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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Full Steam

Geoff Manaugh at the architectural blog BLDGBLOG just posted some video of steam tunnels in Brooklyn turned into a giant musical instrument by the Pratt Instrument on New Year's Eve. Apparently this is a yearly event, and he describes it as "somewhere between subterranean calliope and mutant wave organ."

He goes on to discuss the idea of attaching musical instrument parts to city infrastructure to create one massive instrument. Hey, the U of A has a huge steam plant, right?
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

TED Talk on Classical Music

This 20 minute presentation on classical music by conductor Benjamin Zander is fantastic! Part Victor Borge, part Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin demonstrates the power of music in the TED talk from 2008:


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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Friday Night Lights

This Friday, the ESO is trying something new. Instead of the standard 7:30 or 8 pm start time, and instead of the common format of short work + concerto + intermission + so-and-so's fourth symphony, we're presenting a concert that's a little different, and we're calling it Late Night Beethoven.

It'll be a shorter, more casual concert, with no intermission, and it starts at 9:30 pm. Bill Eddins will conduct, play the piano, and talk about the pieces being performed - with a chance for the audience to ask questions. The lobby will remain open after the show for live music and drinks.

Now in some ways, it's a bit sad that this is "new". We probably should've been doing this for the last 20 years or more, because, outside of the North American orchestral world, this concept is not new at all. Even within the orchestral world, we're not exactly breaking new ground. But I'm going to say, better late than never, and it will be a fun night! And however new or old this concept is for anyone, there is a pretty cool piece on the program: a movement from a Beethoven oboe concerto that has never before been performed in Canada. This is the only movement that survived, in fact, of the only oboe concerto Beethoven wrote. So again, it's not new, but it's new to us, and that's worth celebrating!

Oh, and this concert happens to be on sale this week, with tickets for $29 (or less...), so there's every reason to check it out!
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