Music chose me. Yup, it’s true. I didn’t come into this world in a overly-musical family and definitely going to the symphony wasn’t part of who we were. We were a nice, middle-class family in upstate New York, living on a quiet suburban street, in a small city on the Hudson River. Then one day I met Willa Loescher. Willa was the music teacher at the elementary school that I attended. She asked each of us if we wanted to play an instrument and when she came to me I nervously blurted out, “yes!” She asked what instrument I wanted to play and I had no idea, so she “assigned” me the cello (my hands were big enough to hold it).
The first day I got the instrument she taught me how to make a sound on the strings by pulling the bow across them. I was so excited that I went home and did just that for 4 hours! When I was finished, I went downstairs and told my parents that I was going to be a musician for the rest of my life. That was 1976 and I have never waivered.
It’s amazing when you think about it, that at the age of 8 I would know, but somehow I did, and to this day I am grateful for Ms. Loescher introducing me to the world of music. Music isn’t something I do, it’s part of who I am. I have been sick and running a fever and stepped out onto the stage (the show must go on) and I felt totally fine. The minute I start making music everything else disappears and I am completely satisfied.
Conducting concerts for children gives me a chance to give back what Ms. Loescher gave to me: a chance to see the possibilities and to find my path. Many years later I was re-acquainted with her, and the funny thing is that even if I hadn’t become a professional musician, her love of music was so obvious and overwhelming – I know I still would have attended concerts.
Reading about bloggers’s first experience with symphonic music reminds me of my first experience at a Symphony – the LAPhil on November 14, 1947. But, that experience can’t ever be duplicated for me And yes I’ve had the joy of many first hearings of music, both in and out of the concert hall and I’ve also had other unique experiences with other symphony orchestras
I can’t help but think, as I look around me after a concert, that people commenting about how young the solist is or how fast s(he) played is the only remembrance of the concert. (Of course the solist is good-to-great; they would’t make it as a soloist if they weren’t at that level).
What’s missing is making a concert a GREAT experience. There needs to be something that concert-goers can talk about. Something more than the hype of HSO’s P.R.with its overused adjectives and breathless verbiage.
The Planets in HD is one small step – and no – I’m not advocating a feature film at every concert. For those of us who are old enough remember Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” of 1940 The Planets is nothing new There is more to a concert than a high-priced soloist or a video. (I can go to the movies for less and enjoy a bag of popcorn).
If anyone from HSO wants to communicate with me by email about what I’ve written my subscriber # is 2248229
Reading about bloggers’s first experience with symphonic music reminds me of my first experience at a Symphony – the LAPhil on November 14, 1947. But, that experience can’t ever be duplicated for me And yes I’ve had the joy of many first hearings of music, both in and out of the concert hall and I’ve also had other unique experiences with other symphony orchestras
I can’t help but think, as I look around me after a concert, that people commenting about how young the solist is or how fast s(he) played is the only remembrance of the concert. (Of course the solist is good-to-great; they would’t make it as a soloist if they weren’t at that level).
What’s missing is making a concert a GREAT experience. There needs to be something that concert-goers can talk about. Something more than the hype of HSO’s P.R.with its overused adjectives and breathless verbiage.
The Planets in HD is one small step – and no – I’m not advocating a feature film at every concert. For those of us who are old enough remember Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” of 1940 The Planets is nothing new There is more to a concert than a high-priced soloist or a video. (I can go to the movies for less and enjoy a bag of popcorn).
If anyone from HSO wants to communicate with me by email about what I’ve written my subscriber # is 2248229