Blog
Music, thoughts, lessons and the latest from New West Symphony
Newcomer’s Guide to the Symphony
Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here. If this is your first time to one of our concerts or to a live orchestra performance, here are ten tips to enhance your enjoyment of the performance. Don’t worry, it will be fun, we promise! You might think...
A stolen Strad is back on stage
You may have heard Nina Totenberg. She's a legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio. You may also have heard Roman Totenberg. https://youtu.be/sgVEHITy-9U?t=1204 He was Nina's father, and a world-renown violinist and educator. He enjoyed...
Sing your heart like Sylvia
After years of singing with world-famous orchestras and opera companies in the US and Europe, Sylvia McNair faced a turning point. Two stacks of music sat on the piano before her. One, a pile of towering opera roles she needed to master. Next to it, tunes from the...
He brought the Gershwin family to tears
Kevin Cole garnered a reputation as a masterful Gershwin interpreter on the piano. So much so that he performed for the Gershwin family and George’s close friends. Kevin says, “About halfway through, I noticed that one by one, they were getting up and leaving the...
She thought opera was ridiculous. Then she sang opera for a living.
As a violin major at Wheaton College, Sylvia McNair couldn’t stand opera. She told BBC Magazine, “My first experience of opera was playing in the orchestra . . . I just couldn’t believe how ridiculous it was. I thought, what a ludicrous art form this is!” But when an...
You haven’t heard Rhapsody ’til you’ve heard the 1924 recording
Here’s a bit of fun history: the Rhapsody in Blue we know today is a far cry from the performances of the 1920s. How do we know? Just check out this 1924 recording with George Gershwin himself on the piano part! https://youtu.be/NIr_WPcVDt8 Some notes: You’ll...
You’re not ready for a cappella Rhapsody in Blue
Get ready for some serious goosebumps. The legendary Ambiance womens quartet sang a rip-roaring a cappella arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue that’ll have you on the floor. 30 years ago, these ladies belted it out, complete with the wild glissando and stratospheric high...
‘Do you know that you sound like Gershwin?’
Kevin Cole was exposed to George Gershwin at 7 years old. After seeing the 1945 movie, Rhapsody in Blue, he hit the library to learn more about Gershwin. The librarian led him to a book co-authored by Edward Jablonski, who was also a native of Kevin’s hometown Bay...
Gershwin wasn’t the first person to hear about Rhapsody in Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2GFGMu198 The first person to learn of George Gershwin’s jazz-classical fusion piece, Rhapsody in Blue, was not George Gershwin. That is, George saw an announcement in the New-York Tribune that “George Gershwin is at work on a...
When a cadenza goes bluegrass
In music, a cadenza is an "improvised or written out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist," and it's often where a soloist can really shine. Violinist Tessa Lark certainly improvised her cadenza at this rehearsal of Dvořák's Violin Concerto with the...