Upcoming Performance

Chris Kelsey, of the Portland Sting Project, will be holding a solo recital on Saturday, August 1st at 7pm. Suggested donation $10 for adults, $5 for children.

I'll be performing Mozart's "Kegelstatt" Trio for clarinet, viola and piano.

Community Music Center
3350 SE Francis St
Portland, OR 97202

Hope you can attend!

Coffee, Tea and Music.

The Waving Cat blog was brought to my attention the other day. In this blog Peter Bihr brings up an interesting topic:

"We prefer to know if our coffee & food was produced organically and if the farmers got their fair share, so we buy products that carry a Fair Trade certificate. But what about our music? Ever so often music labels are criticized for ripping off their contracted artists. Well, let’s see if that’s true. Let’s give an incentive for labels to pay their artists well and treat them fairly.

Could a Fair Trade Music label or certificate be the solution?

What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade organisations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.

Why not use this definition for Fair Trade Music, too:

Fair Trade Music is a music production and trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in music production and trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better music production and trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, music producers and workers – especially in Major Labels. Fair Music Trade organisations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional music production and trade."

One thing that really got my wheels turning was the "(backed by consumers)" line. It's true. Most of the Fair Trade movement in food is fueled by consumer demand. Everything is. Hybrid cars become popular and suddenly everybody makes one. Gluten is "bad" and suddenly even my Safeway is offering gluten-free pasta. Why can't we get people behind treating musicians fairly?

I think (and I've said this before) people just don't know. I was talking to my neighbor the other night out on the sidewalk and the subject of a show they'd recently seen came up. My neighbor is in her late 50's and has seen many a live music show during her 30 years or so in Portland. She mentioned that she thought the cover at the door ($5) was pretty low and she couldn't imagine how the band got by on $5 a patron. Haha. She was shocked when I told her that usually that's split up between lighting, sound, security...and then the band.

Fans want to support the bands, but they think that it's already being done. It's easy to think that when you see a show with a high door cover. But what about when there's no cover at all - which is common with the classical shows I've played? The audience thinks that the group is paid by the venue.

The musicians already know this to be true and they've accepted it. Maybe by letting fans know how crappy the system is here we can get some steam behind changing the culture.

Random Facts (or Fiction).

In the absence of anything meaningful to post today, I thought I'd write down some of my favorite gems in the world of composers. While I have tried to research all of these, of course they are mostly open to debate. If you have any to add let me know!


• Anton Webern died during a post-war curfew in Berlin in 1945 when an American GI shot him for stepping outside to smoke a cigar.
  
• Antonin Dvorak's wife slept with a tuba player, so he got revenge in the "New World" Symphony. The tuba part consists of about 15 seconds of playing at the beginning and end of the second movement and rests for the remainder of the symphony.
  
• Hector Berlioz once conducted his "Damnation of Faust" with a 150 member orchestra and 300 member choir.
  
• Henry Purcell often came home late from the theater to the annoyance of his wife. One winter night he found himself locked out, which lead to his death from pneumonia at 36.
  
• Ludwig Van Beethoven used a rod attached to the soundboard of a piano that he could bite on while composing. This increased his perception of sound through vibrations.
  
• Ludwig Van Beethoven's hearing loss may have been caused by the large amounts of lead found in his hair samples. He was also famous for dipping his head in a bucket of water to stay awake while composing, which is also thought to be a cause.
  
• Percy Grainger was home schooled by his mother and was punished with a whip. This is thought to be a cause of his "cheerful sadomasichism." Several pornographic photos, whips and even clothing are on display at the Grainger Museum in Melborne.
  
• Robert Schumann heard "choirs of angels" and "cries of demons" in his head, and eventually tried to kill himself by jumping in the Rhine, only to be rescued. He died after committing himself to an institution.
  
• After sitting through Ralph Vaughn Williams' 5th Symphony Aaron Copland said "it was like looking at a cow for 45 minutes."
  
• Mozart's full birth name was Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Theophilus was later changed to the more recognized latin name, Amedeus.

Catching Bones

In my past life of music I expected that good things would happen to me. This is not to say that I didn't work hard, I just didn't appreciate the small things as much. This is probably why I quit when things became difficult.

Things are much clearer now than then. The small surprises I've come across have focused and motivated me more than ever before. When you play music in an environment where everyone is a stranger the smallest bone is appreciated.

Almost 20 years ago I took lessons from a grad student at DePaul, where I would eventually go to school. I don't remember much about this teacher except that he gave me a mouthpiece that he made. It was an unassuming mouthpiece, with some scraggly initials scratched into it, but this thing was the mouthpiece that I always came back to after sordid trysts with other brands. Six months ago, when I started playing again, this mouthpiece was like the security blanket you find boxed in a closet. This is why I was crushed when it was scratched about a month later. Long story short, I found my old teacher online and he is a master mouthpiece maker now! Richard let me overnight my trusty mouthpiece to him and resurfaced it at no charge. A small thing to him, but an important boost to my confidence. I've since upgraded to an "R" model Richard Hawkins mouthpiece, but you can bet that my original will be waiting for me when I inevitably return.

http://www.richardhawkinsmouthpiece.com/

Another surprise from last week. I found a publisher of Clarinet Choir music online and perused his site. After emailing him some ideas for arrangements he sent me his ENTIRE collection at no charge. This had to be hundreds of dollars of music that he sent me. Matt Johnston of Malejo Publications is based in Seattle and is currently working on an arrangement of "Take On Me."

http://www.malejo.com/

Welcome to my blog!

I'll be using this as a forum to post my ups and downs as I navigate my way through the murky water that is the Portland classical music scene. The musical arts in Portland are an interesting mix of bankrupt ballet houses and crowded coffee shop stages, defunct public school music programs and bustling community music centers. To find classical music in Portland you have to put your ear to the sidewalk, rather than read the front page.

The music that you do hear from that sidewalk and behind closed doors isn't bound by rules and traditions. People here play what they want to play, rather than what they were taught to play. As a classically trained musician that is both intriguing and utterly terrifying.

Hence, the name of my blog. To eat this elephant of mine called music, I must take one bite at a time. Bon Appetit!