Notes from David Yang

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It seems covid had one last surprise in store for us

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Just think what was going in the Roaring '20s in art, literature, science, politics, society.

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

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

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With Michael Brown performance and discussion coming up, David Yang reflects on composers and the act of composing.

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While we all sit at home in our pajamas struggling to recall what day of the week it is, let’s look back at an extraordinary solo piano recital at St. Paul's.

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An Introduction to Summer Season #18.

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I love winter: the low afternoon sun, footsteps crunching on new snow, huddling in bed under a comforter, that unusual pink night sky that signals snow.

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You may have seen me around Newburyport or playing viola in the summer concert: my name is Alessandra, and I am David's younger daughter.

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Michael Brown's March 2020 performances are postponed. David conveys the sad news but offers some suggestions for music to lessen the coronavirus anxiety.

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Some of you have been wondering what we are going to do this summer with COVID-19 followed by the foundation-rocking and (hopefully) transformative events of the last few weeks.

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

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Artistic Director David Yang's notes on the new piece for 2019.

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The good news -- but also bad news -- is that there's only one ticket left to Michael Brown’s upcoming piano recital in Newbury.

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After a Book Salon focusing on Shostakovich and the "The Noise of Time" by Julian Barnes, here are David Yang's program notes for Shostakovich’s 6th String Quartet featured this summer.

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There were a few weeks in mid-July when NCMF Composer-in-Residence Jon Deak emailed me a new page of the manuscript every day.

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David talks with composer Ania Vu about her background and new composition for the Winter Baroque concert.

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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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As we all hunker down indoors, “socially distanced” and grimly tracking the progress of COVID-19 across our communities, I thought some kind of distraction might be welcome.

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Decades ago I read “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking and dimly remember a passage where he said the concept of infinity is beyond the capacity of the human brain to conceptualize.

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

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David chats with Sébastien van Kuijk, a Festival Artist in August 2019 whose 2020 visit here was foiled by COVID-19

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Architecture runs in my family.

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Is there such a thing as a perfect piece of music?

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After marinating indoors for the better part of a year and a half, we’ve all been desperate for live music. Et voilà – this summer, every concert sold out.

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Summer 2022 features arguably the most perfect of Mozart’s perfect quartets, the C Major (K.465).

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In preparation for his March 30th solo piano recital, I asked Michael to share some of his favorite performances by other artists of works on his upcoming concert program.

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Why can’t I get enough of sad music?

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

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2019: Our 18th Season begins with Michael Brown, pianist and composer.

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

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

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

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

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REFLECTIONS ON NCMF SUMMER 2019: A Visual Portrait

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

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I thought this would be a good time to look back at one of the most extraordinary pieces I have ever commissioned.

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Does anyone in Newburyport really need an introduction to Rhina?

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Despite general weirdness everywhere, we’re determined to make NCMF 2020 joyful with many festival-related events - some live, some virtual.

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I’ve wanted to program this incredible, weird, and magical piece for ages.

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I'm proud of the work we did to make August 2020 a success in the midst of COVID-19 with events both live and virtual. The highlight was undoubtedly the "quartet caroling" around town.

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David Yang reflects on 10 years with a string trio.

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

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For the last nineteen years, Newburyport Chamber Music Festival has taken over the town for a week or two every August.

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

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Running a music festival is very much a group effort.

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I love playing with Clancy and also just hanging with him.

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

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Arnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, Op. 10, is widely considered to be a visionary work.

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If Bach is God, Beethoven is Man.

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You’re going to have to indulge me in this week’s post just a bit.

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Even if they cut off both my hands and I have to hold my pen in my teeth I shall go on writing music.

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Distant echoes, the vast roof overhead - I feel a slight chill and sense of awe when I walk into a cathedral.

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In advance of this summer’s festival, Artistic Director David Yang is sending out some of the program notes he has written on the repertoire, in this instance Mozart’s String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421.

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A taste, a scent, can trigger memories, but how about music?

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

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

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With Winter Baroque squarely behind us, I thought I’d take off my Artistic Director hat and put on another.