Downtown Indiana Theater

Memories in the Making

Saturday, March 6, 2010 by Brian Smith

Over the past few days a group of very talented young people could be seen milling about the backstage area of the Hilbert Circle Theater. As they waited, many could be seen playing with cell phones or chatting with friends. Things you might expect a group of teenagers to be doing to kill some time. A passerby might see this gaggle of young men and women and think nothing was out of sorts, save the formal attire they were wearing. But these people were far from your normal mall loitering youngsters. They were the musicians of the Honor Orchestra of America, waiting their turn to impress an audience with their musical skill.

The orchestra performs an hour before the ISO is to take the stage this weekend, presenting a very challenging, but well done, concert of Shostakovich's Festival Overture and Mussorgsky's Pictrures at an Exhibition.

I know from personal experience what a week like this can mean and do for a young musician. When I was in high school, I performed with a similar group in New Orleans. I remember walking into the first rehearsal and being terrified. I didn't know what to expect. How would I stack up with the other players? Is the music to difficult? Excitement and fear were resonating through my brain, fighting for supremacy. Thankfully, once the rehearsal began, and I took a deep breath, what followed helped me realize what I wanted to do with my life and propel me to make music a lifelong passion.

All the performers on the stage with me were as dedicated and focused as I was on creating the best musical experience we could. The feeling of comradery was like a wave making it's way to shore, slowing building in momentum and strength. At the end of the week all that energy was released in a performance that was as powerful as any I have been a part of. I was hooked.

I have had many great experiences onstage since then, but I will always remember the one from New Orleans as a very special one. I only hope that the members of the Honor Orchestra of America will take away a special memory of their own.

Sound Off at a Special Time!

Sunday, February 28, 2010 by Sean Newhouse

This coming Friday and Saturday, I’ll be hosting our preconcert event Sound Off at a special time – 6:00pm. This is because the Honor Orchestra of America will be performing at 7:00pm, before the ISO hits the stage at 8:00pm, for this week’s performances in the Symphonic Hits series. We invite you to make a full evening of it at the Hilbert Circle Theater with Sound Off and the two performances!

The ISO performance will feature wonderful staples of the repertoire, with guest conductor James Gaffigan leading a program that opens with Rossini’s Semiramide Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, and then features Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and soloist Stephen Hough on the second half.

As usual, for Sound Off, we’d love for you to send us questions in advance (about orchestral music in general, or the ISO in particular) that we may feature in our segment “The Audience Wants to Know.” You can submit your questions by commenting on this blog post, posting on the ISO Facebook page, or emailing it to soundoff@indianapolissymphony.org.

To give you a little taste of what’s in store on this week’s concerts, I’ve collected some YouTube videos of the repertoire – some “standard,” and others not so much :-)

We’ll start with a normal performance – this is Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic with Rossini’s Semiramide Overture.

And now, a much more unusual arrangement – for 16 pianists on 8 pianos!

Here’s a classic performance from 1962 of the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto, with soloist Van Cliburn and conductor Kirill Kondrashin, in Moscow. This is the beginning of the first movement - the rest of the concerto is easily available on YouTube as well.

And then, I couldn’t resist including musical comedian Victor Borge’s riff on the opening of the concerto:

Finally, here are a couple of videos related to Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony. First, an introduction to the work, created by Jan Swafford for the Boston Symphony.

And here’s a fine performance of the Beethoven with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony.

See you at the Symphony!

It's THEATER people!

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Everyone's a Critic

Phones buzzing, people viewing their screens, or getting up from a performance are all distractions. The audience is made up of people who paid to witness a performance. Unless you're on stage, leave the devices at home or off. And I mean "OFF" off, as in totally inoperational. If a group wishes to have some interactive terminals or solicit cell contributions after the show that's fine with me. Otherwise, kindly don't interrupt my entertainment experience. We can all wait until we get home to email our friends to say where we were or how much fun it was. Unless it's some sort of Performance Art, the artists should not need to know our immediate feedback unless there is a question of ego involved. People living life with their cell phones in their hands reminds me of all the folks who watched their babies first steps on a 1" black and white screen (VCR camcorder). Put down the toys, live life, report on it later.

Name: Michael Colter
City: Indianapolis

Sound Off is back!

Sunday, January 3, 2010 by Sean Newhouse

Happy New Year, everyone – I hope 2010 is off to a terrific start for all of you!

This coming Friday and Saturday, the 8^th and 9^th, the ISO’s series of popular classics, Symphonic Hits powered by Lilly, returns to the Hilbert Circle Theater stage, and of course, that also means the return of Sound Off, the preconcert event that I host one hour prior to each concert (AKA 6:30pm).

This week’s concert program is full of spectacular music, including a suite of excerpts from my favorite work by Sergei Prokofiev, his ballet music for Romeo and Juliet. The excerpts for this suite were chosen by this week’s conductor, Andrew Litton, and I believe that these will be the first-ever performances of this particular combination of movements. The concert also features Tchaikovsky’s warhorse Violin Concerto, with soloist Vadim Gluzman, and Tchaikovsky’s Coronation March.

The first couple editions of Sound Off have been a lot of fun, thanks in large part to your terrific participation and questions for me and my guests. If you have a burning question about orchestras or symphonic music that you’d like to see me answer during our The Audience Wants to Know segment, please submit it by commenting on this blog post, posting it on the ISO Facebook page, or emailing it to soundoff@indianapolissymphony.org. In the next few days, I think the ISO staff may be even posting a special free concert ticket offer on our Facebook page for the best question submitted, so be sure to check for that.

Here are some videos to kindle your interest in this week’s repertoire. I couldn’t resist starting with what is probably the most novel performance of music from the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto that I’ve ever heard. This is a young accordion virtuoso from Ukraine, Alexander Hrustevich, performing the 3^rd movement of the concerto, and playing both the solo part and accompaniment himself - it’s quite breathtaking:

And to balance that, here’s a classic “normal” performance of the first movement with the legendary David Oistrakh as soloist. (This is only the first part of the movement, but the remainder of the movement, as well as the rest of the concerto, are easily accessible on YouTube).

Here is a performance by the famous Bolshoi Ballet of the scene ‘Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb’ from Romeo and Juliet. This scene will not be included in this weekend’s performances, but I thought you would enjoy it.

And finally, here is a concert performance by Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic of the devastating ‘Death of Tybalt’, which will conclude the Romeo and Juliet suite in this weekend’s performances.

(These last two YouTube videos have "embedding" disabled, which means I can't post them inline here at the blog entry, but be sure to check out the links to view them directly on YouTube - they're both fantastic.)

See you at the symphony!

67,426!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Sean Newhouse

That's the number of people in the audience the ISO and I played for on Sunday night when we performed the Star-Spangled Banner at the Colts-Patriots game at Lucas Oil Stadium - equivalent to almost 38 times the capacity of the Hilbert Circle Theater! I'm guessing that it was the largest audience the ISO has ever played for, and it was definitely record attendance for Lucas Oil Stadium (they announced that later, during the game).

It was a pretty surreal experience all the way around - before we played, we were hanging out in the end zone (which is where we performed from) as the players were warming up, with practice kicks soaring practically over our heads through the uprights. The crowd noise was unbelievable down on the field - the roar that went up as we got to the final phrase of the SSB, and as we finished, was overwhelming.

Check out the video below, which starts as we're waiting for our cue, while the giant flag is being unrolled on the field. Go Colts!

"Just imagine them all naked!"

Sunday, November 15, 2009 by Sean Newhouse

That was the advice given to me by a friend upon hearing that I would be conducting in front of a live audience of 63,000 people tonight. Another friend of mine (this one is also a conductor) joked “Don’t screw it up, or your career will be over.” The ISO and I are hitting the road tonight to perform in what is for us a pretty unusual (but exciting!) venue – Lucas Oil Stadium, about a mile away from our home at the Hilbert Circle Theater. We’ll be playing the national anthem before the Colts-Patriots game, which is the featured game on Sunday Night Football tonight nationwide. Go Colts! Unfortunately, SNF rarely shows the national anthem on their broadcast (they tend to opt for Faith Hill’s prerecorded rendition of the SNF theme song instead). But we’re all psyched anyway to get to play for such an enormous and passionate live audience, and one that certainly includes many people who have never heard the ISO live before. This is actually our second performance at Lucas Oil Stadium, though our first at a game – we also performed there in August 2008 as part of the opening ceremonies for the stadium.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite versions of the national anthem. Glenn Donnellan, a violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., made an electric “violin” out of a baseball bat, and wrote his own arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner to play on it. Enjoy, and see you at the game!

Beginnings Again...

Saturday, September 12, 2009 by Carol Baker

The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra held family orientation/retreats the week of 9/1 led by our friends Rebecca and Dante with Theater of Inclusion (http://theaterofinclusion.com). If you've never heard of TOI, they are made up of this fantasticly artistic duo who design and facilitate workshops for youth, teaching teams, and corporate groups. Their workshops often focus on developing character, strengthening cooperation, and intensifying team building. Our family retreat covered creating a positive and inviting learning environment for MYO, developing common vocabulary and developing a culture of inclusiveness --- All concepts integral to MYO's program success!

One of the activities involved building, drawing and studying this tower of blocks...

Question: What do you see? Some parent/student responses included:

Building of knowledge
Different pieces/shapes (blocks) representing the MYO community
Teamwork - we all have important roles
Setting of goals

Another Question: How is this tower like me? Responses included:

Like the blocks, I am connected to my family and my orchestra
I focus my attention on my goals and stand straight
I am prepared and ready
Parts of me are strong and other parts weak
I am strong

What does a "tower of blocks" mean to you? How is a "tower of blocks" like you? As I come to work everyday, I think of my work not as a whole, but as a part of something bigger. I look around at piles and piles of "to-do"s on my desk or in my computer and I think - what kind of building block do I need to be today or what building block am I going to use today... Each pending or completed task, each interaction with a colleague, MYO family and donor are also building blocks. We'd like for you to be a building block too. What can you bring to our tower to build it taller and stronger?

In general, I love "beginnings and endings" of things. The cyclical nature of my work keeps me going each and every year at the ISO. As towers are built they occassionally crumble and have to be reinforced or taken down and started all over again. Working in educational and community settings has taught me that that's OK. This is how we learn and grow. This is how we make things better or stronger. We just have to be brave enough and have the courage to keep going.

To all of our MYO friends and family, we are looking forward to an awesome year together. Our tower is going to be beautifully constructed and amply supported. I can't wait to see what the year brings and how our tower of blocks will look. With everyone's help it'll be an MYO masterpiece!!

We can make it stronger by working together.

A Heart of Gold

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 by Zack French

May 10, 1999 was a Monday, and I remember it fondly. Not only was it the birthday of a dear friend of mine who ended up not accepting my mild romantic affections a few months earlier, but it was also the day I would be meeting the first of dozens of celebrities I would come to know over the next decade, and without a doubt one I would never forget.

With a dark blue cello case strapped tightly against his shoulders, Yo-Yo Ma stepped off the plane in Louisville, Kentucky. He approached me, warmly shook my hand and said, “Hi! I’m Yo-Yo Ma!” To all those who have ever wondered after seeing his interviews and TV specials, let the truth be told: Yes, he really is that nice. From the moment he stuffed his multi-million dollar cello into the boot of my crowded Mazda sedan, he wanted to hear only about me – even down to how big my farm was in southern Indiana, and by the end of the day he affectionately referred to me as “40-acre boy.”

That evening he presented a recital with pianist Jeffrey Kahane at the Palace Theatre in downtown Louisville in an unforgettable program: J.S. Bach’s Sonata in D major for viola da gamba BWV 1028, plus a set of “New” Goldberg Variations, a work comprised of six movements by various contemporary composers – Christopher Rouse, John Corigliano and Peter Schickele, among others – that were bookended (as in the original) by the evocative Aria from Bach’s own BWV 988 Goldberg Variations of 1741. The second half of the concert was the 30-minute Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19 of Rachmaninoff, which was truly the musical highlight of the evening.

The dinner afterwards was even more memorable.

Even though the reservation was made well in advance, our post-11 p.m. arrival in the foyer at Vincenzo’s Italian Restaurant (complete with Yamaha grand piano) did not make us a welcome party. At first, no one could be found in the restaurant, so Yo-Yo bolted into the kitchen (with his cello still strapped to his back). I soon followed only to find him in front of the preparation sinks apologizing profusely to Vincenzo’s wife, who was livid that she had been waiting so long for such a small party. With some hesitation, her annoyance eventually abated and the one remaining waiter began to bring cold appetizers and wine. Yo-Yo helped the waiter and served us before seating himself.

Nearly two hours later (and after the final cask of grappa had been consumed), we packed up our things and began to head out. Yo-Yo continued to thank the owner’s wife for her patience; after all, she had catered to our every detail and I noticed she was physically exhausted, but still appreciative of our gratitude. Yo-Yo noticed this too, and after whispering in Jeffrey Kahane’s ear and giving him a smile and simultaneous nod, he unpacked his cello in the foyer as Jeffrey sat down at the piano. The couple performed exclusively for her – from memory – the Andante from Rachmaninoff’s Sonata. By the end of the 6-minute movement, she was reduced to tears. The next twenty minutes were spent watching this woman shower Yo-Yo and Jeffrey with adoration.

The heart of this man is truly made of gold. It is without a doubt that he shows it everywhere he goes. When you see his beaming face accept an audience’s applause, or watch as he smiles at the orchestra and its conductor following a raving performance, you know that it is genuine. He is a gift to today’s musical world, and those of us attending his return to the Hilbert Circle Theatre with the Indianapolis Symphony in October 2009 (after a 13-year hiatus) should soak up every moment. He will touch every heart in the hall, and will make it an evening to remember, as it did for me a decade ago.

And even though I never won the heart of my dear friend that year, she did receive an anonymous birthday gift in the mail a few days later – an autographed CD of a world-famous cellist that simply read: “Happy Birthday, Eliza. Love, Yo-Yo.”