Majestic dvd

This year marks the 51st season of the Grand Teton Music Festival. In celebration of their 50th season, they commissioned Pulitzer and Grammy Award winning composer Jennifer Higdon. Now that world premiere performance, along with Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, is available as a DVD/CD set from the festival.
The Grand Teton Music Festival is one of the most prestigious and finest musical gatherings in the world. Musicians from around North America come together by invitation and play under maestros ranging from (music director) Donald Runnicles to Bernard Labadie, and soloists such as Lynn Harrell, James Ehnes, and Stephen Hough.
So when you mix excellent new music to this fun and eclectic band of musicians, it is completely inspiring, for both the listener and the orchestra!

Clare and Higdon

All Things Majestic is about 20 minutes long and is in four movements. Teton Range sets the mood perfectly, mostly relying on the brass, but using the full orchestra to good use, for a true "maestoso." Not since Hovhaness' Second Symphony have chords struck so true for such a landscape! The second movement, String Lake, aptly features the string section, and even outdoes Smetana (Moldau) and Debussy (La Mer) for colors with a water theme. At this point, I have to mention the images from the dvd. They are spectacular scenes from Henry Holdsworth, Thomas Mangelsen, and Edward Riddell! Pictures run the gamut, and range in season, color, wildlife, day, night, and everything in between. Snake River continues the charming score by Higdon, using percussion and woodwinds to begin and returning to full orchestra, a scherzo for this all but in name symphony. Cathedrals, the finale, returns musically and visually to the mountains -and serves as a perfect peak to this modern masterwork.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale" is given a fine reading by the orchestra and Runnicles. This time for the dvd, steady video is shown of various nature scenes - far less compelling visually than All Things Majestic's awesome photos - but musically moving.



Here is a link to an interview and the entire All Things Majestic performance from Wyoming PBS.
We recommend this new release highly with the chance to see and hear the music on dvd and cd (http://www.gtmf.org/merchandise/). Bravo!!!
- host John Clare

Marketing Classical

There are some great ways to show an orchestra, and interest young people.  Here are two recent examples, both from Europe!
First, the Czech Phil:

And this hilarious one from France!



Would ninjas help you attend the San Antonio Symphony?

Labor Day 2010

On this Labor Day, we send good vibes to the Detroit Symphony and Fort Worth Symphony orchestras...here is an interesting article about orchestra pay.
Here is a video from the musicians in Fort Worth:

Top 20

When you compare baseball or other sports teams, there’s only one statistic that matters in the end: who wins the most games. When it comes to assessing the respective quality of the world’s top orchestras, the comparisons are much more complicated to make. Many different factors and qualities must be taken into consideration, and assessments are much more subjective. Despite the challenges, and potential controversy, Gramophone has gone in search of the “World’s Best Orchestra” and, in its December issue, will publish its list of the world’s Top 20 orchestras.

To create its list, Gramophone polled leading critics around the world, including Alex Ross (New Yorker) and Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times) in the U.S., Rob Cowan in the U.K, critics from France’s Le Monde, Austria’s Die Presse, Germany’s Die Welt, and the leading paper in the Netherlands. Also included were various editors associated with Gramophone around the world, including editor James Inverne and editor in chief James Jolly in London, and the respective editors of the local editions of Gramophone in Korea, Spain and China.

Depending on the reader’s geographical location and personal tastes, Gramophone’s list will by turns confirm, surprise, and possibly confound. Three of the world’s most famous orchestras occupy the top three positions, but their ordering might surprise some readers. At No. 5, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is America’s top-ranked orchestra. While many of the Top 10 orchestras are more than a century old (and then some, with the Dresden Staatskapelle, at No. 10, being founded in 1548!), the Russian National Orchestra (founded in 1990) and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, this season celebrating its 25th anniversary, are relative youngsters.

Gramophone’s editor James Inverne observes:

“The celebrated ensembles on our list represent the triumph of “character” in orchestras. Too many bands these days have a uniform, slick but generalized sound, whereas the Concertgebouw (No. 1) is one of the last to really have an immediately identifiable sound, and to arguably (to an extent) plumb the character of composers in the way an actor will with his roles. Others on the list who also have that quality are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (that famous brass sound) at No. 5, the very unsung Budapest Festival Orchestra (No. 9), and the Dresden Staatskapelle (No. 10).

Iván Fischer, who founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983, comments:

“I think it’s a good list and it’s a great honor to be part of it. For me, the difference between good orchestras and great orchestras is obvious: in good orchestras musicians may get it right, but in great orchestras they offer that special ‘extra.’ It’s the musicians’ personal involvement, imagination, intuition, and ability to take risks that makes a great orchestra what it is: a group of creative artists.”

Several guest artists and critics offer short written appreciations for members of the Top 10 Club, including Marin Alsop (for the London Symphony Orchestra [No. 4], which she has guest conducted frequently) and Leonard Slatkin (for the Los Angeles Philharmonic [No. 8], where he was principal guest conductor 2005-2007).

Gramophone’s “World’s Best Orchestra” cover story will be published on November 21 in the UK (November 28 in the US). Gramophone’s web site is at www.gramophone.co.uk

The Top 20
1) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
2) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
3) Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
4) London Symphony Orchestra
5) Chicago Symphony Orchestra
6) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
7) Cleveland Orchestra
8) Los Angeles Philharmonic
9) Budapest Festival Orchestra
10) Dresden Staatskapelle
11) Boston Symphony Orchestra
12) New York Philharmonic
13) San Francisco Symphony
14) Mariinsky Theater Orchestra
15) Russian National Orchestra
16) Leningrad Philharmonic
17) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
18) Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
19) Saito Kinen Orchestra
20) Czech Philharmonic

SA Symphony Announces New President

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (July 21, 2008) – The San Antonio Symphony announced today that Long Beach Symphony Executive Director Jack Fishman will assume the position of President/CEO for the organization before the new season begins in October 2008. Current Symphony President David Green has resigned, saying he had accomplished his goal of getting the Symphony on a strong economic footing and is now looking at other opportunities.

“Jack has a great track record of successful symphony management, and we are excited about his leadership as we move the Symphony into the next phase of its growth,” Symphony Board Chair Debbie Montford said, “I want to thank David for the thoughtful and strategic way he has gone about fulfilling his responsibilities to the symphony in the past and especially his proactive actions in locating an excellent person as his replacement,”

Fishman, who was confirmed as Green’s replacement with a unanimous vote of the entire symphony board at a special meeting held July 18th, has served as Executive Director of the Long Beach Symphony since 2000 and has an extensive background in music and symphony management. He was first identified during the national search for a CEO in 2005, and has since renewed his interest in San Antonio.
"I'm deeply honored to be chosen to be part of the San Antonio Symphony family. Working to ensure this community treasure continues to provide artistically excellent music and is well managed with fiscal responsibility are tasks I am eager to be engaged in,” Fishman said. “I'm looking forward to partnering with the community, Symphony Board, volunteers, musicians and staff to bring great symphonic music to as many San Antonio adults and children as possible."

Fishman began his career as a professional musician as Principal Bass with the Puerto Rico Symphony during the 1981-82 season. He then performed with the Knoxville Symphony and the Florida Symphony Orchestra. After a musician and management stint with the Bedford Springs Festival in Florida, Fishman began considering a career in Symphony management and became the Orchestra Manager of the Jacksonville Symphony in 1990. After serving as Executive Director of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, where he grew the annual budget for five years, Fishman was recruited by and accepted the position of Executive Director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra in 2000. During his time in Long Beach, he has successfully recruited a music director, led an outreach program aimed at attracting more Hispanics to the Symphony, and reduced annual operating deficits.

Interview with Jack Fishman.