Monthly Archives: March 2007

Eagles lodge catches fire (East Oregonian)

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Eagles lodge catches fire

Video on YouTube

 

By Phil Wright
of the East Oregonian

PENDLETON – The Fraternal Order of the Eagles’ building at the corner of South Main Street and Southeast Emigrant erupted into flames at about 3:30 p.m. and sent billowing black smoke spewing from doorways.Assistant Chief and Fire Marshal Tyler Nokes said it was too early to tell what caused the fire.

The Pendleton Fire Department was the first on the scene, with a truck at the corner of South Main Street and Southeast Frazer Avenue, and another parked near the building, also on Frazer. Firefighters from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Pilot Rock also responded.

Bartender Monica Powell was the only employee in the Eagles. She said some type of problem with the popcorn machine led to the destructive blaze.

Powell said she had turned on the popcorn machine, but hadn’t added any oil or popcorn.

She then made a phone call to cocktail waitress Gail McDaniel and within just a couple of minutes Powell said she could see smoke coming from the popcorn machine, but couldn’t determine why.

She then hastily hung up the phone, went to the machine and opened the plastic doors. That’s when she saw the machine spark and heard a loud “pop.”

“Then there were flames,” she said, still visibly shaken from the experience.

Powell didn’t run out, however.

Instead, she found the fire extinguisher, but said she couldn’t remove the pin to make it operable. That’s when she ran to the door and yelled for help.

A stranger answered her call.

Powell said a large man in a blue shirt came to her aid, removed the pin and tried to put out the spreading flames. The man then took her outside.

McDaniel came to the building after her friend hung up. She, like the crowd lining Frazer and Main Street could only watch as firefighters went to work.

McDaniel also tried to track down the stranger, but to no avail.

Fire crews continued to fight flames as of 4:30 p.m., when fire and police units shut down all surrounding side streets, to avoid interferance with the ongoing attempts to knock down the blaze.

Flames have spread from the Eagles to the entire building.

However, according to Pete Wells, acting public information officer, flames have not spread to Craig Office Supply.

“The guys on the scene are really hopeful it will stay in the building it started,” Wells said.

From glimpses between fire trucks on South Main Street it appeared the fire had destroyed the Smith’s Shoe Repair and Coffee Bean.

Firefighters are working to keep the fire from spreading by cooling the wall between Craig Office Supply and the adjoining structure.

Hermiston Fire Department Lt. Dale Ternes said as of about 5:50 p.m. Pendleton has requested Hermiston help with refilling air bottles. But Ternes said Hermiston Fire anticipates having to relieve firefighters as they become fatigued.

“We’ve told them already we have more people here if they need it. They just have to ask,” Ternes said.

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Community reflects on loss from fire (East Oregonian story)

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 The offices of the Oregon East Symphony

Community reflects on loss from fire (update #3)By Samantha Bates
of the East OregonianAs the afternoon wore on, firefighters battled flames and smoke on Main Street, people gathered close to the police lines to get a look at the flames licking the air above the building, even as smoke blew south across the open lot across Frazer Avenue.“I can’t believe they can put that much water on it and it’s still burning,” said Leonard Rydell, who began watching around 5 p.m. after seeing the smoke from the Pendleton Convention Center.Firefighters attacked the flames from tall ladders on both sides of the building. Main Street and Frazer Avenue began to fill with water as the storm drains tried to keep up with the fire hoses.

“I admire the fire department,” Rydell said. “It’s amazing a fire can burn that hot and keep going.”

Keri Clark-Ware said before she moved to Pendleton, she worked as a volunteer firefighter for nine years in Baker County.

“It’s probably the worst I’ve seen.” she said, looking at the smoke and flames from Main Street.

She and her daughter, Hanna Myers, came downtown after seeing the smoke from their home.

“I heard a fire truck and ambulance,” Myers said.

Then she saw the smoke.

“I thought it was a fire, but I didn’t think it was this big of a fire,” she said.

But the flames meant even more to the people who spent time in the Eagle’s Lodge, the Pendleton Coffee Bean, Smith’s Boot & Shoe Repair and the Oregon East Symphony office. All of which have been lost to the fire, officials said.

“It’s sad to see because I’ve belonged to this lodge for the last 45 years,” said Lucien Compere, grandfather in the Eagles Lodge. “There goes my life.”

Compere said he participated in meetings every month, taco night on Tuesdays, hamburger night on Thursdays and karaoke and dances on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s like a home away from home for everybody,” said Birchie Westerlund, another Eagle.

“It’s pretty sad,” said Becky Marks, who also is an Eagle. “All the history that’s gone.”

She said inside the building were photos of past presidents dating back to the late 1800s, trophies and a large stuffed eagle, all of which she said couldn’t be replaced.

Jerry Wash, head trustee with the Eagles, said the loge dated back at least until the beginning of the 20th century. He said they are unsure what will happen to the Eagles from here.

“We won’t let it discourage us,” said Westerlund.

Other people were amazed but not discouraged by the fire.

“We haven’t lived here long,” said Roger Harwerth, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. “This is the first big fire we’ve seen.”

Harwerth also sings with the Oregon East Symphony. He said he was unsure if the damage to the organization’s office would affect the group.

Michelle Kajikawa, director of the Oregon East Symphony said though there may be material loss, she expects the community to support the group.

“The symphony is much larger than that building,” she said. “We’re very hopeful. We’re going to rebuild.”

Of the things lost, she listed 20 years of records and archives and a music library. Fortunately, she said they were able to save the most valuable instrument in the office, a cello belonging to music director Kenneth Woods.

Marilyn Anderson, owner of the Main Street Diner and Pendleton Popcorn, said she sympathized with the owners of the Pendleton Coffee Bean.

“I feel really bad this happened through no fault of their own,” she said.

Upon hearing the fire may have started from a popcorn maker, she said it made her think twice about her business.

“How easily that could have happened to us,” she said.

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“Mahler’s Sym. No. 0″ (Rott Symphony in E)

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The subject recently came up of the Symphony in E by Hans Rott. Rott died a horrible death as a schizophrenic in a mental hospital. Had he remained healthy, he would surely have been one of the most important composers of all time. Mahler called him the “inventor of the modern symphony as I understand it.”

Rott and Mahler were classmates in counterpoint studies with Bruckner. This lone symphony was written well before any of Mahler’s, but is full of themes which later appeared in several of Mahler’s major works. Rott wrote the piece to present to Brahms in hopes of winning a stipend, but Brahms actually accused him of a degree of plagerism (one of the main themes sounds a great deal like Brahms 1, but this was an homage to Brahms- the resemblance is  too obvious for anyone to expect it to go un-noticed)

I would like to share my own modest experience with the piece.

When I was the assistant conductor in 1997 and 1998 at the Univ of Cincinnati, Gerhard Samuel, who gave the world premiere performance and recording several years earlier, decided to make the piece the cornerstone of his final tour and concerts as MD of the CCM Philharmonia. We did the piece on our fall concert and again on tour  to Portugal the following March.

Based on my experience with the piece, I would say that it is a piece that will always have a mixed reputation for a number of reasons. First, for anyone encountering it for the first time, two aspects of the work are immediately obvious- first a thematic kinship with works by Mahler and Brahms, and second a certain weakness of compositional technique. In many places in the work there is a clumsiness of rhetoric than can be quite off- putting, and the way in which certain themes remind us so powerfully of other works can be quite distracting. Instead, listeners first experiencing the work seem to listen like scientists inspecting an odd, newly-discovered creature. Hearing a work with so many Mahler themes in it (especially one that predates the Mahler symphonies) is a bit like seeing a conductor with Simon Rattle’s hair on film in the 1960′s  (everyone is copying it now). Your fascination with the freakishness of it all gets in the way of the music.

Once in rehearsal, another thing became clear about the piece- it is, without doubt, one of the most difficult works in the repertoire. Rott had far, far less experience with the orchestra than Mahler or Strauss, and his  instrumental writing is much less idiomatic than either of them. In fact, I would say that the Rott was the one piece we did during my time at CCM that really posed huge technical challenges for the Philharmonia players. Gerhard finally re-distributed the horn parts from 4 players to 6 and from 3 trombones to 4 to try to mitigate the problems of fatigue. He also cut quite a bit from the triangle part, which he always thought seemed  more like a symptom of Rott’s illness than an integral part of the composition. Gerhard very graciously let me take several rehearsals and lead some sectionals, and, though I enjoyed conducting the piece a lot (and learned an enormous amount studying it), it was hard work for everyone.

The first performance seemed to confirm the piece’s many doubters ideas. The orchestra struggled and the piece seemed long, cumbersome and awkward. Many asked Gerhard to pick another work for the tour.

Of course, any of you who know Gerhard already know that was not going to happen. Fast-forward several months, and we returned to the work again. Again rehearsals were tough and exhausting, and brass players in particular were notably tense and concerned. Still, those of us listening in the hall could hear a big difference from the fall. Gerhard also made one small cut of the pedal point section in the finale, something he was reluctant to do,  but that he thought the piece really needed. It did tighten up a long and episodic movement.

The tour was a lot of fun, but full of drama. We were touring with two programs and the Rott program was only being done once, on the final concert. One of the quirks of this trip was a virulent outbreak of stomach flu, and we had to re-assign a number of parts. On the day of the concert, our bass trombonist was completely out of commission, so in desperation, the tuba player and second bone player split up the part. The addition of the  tuba, although by no means historically authentic, completely solved the pitch problems in the brass section. With that extra cushion, the rest
of the section found a level of accuracy and tonal warmth that was remarkable.

The concert itself is one that stays with me even now, and I don’t think anyone there will ever forget it, especially the Rott. Well performed and understood by the players, the challenges and weaknesses of the work vanished. Rott’s vision, passion and spirit came through brilliantly and the audience response was like few I have ever seen. It was a fitting culmination of Gerhard’s 25 year association with CCM.

So, I would encourage all of you to get to know the work and to live with it. If you consider programming it, know that it is tremendously difficult and that you may need to do some tweaking of parts. I don’t think it is a great choice for a regular subscription week with a full time band, as it seems to need time to gell and for the players, especially the horn and oboe soloists, to find their place in the work.

In many ways the piece poses many of the same problems for the performer as the Mozart Requiem or Bartok Viola Concerto. Because of Rott’s tragedy, the piece is in many ways still incomplete- surely he would have made many changes  on hearing an orchestra rehearse it. For the interpreter, this means that one is posed with a great number of questions that don’t come up in more finished works. The piece surely needs some help, but where does one draw the line? I think that one of the reasons Mahler never did it is that he couldn’t make it performable without really making it his own. Many of us, including Gerhard, are disposed to be strictly faithful to the score, so making any changes go against the grain.  Surely adding tuba is not something Gerhard or I would have come up with except in an emergency, but the piece sounded a lot better with it. Does this mean I would do the piece with tuba next time, or is that going too far? Is my idea of what sounds good more valid that Rott’s intent? The more I live with the piece, the more I believe that Rott was one of the great visionaries, which makes me more reluctant to add to or change his music, even with the best of intentions, and yet it also does Rott a dis-service to not fix what he surely would have.

Incidently, the program for our Rott concerts was one I really liked-

Brucker- Symphonic Prelude

Mahler- Wayfarer Songs

Rott- Symphony in E

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Fire in orchestra offices

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The fire is out at the OES offices, and we now know a bit more.

 It apparently started in a popcorn machine at the Eagles Lodge, which is part of the same building. The entire building is gone, including the symphony office and the Pendleton Coffee Bean, which was a lovely restaraunt and coffee shop next door. They’d poured a lot of blood sweat and tears into building that business from scratch over the last four years, so I wish them well.

 In the short term, it looks like the orchestra will be working out of borrowed office space at the Pendleton Art Center. Our next concert will go on as scheduled on May 13th. I would implore all our musicians to check in with Michelle, however, as all of your contrats and contact information will have been destroyed. mkajikawa@gmail.com

 Our principal violist and concertmaster were teaching in the offices when the fire started. I’m very, very grateful they got out, and that nobody seems to have been hurt. They actually saved my cello and one of my guitars, which was rather silly of them under the circumstances, but I’ll always be grateful to them for that- both had tremendous sentimental value.

 We’ve already had some offers of donations to help us weather the storm. Settling with all the insurance companies will take some time, and in the meantime, all the tools of daily business are unavailable to us, so donations of cash or equipment and supplies are much appreciated.

 The loss of the library and the archives, as well as so many of our records is going to make for a rough few months, but we’ll rally.

 The orchestra office is the green awning.

KW

 

 

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OES-S.O.S.– fire destroys symphony office

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In all the stages of my professional life, I’ve never known of or been involved with an organization more resilient than the Oregon East Symphony. The orchestra has weathered what we thought was every possible storm over the last six years while steadily growing and improving. It has become the sort of place and organization that musicians come away from remembering why they became musicians in the first place- our last guest conductor said that very thing after his concert in February, and it has been a refrain for many over the last few years. It is a place where music means something. It’s been an orchestra where players cry onstage in Mahler 2, and it’s been an orchestra that makes ordinary concerts feel like festivals even as we struggle to raise every penny and find every player. 

Today, all of that was put at risk when the block of buildings which house the OES offices burned to the ground. 

It is too early to say anything definitive about the cause of the fire, but we know everyone is alive and safe, and we know that our home for the last seven years is completely burned to the ground. Given that our executive director has been bringing her four-month-old to work every day, I cannot tell you how grateful I am that everyone is okay, but our orchestra’s home is gone. 

The orchestra had just had an especially promising run- our annual fundraiser had exceeded goals, and our brilliant new office staff, only in the job since early January, had already been making tremendous headway in reinvigorating our daily operations. Our financial prospects for the season were bright, and our outlook for next year was uncommonly hopeful. 

Now, we have lost our music library, our archives, our records, our computers. We’ve lost the history of the orchestra, our recording equipment, instruments, office equipment and god-knows what else. My own cello and several guitars are now firewood. We have a safe and insurance- is that an orchestra?

We need help, but don’t even begin to know where to turn except to our friends. I’m 5,000 miles away (and looking for flights) and feel utterly powerless to do anything, so I write to the world, to you. 

Help us save this orchestra. 

Help us save the two youth orchestras, the children’s choir, the summer camp, the young people’s concert. Help save Mahler in cowboy country (and all those premieres by Doolittle, McKinnon, Mayer and Thomas, help us save our nearly-finished Beethoven cycle, help us give one more young soloist a shot) . 

If you can help, please contact our executive director, Michelle Kajikawa at 

mkajikawa@gmail.com 

Please help. The orchestra needs everything right now, and help from the insurance company may be months away. This orchestra does not deserve to die like this

http://www.oregoneastsymphony.org/ You can reach me at-

ken@kennethwoods.net    

 

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Program Note- Beethoven (arr. Mahler) String Quartet in F Minor op 95 “Serioso”

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The Lancashire Chamber Orchestra will perform Mahler’s arrangement of Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor “Serioso” this Saturday, March 17 at Christ Church in Lancaster. More concert information here. 

 

 Beethoven (arr. Mahler)- String Quartet in F minor, op. 95 “Serioso”

We are taught to think of Beethoven as having three basic styles that he went through in his career- the early style of the op. 18 quartets, the early piano sonatas and the 1st and 2nd symphonies, then the great middle style typified by the 3rd and 5th symphonies as well as the op 59 quartets, the Violin Concerto and the 4th and 5th piano concerti, and finally that late style as heard in the op 110 and 111 piano sonatas, the 9th Symphony and the late quartets.

In doing so, listeners might easily overlook a small, but vitally important and fascinating, period of Beethoven’s career that took place during the difficult years of transition between the middle and late periods of his life. It is fascinating to look through the catalogue of Beethoven’s middle period and to see where the most astonishing masterpieces must have been sitting on his desk at the same time. The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth symphonies and the Violin Concerto, for instance, were all written at virtually the same time.

However, after this flowering, Beethoven faced an extended personal and professional crisis, and during this nearly-decade-long struggle, he wrote very little. What he did write, however, remains fascinating. Perhaps the greatest typical feature of the middle period, particularly works like the Violin Concerto, was Beethoven’s tendency to stretch forms to their absolute limit. The first movement of the Violin Concerto is 30 minutes long, nearly twice the length of the F minor String Quartet performed this evening.

In the works of this transitional period, Beethoven not only abandons extended structures, he abandons long musical gestures. Phrase lengths tend to be shortened, transitions, when there are any, are abrupt. It is as if he has removed all the padding and ornamentation from the music and left only what he felt was most essential. This “Serioso” quartet and the last two cello sonatas, which are typical of this period, are among his most direct and intense works- intense even by Beethovenian standards. It is music from a genius in the midst of an intense personal and artistic crisis.

The first movement is a brusque Allegro which contrasts a violent first theme which lasts only a few seconds with a gently lamenting chorale theme, which likewise only lasts a few bars. The movement is dramatic and explosive in a character reminiscent of the first movement of the 5th Symphony, but all the drama is over in only four minutes- less than the length of the introductions to the 4th or 5th piano concerti or the Violin Concerto.

The second movement, marked Allegretto, takes the place of a slow movement, and is one of Beethoven’s most perfect creations. A simple march theme in the cellos sets up a soulful melody in the first violins, followed by a haunting fugue. These three ideas are developed with exquisite completeness in just a few short minutes.

The third movement functions like a scherzo, but Beethoven is not joking around- his tempo marking is “Allegro assai vivace ma serioso.” The theme of the main section is one of his most rhythmically complex creations, the trio is a wondrous chorale accompanied by a gentle perpetual motion in the first violin.

The finale begins with the only really slow music in the piece- seven bars of the most chromatic and despairing music imaginable. The main part of the finale that follows is in a rather sad and lyrical character- the darkness of this quartet seems boundless at times. However, the coda is one of Beethoven’s most startling turns. For the first time in the work, he turns to F major, and music that is almost frivolous in nature. The contrast is so great and the change so sudden and incomprehensible that one cannot help but feel there is a sort of bitterness in the laughter of this ending, as though Beethoven is telling us that life is a bit of a joke.

This piece was one of three string quartets that Mahler arranged for string orchestra during his early years at the Vienna Philharmonic (the others were Beethoven’s op 131, which is lost, and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden). Of the three, this is the only one to have been performed by Mahler, although the premiere was a near fiasco, with hecklers booing loudly throughout and condemning Mahler for tampering with the music of Beethoven. In fact, Mahler made the arrangement with great restraint, adding a bass part only in a few sections (the author has actually expanded the bass part considerably for this performance) and he changed none of Beethoven’s music.

Notes by Kenneth Woods

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

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Concert Review- Nottingham Philharmonic, March 10, 2007

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REVIEW: NOTTINGHAM PHILHARMONIC, ROYAL CONCERT HALL

11:00 – 12 March 2007

American rock and classical musician Kenneth Woods seemed a born conductor in his recent city debut.

His second appearance with the Nottingham Philharmonic underlined that impression with performances combining excitement and integrity.The overture to Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila got the concert off to a flying start.

Great things were expected of a soloist who played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the London Symphony in her early teens. Ten years on, the technical finesse and searing intensity of Seoul’s So-Ock Kim did not disappoint.

Her command of the most complex passages was matched by the charm displayed in the work’s central canzonetta.

Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances went down a treat. The audience also warmed to the portraits of Elgar’s Enigma Variations – which were sketched and coloured with a fine panache.

by Peter Palmer

Re-blogged from the Nottingham Evening Post. Original here.

Copyrighted material is reproduced here without profit for informational purposes only, and will be removed on request.

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So-Ock’s fiddle

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Here is an interesting piece on violins from last week’s Sunday Times, with a special emphasis on So-Ock Kim‘s Strad, which is the oldest known example. As it turns out, there are two corrections to offer. First, her concert in Nottingham on Saturday was with the Nottinham Philharmonic and me, not the RPO, and, as it turned out, she was not playing her Strad, which was in the shop, but a borrowed Guarneri del Gesu.

 Think about it- a del Gesu for a loaner! That’s when you know you’ve arrived! I’m happy to play on a second cello that’s even remotely functional. I need to start being more demanding.

KW

 

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Dvorak 8- Challenges for principal trumpet

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Morning Ken,
Hopefully this question is not in bad form, and if it is please let me know: after noticing your blog online, I wondered if you could provide some insight/advice on a piece I will be playing soon?

I play with a symphony, and we are doing Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. This is the first time playing Dvorak for me, and I wondered if you had any recommendations for me – things you looked for as a conductor in your principal trumpet.

I must admit that I am fairly new to the realm of being a principal, but I want to try as much new material (to myself that is) as I can. Thanks for any info you can spare!

M

 

Dear M-

I’m flattered by your question. I think all conductors have a desire to tell brass players way more about how we think they should be playing than they generally want to hear from us. Also, this is one of my favourite pieces, and I do have some strong ideas, so I’ll take the bait. Apologies to any trumpet colleagues and friends who think this is all bullshit!

Just remember, as a principal, the playing is supposed to be a given, and your job in the rehearsal is leadership and listening so you can bring up the level of everyone around you. I’m sure you’ve already listened to the piece, but it’s one worth listening to a few recordings of, as tempi and styles can vary a lot.

In all the brass choir stuff, you’ll want to have a clear sense of what kind of an articulation and shape of note you want, and be prepared for different approaches if the conductor surprises you. A spot like letter C in the first movement is one where you need to not only be able to play your part, but also have a sense of whether the whole brass section is matching each other, and playing in balance and in tune with the strings and woodwinds.

The great trumpet moment at the climax of the first movement, 16 before L shows a lot about your overall musicianship as well as your playing. The conductor should be able to tell you were listening when he or she rehearsed the cellos on this same melody at the beginning of the entire piece. They’re mostly soft and you’re mostly very loud, but it’s the same tune and should have the same quality of lyricism. Make sure you’re aware of the D pedal through the whole thing, and are playing in tune with that, and let the 2nd player be the louder voice. The lower octave should always be the loudest when two players are playing in parallel.

At letter O in the first movement, make sure to get out of the way of the strings on all your half-notes. Your doted rhythm on the first half of the bar is under-scored and will always sound too soft, but the long note really gets in the way. 8 bars from the end, make sure the triplets are really going somewhere- it’s the only interesting thing in those two bars.
In the 2nd movement, the passage around E can be humbling. You’ve got to be 100% confident in your rhythmic precision while making it all sound very natural. Making your sound work all the way from the low g in the second bar of E to the high g at the top of the phrase is a challenge- few players sound equally robust and polished all the way through it. The last five notes before F are the hardest thing in the piece for you because the conductor is likely to be doing all sorts of convoluted stuff at that moment. You need supreme confidence in how it’s supposed to sound- practice with a recording a few times.   

The main issue in the 3rd movement is rhythm. The tempo of the movement puts it uncomfortably between feeling in 3 and in 1, so there are likely to be places where the conductor is beating something that doesn’t fit your part as well as it fits the melody. The hemiolas in the trio, say 14 before E, have got to be effortlessly rhythmically precise- many players end up playing the 16ths way too late and fast. Your little tune in the Coda is tricky to count- note it’s a 9 bar tune, not an 8 bar tune. Take the ff with a grain of salt- it’s light stuff (a quote from one of his operas, in fact, that is sort of a joke about married life).

Feel free to tell the conductor you would like 2 beats before the beginning of the last movement, and don’t play the quarters too short the ^ accents are emphasis, they don’t shorten the note! At letter L, you might see if the conductor wants all 4 horns on the tune (ask your principal horn first!). The famous scale in the 8th bar of S is one of those things that can kill you in an audition, but isn’t worth sweating too much in the orchestra as you’re comfortably doubled by other players. The last four bars before the Piu animato at the very end are dangerous- you’re playing a triplet on beat two when the rest of the band is playing a duple. The conductor is likely to be indicating that duple, so you have to be able to shape your ritard to fit effortlessly with everyone else while slightly ignoring his conflicting signals.

The triplets in the last four bars are hard to make work- the tempo drives to the end, but they have to feel slightly held back. Watch the stick and keep up, but use every mili-second you have, and make sure they’re quite evenly strong so they have some friction in them.

Enjoy

Ken
More about Dvorak 8 can be found here or here.

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

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UPCOMING CONCERT- Lancashire Chamber Orchestra, March 17 2007

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UPCOMING CONCERT

Lancashire Chamber Orchestra

Saturday, March 17, 2007

7:30 PM

Christ Church, Lancaster

Mozart- Eine Kleine Nacht Musik

Beethoven (arr. Mahler)- Quartet  in F minor, op 95 “Serioso”

Vivaldi- The Four Seasons

   Kate Birchall, violin

 

PRESS RELEASE

Lancashire Chamber Orchestra returns to Lancaster

London Philharmonic Orchestra violinist Kate Birchall steps into the spotlight on Saturday 17 March, as the Lancashire Chamber Orchestra returns for a second concert in Lancaster.

Kate, who has charmed audiences across Europe as a young solo violinist, will be mounting the podium at Christ Church on Wyresdale Road, to perform the solo violin part in Vivaldi’s great, popular string chamber work – the Four Seasons. The concert forms part of the church’s 150th birthday celebrations taking place during 2007.

A specialist in Baroque and early classical music and an award-winning graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, Kate will be repeating acclaimed performances of The Four Seasons with Sinfonia da Capo and at St Martin-in-the-Fields when she performs the work in Lancaster under the baton of the dynamic American conductor, Kenneth Woods.

The concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced £8 and are available on the door or from Jacqueline Stamper on 01524 64083.

The concert marks a welcome return for the Lancashire Chamber Orchestra, which first performed at Christ Church last May, when the church stepped in at the last moment to provide a venue after a concert in Cartmel was cancelled.

More….

Conductor Kenneth Woods explained; “We thoroughly enjoyed the warm welcome and the enthusiastic audience we found at Chist Church last season, and we are delighted they have invited us back to perform again. It’s a wonderful  environment for music. I think it’s a programme that the Lancaster audience will really love- the ever popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons played by one of the most exciting violinists in the country, and a rare chance to hear one of Beethoven’s greatest and least known works, the “Serioso” quartet as arranged for orchestra by Mahler. Think of it- Mahler and Beethoven teaming up on one piece, what could be better?”

The Lancashire Chamber Orchestra, which has been entertaining audiences for nearly 40 years, plays in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the Royal Northern College of Music and numerous cathedrals and churches around the North West.

Ends

For more information, please contact Lynn Pegler, Lancashire Chamber Orchestra. Tel 01928 789042. Email lynn.pegler@btopenworld.com


KW notes- First time I’ve ever conducted Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in its entirety!

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Current Rose City Workshop Application Information

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Here’s the latest from the RCICW office for interested conductors.

Third Annual Rose City International Conductors Workshop
July 24-29, 2007
 
www.rosecityworkshop.org
admin@rosecityworkshop.org
Applications are currently being accepted for the Third Annual Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop. The deadline for priority consideration is March 22nd, 2007.
The 2007 symposium and masterclass will be held on the campus of Warner Pacific College in beautiful Portland, Oregon from July 24-29, 2007 . Returning faculty include David Hoose, Director of Orchestral Studies at Boston University and Music Director of Cantata Singers, Christopher Zimmerman, Music Director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas and Chair of Orchestral Conducting at the Hartt School of Music, and director Kenneth Woods, Music Director of the Oregon East Symphony and Chorale and the Surrey Mozart Players.

The musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest’s Player-run Professional Orchestra, will be joined by guest soloists Rick Rowley, pianist, Alexis Hamilton, mezzo soprano and Brennen Guillory, tenor. The Emerging Artists program offers a rigorous course for advanced conductors completing their studies or already in the early stages of their careers. Repertoire includes Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1, Varese Octandre, Stravinksy L’Histoire du Soldat Suite and Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Students in the Emerging Artists Program work only with complete orchestrations- no reductions are used. All participants in the Emerging Artists program conduct all of the repertoire and work with all the faculty members, and everyone has an opportunity to conduct in a final showcase concert.

The Discovery Program offers younger conductors, advanced instrumentalists just starting their study of conducting and music educators a chance to work with the faculty and the orchestra in Haydn’s Symphony no. 92, Stravinsky’s Soldier’s March from L’Histoire du Soldat and the first movement of Beethoven Symphony no. 1. The Haydn and Stravinsky are done with full orchestrations, the Beethoven is done in a piano reduction played by our guest soloist, Rick Rowley.

All conducting sessions are professionally videoed with CD-quality audio, and DVDs of each session are available to review and keep on the same day.

The Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop has quickly established itself as one of the leading conductor training programs in the world, and draws applicants and participants from Argentina, Israel, Venezuela, Korea, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Canada and Spain.

Both classes include sessions in score study, physical movement and career development. Tuition for the Emerging Artist Program is $690, Discovery Program $490. Priority application deadline is March 22nd, 2007, after which applications may be considered on a space available basis.
 
Apply via the workshop website- www.rosecityworkshop.org    
Enquires via email- admin@rosecityworkshop.org .
 
 
 
Faculty Bios-
 
Christopher Zimmerman-
Of his professional debut, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Daily Telegraph of London wrote, “Contact with the orchestra seemed immediate, the result a reading in which the playing responded keenly to gestures which themselves were expressive both of the symphony’s fiery vigour and of its finer nuances. Christopher Zimmerman revealed a sharp interpretative profile and control of orchestral timbre….a most auspicious London debut.”

Christopher Zimmerman graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Music, and received his Master’s from the University of Michigan. He also studied with Seiji Ozawa and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, and at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine. Zimmerman served as an apprentice to Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony and in Prague as assistant conductor to Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Zimmerman made his professional debut in 1985 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He has also conducted the Prague Symphony, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Edmonton Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra among many other orchestras. In opera he has worked as the assistant conductor for “Carmen” at the Nimes Festival and as the assistant conductor for “Salome” at the Mexico City Opera, where he was immediately re-invited to conduct a production of “Gianni Schicchi”. In 1989 he co- founded and became Music Director of the City of London Chamber Orchestra.

In 1993 Christopher Zimmerman became Music Director of the Cincinnati Concert Orchestra. He made his U.S. operatic debut conducting this orchestra in a production of “Susannah” by Carlisle Floyd, and has since conducted “The Turn of the Screw,” “Gianni Schicchi,” “Suor Angelica,” “Don Pasquale,” “The Song of Majnun,” and “Julius Caesar,” the last two winning the National Opera Association’s First Prize. In 1999 Zimmerman was a featured conductor in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Conductors’ Preview with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Zimmerman was appointed to succeed Werner Torkanowsky as Music Director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and in 1999 was appointed Music Director of the Hartt Symphony. In 2001 Mr. Zimmerman was appointed Music Director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas.

Kenneth Woods, director
Hailed by the Washington Post as an “up-and-coming conductor” and a “true star” of the podium, Kenneth Woods is Music Director and Conductor of the Oregon East Symphony and Chorale, Principal Guest Conductor of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra and a regular guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Mr. Woods has also been a member of the conducting staff at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops.

Already known in America as one of the most exciting conductors of the new generation, Kenneth Woods is quickly becoming recognized as major talent on the international scene. He has worked with many orchestras of international distinction including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared of the stages of some of the world’s leading music festivals, including Aspen, Lucerne, Round Top and Scotia. His work on the concert platform and in the recording studio has led to numerous broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, National Public Radio, and the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation.

In the spring of 2001, Kenneth Woods was selected by Leonard Slatkin as one of four participants in the Kennedy Center National Conducting Institute. At the completion of the Institute, he led the National Symphony Orchestra in a debut concert, drawing great critical acclaim. Toronto Symphony Music Director Designate Peter Oundjian has praised Woods as “a conductor with true vision and purpose. He has a most fluid and clear style and an excellent command on the podium… a most complete musician.”

Woods’ activities as an active proponent of contemporary music include collaborations as a conductor or cellist with such figures as John Corigliano, Krystopf Penderecki, Peter Lieberson, Oliver Knussen and many others. He is a highly regarded teacher of conducting who has been a clinician for masterclasses offered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and in 2005 was asked by the musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra to found a new training institute for emerging professional conductors, the Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop.


As a cellist he has been recipient of the Aspen Fellowship (Mr. Woods has received the Aspen Fellowship as both a cellist and conductor), the Dale Gilbert Award (the only musician to win this award in consecutive years), the Strelow Quartet Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant and has recorded and toured extensively as soloist and chamber musician. He has played chamber music with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Cincinnati, Chicago and Toronto symphonies, and the Minnesota, Gewandhaus and Concertgebow orchestras. As a student, he coached with members of many of the worlds leading quartets, including the Tokyo, Vermeer, La Salle, Pro Arte, Borodin, Emerson and Vegh.

Mr. Woods pursued his advanced conducting studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and has also studied at leading summer institutes and workshops around the world. He has studied conducting with Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula, Murry Sidlin, Robert Spano, Gerhard Samuel, and Larry Rachleff.
 
David Hoose-
David Hoose is Music Director of two distinguished Boston musical institutions, the Cantata Singers & Ensemble, a organization whose repertoire reaches from Bach and Handel to the music of today, with all in between, and Collage New Music, a chamber ensemble devoted to music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and whose members include musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As well, Mr. Hoose has recently completed eleven years as Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. He is Professor of Music at the Boston University School of Music where he is Director of Orchestral Activities and Chairman  of the Conducting Department.

Mr. Hoose has just been awarded the 2005 Alice M. Ditson Conductors Award, given in recognition of his commitment to the performance of American Music. He has also received the Dmitri Mitropoloulos Award and, as a member of the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, the Walter W. Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. Mr. Hoose’s recordings appear on the New World, Koch, Nonesuch, Delos, CRI and GunMar labels. His recordings of John Harbison’s Motteti di Montale with Collage New Music and Harbison’s Four Psalms and Emerson with the Cantata Singers & Ensemble have been recently released by New World Records, and his recordings  of Peter Child’s chamber opera Embers and of the complete chamber music of Donald Sur are forthcoming. The recording of the Harbison Motteti di Montale has been nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award.

Mr. Hoose has conducted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Korean Broadcasting Symphony (KBS), Orchestra Regionale Toscana (Florence), Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, Opera Festival of New Jersey, and at the Warebrook, New Hampshire, Monadnock and Tanglewood music festivals. In Boston he has appeared as guest conductor with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Handel & Haydn Society, Back Bay Chorale, Chorus Pro Musica, Fromm Chamber Players, Dinosaur Annex, Auros, and many times both with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and with Emmanuel Music. For many summers he has conducted the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra, and he has been guest conductor at New England Conservatory, Eastman School, Shepherd School of Rice University and University of Southern California.

David Hoose studied composition at the Oberlin Conservatory with Walter Aschaffenburg and  Richard Hoffmann (student and amanuensis of Arnold Schoenberg), and at Brandeis University with Arthur Berger and Harold Shapero. His horn studies were with Barry Tuckwell, with Joseph Singer, principal horn of the New York Philharmonic, and with Richard Mackey of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His principal study of conducting was at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he studied with Gustav Meier and worked with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.
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Disco Post-Mortem… Chopin

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So… My Chopin adventure for Discovering Music has come to an end..

 

I have to say, I was a little concerned when I was offered the gig, as it could easily have been a poisoned chalice. Great band and soloist, of course, but boring orchestra part to play, which can mean bored players, and treacherous accompaniment.

 

In fact, I’ve seen many decent conductors really make a pig’s ear of the two Chopin concertos- so much so, that I was a bit concerned that maybe they were dangerously difficult.

 

As it turns out, I’m not displeased with what we accomplished on Friday. Yes, it is tricky to accompany, but if one learns the solo part really, really well and then just really pays attention, I don’t think it is actually that hard, although Piers may have been taking it easy on me.

 

I actually found that the players seemed to take to the piece just fine. I think it suffers a bit from low expectations all around. Players don’t expect to have much to do, and conductors expect to be so busy following the soloist that they won’t be able to do anything musical. In fact, although the orchestration is not fancy, and the parts are easy to play, it is still beautiful music.

 

I stand by what I wrote about the importance of balance, and I can say that achieving those balances is not easy. Also, really understanding the Chopin’s approach to harmony and knowing not just what tunes to bring out, but which chord tones makes a huge difference, and it really gives the musicians something to respond to.

 

I came away, as always with criticisms of my own work. Perhaps it’s from my chamber music background, but I’ve always been pretty facile at accompanying, which is a helpful skill to have. However, I came away wondering if the piece would have been a little stronger yet if I had not bent so easily to Piers’ every twist and turn. Was I too passive?  Especially in the Chopin, as there is little dramatic interplay between soloist and orchestra, I wonder if maybe more frisson between soloist and orchestra would give a fine performance even more spine and intensity…. Something to try next time? Imagine telling a soloist that its not that you can’t follow them, but that you won’t!

 

Stephen Johnson’s rap was almost entirely about Chopin’s piano writing, and was absolutely fascinating, with some great demos from Piers.

 

Good fun. I’ll post here when the broadcast comes out.

 

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Friday- In praise of the F.E.B!!!!

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The festival atmosphere surrounding the OES that begins on Thursday evenings comes into full flower after that first tutti rehearsal when all the musicians descend on the bar. Pendleton is somewhat limited in its choices of watering holes, and our standard outing is to a bar called the Rainbow, which is not only the only establishment in North America called the Rainbow which is not a gay bar, but is actually a very famous cowboy bar. Nevertheless, I confidently report that cowboys have nothing on classical musicians when it comes to blowing off steam.

Friday morning and a group of about a half dozen of us, including Jason and a number of musicians from Portland, go out for breakfast at a local diner. Jason has not spent much time in America, and this is his first visit to the rodeo capital of the world, so nothing in his time on earth had prepared him for the shock of the sheer size of the plate that his corned-beef hash arrived on. He was genuinely apoplectic. You see, in Britain we have something called the “Full English Breakfast.” *

(photo from Black Dogs)

The Full English Breakfast is an essential part of British culture. It is food for the mind as well as for the body.

The object of a traditional F.E.B, particularly as served in hotels and restaurants, is to lower your expectations in life. The first lowering is in the area of choice- quietly accepting whatever you’ve been offered with dignity is an essential aspect of the British national character. Whereas an American breakfast joint might have two full pages of different offerings on the menu, you can only choose how much of the F.E.B. you actually want, but you cannot choose anything else.

For my American readers, an F.E.B. consists of 2 eggs, a piece of toast, a sausage (link), a piece of bacon (back bacon, not streaky), half a fried tomato (green around the stem), four or five small fried mushrooms and a black pudding. Oh yes, don’t forget the fried bread (something to remember next time an Englishman tells you how un-healthy American food is- just remember those two words- “Fried Bread”). You can have all of these or only some of these. If you are prepared to weather the withering stare of your waitress, you might ask for another bit of bacon, but forget omelettes, forget pancakes. Just be prepared for the look that says “I am judging you, judging you, judging you…”

The F.E.B., especially as served in public places**, also teaches us not to expect our food to be, say, appealing, or edible. The eggs should be cooked in recycled grease (lots of it!), and left to cool on a table for at least 30 minutes. The sausage skin should be burnt to a crisp and made of the same material used to insulate the space shuttle. The bacon should be usable as shoe leather, and the toast served very cold.

I have a very favourite pub in Kent- the food there is some of the best I’ve ever had anywhere in the world, they have a fantastic wine list, all the beers are wonderfully well looked after. However, their F.E.B.’s taste like they were cooked by a wrinkly old sailor named Cook on the deck of a fishing boat somewhere in the North Atlantic.

The F.E.B. is Britain’s way of reminding all its citizen’s that it is, after all, only 60 years since the blitz, so let’s not get our hopes up.

For Jason, raised in the puritanical culinary repression of the F.E.B., the sight of his giant corned-beef hash platter must have been something like the shock a deeply repressed Victorian gent would have felt if dropped in the midst of a marijuana fuelled orgy in San Francisco circa 1967. When you’ve never even seen an ankle, the full Monty is too much.

After breakfast I’m off to the hall for a couple hours practice. Already the orientation on the fingerboard is feeling more comfortable, so I’m working as hard as I can to find a sound on it. As I learn more, I really feel like the American fixation on technique really misses the point- we don’t teach students to develop a concept of sound. Sound follows concept- the more I think about what I want to hear, and try to articulate those qualities to myself, the faster I improve the results I’m getting.

The hours pass quickly and I’m down to the office to chat to Michelle. The OES is built on three layers of musicians, each equally important. We have our local, core players, our student musicians from area colleges and even the youth orchestra, and pros from throughout the Northwest. The early rehearsals only involve the first two groups, as the pros only come on the weekend. My frustration this week is that one small subset of the student players have not shown up for contracted services this week, and none of us are happy about it. We need them there for early rehearsals to that all the sections are sufficiently populated to facilitate productive work, and they need to be there for those rehearsals because they are NOT professional musicians and simply aren’t good enough to learn the music in the last couple rehearsals.

This gang blew off two rehearsals the week before the concert, then didn’t show last night, claiming they were unable to get out because of snow. Yes, there was snow, but others from their town did make it. I’m ready to sack them, and Michelle and I make some calls to see if we can fill their chairs but no luck. I think this may be their last concert with us, however.

Late afternoon and back to practice. For someone who’s been conducting all year, this is a lot of cello playing for me, and I’m absolutely shattered by four-thirty. At five, Jason and I are off to a dinner party. He’s been out wine tasting with some of the players all day. It’s a bit worrying that the best recreational activities in the area all seem to involve drinking before rehearsals, but somehow we always manage…..

The party is at a beautiful farm house in the country hosted by my friend and former OES office colleague, Shari. Shari is an artist, her husband is a farmer, and they live in an 1887 farmhouse on the rolling plains outside town with an unblocked view of the Blue Mountains. I’ve never been out before- it’s heaven. She serves a simple but delicious soup and some tasty bread that miraculously restores my will to live. Desert is homemade, all-American apple pie- Jason is beside himself with happiness!

All too-soon, we pile in the car and go roaring back into town for another rehearsal, and I know I’ll be sure to play tonight….

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

*Since the various nations that make up the UK are committed to preserving the uniqueness of their national characters, I should point out that there are clearly distinct breakfasts known as the Full Welsh Breakfast and the Full Scottish Breakfast. The ingredients and preparation are exactly the same as the F.E.B except that each item is preceded by a the name of the country, ie. 2 scrambled Welsh eggs, 1 piece of Welsh bacon, 1 Welsh Sausage, Fried Welsh Bread, Welsh Black Pudding, Half a Fried Welsh tomato (green and tough around the stem) and four or five small fried Welsh Mushrooms flown in from Spain.

** The definitive F.E.B is to be found in the Little Chef on the A 449 near Symonds Yat.

*** For years, I have thought I could finance a diversifaction of my conducting career by opening a great, divers, American-style breakfast place in London, serving everything from waffles to huevos rancheros to delicious skillet dishes. Having seen Jason’s reaction to the Mainstreet Diner corned-beef hash, I know this would be like opening a feminist/lesbian bookstore in Riyadh- it may be needed, but it sure isn’t wanted….

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Thursday night- hard work, but not for me….

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After 6 seasons with the band, I can attest that, for me, there is no time like Pendleton time. I always have so much to squeeze in that the days seem to fly by in a complete blur. This week is, if anything, moving faster than usual. I’m only here for a few days instead of a full week, it’s program planning season and I have notes to learn on the cello and a guest conductor to entertain. Thursday the day is over before I even feel completely awake, and it’s taken all my self discipline simply to make sure I’ve warmed up thoroughly and played every note I have to play in the concert at least once.

As a testament to my gradually decreasing stupidity, I figured out some years ago that if you have to learn something on a string instrument very fast, or change instruments, or both, the secret is to spend the bulk of your time in the early stages on basic technique. In this case, the early stages are just Wed and Thurs, but that’s fine: Thursday is 2 hours technique, 45 minutes of Elgar rather slowly and 15 minutes of Faure. By Saturday, I’ll be down to 15 minutes of technique.

Suddenly, Jason and I are pulling up to the hall, as is most of the orchestra. I love Thursday afternoons in Pendleton, in a space of just a few hours this small town is invaded by brilliant and lively musicians from all over the Northwest- it suddenly feels like a festival. On arrival, I try to squeeze in a quick warm up before the band starts. We save money by not renting the downstairs of the hall except on the day of the concert, so there’s no acoustically separate room to play in while the orchestra rehearses, which can be nerve wracking.

I think it’s quite an oddity for a music director to solo with his or her own orchestra, with notable exceptions like Daniel Barenboim, Thomas Zehetmair or the odd Rhapsody in Blue from Andrew Litton or Bernstein in his day. Most MDs who do it are soloists who moved into conducting. For all the obvious reasons, I find it more intimidating than playing somewhere as a guest, but I also think it is a great opportunity to create a deeper rapport and for the players to hear  your approach to playing. You just don’t want to fuck up any more than necessary…

Jason and I are both painfully aware that this is an exceptionally difficult and long program, and at the heart of our challenge is the Cockaigne Overture that the program opens with. It’s a complete rarity in America, and it’s very, very demanding music to play. He’s decided to start in with that.

Just as rare as playing with your own orchestra is watching someone else rehearse, but I love it. You can learn so much more about the individual players than you can when mired in the rehearsal process,  as well as learning about the quirks of the hall and the things to work on next time. Sczhuohm may be off the table this week, but that’s okay- I’ve decided it lives in my hands if it lives at all, not in the orchestra itself. Maybe I can generate a bit of Szchuohm in my own cello playing for the Elgar….

 Jason’s rehearsal is first rate in every way- inspiring, tenacious, intense and demanding. Nonetheless, it’s slow going, and by the break, he’s not done.  Also quite droll. The orchestra is beaming- they’re loving his intense working method.We have a chat, and he asks me if it’s okay if he keeps going on the Cockaigne. My schedule with OES this close to the show is always to touch on everything, or nearly everything, every time, but the whole point is to give them a different approach, so I’m all for it. Jason hopes to finish the overture in 30 minutes then do 20 on the concerto, but I’m not optimistic at all about playing, but that’s fine. Much as I’d like to play it in with the orchestra, I can also use another day to work on my own.

 Sure enough, Jason has just enough time to run the piece and finish on time. It’s been a very impressive evening, but everyone is shattered, and the brass players look like there will be tears in their beers later- they’ve all said it’s the hardest piece they’ve played since joining the orchestra, and they’ve gone over and over the difficult bits tonight.

To my horror, one of my co-principal horns tells me later it was the most tiring rehearsal she’s ever done with the orchestra. Bastard that I am, I make a mental note to break his record when we do Mahler 1 on the next concert….

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

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