Columbus Symphony

Video: Tips and Tricks for playing the Mendelssohn Scherzo 1st Clarinet Part

A 12 minute, fast-tonguing clarinet lesson, introducing various techniques and tricks for playing the most difficult clarinet passages in: Hector Berlioz “Nuits D’Été: L’Ile Inconnue”; and Felix Mendelssohn Scherzo, from his Incidental Music to the Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I demonstrate each passage using a combination of single and/or double-tonguing, with an occasional “hu” articulation. Using the “hu” articulation in certain spots is an unusual, but effective, way to help speed up and lighten single tonguing.

These orchestral excerpts are among the most difficult classical music to perform well, and the Scherzo is required on virtually every clarinet audition list.

Enjoy. (Below is a PDF of the difficult lick from Berlioz Nuit D’Été. I will post the Mendelssohn Scherzo excerpt in a few days.)

Berlioz clarinet articulation excerpt

Berlios Nuite D’Ete, L’Ile Inconnu

Video- Opening clarinet solo from Rhapsody in Blue

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We had a great live concert tonight as part of our AEP Pops series. It was an all Gershwin program entitled “The Gershwins- Here to Stay”, with my excellent colleagues of the Columbus Symphony, Peter Stafford Wilson conducting, and staring Kevin Cole on very Gershwinesque piano, Sylvia McNair (a Columbus native) on gorgeous vocals, and Ryan VanDenBoom on vocals and fantastic tap dancing. Here is a video demonstration and tips on learning the famous opening clarinet solo in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

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Last solo clarinet line of Higdon Blue Cathedral

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Warming up for tonight’s concert with the Columbus Symphony. The program includes Jeniffer Higdon’s ravishing tone poem, Blue Cathedral, followed by Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The Higdon piece ends with a lonely, soft clarinet solo, fading to nothing. But I keep my air speed going all the way. Hopefully, at least!

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The OSU Marching Band with the Columbus Symphony

The Ohio State University Marching Band, TBDBITL, with the Columbus Symphony, Saturday night, July 30, 2011, at Picnic with the Pops. As always an exciting evening! And so ends a summer, a season, and and era. On the last night of the last Columbus Symphony Picnic w the Pops 2011, and the end of a 28 year venue, on the huge lawn donated by Chemical Abstracts Service right near The Ohio State University campus. Beginning next summer, we’ll all (including TBDBITL) be downtown for Summer Pops at the Columbus Commons, where the City Center mall…

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Good news for Columbus Symphony, public funding up

We all know public funding for the arts is hard to come by in the US, certainly more so than in Europe. And that recent economic downturns have made getting funding that much harder. So I think it’s pretty good news that the development director of the Columbus Symphony announced a strong increase in the CSO’s funding as well as its overall business rating. Good news that hopefully bodes well for future public and especially private support. Here’s the note listing the news and the numbers: Dear CSO Musicians, We are pleased to inform you…

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Opera Project conflicting with Columbus Symphony schedule? Why it’s not good.

Jean-Marie Zeitouni Columbus Symphony

Glancing at the website for the new Columbus performing organization, Opera Project, which I introduced in yesterday’s post, I see that the inaugural event conflicts with an inaugural event of sorts for the Columbus Symphony, the first in a series of concerts, led by our promising new Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni, at the Southern Theater. Anytime there is a change from tradition in a performing organization’s schedule, in this case a change of venue from the Ohio Theater to the Southern, there tends to be a drag on audience development until patrons become accustomed to…

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Gifted conductor returns to Columbus music scene

siciliani

I awoke to a pleasant surprise in my email box this morning, a Columbus Dispatch article announcing that Alessandro Siciliani, the long lost and neglected conductor who led the Columbus Symphony to great heights from 1992-2004, will return as music director of a new organization, Opera Project Columbus. It’s refreshing to see a new, unexpected development in the Columbus, Ohio classical music scene, after seeing all performing groups come under the auspices of a singular arts organization (well run and high quality for sure, but singular nonetheless), the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, or…

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New York, Boston, Chicago and San Fran Get Great Marks for Cities with Classical Music

Classical music can be a destination point for many cities. So why can’t Columbus Ohio be on that map? Because it takes investment and long term planning and intention to do so. Is it worth it? Classical music is and always will be an art form which appeals to cutting edge thinkers as well as a broader public. But it is now marketed to the masses in most cities, leaving out the other smaller but critical demographic, the movers and shakers, so to speak. What appeals to those leading edge thinkers? New and challenging programming…

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Farewell Concert for Diablo Symphony Conductor Who Shattered the Classical Music World’s Glass Ceiling

Farewell Concert for Diablo Symphony Conductor Who Shattered the Classical Music World’s Glass Ceiling – Walnut Creek, CA Patch. Joyce Johnson Hamilton will end her 30 years as music director and conductor of the Diablo Symphony (Walnut Creek, CA) by performing in concert with violin virtuoso Linda Wang on Sunday, May 15. Hamilton is one of the few female music directors and conductors of symphony orchestras nationally. Male conductors still far outnumber women conductors, certainly in the bigger orchestras. Hamilton was probably one of only a few when she began with Diabolo 30 years ago.…

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The attitudes and habits of local music unions must change

The attitudes and habits of local music unions must change

(image credit)In an excellent post on a very touchy subject, bassoonist Betsy Sturdevant gives a fair and balanced perspective from the inside; as a union member. In the article, entitled Musician labor unions: the pros and cons, Ms. Sturdevant, a colleague in the Columbus Symphony, outlines the importance of labor unions in the past, and then offers her views on how and why unions need to adapt to vastly improved conditions in private sector jobs in order to remain viable ecomonically. Is it possible that the traditional function of labor unions is outdated? Could it…

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