Blogs your way
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 02/24/2010
By Laurie Niles: Unfortunately, much of the audience apparently had a cold when violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jeremy Denk played works by Bach, Schumann, Saint-Saens and Ravel to a nearly-sold-out crowd Monday as part of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. & nbsp; & quot;Two world-class musicians at the top of their game played before a Seattle audience that did not have the good sense...
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 02/17/2010
By Laurie Niles: About 850 string teachers America and beyond are gathering in Santa Clara, Calif., today for the annual American String Teachers of American (ASTA) convention this week. The event includes a long list of speakers, student performances and educational workshops, held today through Saturday. * * * It's the time of year when orchestras announce their 2010-2011 seasons, and here's the...
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 02/03/2010
Yesterday, Norman Lebrecht reported on Bloomberg.com that Lang Lang had signed with Sony Masterworks for $3 million (the label did not confirm the report). This made yet another interesting counterweight to my report on the sad reality of classical record sales and the Billboard charts. It seems a veritable throwback to the good old days when classical recordings actually made money. The trend has...
The Collaborative Piano Blog (Free subscription) | 12/30/2009
Hope you've all had a great holiday season so far. For most of us, there are just a few more days left until the madness starts up again and continues unabated until June. Here is part the third of the best and most popular posts of 2009: Susan Tsagkaris Sings Puccini's In Questa Reggia A recording that dramatic soprano Susan Tsagkaris and I did in early June. Collaborative Piano: Changing Career Paths...
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 12/06/2009
By Laurie Niles: The time for holiday gift-giving is at hand, so I've assembled a list of some of this year's best offerings, including recordings that feature violinists & ndash; interspersed with a few goodies, old and new, that just sound good to me. There are a number of benefits to investing in music and musical products this holiday season: first, you are feeding your passion. A new recording,...
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
By Laurie Niles: I realized on Thursday night that despite having listened to recordings of the Alban Berg Violin Concerto countless times, I hadn't come close to understanding it. Seeing a live performance enlightened me; moreover, seeing a live performance with violinist Gil Shaham , conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall energized my senses. The evening also included...
The Collaborative Piano Blog (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
Can Gil Shaham get to Lincoln Center in time? Watch him pwn a violin, play in a tapas restaurant, and get chased by a bull en route in this brilliant video. Akira Eguchi is on piano. (Via Cam Wilson )
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
By Laurie Niles: Ponder this for a moment: playing more than an hour and a half of music brimming with harmonics, octave runs, left-hand pizzicato, high-speed arpeggios, up-bow staccato & ndash; all the fanciest licks and tricks you can imagine on the violin & ndash; with a Spanish flair. It could give even a very accomplished violinist nightmares. Like for example, being chased through the...
Clef Notes (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
OK, you've got to hand it to violinist Gil Shaham (and his high-power PR team at 21cMedia). To hawk his new CD of Sarasate works, he stars in a little video, "Run, Gil, Run," that has him rushing all over...
Videos