Alfred Schnittke and the art of grief
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David YangThis summer we’ll feature two piano quintets that are a study in contrast.
Notes from NCMF's Artistic Director, David Yang, on upcoming and past programs
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David YangThis summer we’ll feature two piano quintets that are a study in contrast.
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David YangOur roster of artists for this summer along with some of their favorite meals. Is there a better way to get to know someone?
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David YangOn Tuesday, I had the privilege to discuss the composer Arnold Schoenberg with his son, Larry.
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David YangI’ve said about all I can about the Mozart and Schoenberg trios and how great they are.
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David YangA thoughtful reader challenged my observation that the Mozart is more difficult than the Schoenberg.
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David YangMost of us have had kind and generous teachers that left a lasting impression.
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David YangBuckle your seat belts! The program consists of the Schoenberg String Trio and Mozart’s Divertimento in Eb.
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David YangGoethe said "music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music." That sounds good but what does it really mean?
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David YangSometimes the process of figuring out the right question is as important as the answer.
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David YangWhat is the difference between a modern and "historic" cello and why use one over another?
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David YangI’m delighted to announce we have a new board member, Maryellen Moreland.
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David YangThe feedback from NCMF Winter Baroque has been rolling in and is overwhelmingly positive.
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David YangThere is a new look for Winter Baroque this year (tickets go on sale today!).
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David YangI’ve returned to the tried and true holiday formula of not programming anything composed after 1750.
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David YangThomas 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 YangThere are certain very specific and individualized sounds we associate with childhood.
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David YangThis 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 YangMusicians 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 YangHave you ever wondered how exactly we keep this thing running? And...some great news!
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David YangMusicians are itinerant; you go where the work is.
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David YangAfter traveling through Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland, we finally crossed the Alps into Italy
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David YangOne 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 YangIf 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 YangThanks to an older kid in my orchestra back in 1982, I attended a chamber music camp in Vermont.
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David YangIf 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 YangIn 1772, the rationalism of the Age of Enlightenment ran head-on into early romanticism.
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David YangLife is like that sometimes – everything can be fine one minute and then suddenly go all topsy-turvy.
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David YangIt is the anticipation of knowing what’s coming that might be classical music’s most sublime pleasure.
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Richard E. RoddaShostakovich’s late quartets provide one of the most intimate confessionals of personal feelings ever vouchsafed by a composer in his music.
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David YangFor 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.
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David YangIt 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 YangBy all accounts, I think I can report that summer 2023, our twenty-second season, was a smashing success.
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David YangI’m still coming down from the summer– Schoenberg, Shostakovich, “The Jury,” everything and everyone who turned up
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David YangMusicians strive to play expressively, whereas actors can communicate directly with expression.
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David YangI enjoy when instruments employ artifice to imitate non-instruments:
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David YangWhen you were thirteen, what did you dream about doing when you grew up?
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David YangArt expresses our deepest emotions. Ecstasy and grief, tranquility, bustle, anger, even frustration
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David YangRecently 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 YangThank you so much for all your emails flagellating my beloved instrument.
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David YangThe spring recital is back! Please set aside Saturday, March 9th.
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David YangIt is a weird thing, writing down music, if you think about it.
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David YangFor composers, it is often easier to get a first performance of a new piece than a second.
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David YangA peek into the mind of a musician embarking upon her career.
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Mark SteinbergArnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet is widely considered to be a visionary work.
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David YangTickets for the 2021 NCMF Winter Baroque concert have gone live and, as promised, the concert will be a doozy.
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David YangIn 1982 I received the best birthday present of all time: a Sony Walkman WM-R2.
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David YangI love winter: the low afternoon sun, footsteps crunching on new snow, huddling in bed under a comforter...
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Richard E. Rodda"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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David YangDavid chats with Sébastien van Kuijk whose visitwas foiled by COVID-19
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David YangPlaying baroque music is a kind of going back to the basic ingredients of our art form.
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David YangThe concept of infinity is beyond the capacity of the human brain to conceptualize.
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David YangBringing music to the streets: Covid 19, the summer of 2020, and "quartet caroling" in Newburyport neighborhoods .
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David YangFor 19 years, the festival has taken over the town for a week in August.
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David YangMarch is coming, spring is not far behind, and that means piano recital.
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David YangThe 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 YangOur 18th Season begins with a recital by Michael Brown, pianist and composer.
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David YangI will occasionally post conversations with the artists who were scheduled to come this summer.
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David YangLast year the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone passed away at the age of 91.
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David YangThere were a few weeks when Jon Deak emailed me a page of the manuscript every day.
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David YangThe complicated personal background to Shostakovich’s 6th String Quartet.
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David YangDavid reflects on composers, compositions, and the act of composing.
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David YangDoes anyone in Newburyport really need an introduction to the National Treasure that is Rhina?
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David YangRecently 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 YangDavid talks with composer Ania Vu about her new work written for the NCMF Winter Baroque concert.
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David YangI started cooking in grad school when I procured a copy of Marcella Hazan’s “Classic Italian Cookbook.”
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David YangDavid offers some suggestions for music to lessen the coronavirus anxiety.
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David YangSome of you have been wondering what we are going to do this summer.
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David YangRunning a music festival is very much a group effort. Please welcome our newest board member.
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David YangIn 1785, Mozart dedicated a new set of six string quartets to his friend, colleague, and mentor, Josef Haydn.
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David YangAn Introduction to Summer Season #18.
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David YangThis summer we’ll be performing Shostakovich’s String Quartet in Eb Major, No. 9.
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David YangAfter marinating indoors for the better part of a year and a half, we’ve all been desperate for live music.
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David YangSet aside August 4 to August 15 because NCMF is on for summer 2021 with six concerts in six days.
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David YangDespite general weirdness everywhere, we’re determined to make NCMF 2020 joyful.
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David YangWhen 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 YangI met Jon about twenty years ago over breakfast on the Upper West Side.
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David YangIt seems that Covid 19 had one last surprise in store for us for the summer.
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David YangOnly one ticket left to Michael Brown’s upcoming piano recital in Newbury.
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David YangIs there such a thing as a perfect piece of music, something that never gets old?
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David YangJust think what was going in the Roaring '20s in art, literature, science, politics, society.
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David YangReflections on the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival of 2019: A Visual Portrait
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David YangArtistic Director David Yang's notes on the new piece for 2019.
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David YangI’ve wanted to program this incredible, weird, and magical piece for ages.
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David YangWhen I was a teenager, I got a job one summer working as a bike messenger in New York.
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Alessandra YangYou may have seen me around Newburyport or playing viola in the summer concert.
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David YangWhile 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.
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David YangAs we all hunker down indoors, I thought some kind of distraction might be welcome.
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David YangWhy can’t I get enough of sad music and why does it feel so good?
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David YangFor the holidays, I thought I’d take off my Artistic Director hat and put on another.
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David YangI 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.
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David YangI asked Michael to share some of his favorite performances by other pianists.
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David YangDavid reflects on 10 years of performing, recording, and living as a member of a touring string trio.
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David YangSummer 2022 features arguably the most perfect of Mozart’s perfect quartets, the C Major.
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David YangThe first LP I ever owned was a collection of marches by John Philip Sousa.
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David YangThere is a transcendent moment near the beginning of this quartet that makes my heart leap in my chest.
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David Yang"...suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray..."
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David YangOne of the most extraordinary pieces I have ever commissioned.