by Kenneth Woods | Jan 28, 2008 | A view from the podium
My Sunday afternoon was spent on an activity not listed in my job description- cooking dinner for some friends of the symphony. This is something we’ve done for a few years as part of our annual auction- people can bid on dinner with the conductor, cooked by the...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 25, 2008 | A view from the podium
You know it’s going to be a great week when instead of “Hi Ken, I do the standard cuts * in the last movement of the Tchaikovsky. What time is rehearsal?” I get…. “Glad to hear that the barometer is reading well for the program. I have felt like a climber going up...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 25, 2008 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Performing Life
Somehow, no matter how many times I’ve been here or how many advertures and surprises those trips have held, there always seems to be some shock, some moment of divine cognitive dissonance on my arrival to Pendleton, Oregon. Perhaps the nearby Blue Mountains cast some...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 23, 2008 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
It was an interesting juxtaposition of concerts for me this past weekend. On Saturday, the Surrey Mozart Players returned for our second visit to the Menuhin Hall. Our concert last year was the source of grave trepidation because we had no idea if our regular audience...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 21, 2008 | A view from the podium
My recent reposting of “Tips for Composers” has drawn an unprecedented number of comments to Vftp, most of them positive. Not necessarily so at Sequenza 21, where there were as of this writing 43 comments ranging from positive to downright indignant. I’ve posted the...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 17, 2008 | A view from the podium
Well, I’ve never attempted to start a meme or launch a blog poll, mostly because I fear I’m not actually popular enough to get anyone to take up the challenge….. Nonetheless, with my beloved Packers possibly only a few days away from earning the privilege of serving...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 14, 2008 | A view from the podium, Music and Media, News and Reviews, Performing Life
UPCOMING CONCERT- Lancashire Chamber Orchestra Sunday, January 20, 2009 7:30 PM Altrincham Grammar School for Girls Mozart- Overture to “Die Zauberflote” Beethoven- Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major Ivan Hovorum, piano Beethoven- Symphony no 5 in C minor Thoughts from...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 12, 2008 | A view from the podium, Study with Ken
Ischiafestival 2008: Chamber music played with passion, coached professionally, in a truly stunning Mediterranean setting May 10-17, 2008. The Location The fabled southern Italian isle of Ischia – dreaming with Capri in the timeless blue waters of the Bay of...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 11, 2008 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
UPCOMING CONCERT Surrey Mozart Players Menuhin Hall, Cobham Saturday, 19 January, 2008 7:30 PM Kodaly- Summer Evening (1905) Schumann- Piano Concerto in A minor Bobby Chen, piano Haydn- Symphony no. 101 in D major (“The Clock.”) Kodaly’s early masterwork, Summer...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 11, 2008 | A view from the podium
The man credited with conquering Everest for the first time, Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the last of humanity’s great explorers has passed away at the age of 88. Though it was his ascent of Everest alongside Tensing Norgay in 1953 that earned him his place in the...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 10, 2008 | A view from the podium, Haydn
I’m just back from the first rehearsal for our upcoming SMP concert. As regular readers will remember, we concluded our last concert with a performance of Mozart’s last symphony, which is a work I absolutely adore with all my heart. It is a piece whose title alone...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 8, 2008 | A view from the podium
When I first started this blog, my hope was that it would help bring in some new audiences to the orchestras I conduct, and while it does get read by some very devoted members of the general public (the true, hard-core fanatics!), I think it’s probably morphed into...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 8, 2008 | A view from the podium
The Oregon East Symphony has hard a long, hard slog trying to recover from “the fire,” and as I expected, the worst of it came not in the weeks just after the inferno consumed our offices, but after everyone’s focus had shifted come Autumn and the real...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 7, 2008 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Nuts and bolts
I’m a bit concerned that this sudden outpouring of advice is making me look even more like a pompous gasbag than I do simply by virtue of being a conductor (and worse yet, a conductor who writes), but then there was this…. In the comments on More Tips...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 5, 2008 | A view from the podium
Both John and Kac came forward with interesting comments/questions on my post of 11 top tips for soloists. I’ve answered them in the comments section there, but the answers are elaborate enough that they make more of a post, especially combined…. First,...
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