Notes from David Yang

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

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

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

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

By

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

By

Musicians are itinerant; you go where the work is.

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

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

An Introduction to Summer Season #18.

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

It seems that Covid 19 had one last surprise in store for us for the summer.

By

Only one ticket left to Michael Brown’s upcoming piano recital in Newbury.

By

Is there such a thing as a perfect piece of music, something that never gets old?

By

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

By

Reflections on the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival of 2019: A Visual Portrait

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

You may have seen me around Newburyport or playing viola in the summer concert.

By

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

By

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.

By

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

By

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

By

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

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

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

One of the most extraordinary pieces I have ever commissioned.

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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