolled through the main entrance of Mill Creek Elementary School early one recent Wednesday, you’d have discovered a curious thing: Instead of blaring the usual cheerless bureaucratic announcements, the loudspeakers were playing soft classical music. Mozart, perhaps, or maybe Haydn.

This was nothing new for Mill Creek, which occupies a cluster of buildings off the southern end of Poplar Level Road. But it was doubly significant on this particular morning. The visitors this day included four musicians from the Louisville Orchestra, who’d be guiding several dozen fourth- and fifth-graders through the wonders of classical repertoire.

Welcome to another edition of MakingMusic. For more than half a century, the program has introduced students at Jefferson County Public Schools to the ensemble via classroom visits, followed a few days later by live concerts by the full orchestra. From the days of founding conductor Robert Whitney to the present artistic regime of Jorge Mester, MakingMusic has been fundamental to the orchestra’s identity and purpose.

Similar programs are in place in many cities. Indeed, more than a few professional instrumentalists can trace their initial interest to that connection. ‘I grew up with MakingMusic with the Cleveland Orchestra,’ recalls Donald Gottlieb, piccolo player for the Louisville Orchestra. ‘It’s probably one of the reasons why I do what I do today.’

Gottlieb was speaking in Mill Creek’s gymnasium, where three of his colleagues — cellist Deborah Caruso, violist Jack Griffin and clarinetist Andrea Levine — were warming up on their respective instruments. Soon afterward, each would visit a nearby classroom to play, talk and answer questions. It was a special day, and the kids were psyched.

‘There curiosity has no end,’ said Anastassi Fafalios, Mill Creek’s music teacher and an avid bass trombonist. ‘They love to see and hear live music. It fascinates them, the differences between instruments.’

A few minutes later, Levine was holding forth in front of teacher Janie Seng’s fifth-grade class. First came some basics: ‘The clarinet has a single reed,’ explained Levine, who has been the orchestra’s principal clarinetist for seven years. ‘That’s very important, because without the reed, nothing. The clarinet is worthless.’

She played a quick scale passage, the notes cascading upward from creamy lows to sizzling highs. Then, a bit of context. ‘On our program today is connecting the skills that you use in reading,’ Levine said, ‘to the skills you use in listening to music. I want to ask you to close your eyes, and I’ll play something. I want you to listen to it, to really try to make it into your mind. There are no right or wrong pictures. You tell me what you see. Close your eyes — no peeking!’

Pulling rabbit out

The children dutifully responded, screwing their eyes shut while Levine played a jaunty melody with lots of short notes. ‘All right, all done. Open your eyes. Now, what brave volunteers could tell me what picture you saw in your head when you listened to that?’

One student said that the short notes suggested a rabbit running. Levine took that suggestion and ran with it a little herself. ‘Fast short notes — you said you saw a rabbit — little footsteps. What you did was visualization .’

She threw out a few more questions: ‘Who listens to music when you are doing your homework? Who listens to music when you are watching a movie or TV?’ She flashed a smile. ‘Who listens to music when your parents are yelling at you?’

A lot can be communicated with a sound or two, Levine emphasized. ‘There’s so much music can do in just a couple of notes to tell a story,’ she told her students. ‘You might be a little too young, but tell me if you recognize this. …’ Raising her clarinet, she played the da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM theme from the movie ‘Jaws.’ The kids shouted out the answer. ‘Yes, you can yell out — the shark!’ Levine said. ‘Just two notes a half-step apart can make you visualize something really scary.’

From director Stephen Spielberg the conversation moved to Sergei Rachmaninoff, and how a composer who writes music is like an author who writes a book. Levine asked her students to ‘make some predictions’ about whether a ‘love song’ by Rachmaninoff [a snippet from the adagio movement of his Symphony No. 2] would have fast or slow notes. ‘Slow; very good.’

Turning to Mozart, Levine explained what a ‘concerto’ meant, and how the composer favored her instrument. ‘He had a lot of fun with the clarinet,’ she said. ‘When the clarinet was discovered at the end of the 18th century, he was like a kid in a candy shop. There were so many new things that it could do, but other instruments couldn’t do.’

‘Play everything’

With five minutes to go, it was time to answer some questions. One girl asked Levine ‘what songs’ she preferred. ‘I’m kind of the sentimental type, so I really like that stuff,’ Levine said. ‘But part of my job in the orchestra is that I have to be able to play everything. There are some songs I don’t like as much, but it’s my job to make it seem like every one is my favorite.’

‘How many keys are on the clarinet?’ another student wondered. ‘I’m so busy playing, yet I’ve never really counted,’ Levine admitted, doing a quick on-the-spot survey and concluding that there are ‘16 or 17,’ all silver.

More hands went up. ‘Yes, you in the purple,’ Levine said, listening as she was asked if she ever was unhappy playing her instrument. ‘There are times that the clarinet, like everything you work really, really hard at, is frustrating,’ she acknowledged. ‘But I can’t imagine my life without playing music. So sometimes when I think, what it would be like if I became a lawyer or a doctor — this is who I am.’

Efficient work

Seng, a 30-year teacher, remarked afterward that she’d witnessed many such MakingMusic sessions. ‘I think it’s an excellent program,’ she said. ‘I’ve heard research that says music can help kids actually work more efficiently. I’ve had bad experiences with my own son. [He] was having some difficulties with math, and he just started playing an instrument in middle school — clarinet, as a matter of fact — and it was amazing. All of a sudden, things just fell into place for him.’

In her Mill Creek classroom, Seng said she has observed how her students respond to classical melodies. ‘They know that music can create a different environment,’ she said. ‘In my class, a lot of kids will say if they’re getting noisy: ‘Mrs. Seng, you didn’t turn on the be-good music.’ It’s a calming influence on them.’

Calming, but also sometimes energizing. Teresa Mitchell, an 11-year-old fifth-grader who heard Caruso’s cello demonstration, emerged duly impressed. ‘I think it sounded passionate and sneaky, like ‘Tom and Jerry,’’ she offered. ‘It’s very neat.’

Full performance

A week later, the Mill Creek students, dressed in their best Convocation Day uniforms, dodged raindrops as they scooted inside the Brown Theatre to hear the full orchestra perform. There was plenty of back and forth from the kids in the seats to their new friends on stage. ‘We’re feeling great and ready for great concert,’ Fafalios declared.

The house lights dimmed. Out came Jason Weinberger, the orchestra’s resident conductor and MakingMusic podium guru. ‘Good morning!’ he said. ‘GOOD MORNING!’ thundered a theater full of children from various schools across the city.

‘We’ll be talking about some of the concepts we use when reading stories,’ Weinberger explained, ‘which are the same strategies we use when we are listening to music.’

He talked about making predictions, leading into an extended segment where a colleague narrated an American Indian story ‘about a hairy, crusty, huge, mean beast.’

The idea was to hear the story, and then try to predict how it would end. There were a couple of unexpected twists. ‘I’ll bet a lot of you were really surprised at what happened,’ Weinberger said. ‘Even when we use what we know to predict maybe a happy ending, you still may not know all the details.’

‘Camptown Races’

From there Weinberger and the orchestra moved on to Stephen Foster and ‘a story that has to do with where we are from. Stephen Foster wrote another song [that] tells a story about something that happens in Louisville every year. It’s a really, really big event. It happens in the spring. Can anyone tell me what it is?’

The Brown erupted. Weinberger grinned. ‘Exactly! The Kentucky Derby. Except Stephen Foster used different words. He called it the Camptown Races. Before we sing it together … let’s listen once to the orchestra and see what it sounds like.’

Principal trumpeter Jerry Amend tossed off ‘Call to the Post,’ and the orchestra launched into one of the best-known tunes in all of American popular song. More visualization. ‘That’s a great example of some of the strategies we use when reading,’ Weinberger said.

Foster and ‘Camptown Races’ segued into Aaron Copland and ‘Billy the Kid.’ ‘We are going to play two sections from that story,’ Weinberger said of Copland’s celebrated ballet score. ‘And we’re going to visualize what does seem to sound like. The first thing is, how does the prairie sound?

A hand went up from the audience. ‘Kind of a sad feeling — exactly, forlorn,’ Weinberger agreed. ‘What kind of feelings do you get when you hear the music? It’s very calm — excellent. The music has very soft dynamics. Who can tell us what dynamics are? So with a very soft dynamic we feel very calm and quiet, even a little bit sad. We have so few instruments playing. Just cellos, the violins and flutes. It gives us a feeling of emptiness.’

The quiet of the prairie gave way to the raucousness of the rodeo. ‘Now we’re going to ask you to predict what could happen with the orchestra. It’s going to get louder? What about the instruments? How will Copland do that in his music? Let’s see if your prediction is a good one.’

Before long, an hour had passed, and the concert drew to a close. ‘You guys have been really wonderful listeners today,’ Weinberger said. ‘Give yourselves a big round of applause.’

He sent the kids out with a final detonation from the orchestra. ‘This is the overture from [Glinka’s opera] ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila,’’ Weinberger said, ‘but the story is yours.’

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 16, 2010 11:00 am → Brown Theater, Louisville

With Dan Kamin, mime:
Kabalevsky – Overture, Colas Breugnon
Stravinsky – Suite no. 2
Britten – Simple Symphony
Grieg – Peer Gynt
Satie – Gymnopedie no. 2
Rossini – Overture, Guillaume Tell
Beethoven – Symphony no. 1
Bartók – Romanian Folk Dances

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From the LO website:
Watch the sparks fly as the Classical Clown battles the maestro for control of the orchestra! It’s a symphonic showdown set to the usually serious sounds of Beethoven, Grieg, Britten and Stravinsky. By the time this merry Comedy Concerto is over the clown has conducted, the conductor has become a clown, and even the audience has gotten into the act.

January 15, 2010 9:30 am & 11:00 am → Brown Theater, Louisville

Ellington – Three Black Kings
Bach – Cantata BWV 58 with Kentucky Opera Studio Artists
Thompson – Testament of Freedom with Ballard High School Choir

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From the LO press release:
This concert celebrates diversity in our community and reflects on the life of Dr. King. Highlights include Dr. King’s I have a Dream speech, traditional spirituals and Duke Ellington’s ‘Three Black Kings.’ Ellington’s composition was meant as a eulogy for Martin Luther King, Jr. and was originally inspired by a stained glass window of three kings in Barcelona.

January 9, 2010 8:00 pm → Brown Theater, Louisville

Strauss – Serenade in E-flat
Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht
Brahms – Symphony no. 4

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Louisville Orchestra offers rich program
by Andrew Adler
The Courier-Journal
January 9, 2010

There was a definite strategy – both explicit and implicit – to the Louisville Orchestra’s concert Saturday night at the Brown Theatre.

Resident conductor Jason Weinberger guided his listeners through a progression of composers beginning with Richard Strauss, continuing with Schoenberg and ending up with a linchpin of both: Brahms. It was a rich program, intelligently conceived and, for the most part, persuasively executed.

While at its core this Hilliard Lyons Classics Concert was a stylistically conservative affair, there was just enough angularity to lend a bit of intrigue. Much of the off-center content was concentrated amid Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht” [“Transfigured Night”], an early, post-Romantic score that provides few signs of the composer’s later, career-defining serialism.

Though written originally for string sextet, “Verklärte Nacht” is almost always heard in Schoenberg’s own arrangement for string orchestra. Yet despite occupying an important place in the repertoire [and it is among the pieces that legions of undergraduate music students are, at one time or another, obliged to study], the Louisville Orchestra had neglected it until Saturday.

Weinberger had obviously studied the score closely, and his account of the music seethed, soothed and intrigued in all the proper degrees. The players were not always in complete technical sympathy, however, with more than a few textures emerging as approximations instead of precise blocks of sound. “Verklärte Nacht” is a ferocious beast to tackle, and the Brown – which excels at revealing interior detail – shows little mercy for spotty intonation and smudged attacks.

Still, Saturday’s performance was a welcome reminder of how musicwas shifting and swirling along as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. We need to hear these works, and we need to appreciate the context in which they were born. Concerts like Saturday’s are a substantial help in appreciating that perspective.

Nothing about Strauss’s Serenade in E-flat Major, Op. 7 for 13 wind instruments dares to offend – after all, it’s the product of a 17-year-old composer who was finding his way in his world. That much said, the Serenade has its precocious moments and its fundamentally classical outlines [think Mozart] give it intrinsic structural integrity.

Saturday’s reading was lithe and bubbly. The Serenade is not great music. But it is good music, and good music is worth encountering in places like these.

Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 happens to be great music, and because it is so often played, requires more than a respectful going-over to renew its case. There was seldom any doubt that Weinberger took his Brahms soberly. However, far too much of the performance never climbed above that brick-by-brick respectability.

His tempos tended toward the slow to moderate, which gave the players some extra margins in which to gauge attacks, but which sometimes checked vital momentum. This was most evident at the very start of the piece, where string phrases demanded more bite, and especially at the opening of the fourth-movement Allegro. Brahms marks that movement as ‘energico e passionato,’ but both energy and passion were wanting.

I must admit that I prefer my Brahms Fourth to be swift and inexorable, with a final movement that pushes tempos and almost leaps ahead of the beat. Weinberger was a more patient man on Saturday. And judging from the audience’s ovation, he had plenty of sympathy.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

December 12, 2009 2:00pm & 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on Greensleeves
Mozart – German Dance, ‘Sleigh Ride’
Delvyn Case – Rocket Sleigh [2008]
Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker, selections
Handel – Messiah, Hallelujah 
Richman – Hanukkah Festival Overture
Anderson – A Christmas Festival & Sleigh Ride

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November 28, 2009 7:00 pm → Brown Theater, Louisville

Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on Greensleeves
Mozart – German Dance, ‘Sleigh Ride’
Delvyn Case – Rocket Sleigh [2008]
Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker, selections
Bach – Christmas Oratorio, Sinfonia
Richman – Hanukkah Festival Overture
Anderson – A Christmas Festival & Sleigh Ride

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November 14, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Mahler – Symphony no. 5

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WCFSO did wonderful job with Mahler’s Fifth
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
November 19, 2009

An overpowering experience was the landmark concert the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra performed last weekend in the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. It was devoted to a thorough exploration of an imposing work by a great composer: the Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler. The piece was written in the first years of the 20th century and ever since has created a gigantic challenge for any orchestra and conductor who have decided to perform it.

Why is the Fifth so difficult? It is long [70 minutes]; its structure defies tradition [five movements]; it requires an enormous assortment of instruments; and each of the main sections [strings, brass, winds, percussion] are faced with a devilishly demanding score.

Jason Weinberger, WCFSO music director, designed a remarkably unique format in which to present Mahler’s Fifth. It was the only work of the evening, and the first half was given over to an illustrative analysis of Mahler and his symphony. The maestro himself lectured, the orchestra played excerpts of key passages, and certain section leaders commented and the audience participated. All of this created a greater understanding and appreciation of Mahler’s work.

The second half of the bill was the orchestra’s overwhelming reading of the work. Conductor and players joined forces in bringing out all the power and beauty of the score, which is filled with conflict, contrasts, force, and, yes, excess as well. The Fifth Symphony contains many different emotions, and these were admirably summed up by Bruno Walter who wrote of the work that it includes “music that is passionate, wild, pathetic, buoyant, solemn, tender, full of all the sentiments of which the human heart is capable.”

For this performance the orchestra and Maestro Weinberger worked their heads off performing the formidable score. The orchestra was magnificent; Weinberger was inspired. Well-deserved solo bows were assigned to Randy Grabowski [trumpet] and Dan Malloy Jr. [horn]. But all sections deserved the highest praise for a job extraordinarily well done. The thunderous applause of the large audience indicated that they were well aware that they were fortunate to be present at an extraordinary occasion.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

November 7, 2009 8:00 pm → Whitney Hall, KCA, Louisville

A special performance with Dashboard Confessional

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October 3, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Wharton – Fanfares for Open Spaces [1994]
Elgar – Cello Concerto with Zuill Bailey
Prokofiev – Symphony no. 5

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‘Virtuosic talent’ comes through in WCFSO performance
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
October 12, 2009

The year’s first subscription concert of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra took place last weekend in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Music Director Jason Weinberger conducted the fine program featuring guest artist Zuill Bailey, cellist. lt was an especially rich bill of three numbers, and although all three were gratifying the most memorable was clearly an impassioned performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in e.

This concerto has been called ‘a bittersweet beauty!’ A rather flip description, but it is indeed very dark – a lament, apparently, for the terrible loss of so many lives during the First World War. In spite of the musical darkness, there are elements of serenity, even lyric beauty - especially in the Adagio movement. Still, the mood overall is somber; a far cry from Elgar’s best known work, the upbeat Pomp and Circumstance. The piece requires virtuosic talent of the highest order - and Bailey has it, not only the requisite technical skill, but sensitive artistry, as well. His rich, warm tones, his vibrato, rapid-fire fingering and passionate intensity, were all very much in evidence.

These qualities, plus his dramatic stage presence, won the respect and affection of the audience. They gave him a long, tumultuous ovation. The outcry was so insistent that Bailey returned to the stage for a lovely encore, the ever-popular Meditation fram Massenet’s opera Thaïs. The Meditation is just that – quiet, thoughtful and introspective – and throughout it the hall went utterly silent. The WCFSO has now given two of the greatest cello concertos [by Elgar and Dvořák] in performance by two of the greatest cello players, Zuill Bailey and Yo-Yo Ma.

The other big work, Symphony no. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev, took up the entire second half of the program. Its massive score defies easy description or analysis. lt is distinctly modern, vividly shaped and colorful and, on this occasion, impeccably played by the orchestra and superbly directed by Maestro Weinberger. The evening opened with a brief piece composed by native Iowan Philip Wharton, Fanfares for Open Spaces. It was an arresting introduction to an unforgettable concert.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

September 20, 2009, 2:00 pm → Bengtson Auditorium, Russell Hall, Cedar Falls

Mozart – Clarinet Quintet with the UNI Faculty String Quartet
Brahms – Clarinet Sonata no. 2 with Sean Botkin
Baermann – Adagio with the UNI Faculty String Quartet
Brahms – Piano Quintet with Sean Botkin + the UNI Faculty String Quartet

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Performers ‘near perfect’
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
September 30, 2009

The classical music season is here! It arrived on a beautiful Sunday afternoon inside Bengtson Auditorium of the newly remodeled Russell Hall on the University of Northern Iowa campus. The first concert of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra’s 2009-2010 series was a fascinating program of first-rate chamber music entitled ‘Quintet-sential’. Two of the performers came from the WCFSO: Jason Weinberger, music director, clarinet and Sean Botkin, piano. They were joined by members of the UNI Faculty String Quartet.

Four pieces were played: three of the four featured the clarinet and one was a piano quintet [piano plus string quartet]. The four scores were extremely difficult requiring of the players the utmost skill and concentration. In small group music like this the slightest failure of pitch, tempo or phrasing will stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. In addition, the finest nuances of interpretation must be clearly displayed. In each case the performers we heard were near perfect. They played superbly, with the seamless unity so necessary with complex scores like these.

Each piece had a special strength and charm. I was especially moved, however, by the first work, Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. The composer’s creative genius is clearly present in this work, particularly in the unique way he places the clarinet in relation to the four string instruments. The clarinet is prominent throughout [we cannot help being drawn to it], and yet this is chamber music, not a concerto. All five instruments are given an opportunity to shine; each gets a crack at some of the major themes. It is a true quintet consisting of five distinct, yet well-balanced, voices. A transcendent passage in this quintet came in the second movement, where the first violin [admirably played by Frederick Halgedahl] has a lovely melody of high notes, echoed by a similar line of sonorous melody from the clarinet.

An outstanding work was the Brahms’ Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat, played by Jason Weinberger and Sean Botkin. Theirs was an astounding performance from the sweeping opening melody to the vigorous final movement with its rippling scales by the clarinet and the explosive chords of the piano in reply. Jason Weinberger plays the clarinet with the same expressive intensity with which he leads the orchestra. His performances are always deeply emotional, whether the score is somber or joyful. He brings out the full range of clarinet sound, from plangent bass notes to sweet and delicate high ones. And Sean Botkin’s piano work was splendid too, full of fire.

A surprise piece was the Adagio for Clarinet and Strings, opus 23, by Heinrich Baermann, a composer unknown to many of us. A brief, lovely jewel of a piece, it included passages of several moods: wistful, joyful, bittersweet.

The rich program concluded with Brahms’ Piano Quintet in f. With the piano added to the UNI Faculty Quartet, the piece was rich, complex, varied, and, above all, powerful. The success of this program owed much to the extraordinarily fine playing of the strings: Frederick Halgedahl, Theresa Feller, Julia Bullard, Suzanne Bullard, and Hunter Capoccioni.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

April 4, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Adams – Short Ride in a Fast Machine [1986]
Adams – Common Tones in Simple Time [1979]
Tchaikovsky – Symphony no. 4

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WCFSO features music by John Adams
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
April 24, 2009

An intriguing concert took place recently at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, when the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra played the sixth subscription concert of the current season conducted by Jason Weinberger, music director. The program was divided into two distinct halves. The first was devoted to contemporary music by John Adams, and the second part featured Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

‘Short Ride in a Fast Machine’ by Adams, composed in 1986, is a marvel of instrumentation designed to whisk the listener through a few minutes of time at breakneck speed. The score is daunting, filled with challenges for even an accomplished ensemble like the WCFSO [and required] every instrument to play with the greatest intensity and concentration. The second Adams piece, ‘Common Tones in Simple Time’ [1979] was not nearly as attractive. It, too, was unique, well-played and directed. But its narrowly focused non-melodic central line was a kind of scientific experiment: a long exhibition of sounds an orchestra can make with subtle variations within a very narrow range. If it had not been such a lengthy score, it might have worked as a reflective piece. As it was, it was cerebral rather than emotional.

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony was the featured work of the second half of the program. It was meticulously performed under the direction of Weinberger, who gave it a vividly colored reading. The small but outstanding details of this performance were delightful: little trios played by different wind instruments in the first movement, the swiftly-moving pizzicato melody of the strings in the third section, and the brass fanfares at the outset, later echoed toward the end, were faultlessly played by the the WCFSO. The cymbals, with repeated crashes, helped bring the work to its heroic conclusion.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

March 7, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Ives – Three Places in New England
Edgar Meyer – Bass Concerto no. 1 [1993] with Edgar Meyer
Copland – Rodeo, Four Dance Episodes

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WCFSO offers audience unusual, joyful program
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
March 12, 2009

With music director Jason Weinberger and guest artist bassist Edgar Meyer, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra presented its fifth subscription concert of the season for a large, enthusiastic audience at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. The program was all-American, featuring works by three 20th-century compoers, all of whom captured something uniquely American in their works.

First we heard a rousing performance of Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England. Anything but traditional, the work uses many features of Ives’ quirky style to capture emotions he felt at three places in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Exposure to his works can lead one to appreciate his exciting use of folk songs, military marches and even quotations from other classical works. One can even come to enjoy the disturbing sound of several melodies played out simultaneously, a favorite device of the composer. Ives has been called a Yankee maverick, and that he is. The score could not have been an easy one to play, but the WCFSO ripped through it brilliantly.

Another orchestral work on the bill was the music for the ballet Rodeo by Aaron Copland. This sparkling piece consists of a riot of orchestral color, constantly shifting-off-beat rhythms, syncopation, slashing percussion, blaring trombones, even a waltz and a pinch of ragtime. The last movement, a toe-tapping, boot-kicking hoe-down, like the rest of the work, was played with incredible precision. All brought together by Weinberger’s superb [and sometimes acrobatic] conducting.

The evening’s centerpiece was a performance by Meyer of his own composition, Concerto in D Major for Double Bass and Orchestra. Meyer’s stage presence, his virtuoso playing and the concerto itself inspired one of the longest and loudest ovations I have ever heard in the GBPAC. The crowd stood, applauded loudly, whooped and hollered, until Meyer favored them with a quiet little encore.

An unusual program, but a great one that sent the audience home filled with joy.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

February 7, 2009, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Beethoven – Violin Concerto with Wolfgang David
Bach [arr. Stokowski] – Toccata & Fugue
Bartók – Suite, Miraculous Mandarin

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Violinist adds flair to symphony performance
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
February 12, 2009

February’s Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra concert look place last weekend at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, featuring guest violinist Wolfgang David. Music director Jason Weinberger conducted this evening of very exciting music. The bill featured three ‘B’s’ of music, but not the usual trio. This time it was Bach, Beethoven and Bartók, with music from three quite different eras: 1705, 1806 and 1918.

Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin in D major was played by the soulful dynamo from Austria, David. Written during what was evidently one of the composer’s happier periods, it is gentle, pleasant, even occasionally humorous. David has a rich tone together with a technical flair that creates an inviting sound. That and his quiet, modest stage presence charmed the audience, and they gave him a thunderous standing ovation.

After the interval, we heard Bach’s Toccata and Fugue as arranged by Leopold Stokowski. This piece was first written for the organ, and that is how it is most often heard. It was especially fine in this arrangement for large orchestra. In fact the orchestra sounded massive and lush, as every instrumental section contributed to the sweep of the piece. The sound was dazzling, as it was also in The Miraculous Mandarin, which closed the program. The work, begun by Bartók in 1918, is in a modern style, and indeed it depicts the modern world, particularly the seamy side of it. The music, meant to accompany a baIlet-pantomine, dramatizes a tawdry little tale of three thugs, a prostitute, a young boy and a Mandarin. It is thoroughly urban, starting out with the sounds of modern-day street traffic. The music was cleverly assisted by brief titles flashed on a screen in a crude type font that reflected the wild music. The story line is rather sleazy and so is the music, but it is so frenzied, so violent in its portrayal of the dark side of modern city life that it becomes hypnotic and, in its way, beautiful. The Bartók, like the other works on the program, was performed to perfection, every instrument contributing to the overall, quite powerful, effect, and it was all admirably [and exhaustingly!] directed by Weinberger.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 10, 2009, 7:30 pm → Oster Regent Theatre, Cedar Falls

Stravinsky – L’histoire du soldat
Marsalis – The Fiddler’s Tale [1998]

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Chamber concert featured superb playing
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
January 15, 2009

The annual chamber music concert of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra was performed at the Oster Regent Theatre last weekend. The ensemble consisted of seven players: Eric Kline. violin; Hunter Capoccioni, bass; Eric Wachmann, clarinet; Greg Morton, bassoon; Randy Grabowski, trumpet; Christopher Buckholz, trombone; and Michael Pawlak, percussion. The program, conducted by Jason Weinberger, WCFSO music director, was made up of two works: the suites from The Soldier’s Tale [1918] by Igor Stravinsky and A Fiddler’s Tale [1998] by Wynton Marsalis. Both pieces have nine movements; some share the same titles. Each work is based on a tale, a kind of Faustian parable involving the devil and a soldier or fiddler.

The two pieces are sardonic, stark and rather ominous. Both have a plethora of different styles as part of their scores: engaging melodies, driving rhythms, plenty of jazz, contrasting dances [including a sequence of waltz, tango and ragtime] and even a grand chorale.

The most striking features of both works are the roles played by the seven different performers. Rather than an ensemble we seem to hear soloists – seven virtuosic players are required. The ones we heard easily satisfied this requirement. In my view, the startlingly complex passages played by the violin, the trumpet and the clarinet were high points of the evening. But all seven musicians played with such awesome skill that many in the audience were simply astounded.

Superbly played, this was a very interesting program. It was, it seems to me, a musician’s concert since the stylistic and technical differences in the two works were - for the average concertgoer, at least - too subtle to be appreciated. Therefore, the evening lacked some of the excitement that is a large part of the WCFSO tradition.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

November 1, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls, IA

Samuel Adler – A Bridge to Understanding [2008]
Samuel Adler – Beyond the Pale for clarinet [2003] with Samuel Adler, guest conductor
Mendelssohn – Symphony no. 3, ‘Scottish’

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‘Birthday Fête’ offers surprises
By Scott Cawelti
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
November 5, 2008

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony’s November 1 ‘Birthday Fête’ concert offered an evening of gratifying surprises for an intensely appreciative audience at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. ‘Expect the Unexpected’ has become the orchestra’s slogan and this evening’s concert made it come to life.

I’m always mildly surprised by the superb quality of this regional orchestra. Orchestra members consistently play far above what we might expect from performers with other day jobs who never get quite enough ensemble rehearsal time. It almost never shows. Bravo to them all for offering such high-quality playing every concert. The principal players deserve special credit for their leadership, and several offered excellent playing during this particular concert, including oboist Tom Barry, flutist Claudia Anderson, trumpeter Randy Grabowski, and concertmaster Anita Tucker.

The concert began with Adler’s 2008 piece, ‘A Bridge to Understanding: A Suite for Orchestra,’ in five movements, all of which offered cascading dissonances and tonalities which make it truly contemporary. Like other Adler creations, ‘Bridge’ brings a new energy to familiar folk melodies by alternating solos among the various instrumental sections and with driving, complex rhythms.

Adler, who turned 80 this year, has composed more than 400 widely acclaimed orchestral and choral works. He spent most of a week at UNI and attended Saturday night as the honoree. Weinberger introduced a surprise ‘gift’ for Adler in the form of a celebratory composition performed by a string quartet from the orchestra by Philip Wharton, a former Iowan and composition student of Adler’s. Violinists Beth Hoffman and Mary Grey, violist Kathleen Sihler, and cellist Suzanne Bullard played this fine offering, which sang with the same energy that Adler brings to his own compositions.

The orchestra jumped back 166 years to Felix Mendelssohn’s Third [‘Scottish’] Symphony, which debuted in 1842. It’s a powerful work with echoes of Scottish melodies and dance rhythms, striking dynamic range and a finale that ends with martial rhythms and triumphal cadences. Music Director Jason Weinberger chose to direct this 37-minute symphony without the usual breaks between the four movements, and the orchestra played with a contagious, joyful energy that brought the audience to its feet.

The major surprise of the evening, though, and probably the whole season, came when Adler himself conducted his ‘Beyond the Pale: A Portrait of a Klezmer’ with Weinberger performing the clarinet solo. I’ve attended dozens of orchestra performances, but I’ve never seen a composer conduct one of his own pieces featuring a solo played by the orchestra’s conductor. Unexpected indeed. The piece was utterly charming and ably played. ‘Beyond the Pale,’ though just 11 minutes long, offered major challenges to the soloist, and Weinberger proved up to the task. This standing ovation was genuine, and genuinely deserved.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

October 4, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Bernstein – Overture, Candide
Mozart – Piano Concerto no. 23 with Simone Dinnerstein
Mahler – Adagietto, Symphony no. 5
Bernstein – Symphonic Dances, West Side Story

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WCFSO kicks off season with a bang
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
October 19, 2008

The opening concert of the Waterloo- Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-09 season took place Saturday night in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, a dynamite concert with music director Jason Weinberger conducting and pianist Simone Dinnerstein guest artist.

This program was sensational. It was framed by two works by Leonard Bernstein, the Overture to the operetta Candide and his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Bernstein was born 90 years ago and these two works were the orchestra’s way of honoring a great American creative genius. The overture, possibly the composer’s most popular work, is explosive. It is swift, sparkling, mostly loud but with a sweet rhythmic melody at its center. It was played by the WCFSO with a spirit of friendly defiance that seemed to shout ‘We’re back and raring to go!’

The other Bernstein, the grand finale of the program, was his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. One easily recognizes the various songs and dance sequences from the musical (and the movie), but it actually works well as a symphonic piece with the composer’s amazing talent for unique, broad and vigorous instrumentation. Weinberger is always a joy to watch as he works on the podium, but was he ever in better form as he led the ensemble in the vigorous Symphonic Dances? Not a whit distracting, his movements on the podium were an ideal complement to the music. Communication between Weinberger and his players was also remarkable. Their refusal to take a bow at the end of this concert and their insistence on applauding their leader was extraordinary.

Sandwiched in between the Bernstein pieces came two works from other centuries. We heard a splendid performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23 with Dinnerstein at the keyboard. This concerto, with its much smaller orchestra and no trumpets or timpani, is one of the composer’s greatest [and apparently one of his favorites]. It includes some darkness, though the somber element is brightened by the final presto movement which joyfully skips along sounding almost child-like in its simplicity. Dinnerstein played with quiet authority. She showed great strength in the second rather solemn movement, and thrilled the audience with her delicate touch in the final movement. She and the orchestra worked in perfect harmony, evoking an atmosphere of charming conversation between good friends in an elegant drawing room.

In contrast to the distinctively classical piano concerto, the WCFSO played a single movement from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 5. This is one of those majestic works that defies description. It is pure beauty created out of some quite unconventional harmonies. No amount of speculating as to its ‘meaning’ can explain or duplicate this musical experience. The movement, marked ‘very slowly’ for strings and harp only, is a brief, haunting meditation, it seems to me, on the sadness that inevitably pervades the sweetness of life itself. A thoughtful, emotional jewel, it was sensitively played under the equally sensitive guidance of Maestro Weinberger. This was a program of seemingly disparate works so brilliantly performed that at the end the audience roared its approval in a lengthy ovation.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

September 14, 2008, 2:00 pm → Davis Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Mozart – Così fan tutte, Wendt arrangement
Mozart – Don Giovanni, Triebensee arrangement
Mozart – Die Entfürung aus dem Serail, Wendt arrangement
Mozart – Die Zauberflöte, Heidenreich arrangement
Mozart – Serenade K. 375 

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Area wind players perform at GBPAC
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
September 19, 2008

A very pleasant concert took place Sunday at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. ‘In Harmonie’ featured eight performers who are well described as ‘the best wind players in the Cedar Valley’ – Tom Barry and Heather Armstrong (oboe), Dan Malloy Jr. and Valerie Shanley (horn), Greg Morton and Kevin Judge (bassoon), and Eric Wachmann (clarinet), all members of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. WCFSO Music Director Jason Weinberger directed the ensemble, played clarinet and gave informative commentary on the music.

The good-sized audience in Davis Hall heard five works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Music from four of his operas was at the heart the program. A number of transcriptions of opera music for various instruments exist – the ones we heard [two of which were by contemporaries of Mozart] were arranged expressly for wind octet. I would guess that few opera fans know about these remarkably sparkling wind versions. We experienced an exciting surprise.

As the eight fine players presented this opera music, we became acutely aware of Mozart’s magical ability to create character, personality and action through the changing moods and tempo of the music. In addition to the operatic selections, the octet presented a splendid reading of Mozart’s Serenade in B-flat, a somewhat more elaborate and serious piece. All in all, this was a refreshing experience. Warmly human, funny and serious, always beautiful music. And extraordinarily well-played by eight virtuoso instrumentalists.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

April 5, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto no. 3 with Alexander Solomon
Dvořák – Symphony no. 8

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WCFSO final classic concert strikes chord
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
April 9, 2008

The final classics concert of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra took place Saturday at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Guest artist was pianist Alexander Solomon, and conductor was WCFSO music director Jason Weinberger.

The works of two composers were featured on the program, ‘Accidental Americans.’ An odd title, but actually quite appropriate. Sergei Rachmaninoff came to the United States and Antonín Dvořák spent time here in the 1890s, in New York and Spillville, Iowa.


The first work on the bill was the Piano Concerto no. 3 by Rachmaninoff. The concerto is a challenging piece of music – Josef Hofman, a renowned pianist to whom the work was dedicated, declined to play it. Many musicologists consider it the most difficult piano concerto. Solomon swept through the score like a breeze. It was hard work, but he made it look easy – with much passion, but without showy mannerisms. He put the music, not himself, at center stage. For this and for his incredible technique, the audience loved him. Their response was tumultuous. 

The next number was Dvořák’s Symphony no. 8, surely one of the greatest symphonic works – intricate, inventive, and as joyous as any piece in the repertoire. It is chock-full of engaging, exciting details that make for an exhilarating experience. The bird-like trills of the flute, the lovely clarinet duet, the booming timpani, the whooping horn cries, the trumpet fanfares and rhapsodic string passages. Maestro Weinberger drew out all the richness of the score, the aforementioned delights and many others. The orchestra emanated crispness, energy, precision. 

But that did not end the evening. We were granted to a nice postscript: one of Dvořák’s many frenzied Slavonic Dances. That made for an ecstatic conclusion to a truly great season of classical music.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

March 1, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Strauss – Metamorphosen
Brahms – Ein deutches Requiem with Metropolitan Chorale, Wartburg College Choir, John Hines + Rosemary Gast

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‘Requiem’ gets rousing reception from symphony audience
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
March 5, 2008

March weather did not come in like a lion last weekend, but some magnificent music did – a concert by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.

Two powerful works were performed by the orchestra, joined by a huge chorus consisting of singers from the Wartburg Choir, the Metropolitan Chorale, plus two soloists, Rosemary Gast and John Hines. Jason Weinberger, music director of the WCFSO, conducted from the podium. Choral preparation was by Paul Torkelson, conductor of both the Wartburg Choir and the Met Chorale.

The program, ‘German Requiems,’ included Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen and Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem. At first one might think the plural in the title was a printer’s error, but after experiencing the Strauss work it becomes clear that it, too, is a requiem. It is written for 23 string players, each playing a different part. The mood of the piece is mostly dark, the tempo unhurried. But it is not dirge-like, nor is it completely melancholic. Underneath the strains of sorrow can be heard a theme of beauty, as if to suggest that the regret was for something once lovely and good.

It is evident from the composer’s biography that Strauss, near the end of a long and successful life [the work is dated 1945; he died four years later], was deeply affected by the material devastation of Germany and the loss of its high culture. He particularly mourned the ruination by bombing of beloved opera houses in Munich and Dresden.

Metamorphosen is a haunting work, difficult to play and to understand. I had never heard of it, but I liked it and now hope to hear it played again. By scheduling this enigmatic work, Maestro Weinberger once again used his creative programming skills that so consistently enable us to hear exciting, but less well-known, musical works. The piece was warmly received out of respect for the music itself and for the fine work of our splendid string sections. They played the complicated score with admirable precision and emotional intensity.

The Brahms German Requiem, the major work of the evening, came next.Quite different from the traditional mass for the dead, this one does not follow the usual format of five divisions, Kyrie through Agnus Dei. A close reading of the text [from the Bible, and chosen by Brahms] shows little mention of Christ and almost nothing about salvation or the Judgement Day. There is no Deis irae movement. Also, unlike most requiem masses, it was written in the language of the people, German, not Latin.

The score is filled with marvelous music and this performance of it was extremely stirring. It electrified and soothed, a rare combination. All of the performers – chorus, orchestra, soloists – gave it a deeply spiritual reading that nicely conveyed the twin forces of consolation and resignation in the face of death. A very humanistic interpretation, not a doctrinaire one.

Soprano Gast, with fine support from the winds, beautifully sang the words of comfort from St. John. And Hines, with his rich bass, gave a forceful account of St. Paul’s meditation on the mystery of death.

Overall, the Requiem was awe-inspiring and, for this, much credit must go to Maestro Weinberger for an impressive group effort. He masterfully sculpted a panorama of brilliant sound – precise, balanced and moving.

And the audience? They loved it.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

February 2, 2008, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Overture and selected Incidental Music
Lowell Liebermann – Flute Concerto [1992] with Claudia Anderson
Prokofiev – Romeo and Juliet, Suite no. 2

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The theme for the evening, appropriate for the month of Valentine’s Day, was ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ Two of the three works performed were musical reflections of dramas of love by the great playwright. 

First on the bill was some of the incidental music Felix Mendelssohn created for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The orchestra played the work with verve, quickly establishing a mood that was joyous and youthful. 

Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Suite no. 2 concluded the program. Originally conceived as the score for a ballet, the suite is a marvel of instrumentation. And this performance called attention to the superiority of several sections of the WCFSO – the brass, winds and strings. Particularly fine was Evan Smith’s sonorous playing on the tenor saxophone.

A high point of the evening was the performance of Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute, with [Claudia] Anderson. Both the score of this contemporary piece and Anderson’s reading of it were electrifying. The work requires a virtuoso soloist to navigate its extremely challenging score. But Anderson was very much in charge of things from her tuneful pianissimo to the bold, lovely defiance that, to me, permeated the concerto. Her performance brought the audience to its feet for a wild prolonged ovation. 

A consummate performer, she was not just a ‘guest artist.’ She has been orchestra’s principal flutist for several years.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

January 12, 2008, 7:30 pm → Oster Regent Theatre, Cedar Falls

J.S. Bach (arr. Anton Webern) – Musical Offering, Ricercar
Mozart – Violin Concerto no. 1 with Philip Wharton
Philip Wharton – Passing Season [world premiere]
Wagner – Siegfried Idyll

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Symphony, guest composer delight
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
January 16, 2008M

On a cold and snowy night last weekend a small but enthusiastic audience of music lovers attended the first concert of the new year by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra at the Oster Regent Theatre. The program was conducted by Jason Weinberger, music director. He was joined on the stage for one work by guest violinist and composer Philip Wharton.

For many in the audience, the high points of the evening came from Wharton’s presence, first in his performance of the solo part to Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 1, and secondly in the form of his own composition, “Passing Season.”

As performer, Wharton was more than just satisfactory. He had a nice golden tone and breathtaking execution, particularly in the two cadenzas, which he wrote himself, and the final frenzied Presto movement. Wharton’s “Passing Season”, conduced with great sensitivity by Maestro Weinberger, is impressionistic and quietly emotional. It is very much in the spirit of Appalachian Spring and conveyed an upbeat mood reflecting the beauties of nature. The composer clearly has a sound grasp of what the various instruments can do – especially the winds – and the result is extremely pleasing. Of the young Wharton, an old saying could be applied: “He has a great many strings to his bow.” And the audience showed its admiraiton for his skills by giving him a standing ovation.

The program closed with a fine reading of Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” A beautiful antidote to the severe weather outside.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

November 3, 2007, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Mozart – Symphony no. 41, ‘Jupiter’
Holst – The Planets with artist Gary Kelley

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Audience finds WCFSO satisfying, provocative
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
November 9, 2007

No ordinary concert, this one was disturbing, satisfying, provocative, and brilliantly innovative. Held in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center under the direction of music director Jason Weinberger, the program consisted of works by Mozart, Holst and artist Gary Kelley.

Mozart’s Symphony no 41, nicknamed ‘Jupiter’, came first. The orchestra’s reading was brisk and affectionate. The piece served as a perfect introduction to the spellbinding experience that was to follow.

After intermission Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was performed by a huge crowd of players on stage – a startling image after the relatively small ensemble that played the Mozart. ‘The Planets’ was written during World War I and that terrible conflict was reflected a number of times in the piece, especially in ‘Mars, Bringer of War’. Each individual section of ‘The Planets’ dramatizes some general aspect, attitude or condition of humanity – a meditation, as it were, on the human condition. Starting contrasts are present, such as the powerful dark hammer blows of Mars, the bright sweetness of Venus, the madcap dance of Jupiter and the solemn fatalism of Saturn.

On this occasion the music was played in darkness, with a large screen placed above the orchestra. On it was projected a series of Kelley’s paintings. The works changed and moved with the music, reflecting or amplifying the mood or attitude suggested by the music. Thus we experienced something like a grand concerto, with the paintings as soloist carrying on a dialogue with the full orchestra. The line, color and form of Kelley’s paintings were compelling. His subjects were extraordinarily varied and inventive. These not only accentuated the moods and themes of Holst’s score, they also moved viewers to ponder questions evoked by the combination of the two art forms.

Much credit should go to Messrs. Kelley and Weinberger, as well as special kudos to Scott Smith of River Run Productions for the seamless coherence of the images.

What was the audience’s reaction to this rich feast? I would describe it as a prolonged frenzy. Every single person I spoke with agreed with my friend who called the evening a ‘wondrous musical-visual-poetic event’.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

October 6, 2007, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Shostakovich – Festive Overture
Barber – Cello Concerto with Matt Haimovitz
Tchaikovsky – Symphony no. 2, ‘Little Russian’

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WCFSO’s first subscription concert delights audience
by Harvey Hess
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
October 12, 2007

The opening ‘Festive Overture, Op. 22,’ by Shostakovich, boasts the kind of score which leads one to think, ‘Where have I heard this before?’ It carries one off in ‘sure-fire’ music, with a flair for fanfares [start and finish], daring orchestration and an imperial power one might call, these days, ‘Czarist’ —- but not during the composer’s lifetime. Any score, however fiery, will not ignite without the rigorous precision given it, such as Music Director Jason Weinberger led the musicians to, in realizing it. The crescendo of cheering and spirited applause of an emerging youthful following also lifts one’s heart.

Second on the program, Samuel Barber’s ‘Concert for Cello in C Minor, Op. 17,’ gave metro-area audiences a perfect occasion to hear viva voce the superb achievements of cello soloist Matt Haimovitz. This artist’s reach up and down his instrument astounds the eye as much as his range of timbres does the ear. Among living cellists, one can find in him a supreme lyricist of the cello’s ‘tenor’ vocality.

Barber’s score gave Haimovitz, the orchestra and Weinberger [whose uncannily canny way with programming brought it about] an incomparable opportunity to enjoy genuine modernism enriched with real tunes and sure tonality. The musicians’ ability to pick up bits and pieces of a theme and then give it a voice typified the sound musicianship that characterized the entire concert.

The close of the third movement, following a magisterial Haimovitz cadenza, built up a momentum that catapaulted the cadence, and the audience, into a virtual explosion.

Tchaikovsky’s ‘Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 17, Little Russian,’ new to most ears and fresh to all, seems to have delighted the house. And the third movement’s effervescence is Dom Perignon all the way. If for no other reason than the orchestration —- from the platinum-pinked piccolo’s shrill, to the amber strings —- one must admire Tchaikovsky. And the orchestra let us hear why, just as audience applause let the orchestra hear their appreciation.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

April 7, 2007, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Bizet – Carmen Suite no. 1
Ravel – Concerto in G with Orion Weiss
Schumann – Symphony no. 2

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Symphony, guest artist shine at latest concert
By George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
April 11, 2007

The April concert of the current Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony season took place last weekened in the Great Hall at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Music director Jason Weinberger led the program, with pianist Orion Weiss as guest artist.

The splendid program, consisting of three works, was dedicated to Mary Jean Armstrong Clark of Waterloo, a longtime, widely-respected player in the WCFSO.

Carmen Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet was a perfect starter for the evening. The suite could not help but be a crowd pleaser, but this was no ordinary performance. The WCFSO sounded more crisp and brilliant than usual. Precision and clarity were quite remarkable, resulting in a stellar performance of a very attractive piece of music.

Next came the the Concerto in G by Maurice Ravel, with Weiss at the keyboard. The youthful Weiss gave a splendid account. He played the breathtaking runs of the first and last movements with ease and grace. And, best of all, he performed the solemn, beautiful solo in the second movement with great delicacy of feeling. These well-played, meditative passages were among of the high points of the evening.

The Second Symphony of Robert Schumann triumphantly ended the concert. It too has a haunting, lovely movement – the third, aptly designated ‘Adagio espressivo,’ is an intense, lyrical and exceedingly romantic section. It – and the entire piece as well – was given a superb reading by Weinberger and the entire ensemble, with especially fine work provided by the strings.

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

March 3, 2007, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Haydn – Symphony no. 56
Satie – Parade
Shostakovich – Symphony no. 5

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Orchestra’s performance one of Weinberger’s best
by George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
March 11, 2007

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

February 3, 2007, 7:30 pm → Great Hall, GBPAC, Cedar Falls

Fine – Music for Orchestra
Williams – Concerto for Trumpet [1996] with Randy Grabowski
Copland – Billy the Kid, Suite

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Symphony orchestra, guest artist dazzle audience
By George F. Day
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
February 7, 2007

Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.

Vanishing China | PDN Photo of the Day

‘Whenever I have crossed the Pampa or have lived in it for a time, my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy, some full of euphoria and others replete with a profound tranquility, produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of a day.’ Alberto Ginastera, on the Argentinian plains that inspired his ballet Estancia.

ckck: Somewhere in Washington.

Tuonela, wood engraving, 1934
Paul Landacre

via benjaminhilts

Rapha Cycle Club

State of the Internet

Beer!

via @bredankoerner

My beat tape tumblr - the finest in recent, rare and unreleased hip hop instrumentals.

DOOM IN LONDON | Stones Throw Records

Madlib - African Voodoo Queen (Drama)

Madlib in The Guardian | Stones Throw Records

Bahati: Out of Compton

Nick Hand cycles the coast of Great Britain, documenting artisans who work and live along the coastline and raising funds and awareness for Parkinson’s research.

Vancouver 2010, part 2 of 2 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

via doomgoblin: via alaskaneyes

Tatooine from Star Wars Galaxy, by Justin Van Genderen

Plakaty filmowe USA

homework - young polish poster designers - gallery, graphics, posters, design

ckck:

Mount Thule, Lawren Harris, 1930.

2 Days in Stowe, VT : Jake Stangel

Zach Giffin, Mt. Baker, WA

Ski Photographer Grant Gunderson

Snowy scenes - The Big Picture - Boston.com

nevver:

Chamonix 1924, 1st Olympic Winter Games

The Roots Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – Antiquity via Questlove

MOS DEF DOOM CHICAGO | Stones Throw Records

Return of the Jedi

ShootTheGlass — Star Wars Posters

Star Wars

Minimalist Movie Posters by Eduardo Prox

erasing:

Untitled | Carmen Herrera

José James – Blackmagic

Angel feat. Dwele

via Mochilla

100 Abandoned Houses

vivia:

mfs: kml: jmtp: Chicago

breeapperley:

(via risingtensions)

Gary Kelley - African Dancer from Three Black Kings
via orchestra21

Garuda

Bottle Rocket

Dang is the new Bang

Drift

Hellovon / Reger Federer Nike

orchestra21 → Orchestrock

Very excited to perform this concert with Calexico and The Airborne Toxic Event. Highly recommended if you are in the region!

handa:

nemoi:

motomania:

loudpop:

BMW Isetta, via autoshatterkepek.hu

kateoplis:

From WIRED’s fantastic article on the nation’s high speed trains:

Superfast Bullet Trains are finally coming to America. Believe it.

After decades of false starts, planners are finally beginning to make headway on what could become the largest, most complicated infrastructure project ever attempted in the US. The Obama administration got on board with an $8 billion infusion, and more cash is likely en route from Congress. It’s enough for Florida and Texas to dust off some previously abandoned plans and for urban clusters in the Northeast and Midwest to pursue some long-overdue upgrades. The nation’s test bed will almost certainly be California, which already has voter-approved funding and planning under way. But getting up to speed requires more than just seed money. For trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly. Officials are pushing to deploy state-of-the-art rail rockets.

Fast Trains: A Brief History (Illustrations by Paul Rogers)

Salinger stories originally published in The New Yorker.

orchestra21 → Inside the orchestra

karenh:

record album cover art by Alex Steinweiss, c. 1948 
(via The Retro-Spector)

ckck:

Beautiful Art Deco-ish poster for the documentary The Art of the Steal.

EL MAC PAINTS AT ÆDIFICA

Frank Chimero has a blog. (0D 1D 2D 3D 4D)

Currently

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra music director
Louisville Orchestra resident conductor
Educator + Clarinetist

More

Full-length program biography
Concert reviews under concerts
Performance audio, video & photos updated via the blog
On the internets at Flavors Twitter Tumblr Facebook Vimeo Flickr Last.fm

Collaborated

Soloists Yo-Yo Ma Matt Haimovitz Edgar Meyer Simone Dinnerstein David Shifrin Simone Dinnerstein Manuel Barrueco DBR Gao Hong Stewart Goodyear Tim Fain Tai Murray Orion Weiss Wolfgang David Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Roger Chase Sean Botkin Genadi Zagor Zuill Bailey
Composers Samuel Adler Peter Schickele Philip Wharton Philip Rothman Miguel Atwood-Ferugson
Bands Orquesta Alto Maiz Brandi Carlile The Airborne Toxic Event Calexico Dashboard Confessional Sondre Lerche
Visual artists Gary Kelley

Previously

National Symphony Orchestra cover + education conductor
Baltimore School for the Arts orchestra program director + clarinet
University of Northern Iowa music history + clarinet

Educated

Gustav Meier Leonard Slatkin Don Thulean Yehuda Gilad David Shifrin
Yale University BA humanities with academic distinction
Yale School of Music MM clarinet
Peabody Conservatory MM conducting
National Conducting Institute
Aspen Music Festival
Harvard-Westlake School
Colburn School

Interested

Everything
Mozart Mahler Bach Stravinsky
20th-century + 21st-century music
American + Latin American music
Multimedia
Hip hop

Reside

Cedar Falls + Louisville
Hometown Santa Monica
Wife Jenette + dog Lucy

Recreate

Ski + Bike
Garden + Kitchen
Internets
NBA NFL etc

Photos by Noah Henscheid and O’Neil Arnold