Digital Marketing Manager Nicholas V. Hall shares what he believes to be an important part of orchestral repertoire: new music with living composers. By speaking directly to the artists of today, we learn what it means to be a living composer. Composer Highlight: Tarik O’Regan “Write for your peers: people around you, people you know, people studying with you, friends … Read More
Composer Highlight: Carlos Simon
Digital Marketing Manager Nicholas V. Hall shares what he believes to be an important part of orchestral repertoire: new music with living composers. By speaking directly to the artists of today, we learn what it means to be a living composer. Composer Highlight: Carlos Simon “Define your own success.” “New Music” is not something often associated with symphonic orchestral performances. … Read More
Composer Highlight: Jesse Monkman
Digital Marketing Manager Nicholas V. Hall shares what he believes to be an important part of orchestral repertoire: new music with living composers. By speaking directly to the artists of today, we learn what it means to be a living composer. Composer Highlight: Jesse Monkman “Write what connects to you personally. That will be your most authentic musical contribution.” “New … Read More
Finding inspiration in ‘A Love Supreme’
I often like to ask classical musicians what they listen to in order to relax. The answer is rarely our own music; stepping outside the classical world allows our critical facilities to switch off, which is blessed relief. My after-work tastes are hip hop, R&B, house, pop and a relatively small amount of jazz. Over the past few weeks I’ve … Read More
Maestro’s musical taste shaped by dad
I’m often asked about the music I listen to outside work. When I was announced as music director of the Jacksonville Symphony five years ago, there were plenty of embarrassing headlines such as “Conductor likes Britney and Beethoven.” People tend to think that there is something amusing or even faintly scandalous about a classical musician enjoying other music. We musicians … Read More
Film scores require a lot of ‘werk’
“Gesamtkunstwerk,” the term first coined by K. F. E. Trahndorff in 1827 and later taken up by Richard Wagner in 1849, is the word that comes to mind when our Jacksonville Symphony presents me with the opportunity to conduct the score to a film. The term is translated as “total work of art,” or “all-embracing art form” and strives to … Read More
Voice adds depth to symphony performances
Strangely enough for an orchestra, we’ve heard a lot of the human voice recently at the Jacksonville Symphony. The Christmas season began with “Messiah,” and in January we welcomed a cast from around the country for Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni.” Last weekend we performed Maurice Ravel’s sensuous ballet, “Daphnis et Chloé,” complete with an enormous chorus that sang no words, … Read More
Don Giovanni remains timeless, centuries later
Mozart described his masterpiece Don Giovanni as an opera buffa: a comedy. Yet the work bristles with the political issues of the day, see-sawing between farce and deep seriousness. The Don Juan myth first appeared in European literature in 1630, when Tirso de Molina published The Trickster of Seville, a tale of an irresistibly handsome aristocrat who spends his days … Read More
Holidays are the time for waltzes
The air is a getting crisper this week, and as we finish off the Thanksgiving turkey and begin to think about December, I’m reminded of one of my favourite holiday traditions. Every New Year’s Eve and Day the Vienna Philharmonic performs a concert of waltzes and polkas in the beautiful Grosser Saal of the Musikverein. The New Year’s Day concert … Read More
My Heros: Rattle, Abbado and Davis
During our formative years, musicians are molded by many influences. Obviously our teachers hold enormous sway, taking on the role of musical parents by establishing the basics of instrumental technique while introducing repertoire at the right time. But like any artist we are often influenced just as much, if not more, by professionals, we may not know. The people we … Read More
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