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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
Filtering by Category: Monday YouTube Fix
Performing Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchesra at Symphony Hall was one of the highlights of my childhood. It is such a powerful piece that will always have a special place in my heart.
Here is Stravinsky himself conducting the Firebird Suite in its entirety. The orchestra and date of the performance are unkown.
Enjoy!
Last month I was in the Berkshires and just happened to run into one of my mentors, Eric Ruske. (There are so many brilliant artists in the Berkshires during the summer that one wonders how many you pass on the street without even realizing it!)
Eric was the horn player in the Empire Brass when I was a student in their seminar at Tanglewood when I was 14 and 15. His horn playing, and in particular his phrasing and the singing quality to all of his playing, left a mark on me that remains to this day.
Here he is performing the Romance, Op. 36 by Camille Saint-Saëns. Phrases for days...
Enjoy!
I am lucky to call the four gentlemen in the T'ang Quartet longtime friends dating back to their time as faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute over a decade ago.
I was able to visit them in Singapore seven different times as a member of Boston Brass. One of those trips included a concert with them which was my single favorite concert I played with Boston Brass in 14 years.
They are joined in this clip by the fantastic pianist Albert Tiu to perform his arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's hauntingly beautiful Oblivion.
Enjoy!
Here is a very short (barely over 3 minutes) and very interesting video by Derek Sivers on why you should keep your mouth shut when you establish a new goal rather than telling everyone about it.
(He talks more about it here in this short blog post.)
I'm a big fan of videos less than 5 minutes long that make you think about something for a really long time.
Enjoy!
The Kronos Quartet will go down as one of the most influential chamber groups of all time. This is their very famous arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze.
Enjoy!
The Meridian Arts Ensemble is one of the most creative brass groups out there and have been for decades. I am a huge fan of the music of Frank Zappa and it is not easy to pull off without sounding forced.
This is as good as Zappa covers get.
Enjoy!
All that any of us instrumentalists are ever trying to do is sound like singers. Phrasing, intonation, blend, interpretation, dynamic contrast. Everything is modeled by singers.
This clip of a male Russian Orthodox choir made me melt. So much soul. The name of the group is not listed but the baritone soloist is Chernegov-Nomerov Egor. What I wouldn't give to be able to sing like that! They are singing Chesnokov's "Gabriel Appeared".
The video is not great quality but the audio is good and the performance is unreal.
Enjoy!
Victor Wooten is one of my heroes and this video is awesome. In under five minutes, Victor touches on the importance of embracing mistakes and of playing often.
Warning: You are going to need to watch this video twice. He is narrating over a video of him performing Amazing Grace and the performance is stunning. I inadvertently blocked out all of the speaking the first time because the playing is so gorgeous even though I clicked on the video to hear him speak!
Rest assured, the message is just as good if not better than the playing.
Enjoy!
"Playing a musical instrument engages practically every area of the brain at once."
This less than five minute video digs into the neuroscience of both listening to and playing music. Why is it that we're always having to save school music programs from the chopping block?!
Enjoy!
Brian Pertl is the Dean of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music and has an absolutely fascinating bio. This talk he did for TEDx is titled "Music Education, Improvisational Play and Dancing Between Disciplines: Reimagining a Liberal Arts Education for the 21st Century" and it is fantastic.
"Creativity allows us to dance in between disciplines" is one of the many great lines that Brian has during this TEDx talk. We could use more creative arts advocates like Brian to fight the good fight. Every school administrator should be made to watch this video.
Enjoy!