The Return of ‘Patron X’:

 

The concert was stopped because of a persistent, ringing iPhone only a few rows away from Mr. Gilbert. (The owner of the phone is a 20-year Philharmonic subscriber, identified only as “Patron X.” The phone buzzed its merry “marimba” tune against the swelling textures of Mahler’s Ninth, the last work that the composer would live to complete. The conductor stopped the concert until the patron turned his offending instrument off.

Our coverage of the story appears here.

It’s been 48 hours since I saw the Facebook post of my friend Kyra Sims, Manhattan School of Music student and horn player. I asked her for an interview very late at night on Facebook chat, and she was willing to give me some excellent details on the events of the concert, including knowledge of the ring-tone. So thanks, Kyra.

Since then, Ms. Sims has been interviewed by Fox News as well. (Other particulars on the story came from Michael Jo’s excellent account, available on his site: Thousandfold Echo.)

But it’s also been only two days since the traffic on this blog went absolutely ballistic. Readers have been coming to Superconductor from the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun and network news sites owned by NBC and CBS. Yahoo, Boing Boing, The Awl and Gothamist have all covered the story, alongside my colleagues at the Times, WQXR and National Public Radio. Accounts of the story have spread to Italy and Australia.

If you are one of these new readers who has come to this site following this story, I would like to take a moment to thank you for visiting this site, and to hope that you’ll stay for a daily mix of concert reviews, opera coverage, and occasional works of fiction involving the music industry. This blog is about to celebrate its fifth year (next month) and I hope you stay on to read all about it.

 

(Via Superconductor)

Ugh. People, please either mute the phones or turn them off. I turn mine off for events like this.

Enjoy!

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

So here are a few I like that were nominated….

AWARD: 54th Annual Jazz Grammy Nominees:

33. Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

The Jazz Ballad Song Book
Randy Brecker With DR Big Band
[Half Note]

The Good Feeling
Christian McBride Big Band
[Mack Avenue Records]

57. Best Instrumental Composition

“Hunting Wabbits 3 (Get Off My Lawn)”
Gordon Goodwin, composer (Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band)
Track from: That’s How We Roll
[Telarc International]

(Via All About Jazz News)

And lets hope that Chris Brown doesn’t win anything…..

Farewell: Himie Voxman:

 

Himie Voxman (1912-2011)

Influential music educator and longtime University of Iowa faculty member Himie Voxman has passed away at the age of 99. If you are a woodwind player, you have almost certainly used, at some point in your musical studies, something written or edited by Professor Voxman.

Check out the Iowa City Press-Citizen’s tribute for a nice overview of his life and career. 

 

(Via Bret Pimentel, woodwinds)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

David Erato decided he wanted to get better on clarinet. So, he set up a regimen to do just that.
“The idea as a “doubler” is to make whatever instrument is in your hand not feel like a foreign object. One should really study the instrument as if it is the only instrument you play. Practice the same method books, etudes, solos, as a clarinetist in a symphony once did. Jump through the same hoops and walk the same path traditional clarinetists do. “

I did something similar about 8 years ago with Oboe……