Category Great Music
What Music Looks Like / The Star Spangled Banner
In honor of our great country and this special day, I figured I would compile a set of videos showing how our National Anthem has been played at various times… Here’s a rendition of our National Anthem by one talented and brave 4-year-old girl In honor of my Grandfather, who was an Air Force man. […]
What Music Looks Like / Edouard Ferlet
Edouard Ferlet is a fantastic jazz pianist. His career has covered many styles of music, from gospel to cabaret and many points in between. And he clearly has a love for classical music. In yesterday’s post, I talked about creating or re-creating music so we can make it our own. And I think that’s what […]
What Music Looks Like / Phoenix Chamber Brass
Okay… so this is a bit of a selfish plug. These videos were just finished up, so I wanted to pass at least one of them around. My brass quintet, Phoenix Chamber Brass, is in the process of completing an application for the American Voices American Music Abroad Project. If we are selected we will […]
What Music Looks Like: Brooklyn Rider
Brooklyn Rider is a NY-based string quartet that has been (as NPR put it), “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” Their concerts blend traditional string quartet repertoire with brand new music that is created from a myriad of influences. By being as committed to creating new and relevant […]
What Others Say / Leonard Bernstein
Music … can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable. —Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor, musician
What Music Looks Like / Carolina Crown
For those of us who are a part of music education, this is marching band season (known as football season to the rest of American society). All across the country, students prepare a field show to the highest levels possible and compete against each other. As an educator this is a great time for me, […]
What Music Looks Like / Ben Folds Five and Fraggle Rock
Because sometimes music should just be fun… (Plus I’ll never complain about a cameo from Anna Kendrick.) Enjoy!
What Music Looks Like / The Piano Guys
Speaking of thinking outside the box… One open Yamaha grand piano, five musicians using fingers, hands, elbows, voices … and every bit of that piano. These guys are rethinking what music-making looks and sounds like. And in times like this, we should all be taking a step back and seeing our music (and perhaps our instruments) […]
What Music Looks Like / The 23rd Psalm
Here’s an interesting choral tone poem of the twenty-third Psalm, arranged by Bobby McFerrin and performed by Cantus (@cantussings). There was a small controversy about McFerrin’s tweaking the words to refer to the deity as a woman, but the piece was dedicated to his mother. McFerrin has always been a hero of sorts to me. He […]
Sightreading Sundays
Okay, admittedly, I kinda took the easy way out. I didn’t compose a new piece for this week. But I did transcribe/arrange the melody from Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1, the “Andante Cantabile.” It has many challenging aspects to it, not least of which is the overall range of the melody, and some unusual intervals […]
Long Tones: The Pursuit of a Life in Music 