Today was a good day.
It has been said that the most challenging part of the classical
music business these days is trying to bring in new, excited people
to build the next generation of concert goers in order to help
sustain the future of our art form. And in a world of endless
entertainment choices just a mouse or remote control click away,
its no wonder that we have to work harder to make sure the beauty
and power of classical music is available to everyone that wants
it.
So I thought to...
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The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra just wrapped up another Stella
Artois
Happy Hour at the Symphony with our magnificent
ensemble, Time for Three. Post your comments...what was
your favorite moment from tonight's concert?
Mark your calendars for the next
Happy Hour -- as luck
would have it, it's on St. Patrick's Day!
During
every season at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, we have
orchestra members, soloists and conductors who push through a
concert despite a cold or a sore back, but this week our soloist,
IU South Bend's own Alexander Toradze
is playing after emergency surgery just three days
ago.
For 10 days, Mr. Toradze had been experiencing blurred vision
in his left eye. After a visit to his regular eye doctor, he was
referred to Dr. Thomas Hauch at South Bend Retina and Vitreous who
diagnosed him...
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Happy 2011 everyone!
Before we close the books on 2010, I
have to mention a few proud moments of this past year. One,
another record-breaking year with Marsh Symphony on the
Prairie; two, a sold out performance with the one, the only,
Itzhak Perlman, violinist and conductor; three, fantastic
guest artists in our Pops series including the Callaway sisters,
Wayne Brady and Bugs Bunny (on the big screen, of course); and
four, the smashing success of Duke Energy Yuletide
Celebration--the 25th...
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Wow.
We received 49 blog entries for the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra's first Yuletide Celebration “Share Your
Favorite Yuletide Memory” contest! When the contest closed on
Friday, Dec. 3 at 5 p.m., I admit, I dreaded picking the
winner.
These 49 submissions are heart-felt stories of family traditions,
holiday cheer, inspiration, humor, generosity, loss, hope, love and
musical memories. The contest had no parameters or criteria;
and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We chose the...
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We were taking our places in the first few seats of Row N when an
argument ensued. As is customary for us, I had gone in first,
sitting in the seat next to “the stranger.” My teenage son Parker
had halted in the aisle, making way for his brother Mason to take
the seat beside me. Mason held back and waved Parker in ahead of
him. Parker refused. “I’m not sitting next to her,” he said,
looking at me with feigned disgust. “Oh, yes, you are,” Mason
stated emphatically. “No way,” Parker asserted. “I...
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My husband and I have attended the Coffee Pops Concert Series since
before he retired in 1991. In 2000, Yuletide Celebration was a part
of the Pops Series and I was really looking forward, as always, to
the event. Unfortunately that week, our daughter-in-law's
grandfather died and his funeral was the day of the concert. We
offered to keep both grandsons that day while she and our son
traveled to northern Indiana to be with her family. But what to do
about our Yuletide tickets! After talking it...
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I believe it was the year of 2005 when I saw my first Yuletide
show. I was 20 years old. (The same number of years as the Yuletide
Show! :) I attended the show with my boyfriend and his family. For
his family, the Yuletide show was a family tradition which included
buying Christmas cookies at intermission. Yum! It was an amazing
show! I will never forget the feeling of being in a Christmas
wonderland where beautiful chords along with incredible
orchestration created the "awh" with every piece....
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Today is my 29th birthday and December 4 will be my 25th Yuletide
Celebration. As I have been receiving wonderful cards and calls
from friends all day, I have realized that my birthday memories
through the years have always been connected to the Yuletide
Celebration and want to take a moment to reflect on my favorite
memories through the years. We had recently moved to Indianapolis
when my dad saw the advertisement for a new type of Christmas show
taking place at the Hilbert Circle Theatre, The...
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Well my favorite host is by far, the incomparable Sandi Patty!!! My
Mom & cousins' birthdays are on the same day in December (also
the same as my Grandpa, my mom's father, but he has passed away).
My Mom, cousin, my sister & I make a girls trip & drive to
Indy to celebrate their birthdays and also to remember my Grandpa.
What better way to celebrate life than hearing great music, great
singing and being with the ones you love? Yuletide is very special
to me & I hope we continue this family...
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I remember when I was eleven years old, I attended the Yuletide
Christmas Celebration in December of 2004. A neighbor of mine gave
my mother and me tickets to the Yuletide show. We were both very
excited because we had never been before because we could not
afford the tickets. I remember when we entered into the orchestra;
I stood in awe of the beautiful decorations that were placed
throughout the lobby and theatre. The decorations were magical and
made me feel the Christmas spirit all around....
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Here's round two from our guest blogger and Pink Martini
super-fan, Jayne Glick. Jayne is a student at IUPUI at the Herron
School of Art & Design, majoring in Visual Communication
Design. She has been a Pink Martini fan for about five
years.
I’ve been a Pink Martini fan for a while and although I know their
albums well, I didn’t really know too much about the people in the
band and how it all began. So I decided to do some research and
share my results. Believe it or not, how they got started is...
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My Brother-in-law got all the women together in the family we had
no idea what was going on "dress nice" he says. He picks us all up
in a rented limo takes us to have professional group photos taken,
then away we go to the Yuletide Celebration, we had no idea were
the vehicle was going just tons of good talk and laughter as we
found out one of the 3 sisters had her shoes on the wrong feet
because she just kept complaining how bad her feet hurt, to this
day it's still a good laugh. We brought up...
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I remember the first time we as a family attended the Yuletide
Celebration, it was the buzz all over, people everywhere had
attended the year before and they just talked with such ah. We as a
family purchased tickets and I remember the warm feeling as we
walked into the Circle theather, I was so impressed and then the
show started, I felt like a 5 year old, I was totally amazed with
the show-I didn't want to miss one single moment. We as a family
enjoyed the experience and afterwards went to...
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My fondest memory of Yuletide is going as a whole family last year
in 2009. My husband and I had gone to see the Yuletide show several
years back and I cried most of the way through the show, thinking
how I would love to be able to come back one day and bring the
whole family. We have three boys and they all love music and
dancing, but especially our youngest. The problem is that our
youngest son has autism. Being in a public place with a lot of
people and crowd noise is very troubling to him....
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Whenever someone asks me to recommend something as an introduction
to the symphonic repertoire, I always encourage them to listen to a
variety of works. Just like most things, music isn't
one-size-fits-all. Many people think that if you don't like
one piece of classical music, then you don't like any of them, but
that's not necessarily so! This holds true even for those of
us more experienced symphony fans. One day you might discover
your least favorite composer actually wrote something you...
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I was totally bummed on that December day in 2000... An Indiana
snow storm had cancelled my family's annual Christmas gathering in
Eastern Illinois. You see, my family is scattered throughout the
country, so we look forward to that day, all year long. I was
sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself, when a friend, who I
adored, called me up and said, "I'm coming to get you. We're going
downtown to Yuletide!" He braved the storm in his SUV and we slowly
made our way downtown. Once we arrived at...
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My 8 year-old still can't believe that
cartoons were only shown on Saturday mornings "back in the day," as
she calls "my era." Yes, darling. No 24-hour access to
cartoons like digital cable, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel
provide us today (sometimes I wish we could go back to less
programming). My brother and I had the same Saturday morning
ritual: make some hot chocolate on the stove and turn on
Bugs Bunny and his friends--Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck
and Yosemite Sam--and...
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I'm delighted to introduce guest blogger and
Pink Martini super-fan, Jayne Glick. Jayne is a student at
IUPUI at the Herron School of Art & Design, majoring in Visual
Communication Design. Not only does she love being a part of the
art and design world, she also enjoys having a connection to the
music world. Playing violin since the age of six, she is
currently studying with Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra violinist, Raye Pankratz. Right now she is
focusing on honing her teaching skills and...
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This
morning the rarest of occurrences for a new parent took place in my
home. My wife and young daughter were leaving the house for
the morning, and since my 2 month old boy was a bit under the
weather, I stayed home with him. As soon as the girls were
gone, my boy presented me with a precious gift. He fell
asleep for two whole hours! Now anyone reading this who has a
child knows that these moments where the house is silent are
fleeting and to be cherished.
Given my sudden and unexpected,...
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