Circle City Clarinerd

Now that I’ve sappily snapped photos of the Hilbert Circle Theatre marquee, the Symphony Centre entrance, the Marketing and Communications Department sign, and my desk…I feel it is time to pen one final blog post.

As this is my last day at the ISO, my sentimental mood has led me to reflect back on the amazing opportunities this internship has afforded me – meeting and interacting with a group of wonderful co-workers, taking private lessons from the ISO’s principal clarinetist, hearing some of my...

Audience members standing during the "Hallelujah" chorus at Carnegie Hall

Don’t be surprised if you see a few of your fellow audience members standing up during the ISO’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah” oratorio this weekend.

No, they are not spontaneously stretching or preparing to make a quick exit, but rather participating in a longstanding tradition of rising during the “Hallelujah” chorus.

The origins of this custom – often considered one of the most bizarre concert rituals – are unclear....

Me and my friend Gwen at the ISO in October!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my transition to downtown Indy from the hills of rural New Hampshire, it’s that city living is alarmingly pricey.  Marsh groceries, City Market lunches and (a few too many) trips to the Fashion Mall add up at an alarming rate, leaving scant any funds for recreational pursuits. However, while swanky clubs and fancy restaurants might be out of the monetary question, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has taken...

“My Requiem was composed for nothing…for fun, if I may be permitted to say so!”
-Gabriel Fauré


Gabriel Fauré

I must admit that I was a bit confused when I learned that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Classical Christmas concert would feature Fauré’s Requiem.  Although I was unfamiliar with this particular piece, I thought back to my music history class, in which I learned that a “requiem” refers to a mass for the dead – a somber tribute to the departure of souls.  Images of the...

While classical music lovers have long cherished the classic opening motif of Beethoven’s Fifth, the pastoral-sounding wind solos in Beethoven 6 and, of course, the “Ode to Joy” melody in Beethoven’s Ninth, Beethoven’s Seventh often lies under the radar.

Yet, upon its premiere in 1812, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was strikingly well-received. Not only did Beethoven assert that his Seventh Symphony was one of his best works, but critics and fellow musicians also celebrated the piece. Richard...

I was first introduced to Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony a few years ago when I had to play the second movement clarinet solo for a summer program audition tape. While learning the fingerings, attempting to perfect the articulation patterns and drilling the section with a metronome to train myself to play it more quickly, I repeatedly listened to the recording of the peppy, folk-like second movement. This lively section consists of a rousing dance theme and bouncy woodwind staccatos and...

The first orchestral piece with which I truly fell in love was a Richard Strauss tone poem.

While I have studied clarinet for over 10 years and have always relished the passion and power of orchestral music, it was not until my youth orchestra performed Strauss’s “Don Juan” in May 2009 that I realized just how obsessed I could become with particular pieces.

It was during our first rehearsal of “Don Juan” that I realized the magic of a tone poem. (Just a note: a tone poem is an orchestral work...

This Halloween, forget "Scream" costumes, zombie flicks and vampire novels and let orchestra music scare your socks off!

In the spirit of the approaching weekend of witchery, I chatted with a few ISO musicians about their favorite creepy concertos, haunting hymns and ominous overtures. Play some of these pieces as you're doling out candy or slathering carmel onto your apples!

"Berlioz’s "Symphonie Fantastique" features the Dies Irae tune, a hymn to the 
dead. We’ve played Paul Dukas’s...

The oboe exudes a smooth A. The hall is silent. The conductor strolls to the podium, shakes the concertmaster’s hand, and raises his baton. Suddenly, the sounds of two unison clarinets, against the soft, eerie backdrop of low strings, emanate from the woodwind section. For the first minute or so of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, the audience focuses only on the rich sounds of the clarinet.

In my completely biased opinion, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony has one of the most powerful openings of any...

This morning, my boss Jessica gave me the keys to the ISO’s archive room and told me to “have at it.” As I stepped into the tiny room tucked away in the middle of the Marketing and Communications floor and caught a glimpse of the treasure trove of old ISO photographs, music scores and random artifacts – including a cornet with the baseball stuffed in the bell about which I am quite curious and thus plan to explore in a future blog post – my history-dork senses were awakened.

As a lifelong...

If two years ago anyone had told me that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concert for which I would be most excited this season would be Mahler's First Symphony, I would have called them crazy. 

For most of my life as a classical musician, I could never bring myself to like or even understand Mahler's compositions.  Beethoven symphonies, Brahms sonatas, and even Strauss tone poems made sense to me, but these long, loud, and laborious Mahler works that call for an army of brass players and...