The Jacksonville Symphony may not have any performances until opening night on September 30th, but the summer months are usually a welter of activity for musicians. I especially enjoy attending music festivals to hear other orchestras, gaining inspiration from my colleagues. I have just returned from the Bravo! Vail music festival in Colorado, where I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra play three magnificent concerts (including a Tchaikovsky Pathétique accompanied by a thunderstorm) amid the Rockies.  Next week I travel to Bayreuth, Germany, to the music festival that Richard Wagner founded in 1876 solely for the performances of his own operas. In perhaps the most extraordinary example of egotism in musical history, Wagner chose the quiet town as the perfect environment in which to build an opera theatre to

Continue readingTraveling to Bayreuth

Next week we perform the final classical concerts of the season. We’ll open with a brand-new work composed by Tarik O’Regan, commissioned by the Jacksonville Symphony. Tarik was born in England of Irish and Algerian parents, and lives in the US. His piece, Trances, is an exploration of his childhood memories of Moroccan pop music. It’s a fascinating exploration of how time affects our memories, like a haze of fog might affect our vision. After that we’ll perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It’s hard to know where to start when talking about this colossus, which is one of the most important, beloved and powerful pieces of art in Western culture. It’s different from Beethoven’s other symphonies because it introduces words for the first time, sung by a

Continue readingBeethoven’s Ninth, today