by Kenneth Woods | Dec 10, 2006 | A view from the podium, Music and Media
I came across this recent post from Charles Noble a few days ago discussing some challenges currently being faced by the Oregon Symphony. I would not presume to comment directly on the Oregon Symphony, but Charles’ post did get me thinking about general principles of...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 6, 2006 | A view from the podium, Music and Media
Check out this interesting piece from Scott Spiegelberg on the state of the classical recording industry. Scott wisely points out that one reason we’re seeing fewer new artists at the major label is that classical recordings were always subsidized from somewhere, and...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 6, 2006 | A view from the podium
I really should have posted the notes to Tommy’s new work before the premiere last week, but better late than never. Hopefully their appearance here helps him snag some more performances with other orchestras KW Rappezzatura Barocco (c10m) Tommy Fowler (b1948) ...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 5, 2006 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
UPCOMING CONCERT Friday, December 8, 2006 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Lancashire Chamber Orchestra St. Anne’s Choir Benefit Concert for St. Anne’s Hospice “Christmas is Coming” Support the work of a wonderful charity by coming out for an...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 5, 2006 | A view from the podium
From the Surrey Advertiser, December 1, 2006 Surrey Mozart Players/Kenneth Woods The small but acoustically favourable Menuhin Hall in Stoke d’Abernon resounded to the music of Mozart and Haydn, as the Surrey Mozart Players under the direction of Kenneth...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 4, 2006 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
In the last installment of this series, I tried to look at some of the questions that leading musicians of the past may have been asking when they were performing in ways that we might now find foreign. We can’t go back to that old, Furtwanglerian, manner of...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 4, 2006 | A view from the podium
From The Herald, Glasgow, 4 December 2006 “…The concert (was) given on Saturday by the Kelvin Ensemble, in celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of Glasgow University’s student orchestra… this young, keen, ambitious ensemble. American conductor Kenneth...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 3, 2006 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Nuts and bolts
What then of someone like Furtwangler, who’s Beethoven tempi tend to be quite uninhibited by the metronome? Many leading modern Beethoven interpreters and commentators, including John Elliot Gardiner, Gunther Schuller and Benjamin Zander have all held up Furtwangler’s...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 1, 2006 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
Intermezzo from the score questioning series- Some (late night) thoughts to ponder in Dvorak 8, 1st mvt…. What is the first note of the piece (in the melody)? Middle “D” What is the last note of the cello melody that spans the first 16 bars (yes, the cellos...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 1, 2006 | A view from the podium
A few days ago a friend tipped me off that kennethwoods.net had become the no. 1 ranked “conductor website” result on google, and we’re still there about a week on. Try it, but please click through to us and not New Jersy Semi Conductor who are...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 1, 2006 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
The only black-and-white, nuts and bolts questions in musical performance are “what” questions- we can say with specificity what note is being played, what the dynamic is, what instrument is playing it, even what motive it is part of, but the execution of these...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 30, 2006 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Nuts and bolts
“Conductors question scores for a living. Actual conducting is something you just have to do to share the answers you’ve found to the questions you’ve asked.” Practical questions about music are important (and fun!) to answer. When a real music lover tells me he or...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 29, 2006 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Nuts and bolts
One of my first “official” conducting teachers told us all that “conductors study scores for a living. Actual conducting is just something you get to do for fun as a reward for the studying.” It’s a point of view I took to heart and have often repeated to both...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 28, 2006 | A view from the podium
So this is where I went to work over the weekend- Pretty sweet gig, eh???? These photos are of the interior quadrangle of the University of Glasgow, home of the Kelvin Ensemble. (Of course, speculation is wide-spread in Pendleton that I am only posting pictures...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 24, 2006 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
UPCOMING CONCERT Kelvin Ensemble, Glasgow 15th Anniversary Concert – Saturday 2nd December 2006, 7.30pm – Bute Hall, University of Glasgow Conductor: Kenneth Woods Soloist: Veronika Toth (viola) Tommy Fowler – 15th Anniversary Commission “Repezzatura...
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