“Rumors about the impending exit have swirled for months, reaching a crescendo in recent days.” – Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2013. Awhile back I commented on music critic Scott Cantrell’s non-use of the word “crescendo,” his contention
Interviewing the talent
By TIMOTHY MANGAN The stories behind the stories: I won’t assert that they are more interesting than the stories themselves, but they’re not without interest. I’ve learned a lot about classical musicians, both individually and as a group, interviewing them
Pacific Overtures: September
Here’s the latest edition of my newsletter. Contents: September Concerts Roundup Interview: Dennis Kim Interview: Meredith Crawford Listen to This: Boléro Single Tickets Connections Series Renamed Video: Festive Overture Essential Books (4) Miscellany Pacific Overtures. September, 2018.
Interview: Meredith Crawford, principal viola
By ERICA SHARP Meredith Crawford, principal viola of Pacific Symphony, cheerfully picked up the phone to talk to an interviewer at the appointed time. She said she had just come back from a walk on the beach. She currently resides
Books on classical music: Some essentials (4)
By TIMOTHY MANGAN Two autobiographies … “The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz” by Hector Berlioz. Berlioz was the archetypical Romantic — sensitive, poetic, experimental, nostalgic, given to flights of fantasy, easily wounded, progressive, dramatic verging on melo-. He was also a
Interview: John Williams
(Here’s an interview with composer John Williams that I wrote for England’s Gramophone magazine back in 2005. Richard Kaufman conducts Pacific Symphony in Williams’s Oscar-winning score to “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” for a screening of the film Saturday night. Tickets here.) By
Pacific Overtures: August
The latest edition of our newsletter, with concert info, news, interviews, listening, links and more. Pacific Overtures. August, 2018.
Book review: ‘Famous Father Girl’ by Jamie Bernstein
Being the child of Leonard Bernstein was like having a nuclear blast for a dad. You practically had to stand back and wear protective goggles when he came into a room, and even then the gale wind and blinding light
A visit to Pacific Symphony’s music library
You go in the artists’ entrance at Segerstrom Concert Hall, walk past the security guard behind the window (once you get the OK), enter the first door on the right and head down two flights of stairs. You’re in the
Meet Michael Clive, Pacific Symphony’s program annotator
By Erica Sharp “Sometimes as a joke I refer to myself as ‘your intrepid annotator,’” said Michael Clive, longtime program note writer for Pacific Symphony, in an interview last week. He had just arrived back at his Connecticut home and