Violin Community News 2011, Op. 4

September 8, 2011 at 7:12 PM

This weekend is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and Medici.tv is broadcasting “Remember to Love," five choral concerts recorded live on Friday from downtown Manhattan’s Trinity Wall Street, with guests including violinist Gil Shaham. Here are the concert times, with direct links to the page where they'll be streamed for free. All times I'm listing are Eastern Standard, though if you go to the Medici site, it looks like they convert the information to reflect the time you would see it in your area.

11 a.m.: Julian Wachner Conducts the Washington Chorus in Rachmaninov's Vespers

1 p.m.: Julian Wachner Conducts the Washington Chorus in a Fauré and Duruflé program

3 p.m.: Brian Jones and the Copley Singers

5 p.m.: The Bach Choir of Bethlehem Sings Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Duruflé

8:30pm: Remember to Love – Gil Shaham, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Angela Meade, and Luca Pisaroni

* * *

Joshua Bell has been lending his talents to help the cause of music education in the public schools -- a cause that is very close to my heart. “I notice a big difference walking into a school that has a music program versus one that doesn’t; in the children’s self-esteem and how they work together,” said Joshua Bell to an audience of supporters of Education Through Music -- Los Angeles, a program that helps support music programs in inner-city Los Angeles elementary schools. "Music helps the children on so many different levels.” Bell had visited one of the program's schools in Chinatown and was giving a concert in early August to benefit the program, for which Bell serves on the Advisory Board. ETM-LA was founded in 2006, modeled after ETM-New York City, which began in 1991.

And speaking of Josh, here's a fun interview he gave from his dressing room last summer at Verbier Festival, for which Matthieu Escande of Medici.tv slung all kinds of crazy questions his way. As usual, he handled it with grace. When asked "Can you make a face?" Joshua laughs, "Just watch my video when I'm playing, I make all kinds of terrible faces!"

* * *

For those who may have missed this story, the BBC Proms, the annual eight-week ClassicalMusicPalooza that takes place in Great Britain and is currently underway, were interrupted last Thursday by protests from a pro-Palestinian group. The group disrupted a concert by the Israel Philharmonic, just as Gil Shaham was about to play the Bruch Violin Concerto, with Zubin Mehta conducting. Here is more on that story from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14756736

* * *

I enjoyed this story from Juneau, about a new program for young students, who begin violin lessons at school as kindergarteners, starting with paper violins. It reminded me of the two years that I taught my own such program in the Pasadena Public Schools. What drew my attention, though, was that Youth Orchestra at Los Angeles (YOLA) has come up with a whole online library of resources for school music teachers, including a Paper Orchestra Cookbook and videos of beginning songs to do with very young kids. I can say from personal experience, it's difficult to do this kind of program without curriculum support, and so I'm glad to see this kind of sharing happening. Also, it shows how people are beginning to use the Internet, in conjunction with classroom teaching, to help kids learn more thoroughly. It's still evolving, but I believe the Internet can serve as good reinforcement for kids practicing at home after a class lesson. Start making your videos, teachers, and let's keep sharing ideas.

From jean dubuisson
Posted on September 9, 2011 at 7:42 AM

Very nice. I seem to be hearing, just the slightest, accent in his speaking. What could that be? Could it be German? But I don't know if he was raised partly in German or anything of that sort.

From Laurie Niles
Posted on September 9, 2011 at 3:47 PM

It's a Bloomington, Indiana accent. :)

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.