Join The Flood Of Support

Marc van Bree over at The Dutch Perspective started a campaign to assist the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in recovering from their flood damage in May. He’s calling it “Flood of Support” and his goal is to leverage social networking to raise $1,000 by Aug 1, 2010. You can make a donation here and read more about the project at Marc’s blog. I strongly recommend that everyone post something about all of this at your social networking profile, blog, or website.

Photos From Nashville’s Free Public Concert

As a special weekend treat, we have some photos courtesy of Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO) cellist, Stephen Drake, from the NSO’s free public concert that took place on Friday, 5/7/2010. (more…)

Nashville Symphony to Perform Free Public Concert

You have to admire their resilience. Mere days since their concert hall was flooded and in the face of months of repairs, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra has scheduled a FREE outdoor public concert this Friday, 5/7/2010. Nashville Symphony Orchestra president and CEO, Alan Valentine, said “…the orchestra has shown over the years that it’s a resilient organization that’s highly responsive to its community. We were able to arrange this event in very short order, and this will help all of us, the orchestra as well as the community, to get back on track as quickly as possible.” Official details are as follows… (more…)

Doing Their Jobs In Nashville

Like most of the Nashville area, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC), home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO), is enduring the impact of severe floods. Located less than a few thousand feet from the banks of the Cumberland River, the SSC did endure intense flooding. I spoke with NSO president & CEO Alan Valentine, via cell phone yesterday afternoon to obtain the following details… (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 102: Orchestra vs. Hall

In a recent blog post, Washington Post music critic, Ann Midgette, posed questions concerning:

1. what influence a hall’s acoustic response has on orchestral performance technique, and
2. what effect the 1997 renovation of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall had in improving acoustics onstage and in the audience.

In response to the first, I can report conclusively that orchestras have great flexibility in adapting their playing to different environments. I offer a few anecdotal observations here supporting this contention and also comment on the effect of recent acoustical adjustments at Kennedy Center Concert Hall… (more…)

Free = Good. Free + Big Screens = Better.

From out of the gloomy mist that has characterized business news the past few weeks, a bright and shiny silver lining is threading its way across several cities this weekend in the form of free simulcast concerts. For the past few years, operas have dominated this niche but this season, the Nashville Symphony jumps on the bandwagon with their opening night concert on 09/11/2009 featuring pianist Lang Lang and the debut of new music director, Giancarlo Guerrero… (more…)

Digging Around In Nashville’s Basement

Back in September when the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened to the public, the only part of the basement level that was easily accessible was the kitchen. The rest of the space was consumed with ad hoc storage, not yet finished, and generally inaccessible. Skip ahead four months to and some of the space is still being used as ad hoc storage but at least it is all accessible…

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Following Up On The Schermerhorn Symphony Center

While touring through the Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) during the gala opening events in September, 2006 I only found a few problems throughout the otherwise superlative building. Nevertheless, I was anxious to discover if those problems have been addressed over the past four months…

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All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 6

The final article in this series examining Nashville’s new Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) will explore the donor’s lounge, board room, green room, and inside the concert hall… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 5

Although we spent an entire week during the month of September taking a virtual tour around Nashville Symphony’s new $123.5 million Schermerhorn Symphony Center, we didn’t quite get all the way through. As such, it is high time to resume the final two articles in this series. This installment will continue by examining the SSC’s multitude of lobby and patron facilities… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 4

Picking up where we left off in Part 3, this installment in the series examining the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) in Nashville, TN will examine the musician facilities, back stage facilities, box office, and dressing rooms… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 2

Part 1 in this series examining the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN focused attention on the music library facilities. This installment will continue by examining the SSC’s recording facilities… (more…)