Rubberball Piano & Theremin
Dave Guman of the Scranton Art Examiner has posted photos from our recent Rubberball Piano and Theremin recital at The Music Studio. Dave is a local artist/photographer and supporter of the new artists here in Northeast PA. Read Dave’s account (and see the photos) of a recent Drawing Social at the AFA gallerty to see that happens when local artists join forces with musicians and dancers on a Sunday eventin at a local art gallery.
Katia and Marielle Labeque have been playing duo piano for years, but in case you didn’t know that, here is Madonna to introduce you to the famous sister pianists.
Tune in here on Sunday 1/31 to hear the Labeque sisters play Stravinsky’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Satie’s Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire, Debussy’s En Blanc et Noire and Berio’s Memory, as part of Many Hands – a whole day of pianos culminating in an evening of up-to seven pianos with Rolf Hind and friends at the Roundhouse in London, the final concert in the Reverb Series.
Read an interview about the concert with Katia Labeque here.
The great Earl Wild passed away on Saturday at age 94. I spent time over the weekend reading about him and listening to his performances and even watching him teach in this master class on Youtube, appropriate since he was the first pianist to stream a performance over the Internet in 1997. Best known for his performance of virtuosto showpieces and for his piano transcriptions, Mr. Wild performed up until his 90th birthday and coached pianists up until the week before he died. He will be missed.
House concerts are all the buzz these days. They are a terrific way for musicians to bypass the gatekeepers and perform in an intimate setting for an enthusiastic and forgiving audience. There is a give and take between performer and audience that just doesn’t happen in the concert hall.
According to a recent article in SFgate
Most house concert aficionados speak about that bond between the musicmakers and music lovers in terms that verge on the spiritual.
Unlike clinky clubs and coffee joints, home concerts encourage audiences to create “the elegance of silence,” said Daniel Patrick, a partner in Marin’s Murphy Productions. “The place of presentation allows for that and encourages that behavior. You’re creating the moment.”
“The thing about a house concert is that it’s communal,” said popular songwriter, record producer and music teacher Caren Armstrong, 54, of Oakland. “Everybody brings something to make it happen.”
Although house concerts are usually associated with folk and jazz musicians, classical music is coming around to the idea of house concerts, much like the salons of Paris during the time of Chopin and Liszt. The NYT had his article last month about Steven and Judy Gluckstern whose house concerts have raised $1.5 million for Classical Action, a fund-raising program of the AIDS organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The Glucksterns presented their house concerts in their beautiful Soho loft, which became known as Carnegie Hall South.
The chandelier, a cone of blue-green blown-glass spirals reaching almost to the floor, became a concern the night the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and the mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick sang an aria from Bellini’s “Norma.”
On a smaller scale, The Music Studio has been host to two creative performances recently: this one in November, and then last weekend we played Rubberball Piano and Theremin, featuring music of Ives, Schubert and the rubber balls, of course.
Last week I was fortunate to receive a Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Project Grant to fund a series of salon recitals at The Music Studio during 2010. Hopefully this is just the first step in a thriving self-sufficient musical series!
In preparation for several upcoming “salon” recitals at The Music Studio, I’ve been planning ways to get a the new generation of tech-savvy musicians involved and excited about attending. In other words, I want to take the “stuffiness” out of the words “classical music recital.”
The first “salon” is coming up in only two weeks and features a theremin player. We’ll be performing some Schubert arranged for theremin and piano and something a little more “out-of-the-box” called “rubberball piano.” Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? The Music Studio seats 25 comfortably, but we managed to squeeze in 50 at our last performance. Hopefully we’ll have a similar turnout this time.
Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking about promotion. Social Networking through Facebook invites, Twitter, email lists… this is the way to go. But still, I have a nagging feeling that I’m going to have to start thinking about “branding” in 2010 and I probably should make it my New Years Resolution.
Luckily, I found Jade Simmons on Twitter and YouTube with her new series “Emerge Already” and I highly reccommend you to tune in. I first noticed Jade when I was glued to my computer in June watching the Van Cliburn podcast. She was a natural, knowledgeable and likeable host! Now she’s got a new project and I can’t wait to put her advice into action. Her tagline — You are the boss of your own Art.
Get the tweets here, the vids here, and the whole scoop here.
Another holiday treat… Victor Borge improvising Monti’s Czardas with violinist Anton Kontra!
Christmas Eve movie was American in Paris. I’d forgotten how much I liked Gershwin’s Concerto in F. Here’s Oscar Levant in the dream scene where he’s the pianist, conductor, orchestra and audience! When was the last time you heard piano playing like that in a Hollywood movie? By the way, I had no idea Levant was a composer and that he studied under Harold Schoenberg. Enjoy!
No one can compare!
