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In This Issue of Strings. . .
If you want to be a master of improvisation, you need to master the musical language. Violinist and string educator Mimi Rabson gives nine exercises to help improve and expand your musical vocabulary and expression.
[READ MORE]
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This Week’s Gear Review
Classic Gear
Countless string players learned their first études using these indestructible bows, invented in 1961. Sturdy, stable, and impervious to warping, Glasser fiberglass bows still provide a great alternative to inexpensive wooden bows. Glasser’s product line has expanded, but you can still get that basic, beginner bow. It’s still made by the Glasser family in the Bronx, and, since 2003, it comes with real horsehair and a lifetime guarantee. Prices starts around $30. glasserbows.com |
This Week’s News Update
Download Maazel and Mahler
The New York Philharmonic is celebrating maestro Lorin Maazel’s seven-year tenure as the New York Philharmonic’s music director with New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel: The Complete Mahler Symphonies, Live available for download on its website. Symphony Nos. 1–7, 9, and 10 are available and Symphony No. 8 will be released on August 25. An online version of Mahler’s personally notated score also is available, so listeners can follow along to Symphony No. 1. nyphil.org |
MTT Returns to PBS
The second season of the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score television series, hosted by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, will explore Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Charles Ives’ “Holidays” symphony, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and include scenes shot in Paris, New England, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. The show will air on PBS TV stations beginning in October. |
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A Jazz Cello Leader
Jessie Smith Edwards, a 16-year-old cellist from East Orange, New Jersey, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Jazz House Kids’ and RS Berkeley Band Instruments’ Student of Distinction Music Award. The award will be given annually to a New Jersey public-school music student who displays strong leadership, musicianship, creativity, and dedication to excellence. Jessie has been playing the cello for just 18 months and is the youngest member of the South Orange Symphony. He was awarded a hand-selected Erwin Otto cello at Generations of Jazz, a one-day extravaganza featuring trumpeter Chris Botti and bassist Christian McBride.
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Sphinx Organization Receives Matching Funds
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan will be providing up to $1 million to match donations given to participating arts and cultural organizations. For every $2 donated, the Community Foundation will give $1. Dozens of organizations, including the Sphinx Organization, will be participating in this program and the funds are given on a “first gifted, first matched” basis. The Sphinx Organization—which nurtures the advancement of black and Latino string players—asks that you visit cfsem.org on August 18 at 10 am to make a donation. A gift of $25 can be matched and provide one music lesson for an aspiring player.
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Oregon Outreach Organization Loses Funds
The Ford Family Foundation will no longer fund the Community Music Partnership, the Oregon Symphony’s outreach program, because of a 33 percent loss to its endowment. The Community Partnership was awarded the MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement by the League of American Orchestras in 2005 for its unique program. “The Community Music Partnership has been a really terrific program for the orchestra and for all the communities who benefited,” Carl Herko, a symphony spokesman, told the Oregonian. “It’s earned national recognition for the Oregon Symphony and it’s made a real, meaningful, lasting difference in every one of those places the orchestra has visited, all over Oregon.” |
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Passings
Michael Steinberg—music critic, teacher, coach, and narrator—has died after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 80. In the years after he received his musicology degree from Princeton University, Steinberg taught at several conservatories and colleges and was appointed music critic at the Boston Globe. He later worked as a program annotator and pre-concert lecturer for the Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and New York Philharmonic. He continued to give lectures, talks, and readings even after his retirement. “In his writing and in his talks, Michael knocked down walls with intelligence, wit, and a broad sense of culture,” Larry Rothe, co-author of Steinberg’s last book, says, “He was a great storyteller.” He is survived by his wife, violinist Jorja Fleezanis, former concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. |
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