David Yang

By

What a way to start the year: the largest audience we’ve ever had for a spring concert - not including the bat that strafed the audience.

By

We have it on record that Beethoven's favorite meal was macaroni and cheese.

By

I asked past artists of NCMF to choose a surprise performance for our audience.

By

I call every member of my family until somebody picks up and entertains me, and when they get bored, I call the next person.

By

What’s all the fuss about? Don’t take my word for it: here is a live performance you can see.

By

People have such interesting lives – they’ve lived all over, done this, done that; everyone has a story. 

By

German has great words, and for angsty terms, it is unsurpassed.

By

A degree in music, even from a school like Juilliard, leaves the recent graduate staring into the abyss.

By

Mark your calendar with the Roebling Piano Trio at the NCMF spring recital on Saturday, March 8th at St Paul’s.

By

Before we look ahead, let’s look back at this year with my personal favorite moments. And please write me if you have anything to add.

By

Never, in 24 years, have we sold out St. Paul’s. For those who can’t make it, here is one of my favorite Vivaldi concertos.

By

Baroque composer Nicola Canzano will have a world premiere featured as a most special encore on the upcoming Winter Baroque concert.

By

This week’s post features a chat about being a music student in Vienna with Beth Clary and Alessandra Yang

By

Quick, hum a melody! What is the first tune that comes to mind?

By

If you think I am going to weigh in on who serves the best lobster roll in Newburyport then you've got another thing coming.

By

We need beauty in our lives, now more than ever. Here are three gifts.

By

 While I’ve never birthed a baby, I have had a kidney stone. I thought I was dying. And you know what they didn’t have in 1720? Anesthesia!

By

Why exactly did they wear wigs in the 17th Century? (Maybe better not to ask.) Set aside Sunday, December 22nd for our annual winter baroque concert.

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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.

By

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.

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

‍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.

By

When I was a teenager, I got a job one summer working as a bike messenger in New York.

By

How does one come up with a name for a new ensemble? There are composers, artists, Institutions, violin makers, myth-related names,, or sometimes a group is named after a member of the ensemble, but oddly, architects haven’t yet made the cut.

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

Our roster of artists for this summer along with some of their favorite meals. Is there a better way to get to know someone?

By

On Tuesday, I had the privilege to discuss the composer Arnold Schoenberg with his son, Larry.

By

I’ve said about all I can about the Mozart and Schoenberg trios and how great they are.

By

A thoughtful reader challenged my observation that the Mozart is more difficult than the Schoenberg.

By

Most of us have had kind and generous teachers that left a lasting impression.

By

Buckle your seat belts! The program consists of the Schoenberg String Trio and Mozart’s Divertimento in Eb.

By

Goethe said "music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music." That sounds good but what does it really mean?

By

Sometimes the process of figuring out the right question is as important as the answer. 

By

There are certain very specific and individualized sounds we associate with childhood.

By

Thomas Baltzar’s jewel of a piece, his Prelude, packs more in two minutes than some composers stuff into an entire symphony.

By

After the call informing me that one of the artists had tested positive...

By

I’ve returned to the tried and true holiday formula of not programming anything composed after 1750.

By

There is a new look for Winter Baroque this year (tickets go on sale today!).

By

The feedback from NCMF Winter Baroque has been rolling in and is overwhelmingly positive.

By

I’m delighted to announce we have a new board member, Maryellen Moreland.

By

What is the difference between a modern and "historic" cello and why use one over another?

By

Life is like that sometimes – everything can be fine one minute and then suddenly go all topsy-turvy.

By

In 1772, the rationalism of the Age of Enlightenment ran head-on into early romanticism.

By

If the concerto represents the individual against massed forces, unaccompanied works feel like an internalization of this struggle within an individual.

By

Thanks to an older kid in my orchestra back in 1982, I attended a chamber music camp in Vermont.

By

 "Looking back," Paul told me, “I would not have lived the same life without all this music because it is so important to me.”

By

If Mozart drove a car, what kind of car would he have? (One thinks about such things when sitting on a transcontinental flight.)

By

One of the most original composers of the 20th Century, Janáček had a hot-blooded disposition and a pronounced appetite for the opposite sex.

By

After traveling through Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland, we finally crossed the Alps into Italy

By

Musicians are itinerant; you go where the work is.

By

Have you ever wondered how exactly we keep this thing running? And...some great news!

By

Musicians travel - a lot - so I asked this summer’s artists to list a favorite place or two in the world.

By

This winter, I’ve been heading out on pre-dawn rides to train for what was supposed to be a slightly insane three-day, 400-mile bicycle trip

By

Recently I’ve been chewing over the joy I take in this profession due to my love of music vs. the satisfaction I take in the process

By

Art expresses our deepest emotions. Ecstasy and grief, tranquility, bustle, anger, even frustration

By

When you were thirteen, what did you dream about doing when you grew up?

By

I enjoy when instruments employ artifice to imitate non-instruments:

By

Musicians strive to play expressively, whereas actors can communicate directly with expression.

By

I’m still coming down from the summer– Schoenberg, Shostakovich, “The Jury,” everything and everyone who turned up

By

By all accounts, I think I can report that summer 2023, our twenty-second season, was a smashing success.

By

It was as if I were witnessing the birth of a new composition in real time, not unlike a musical version of watching Harry Potter step out from behind the Cloak of Invisibility. 

By

For the final concert of Summer 2023 with the world premiere based on Rhina's poem you can pay what you want - one dollar, one hundred dollars.

By

It is the anticipation of knowing what’s coming that might be classical music’s most sublime pleasure.

By

Thank you so much for all your emails flagellating my beloved instrument.

By

It is a weird thing, writing down music, if you think about it.

By

For composers, it is often easier to get a first performance of a new piece than a second.

By

A peek into the mind of a musician embarking upon her career.

By

Cynthia and I overlapped in New York in the 90s and she came to NCMF in the early years

By

It seems that around this time of year people are specifically drawn to reassuring music.

By

I love playing with Clancy and also just hanging with this terrific musician and human being.

By

Sunday, June 6 the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival is back in action.

By

One of the most extraordinary pieces I have ever commissioned.

By

"...suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray..."

By

I asked past artists to choose a surprise performance as a treat for our audience.

By

There is a transcendent moment near the beginning of this quartet that makes my heart leap in my chest.

By

I asked past artists to choose a surprise performance as a treat for our audience.

By

The first LP I ever owned was a collection of marches by John Philip Sousa.

By

Summer 2022 features arguably the most perfect of Mozart’s perfect quartets, the C Major.

By

David reflects on 10 years of performing, recording, and living as a member of a touring string trio.

By

I asked Michael to share some of his favorite performances by other pianists.

By

I asked past artists to choose a surprise performance as a treat for our audience.

By

I feel a slight chill and sense of awe when I walk into a cathedral. I get the same feeling of immensity when I listen to the sixth suite.

By

For the holidays, I thought I’d take off my Artistic Director hat and put on another.

By

Why can’t I get enough of sad music and why does it feel so good?

By

As we all hunker down indoors, I thought some kind of distraction might be welcome.