By

David Yang

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

David Yang

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.

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

‍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.

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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.

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

Musicians are itinerant; you go where the work is.

By

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

David Yang

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. 

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

Tickets for the 2021 NCMF Winter Baroque concert have gone live and, as promised, the concert will be a doozy.

By

David Yang

In 1982 I received the best birthday present of all time: a Sony Walkman WM-R2.

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David Yang

I love winter: the low afternoon sun, footsteps crunching on new snow, huddling in bed under a comforter...

By

David Yang

Can you enjoy an artist's work if the guy was a jerk? Many great artists and musicians are not necessarily people you would want to be around.

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David Yang

David chats with Sébastien van Kuijk whose visitwas foiled by COVID-19

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David Yang

Playing baroque music is a kind of going back to the basic ingredients of our art form.

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David Yang

The concept of infinity is beyond the capacity of the human brain to conceptualize.

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David Yang

Bringing music to the streets: Covid 19, the summer of 2020, and "quartet caroling" in Newburyport neighborhoods .

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David Yang

For 19 years, the festival has taken over the town for a week in August.

By

David Yang

March is coming, spring is not far behind, and that means piano recital.

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

By

David Yang

The pain started as a dull ache in my abdomen around New Rochelle; by Stamford I was doubled over in agony.

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David Yang

If Bach is God, Beethoven is Man, and the meaning of "beklemmt."

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David Yang

Our 18th Season begins with a recital by Michael Brown, pianist and composer.

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David Yang

I will occasionally post conversations with the artists who were scheduled to come this summer.

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David Yang

Last year the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone passed away at the age of 91.

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David Yang

There were a few weeks when Jon Deak emailed me a page of the manuscript every day.

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David Yang

The complicated personal background to Shostakovich’s 6th String Quartet.

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David Yang

David reflects on composers, compositions, and the act of composing.

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David Yang

Does anyone in Newburyport really need an introduction to the National Treasure that is Rhina?

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David Yang

Recently I’ve noticed the call of a Very Loud Bird I don’t recall hearing outside my window in the morning.

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David Yang

David talks with composer Ania Vu about her new work written for the NCMF Winter Baroque concert.

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David Yang

‍‍I started cooking in grad school when I procured a copy of Marcella Hazan’s “Classic Italian Cookbook.”

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David Yang

David offers some suggestions for music to lessen the coronavirus anxiety.

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David Yang

Some of you have been wondering what we are going to do this summer.

By

David Yang

Eric Ewazen: A conversation with David Yang, Artistic Director NCMF

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David Yang

Running a music festival is very much a group effort. Please welcome our newest board member.

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David Yang

In 1785, Mozart dedicated a new set of six string quartets to his friend, colleague, and mentor, Josef Haydn.

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David Yang

An Introduction to Summer Season #18.

By

David Yang

This summer we’ll be performing Shostakovich’s String Quartet in Eb Major, No. 9.

By

David Yang

After marinating indoors for the better part of a year and a half, we’ve all been desperate for live music.

By

David Yang

Set aside August 4 to August 15 because NCMF is on for summer 2021 with six concerts in six days.

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David Yang

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

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David Yang

Despite general weirdness everywhere, we’re determined to make NCMF 2020 joyful.

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David Yang

When the festival started in 2001, I hoped it would become a kind of second home to my family and me.

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David Yang

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

By

David Yang

Scott Devereaux (tuba): A conversation with David Yang, Artistic Director NCMF

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David Yang

I met Jon about twenty years ago over breakfast on the Upper West Side.

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