BSO Academy

Fanfare for the Concert Roundup

Buh buh baaaaah… buh bah baaaaaah… baaaah baaaah buuuuuuuh… BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH. (I speak fluent onomatopoeia.)

• Get ready to [insert alcohol joke here], because this week’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert is “Tchaikovsky’s Fifth.” Colin Currie will leave my apartment long enough to solo on your two favorite fanfares: Copland‘s Fanfare for the Common Man and Tower‘s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, plus the premier of a Higdon percussion concerto. And then you purists can have your eponymous Tchaik. March 22 at Strathmore; March 23 & 24 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Not concerts in the strictest sense, but of note: the BSO‘s subscription packages for next season are now available. They’re also accepting applications to audition in the 2012 O Say Can You Sing? national anthem competition, and if you don’t sing, maybe you play? The BSO Academy is still taking applications.
• The National Symphony Orchestra believes you should hear Dvorak‘s Stabat Mater and ONLY Dvorak’s Stabat Mater. You may do so on March 22 – 24. [ See it! ]
• No, wait! The NSO is just kidding. The NSO believes that sometimes your Dvorak should be fortified with some vitamin Janacek. Get your weekly allowance with Dvorak serenades in D minor and E major; then add a Janacek concertina and capriccio. March 23. [ See it! ]
• This Week at Strathmore! Piano prodigy Ethan Bortnick (if you come to that one, stop by the concierge desk and say hi!), a heavy metal cello ensemble that isn’t Apocalyptica, an all-Mozart program (blehhh), a soul electric guitarist, a Russian military and folk song and dance troupe. [ See the calendar! ]

Concert Roundup (Really)

Wanna hear something crazy? There’s actually a concert you can attend this week! Yes! The National Symphony Orchestra is here and it wants to help. On December 31, no less, as your New Year’s celebration. The lineup for this one is ridiculous. Let me take a deep breath now:

• Enesco
• Sousa
• Rossini
• Falla
• Rodrigo
• Bernstein
• Strauss (the younger) (so it says on the website) (it makes me giggle)
• Mascagni (remember this?)
• Tchaikovsky
• Strauss (the elder) (tee)
• Elgar

And then you’ll take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne. Or however it goes. And then there’s a party afterward with swing dancing! [ See it! ]

Or, if you prefer your music to be of the more interactive persuasion, you can play it yourself. Of course, you’ll have to wait till summer, but preparation should begin now — the BSO Academy is currently accepting applications. Get your application in before February first and spend of a week’s worth of your summer learning how to play your instrument from members of the BSO themselves, followed by a concert featuring you! [ Apply! ]

Give money, get music

Oh, this is interesting. Got an email from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra:

Make a gift of $75 or more to get access for two people to the Donor Appreciation Concert on June 18th.  Donors of $250 or more receive four complimentary seats.

Join us at this year’s Donor Appreciation Concert as the BSO shares the stage with members of the BSO Academy Orchestra. As one of our valued Members, you will have the exclusive opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at one of the BSO’s groundbreaking initiatives.  Be one of the few who will have the chance to experience Maestra Marin Alsop leading the Academy’s culminating concert featuring symphonic favorites by Bernstein, Ravel, Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov and Hindemith. For more information on the concert, click here.

Become a Beethoven level Member ($150) and enhance your concert-going experience with two complimentary drink vouchers.

Ticket sales cover only 40% of our annual operating costs.  Your gift will help us balance our budget and reach our remaining Annual Fund goal of $150,000 by August 31st!

To discover more ways your support will enhance lives in local communities, please visit our “Case for Music.”

Make a gift to the BSO today!

I checked out the concert, and they’re offering some Ravel, some Hindemith, a Mahler symphony, AND: Berstein’s Overture to Candide AND: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol! And if  you give them $150 they’ll also give you alcohol? What a deal! Man, I wish I had that kind of money to drop. Does anyone wanna go splitsies with me?

What Douglas Adams might call a “Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash”

I know you all love an eclectic collection of unrelated bullet points.

– I think, based on the fact that a lot of the profile photos show people with instruments, that some of you are friending me on Facebook. Which is totally cool and I’m down with being your internet buddy, except if I don’t know who you are or why you’re friending me I am generally disinclined to accept. In short, if you friend me, or you did friend me and I never reciprocated, send me a message explaining that you’re a fan of Ain’t Baroque and we shall carry on in peace and love.

– You can still win a Symphonic Voyage cruise if you purchase a BSO subscription package!

– The consensus among my friends is that if The Golden Girls was recast with composers, Bach would have to be Sophia. I don’t know, we’re weird. We also need help with the rest of the cast, if you have any ideas. I’d love to do a whole post on this; it’s the sort of thing I’d do, but I worry my long-suffering audience would finally rebel.

– There is a fire drill exclusive to the summer camps that have moved into Strathmore going on right now (have I mentioned the summer camps? I have been inundated by an unusually large number of children and I disapprove of children in groups as they revert to their baser instincts in the herd). No one else is required to evacuate, but I’ve spent the last five minutes listening to a recorded message requesting me attention about a fire emergency on repeat. I am dangerously close to spontaneous combustion. Talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies. Anyway, did anyone go to a music/arts summer camp as a kid? What say you of the experience?

– Updated to add: The BSO Academy needs more fans so that Facebook will recognize it! Become a fan now! NOW!

That’s all.

Ephemera

Bits, bites, notes, items, and things to ponder about life, the universe, and everything.

– This week’s BSO concert is “Cirque de la Symphonie,” March 11-14, and features Poulenc, Bartok (woo!), Satie, and Copland. Oh, and crazy Soleil-esque circus performers in feats of derring-do that will be, and I quote, “on and above the stage.” I can only imagine what that entails, but if the pictures are any indication, there will be acrobatics, incredible strength, and hula hoops. Good times. Click here for Meyerhoff performances and here for the Strathmore one.

– College Nights are no more for this season, but there’s still a student discount being offered for remaining BSO Under the Big Top concerts. Click here to learn more.

– Two potential discounts for the BSO Academy: Rusty Musicians can get $450 off, or if you refer a friend you and the friend both get $250 off. If you didn’t get those emails, contact academy@bsomusic.org for more info.

– Remember when we all pondered how Robert Levin was going to improvise? Anne Midgette of the Washington Post explained how it… Well, I’m more confused now, actually.

And on Thursday, Levin, who has done pioneering work in establishing the way that Mozart’s and Beethoven’s music actually sounded in their day, not only improvised all of the cadenzas (“Pray for me,” he told the audience), but offered, after the intermission, a Fantasy in Beethoven’s style, based on four snippets of music submitted to him by the audience. Given fears that musical illiteracy is rampant among the general population, it was heartening to see that enough audience members were able to write out a few measures of musical notation to partly fill a wicker basket, though one of the snippets Levin chose on Thursday came from the conductor, Nicholas McGegan.

To seek further clarity, read the rest of the article here.

– I’d like to do a roundup post of quirky classical music blogs. If you have one or know of one I should include, let me know.

– Don’t forget to respond to the poll! And visit my Twitter page! And subscribe to Ain’t Baroque by email!

It’s summer camp for adults!

Heard about this one yet? The BSO is offering a new summer program called the BSO Academy, where for one week, June 13-19, amateur musicians can learn and perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Essentially, it’s Rusty Musicians, but BIGGER.

The week includes lessons, rehearsals, sectionals,  and “enrichment classes” (beats me), and culminates in a finale performance and reception. Respighi’s The Pines of Rome and Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra are on the aural menu for the concert, to which the public is invited.

The program is open to all musicians 22 and older, and applications are due by March 15; you are invited to include a CD of you playing up to ten minutes of material. Read about tuition and fees here, you can apply here, and you’ll know by April 5 if you’ve been accepted. Good luck!