Claire Allen, violin
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Performance
    • Women Write Music
  • Gallery
  • Recordings
  • Teaching
    • Testimonials
    • Why Study Music?
    • Guide for New Violinists and Parents
  • Blog
  • Contact

National Orchestral Institute: New Lights

8/14/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Setting for the New Lights children's concert.
Picture
Moravec ensemble.
Picture







John Cage string quartet (above).
Photo credits to NOI participants.

One of the things that makes the National Orchestral Institute truly unique is the New Lights program, which involved two concerts that were almost completely designed by the students.  Led by James Undercofler, we had several brainstorming sessions to create two concert-going experiences that were different from the norm.  

The first was a children's concert.  Our "anchor" piece was Prokofiev's classic Peter and the Wolf, for which I played in the orchestra.  As for the rest, small groups selected well-known children's books: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Ferdinand, and Where the Wild Things Are.  Small chamber groups used existing music and also improvised musical pieces around these books.  Narrators (in costume!) read the stories out loud to the music.  This concert took place in the atrium of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, so we also had to decide how to best use our performance space.  In the top picture above, you can see that we set up the orchestra at the bottom of the stairs.  The audience sat on the stairs.  The purple streamers you see were meant to represent the purple crayon drawings of Harold.  For Peter and the Wolf, our wind players also wore costumes representing the animals.  The kids in the audience had a really great time, and it was a very rewarding experience to engage with young audience members!

Our second New Lights concert featured the piece Brandenburg Gate by living composer Paul Moravec as its anchor.  Our mission as performers was to design not only a concert program but a concert experience around this piece.  Some background on the piece: Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (our coaches from the first week!) as part of their New Brandenburg project.  The orchestra took each of the six Brandenburg concertos by J.S. Bach and asked six contemporary composers to write a piece for chamber orchestra inspired in some way by the original.  Keeping this in mind, we decided to select the original Bach concerto for a program opener.  Our theme for the concert became "new music inspired by/based on old music."  Other pieces we eventually selected were the second movement of the John Cage String Quartet in Four Parts and Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel.  

As far as changing the concert-going experience, it was really important to us to change up the spacial orientation of the audience and also to include them in the performance.  I played in both the Cage and the Part.  Our quartet for the Cage was placed in a box, so after the Bach finished, with the performers onstage, all the lights in the concert hall were shut off and we started playing.  The lights stayed down for the Part.  The piece is written for solo instrument and piano, but our group leader arranged it so that the line was spread out among many instruments.  Different players on the stage, in the balcony, and around the hall played so the audience was never quite sure where the music was coming from.  In terms of audience participation, we started the concert with a clapping "flash mob" to the rhythmic motive of the Bach.  After the Part, we included a singing improvisation which transformed into an instrumental improvisation which led directly into the Moravec to end the concert.

If I had to pick a favorite part of the National Orchestral Institute, it would be New Lights.  It was refreshing and inspiring to break away from the traditional concert model.  I absolutely love tradition, but I think that classical music can afford to be fresh and more approachable from time to time.

Check out reviews of the New Lights concert here:
The Washington Post

0 Comments

Limits

8/11/2012

1 Comment

 
There's nothing natural about the things the human body has to do to play the violin well.  We twist muscles into different positions, we stretch our hands in ways that very few people ever need to, and we do the same motions over and over again for hours.

Everyone has their limits, and one of the most important things about being a violinist is knowing your own.  How much can you handle safely?  Is one more gig one gig too many?  Is it better to stop now and rest, or can you push just a little more?  This is something that is highly personal to every violinist, and it's crucial that you know your limits and stay within them.

I learned that trying to practice even two hours a day in addition to six hours of orchestra rehearsal was too much.  Not to mention that I was playing first violin for the Copland concert, which meant I was playing a lot of really high notes, using muscles I was unaccustomed to using that much.

On the first day of Mahler rehearsal, I was hurting, and tired.  Stretching wasn't helping.  It was a hard decision, but I knew that if I wanted to heal faster, I had to stop playing now.  So I went to the wonderful staff of NOI, and they graciously allowed me to bow out of the Mahler concert.

I'm happy to say that I was playing again a week after I stopped.  I took some time to stretch, put ice on my muscles, and just relax after all the intense playing.  When I started playing again, it was in small inremen
1 Comment

National Orchestral Institute Week 3 - "It's like being hit by a freight train...three times."

8/3/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Why yes, that IS Jonathan Carney sitting in front of me. Photo credit to Antoinette Allen.
Picture
Two pages from the last movement of the Copland.  See what I mean by a lot of notes?
We had a day off between the Leonard Slatkin concert and the start of rehearsals for our next concert program: Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Debussy's La Mer, and Copland's Symphony No. 3.  Now, each one of these pieces presents its own unique set of challenges.  The first violin parts of each are full of acrobatics, fast passages, tricky rhythms, really high notes and to put it more simply: just a lot of notes.

This was an intense week.  We had the benefit of having the concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Carney, sitting in our violin section to play along with us and to coach us in sectionals.  Our sectionals consisted of a lot of woodshedding.  ("Woodshedding" is a term musicians use for a lot of really intense practice.)  In addition to about 6 hours of orchestra/sectionals in a day, I was cramming in as much extra practice as I could manage.  I got to campus early and practiced for an hour before rehearsal.  I tried to look at spots that hadn't gone so well in morning rehearsal during our lunch break.  I listened to recordings in the car driving back and forth from the festival.  It was intense.  Our violin section definitely went through a bonding process as we all went through this together.

The concert ended up going pretty well.  My skills at focusing definitely improved this week, as did my brain's ability to deal with A LOT of notes at once.  It was, however, a little like being hit by a freight train three times - there really wasn't a piece we could relax during!  This whole experience also taught me something really important - my limits.  But that's a subject for another blog.
0 Comments

National Orchestral Institute Week 2 - Confessions of a Leonard Slatkin Fangirl

8/3/2012

0 Comments

 
The second week of the National Orchestral Institute enabled me to live out a childhood dream.  I grew up in a suburb of Washington, DC and for a great number of my formative years Leonard Slatkin was the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra.  So, when my parents took me to orchestra concerts as a kid, that was who was conducting.  

Our program this second week was a diverse one: Leopold Stowkowski's transcription of J.S. Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor, a piece called Double Play by Cindy McTee (who happens to be the new Mrs. Slatkin), and Peter Tchaikovksy's classic Symphony No. 5.

I can't even really describe my feelings that week.  I walked into rehearsal, sat in my chair, looked up at the podium, and there he was.  Then rehearsal started, and I just kept thinking to myself, "I am in rehearsal with Leonard Slatkin."  It was pretty amazing.  One day, I happened to walk by him as I was going offstage and realized with a shock that I was taller than he was!

The music was incredible.  It was particularly fascinating to work on the piece by Cindy McTee, who attended rehearsals and gave us advice and insight into her work.  The Bach transcription used a massive wind section, and it's always an adventure to sit in front of eight french horns (there are normally four in an orchestra).  And Tchaik 5, as it's known colloquially in the music world.  It's a well-loved classic for a reason.  Beautiful music.  Mr. Slatkin conducted it without a score for the concert, and at one point very near the end of symphony, he stopped conducting and just stood there, letting the orchestra take over.

I think one of the most remarkable things about working with Mr. Slatkin was that he let the music take the first priority.  He's comfortable with who he is as a person and as a musician, and he was primarily interested in making music with the orchestra.  There was no ego, no "this is MY interpretation."  Just the music, and a real sense that he enjoyed the music and enjoyed working with us.  I know we enjoyed working with him immensely, and I know it's an experience I'll never forget.

Photo credit to my friend Kate Jarvis.
Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

    Claire Allen

    Written thoughts on my musical life.

    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Classical Music
    Music Lessons
    Perpetual Motion
    Practice Tips
    Practicing
    Summer Violin
    Suzuki Violin
    Tips For Parents
    Tips For Students
    Violin Camp
    Violin Lessons
    Violin Philosophy
    Virginia Summer Music Camp