Articles: Page 2

Michael Drapkin is a former symphony player and an active clarinetist. He is Founder and Dean of the Drapkin Institute for Music Entrepreneurship, and author of the popular Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet series.

Michael Drapkin is a former symphony player and an active clarinetist. He is Founder and Dean of the Drapkin Institute for Music Entrepreneurship, and author of the popular Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet series.

Polyphonic’s tribute to those people important to our field who died in 2013. Please send additions or corrections to Robert Levine (rob at robertlevine dot org).
Robert Levine

The League of American Orchestras annually sponsors the Bruno Walter Conductor Previews, where six young, gifted conductors work with a professional orchestra for two days of rehearsals and a public concert. The 2013 Bruno Walter Preview was held in Florida with the Jacksonville Symphony. I spoke with the six fellows about the experience, and about their thoughts on the future of the American orchestra.
The six winners were:
Joshua Gersen, Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony and Knight Foundation Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony
Keitaro Harada, Associate Conductor of the Arizona Opera and Music Director of the Phoenix Youth Symphony
Gavriel Heine, staff conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly Kirov) and Music Director of Northern Lights Festival Opera (MN)
Vladimir Kulenovic, Associate Conductor of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera
Sameer Patel, Associate Conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic
Benjamin Rous, Resident Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra

I was pleased to attend the 2013 League of American Orchestras conference in St. Louis in June, 2013. I have written several blog posts about various sessions I attended at the conference. This article presents all these posts as a record of this year’s conference.

Are you stressed? Do you have trouble getting to sleep? Are you in pain? Music can be used to address all of these issues, as well as many others. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) developed and recently launched a Music and Wellness website…

Polyphonic.org is excited to announce, along with the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, the establishment of the new Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research. Polyphonic.org will play a key role in publishing cutting edge research and projects undertaken in collaboration with the Paul R. Judy Center. Below is information about the new initiative as well as an initial study, “Alternative Ensembles: A Study of Emerging Musical Arts Organizations.”

Terry Wolkowicz once again gives us an in-depth article about the importance of music in the life of young children. This time she writes about story telling, and discusses in detail the concept of linking prosody in text and music, which shows that music and language have a shared neural perception system and have strong similarities in syntax processing. In other words, pairing music and reading together makes a much larger impact on young children. She describes in detail the New Bedford Symphony’s educational program, Symphony Tales, where a book is read unaccompanied, and then a specially-composed piece is played that would imitate the prosodic elements in the text. It’s an amazing program, put together by a very local orchestra, that deserves attention from all orchestras.
Ann Drinan

Michael Korn, an accomplished violinist, is also the music director of two community orchestras in the greater Boston suburbs, the Waltham Symphony and the Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra. This article explores the issue of repertoire selection as a strategy to stimulate steady orchestra membership and audience growth in the community orchestra. “Because community orchestras rely heavily on volunteer musicians, the choice of repertoire becomes an important tool, not only for developing audience but also for attracting and retaining present and potential orchestra members.” Michael includes extensive repertoire lists from both orchestras.
Ann Drinan

The Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, founded in 2002 by Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony, offers a unique opportunity to young women conductors to immerse themselves in the art and business of performing classical music under the leadership of Maestra Alsop. Carolyn Kuan, Music Director of the Hartford Symphony, was the first recipient of the fellowship. Recently she invited Alexandra Arrieche to conduct Bizet’s “Carmen Suite” on one of our concerts. I invited Alexandra to meet with me to discuss the fellowship and her career.