Category: Conducting Electricity

Cat Links Conducting Electricity, Jacksonville Symphony

Try something out of your comfort zone this season

Posted on Courtney Lewis

I’m back in Jacksonville, settling into a new apartment and getting ready for the beginning of the season, which is fast approaching. It’s my first experience of the city in late summer, and as I write this a thrilling thunderstorm is pelting rain against the windows as lightning bolts dart across the sky above the St. Johns River. Hopefully by now you’ve seen the Jacksonville Symphony’s new logo. I’m really excited about it. It’s amazing how something as simple as a logo can change one’s impression of an organization. For me, ours captures a sense of artistic energy and innovation alongside elegance and poise. That’s exactly what the Jacksonville Symphony is all about: presenting great music in a way that inspires our community, whether in

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Cat Links Conducting Electricity

A postcard from Europe

Posted on Courtney Lewis

I’m writing from Amsterdam, the third stop on the New York Philharmonic’s EUROPE/SPRING 2015 tour. So far we’ve visited Dublin and completed a residency at the Barbican in London. This week we’re playing in one of Europe’s most highly esteemed and acoustically perfect venues, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, a 2000-seat shoebox-shaped hall with a warm and generous sound that might remind you of somewhere closer to home… The London residency began with the Philharmonic’s music director, Alan Gilbert, addressing the Royal Philharmonic Society. His incisive speech outlined a vision of what an orchestra can and should be in the 21st century. Faithful readers will note many parallels with my own ambitions for the Jacksonville Symphony, especially concerning our role in the community, the meaningful presentation of new music and the need

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