Classical Classroom Dacia Clay

Some musicians slide right into a symphony orchestra position like [insert image of smiling child on slide]. Joel Dallow is not one of those musicians. It took him five years of intense work (on top of all of the work he'd already done as a student at the Peabody Conservatory and as a freelancer, etc., etc.,) to get the position he's occupied in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra cello section for 22 years. And now, he's on the other side of that audition table as part of the panel judging would-be orchestra members. Which makes him the perfect teacher for cellists who aim to play with a symphony. And that's exactly what he does as the Cello Sherpa, and on his podcast. In this episode, Joel breaks it all down for us: what it's like to be on both sides of the audition table, what the audition process really entails, and what judges are listening for.

Joe Burgstaller may seem like a perfectly normal guy who just happens to have been playing trumpet since he emerged from the womb. But do not be fooled, dear listener. Something is clearly amiss. (See: Joe's music videos, particularly the video we talk about in this episode which took 26 trips through a car wash to get juuust right.) Perhaps it's all of the lip pursing. Or maybe there's something in the brass? Whatever it is has given him a case of hyper-creativity. In this episode, Joe teaches all about arranging music--a creative feat that requires you to commune with dead composers across time.

When pianist Peter Dugan performed on NPR's From the Top at the age of 18, he had no idea that he would one day host the show. In this episode, Peter talks about how he came to be at the helm of a show that's been going for 25 years juuust before a pandemic began. He also teaches us about love, the magic the binds the molecules of music together. And he illustrates how collaborations between musicians have created that magic throughout history, and on From the Top, even in a global pandemic.

Ginger Turner is--excuse us--a brassy broad. She was in the Army and the US Army's Field Band for 27 years. So when it came time to put on the annual Holiday Brass Concert for the International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) during the pandemic, she did not shrink away from the challenge. She leaned right into it. And what resulted was pure, live, holiday magic. Learn about Ginger, the IWBC, and the feats of strength it took to put on a beautiful Christmas concert *safely* during COVID. And how you can watch it!

 

We hope that yule enjoy this holiday-ish show with Tristan Clarke, one half of YouTube sensation, the Melodica Men. In this episode, learn how two Juilliard- and Peabody-trained brass musicians took a detour from their traditional classical music work to play toy instruments on street corners, how they blew up the internet with an 89-second version of "The Rite of Spring," and why they are completely mesmerizing to watch. Also, learn how they distilled "The Nutcracker Suite" down to around 2 minutes of pure Christmas magic.

Conductor and music director Stéphane Denève is a busy guy. He's got at least four jobs on two different continents. But thanks (?) to the pandemic, we caught him sitting still for long enough to teach us the ENTIRE HISTORY of French classical music! He starts at the very beginning with chant, and goes all the way through to contemporary composers. Learn about the pivotal moments in French music history, hear its evolution in musical examples, and learn what defines it--all from one of its biggest fans. Oh! And hear him sing up and down the solfege scale so fast it will make you say, "oui!" (Seriously. It's unreal.)