VOX joins forces with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Classical Ensemble, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and the USC Percussion Ensemble in a exciting performance of Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana!”
Wow, does this mean I’m opening for Carl Orff?
Wes Montgomery - YesterdaysUploaded by madafonka2
Rufus Wainwright has sold out all performances of his Judy Garland show in both London and Paris. And for you Angelenos who didn’t get to go to Carnegie Hall, fear not as he will be doing the show at the Hollywood Bowl September 23, 2007. Tix will go on sale mid-February.
Go Rufus!
I thought it would be of interest to report the feedback I got from our “honest interviews” last week. One student had an audition, and it was not a good one. He could not identify intervals, chord qualities and their inversions, couldn’t sight-sing a melody, and knew very little classical repertoire. I held up the [...]
I just realized that part of my love for the music of Gram Parsons was actually a love for the music of a songwriting team I didn’t realize I idolized: Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Having sold 500 million records and written some 1500 songs, they have written some of my favorite music. Besides the list [...]
My Dear Rufus,
Silence is an important compositional element. Pepper it throughout your music and you’ll find it helps the music breathe. Phrases chunk better. Silence can range from complete silence that lasts for just a moment, to a long silence that lets a powerful chord or orchestral stab reverberate throughout the auditorium.
Think carefully about the [...]
We have just finished auditioning potential students for our undergraduate composition program at UCLA. Traditionally, at the end of the interview, we have not told the students our assessment of their audition. They simply found out later that they were either accepted or not. This year, I decided to give students who were way off [...]
It’s interesting to see how we are mixtures of conservative and liberal. Although this is likely an overgeneralization, I look at myself and see this quite clearly.
The most stressful times of our life have to do with periods of change, and many times abrupt change. If change is associated with stress, people can easily resolve [...]
Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
– Emily Dickinson
It seems there is an unspoken pressure in the education of young musicians to be “world famous.” In the mind of the masses, a classical musician wears a tuxedo, is male, has longish, tousled white (grey) hair, and is [...]
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