By Eileen Wingard SAN FRANCISCO — Two distinguished musicians were honored by my sister Zina Schiff at her violin recital in Temple Emanu-El’s concert series in San Francisco last Monday evening. She dedicated her program to the memory of violinist Israel Baker, one of her former teachers and life long friends, and she gave premiere performances to [...]
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Music has played a vital role in the development of humankind. It can rouse people to action, soothe the troubled breast, and elicit a wide range of emotions. Some people, myself included, are addicted to music (classical, in my case), and cannot bear to be conscious for a single [...]
By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Yoav Talmi, former conductor of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, performed his final concert with the Orchestre Symphonique du Quebec last May, 2011, after a 13-year tenure. He is succeeded by the French conductor, Fabien Gabel. Talmi’s final concert included his own composition, De Profundis, a work in three [...]
By Cynthia Citron SAN DIEGO — Hold on to your music. It will be your best friend.” This has been the Golabek family mantra for four generations of concert pianists. As pianist and playwright Mona Golabek settles on a sofa in a private meeting room outside the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, the intimate performance space [...]
By David Amos SAN DIEGO –One possible definition of heaven on earth is seven days of listening to chamber music for the entire day, plus non-stop feasting on Italian and Sicilian food daily for lunch and dinner. All at a seaside resort. This is what I experienced one fine week in November of 1996, when [...]
By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Cellist Julian Schwarz, an up and coming artist, was the featured soloist at the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra’s most recent program, performed April 1 at Ner Tamid Synagogue and April 3 at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. After two years of study at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the brilliant [...]
By David Amos SAN DIEGO — Unfortunately, by its very nature, the arts lend themselves to a lot of charlatanism. At times, when we hear people speak or write with so much confidence and authority, we could be overwhelmed. But behind this façade, there may be plenty of bloated misinformation. Let me cite a few [...]
By David Amos SAN DIEGO — One of the most exciting aspects of being an orchestral conductor is to choose the music to be presented for a particular concert, or season. And for me, the upcoming two programs were very satisfying to prepare, because it brought together four works of music that not only strongly [...]
By David Amos SAN DIEGO –Here are a few thoughts, quotes, opinions and stories, as they relate to music, tradition, and speech: –You remember that about ten years ago we experienced a “Mozart Effect” craze, where some research pointed to better test and I.Q. scores for children and students after listening to a healthy dose [...]
By Eileen Wingard RANCHO SANTA FE, California — Yes, Israel is a leader in high tech start-ups. But it also continues to produce a plethora of high quality musicians. Proving that point were two concerts last week featuring scholarship recipients of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, one of the institutions which nurtures high quality music education [...]
