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SubCategory Archive (tags): ‘Orchestra’

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Conductors Say the Darndest Things

PUBLISHED: July 1, 2009, John Ericson

Earlier this year I had a couple interactions with conductors (not in Arizona) that gave me pause. One conductor, on a work that was in a jazz idiom, asked several times for us to make it more “sleazy” or to play it in a more sleazy manner. What would that mean to you? Eventually I [...]

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Gunther Schuller, Orchestra

The Warm-Down and Embouchure Health

PUBLISHED: April 22, 2009, John Ericson

Following up on my post from yesterday, there are a number of things that combined will help keep your embouchure healthy. One thing I learned to do was warm-down. The summer I learned to do this was the summer I was in the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra, now known as the National Repertory Orchestra. I was [...]

Keys to Avoiding Chop Problems

PUBLISHED: April 21, 2009, John Ericson

This past year I have been in contact with several players who have had embouchure problems, including focal dystonia. These can be very serious to deal with, but a couple basic observations come to mind after some recent conversations. The inclination is to try to practice your way out of these problems. That won’t work. [...]

Looking for a Professional Quality Horn?

PUBLISHED: April 9, 2009, John Ericson

A conversation I end up having fairly often is on the topic of what makes a horn a professional quality horn. The Nirschl in the previous post is not professional quality and is not marketed as such, but it hits a price point and also in the case of this ¾ size double horn is [...]

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Orchestra, Professional quality horn

Take the Audition?

PUBLISHED: March 31, 2009, John Ericson

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The May auditions according to an E-mail sent out by the Phoenix Symphony later on the 31st have been cancelled. Tentatively they will be rescheduled for September or October. END OF UPDATE Two different sites I follow, The AFM Observer and the Horndog Blog, have posted today the full text of a letter [...]

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Orchestra

News of the Phoenix Symphony

PUBLISHED: March 24, 2009, John Ericson

The last several years for the Phoenix Symphony have been interesting ones with the arrival of Music Director Michael Christie. In any orchestra management change there is always the possibility of other personnel changes. In the case of the performers in the orchestra I always tell my students there are basically only two reasons why [...]

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Orchestra

Ein Hand-enleben III – Getting the Conductor “Hand”

PUBLISHED: March 18, 2009, Bruce Hembd

Dealing with the Hand – continued from Parts I and II. As musicians we are trained in school to be free and assertively pursue our musical ideas. Taking chances and “going for it” is our mantra, our purpose. In the professional realm, it is a somewhat different matter. While orchestral musicians do have a certain [...]

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Orchestra, Stress & anxiety
John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.