We are at the Saintes Festival and each day, the festival office sends us a link to a PDF of the program with artist biographies and the order of music. However, what is missing are any texts or translations, so Bill Potter has taken the time to research as many lyrics as possible to compile… Read More A massive wall of sound!
“Touch the light through the voice.” That’s the objective of Vox Luminis—a Belgian early music vocal ensemble of 8 singers, to introduce people to early vocal music. They were joined last night by members of Quicksilver, an outstanding instrumental ensemble which toured Hawaii a few years ago. I described them as being cheered as “rock… Read More Vox Luminis
For some reason, the viola has become a butt of many jokes. According to Wikipedia: Viola jokes are jokes directed towards violas and viola players. Viola jokes are thought to have originated in the 18th century, when viola parts were often simple and thus amenable to untalented musicians. Some examples: Pity the poor violist. Except… Read More Not a viola joke
I may have mentioned once or twice (!) that I come from a musical family. My mother won a piano in a music competition when she was in high school and had to make the hard decision to choose between music or going to medical school (she became a pediatrician but went back to playing… Read More Music runs in families
I just found a fascinating article called “Is Musical Talent Rooted in Genes?” in which author Jillian Rose Lim challenges the conventional wisdom by writing: Practice doesn’t always make perfect when it comes to becoming the next Mozart, a new study suggests. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how hard… Read More The music gene