This time of the year is fun for me because all of the new season announcements come out from symphonies around the country. I love studying this stuff. [As we say in Twitterland: #geekalert]
Here is an orchestral program that caught my eye recently. This is the type of programming that I think is HOT for orchestras (see below). It honors the past, yet is also relevant to today's culture. It's unique, provides visual interest, is mixed genre, reaches out to a non-traditional audience demographic, and just sounds fun. I would be there in a heartbeat.
Kudos to Music Director Jason Weinberger and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra.
Here is a link to a blog post by Scott W. Smith, the guy who produced the multimedia part, describing the event.
And excerpts:
"Tonight the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert called 'Kelley’s Blue' that I had the opportunity to work on. Part of the concert will be a 40 minute section featuring the music of Duke Ellington’s 'Three Black Kings' and George Gershwin’s 'Rhapsody in Blue' and visuals by artist Gary Kelley.
...My role in this concert came in the shooting and editing of 50 pieces of Kelley’s artwork that will be shown on a large screen for between 1,200 and 1,500 people.
...By the way, this won’t be your standard symphony concert tonight as conductor Jason Weinberger (a Santa Monica native who came to Cedar Falls via Yale & Peabody Conservatory) will also be incorporating music from William Grant Still and J Dilla (James Yancy), a Grammy-nominated record producer and one of the music industry’s most influential hip-hop artists."
More details can be found in this preview article on the concert from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. And another article from the Des Moines Register.
