eugene symphony

Paul Winberg, hard at work even on a Friday at 4:45 pm

Occasion-al Music

The Eugene Symphony’s executive director talks smack about Cleveland, praises the Hult and demystifies the process of going to a concert

By Suzi Steffen

The man doesn’t own an iPod or have a grasp on the world of downloads and easily portable music.

That’s OK. He doesn’t need that right now; he’s surrounded by music all of the time. At the offices of the Eugene Symphony, Executive Director Paul Winberg can hear the sweet strains floating from the radio in the lobby — tuned to the UO’s classical music station, KWAX 91.1 FM, of course. Or he can walk into the music library, where the symphony’s librarian spends hours keeping the notes in order. And of course, in his own light-filled office, he has a CD player where he just might be listening to the Goldberg Variations … or Dolly Parton. (Check out his playlist below.)

Read more about Paul Winberg here, after the jump!

Ouch! My back! Who in the world can replace my talent and beauty...?

Oh! Me! Me! I can! I can!

From a press release issued today comes the unfortunate news that injured Brit Nicola Benedetti, featured violinist for the April 10 performance, will be replaced with Jennifer Koh, who will make her Eugene Symphony debut performing Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The program will be the same as planned.

Thursday, April 10
Eugene Symphony presents “Discovering Daphnis,” feat. Jennifer Koh, violin, performing Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé, 8pm, Hult Center. www.hultcenter.com or 682-5000. $15+.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra's World Music Series with the African Children's Choir

So the Eugene Symphony search for a new music director has begun. Right now, the search committee (with six musicians and an assortment of board members and interested community members) has been sifting through the almost 300 applications and making phone calls to references. (I'm not allowed to know more than that because of the Super Sekrit Search Protocol.)

Read more here!

(Click for bigger pic.)

I forgot to blog about this when it happened, but a couple of weeks ago, the Eugene Symphony announced the lineup for next season.

Giancarlo Guerrero, still artistic director until he skips out for Nashville at the end of the 2008-2009 season, made the announcement at a special pre-show event. But you know what? The pre-show event started at 6:30 pm on Valentine's Day.

I was a bad journalist (but a good partner!) and skipped it for a Valentine's Day dinner at home. But I did go to the concert that night, where James Carter kicked some ass on his sax and where the orchestra lost its way after intermission during Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet (a losing I blame half on Guerrero, half on some of the less skilled members of the group) ... and where Guerrero announced the next season before he began the concert.

And when Guerrero said the magic words "Yo-Yo Ma," the place went insane. Seriously. From the gasps in a Silva Hall drenched in red clothing (jackets, skirts, blouses, sweaters, skirts, dresses and coats on a lot of women; sweaters or ties on a very few men), it seemed the audience thought that Mr. Cello Crossover Man (whom I do like, don't get me wrong) was the Messiah or something.

Which, hey, he might be for classical music. So that means the Messiah is coming to the Hult Center Sept. 30. Get your tickets now.

Other highlights of next season:
Mozart's Jupiter Symphony
Mahler's Fifth
And score! Jennifer Higdon as composer in residence!

OK. OK. I started a really long post on this topic last week. And yesterday, my post was destroyed when I tried to open another page. I wish I could say the page that destroyed my long, brilliant post on the National Endowment for the Arts etc. (see below) was, say, the webpage for something quite intellectual, say a chess-playing site.

But it wasn't. It was my favorite LOLCATS site.

Multitasking.

Anyway. I was gone for two weeks at the (clearing throat) Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism/National Endowment for the Arts Institute in Classical Music and Opera.

Before I go on, let me say that I got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at night (I've walked across it many times before, but never at night). That was freakin' glorious and worth the humiliating writing workshops.

Read all about it here.