Musings

It isn’t that music is a language, but, as it turns out, language is a type of music.

If I could carve my own personal Mt. Rushmore of music, who would I choose to deface the side of a beautiful mountain? 

This summer, I attended the Taos School of Music, a chamber music program in the mountains of New Mexico.

Thinking about concerts – not ones I’ve played, but ones I have attended. Here are the top five that jumped out at me, in no particular order.

Maybe it is the action of sitting in a concert or lecture or open rehearsal or Hausmusik with others.

We’re somewhere around the mid-point of the festival which began with a talk last Monday on Kurtág and ends with our final concert this Sunday.

The first Storytelling and Music and Puppet show outside today at 11:00 at Maudslay has been cancelled due to weather

The couple’s performances on stage were legendary, literal embraces at the piano, their hands interlocking over the keys.

Transplanted to a different continent, these sold-out concerts feel like a vindication of the vision I call “community-oriented” chamber music.

‍Musicians are modern-day itinerant minstrels. Stephanie, one of our festival artists this summer (violin) and I have been trying to find a time to record a conversation.

When rural Americans finally got electricity in the 1930’s and 40’s, decades after the cities, many went outside just to look back at their illuminated houses.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you already know that for NCMF this summer, Alfred Nicol has written a poem about local birds

Hungarian composer György Ligeti was born into a Jewish family in 1923 and grew up under the vile reigns of both the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

He then had the idea of adding to the four instruments a piano part for his wife Clara, and the resulting piano quintet was written in less than three weeks.

This summer marks another joyful collaboration with the actor, director, impresario, and his band of merry puppeteers. 

Long-time NCMF audience members are aware that I am an ardent fan of 98-year-old composer György Kurtág

Composers are a curious lot, interested in everything and anything. 

This was decided upon in a highly scientific manner. Take a look and let me know which favorite bird I left out...

Sometimes I’d buy a book, often I’d just browse, open up a volume, read the first paragraph. 

Twelve iconic birds of Newburyport for string quartet and...theremin? 

Ravel was an ardent collector of Art Nouveau and Art Deco with its stylized and stylish ideals

This summer, we’ll be performing piano quintets by Schumann (happy!) and Schnittke (maybe not so happy…).

Brahms, Schumann, Kurtag, Schnittke, Ligeti, Liszt, a world premiere by Castillo with theremin, puppet shows, oh my!

Haydn's music reflects a time of great political and social upheaval.

This summer we’ll feature two piano quintets that are a study in contrast.