Hey, isn't it spelled Plymouth? Well, yes, that's the name of the town, but this refers to the original spelling in William Bradford's manuscript 'Of Plimoth Plantation' in which he wrote a detailed account of the early days of Plymouth Colony, including fascinating details about the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, relevant to us today as we visited the Mayflower II. This replica of the Mayflower was sailed across the Atlantic in 1957 in a recreation of the original voyage. Our guide, as far as we could tell, was a sailor from 1620 and retold the story of the original voyage, describing the hellish conditions below deck where passengers were basically packed in for 66 days and shipped as cargo to the new world. Have a listen!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
We Land at Plimoth
Hey, isn't it spelled Plymouth? Well, yes, that's the name of the town, but this refers to the original spelling in William Bradford's manuscript 'Of Plimoth Plantation' in which he wrote a detailed account of the early days of Plymouth Colony, including fascinating details about the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, relevant to us today as we visited the Mayflower II. This replica of the Mayflower was sailed across the Atlantic in 1957 in a recreation of the original voyage. Our guide, as far as we could tell, was a sailor from 1620 and retold the story of the original voyage, describing the hellish conditions below deck where passengers were basically packed in for 66 days and shipped as cargo to the new world. Have a listen!
Friday, June 29, 2007
There Once Was a Band in Nantucket...
Ahh, the island life! After the Boston heat wave, it was nice to get a refreshing dose of San Franciso-style of summer weather–cool and foggy. Upon arrival, after a 2 hour ferry ride from Boston, we got the universal Nantucket directions for finding any place on the island – 'turn left at the gray house with the white trim'. The Hendersons and the Ditmars were kind enough (kind of crazy?) to put us all up in their wonderful homes on the beach and threw a barbecue after a fine performance at the Methodist Church. We walked about a mile to the house–in our case, turning right at the gray house with white trim–and got down to grilling. 
The Big Break
Wednesday night we got our first big break of the tour... and not a good one. At about 1am, Ashley fell off of the top bunk and broke her right arm. Thanks to Mary Lynn and Sara, and a little help from the campus police, Ashley was whisked off to children's hospital and reappeared the next morning with a bright blue cast. 
So we're down a violinist, but the good news is that the tour now has an additional tambourine player, page turner and audience member. The orthopedist took a while to get around to setting Ashley's arm because apparently he had been a little busy and this was the 10th cast that he had applied this night! Anyway, all's well now and we're off to Nantucket on the ferry.
So we're down a violinist, but the good news is that the tour now has an additional tambourine player, page turner and audience member. The orthopedist took a while to get around to setting Ashley's arm because apparently he had been a little busy and this was the 10th cast that he had applied this night! Anyway, all's well now and we're off to Nantucket on the ferry.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
We are HOT!
It was already in the 80's by the time the kids headed down to the dorm lounge for their 9am rehearsal today (Wednesday), showered and sweating again before they even cracked their instrument cases. By the time we boarded the bus, an hour later, it was creeping into the 90's and lethargy was setting in. We drove into Boston and set up for the midday concert in front of Quincy Market (across from the historic Faneuil Hall), sweating just at the thought of it all, trying desperately to find a little shade, handing out water in little bottles, but wishing for a swimming pool or better yet, an ocean. The kids shlepped their instruments from the bus and set about unpacking them, setting up music stands, tuning and preparing to play outdoors in heat so stifling that the granite paving stones seemed to be softening under our feet.
And then they played, amazingly, without complaint, without looks of dread or exhaustion, fretting only when the sheet music started blowing around in the breeze. Professional musicians would be hard pressed to do as well (in fact, they probably wouldn't stand for it!) Passers by stopped at the mirage and some even listened, amazed at what they were hearing, but even more astonished by the appearance of such grace and show in the sweltering heat and the obvious dedication of these young students, imagining that they must do homework, make beds and clear the table after dinner with the same enthusiasm and dedication. By now the temperature had hit 100, but from the looks of it, the kids were too busy performing, and somehow compensating as their instruments, unhappy in the heat, drifted out of tune. Even Michel, Doris and Lisa conducted with as if totally oblivious to, or perhaps delierous from the broiler like conditions. If nothing else, this day will be that day-in-Boston war story, to be told and retold, and toasted to and laughed about in the years to come. And if the truth be questioned, so here it is blogged.
And then they played, amazingly, without complaint, without looks of dread or exhaustion, fretting only when the sheet music started blowing around in the breeze. Professional musicians would be hard pressed to do as well (in fact, they probably wouldn't stand for it!) Passers by stopped at the mirage and some even listened, amazed at what they were hearing, but even more astonished by the appearance of such grace and show in the sweltering heat and the obvious dedication of these young students, imagining that they must do homework, make beds and clear the table after dinner with the same enthusiasm and dedication. By now the temperature had hit 100, but from the looks of it, the kids were too busy performing, and somehow compensating as their instruments, unhappy in the heat, drifted out of tune. Even Michel, Doris and Lisa conducted with as if totally oblivious to, or perhaps delierous from the broiler like conditions. If nothing else, this day will be that day-in-Boston war story, to be told and retold, and toasted to and laughed about in the years to come. And if the truth be questioned, so here it is blogged.
La Bella Cubana at Kaufman Center
A little bird requested La Bella Cubana, by José White Lefitte, so here's the recording of the Crowden 7th & 8th grade violinists performing it at the Kaufman Center near Juilliard in New York City on June 22, 2007. (play it now or check your Crowden Life podcast in iTunes) This performance took place in a recording studio, so the sound is a bit dull, especially for this beautiful piece which would probably like a little more room to breathe and soar. I've heard the kids rehearsing it, so hopefully we'll get another performance or two in the next few days.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Boston!
Yesterday we spent a good part of the day travelling from New York to Boston on our bus and although it's air-conditioned, it's been in the mid 90's for the past couple of days, so everyone is wilting and dragging a bit from the heat. Boston is a nice change, though: the town is a little less busy and intimidating and cars actually stop for us, so crossing the street seems a little safer, especially for Californian's who expect the world to come to a halt when they so much as glance in the direction of a cross walk.
Our dorm is a big change too. Juilliard's dorms had the feel of a run-down hospital, in contrast to our dorm at Northeastern, which is painted bright orange, green and yellow inside and has a great rec room that includes a nice home theater setup with a big projection screen and sound system. Jurassic Park was shown last night and everyone enjoyed hanging out. The cafeteria is also an improvement... the food is better and there are more selections, plus it's all you can eat, which is exciting for the kids, but terrifying for the adults, who are having a hard time avoiding the various dessert stations.
Our tour of Boston today included Paul Revere's house and the USS Constitution, AKA 'Old Ironsides'. Interesting and educational stuff, but the sweltering heat made it a bit difficult to fully enjoy. This evening we got to experience the Boston Pops playing at Symphony Hall. Although most of the performance was a bit light and sweet for my tastes, the orchestra was very polished and the hall sounded beautiful. The opening medley of West Side Story tunes was wonderful and I overheard some of the kids saying that it made them want to see the movie again. I'm down for that!
Bloch at the German Church of St. Paul June 24
Play the Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano Obbligato, No. 1 by Ernst Bloch as performed by the Crowden 7th & 8th grades and recorded at the German Evangelical-Lutheran Church of St. Paul in New York City on June 24, 2007.
Bloch at St. Paul's Chapel June 23
Play the Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano Obbligato, No. 1 by Ernst Bloch as performed by the Crowden 7th & 8th grades and recorded at St. Paul's Chapel near Ground Zero in New York City on June 23, 2007.
Bloch at Kaufman Center June 22
Play the Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano Obbligato, No. 1 by Ernst Bloch as performed by the Crowden 7th & 8th grades and recorded in a studio at the Kaufman Center near Juilliard in New York City on June 22, 2007.
(Note: click Add to iTunes, to subscribe to this podcast, which will automatically download future recordings and allow you to sync with your iPod.)
(Note: click Add to iTunes, to subscribe to this podcast, which will automatically download future recordings and allow you to sync with your iPod.)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Another St. Pauls
Today, fittingly on a Sunday, the Crowden kids played at the Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische St.-Pauls-Kirche in New York. Founded in 1841, it is now the last of the German-speaking churches in New York, which at one time numbered more than 20. The current neo-gothic church building was built in 1897 with 5 beautiful stained glass panels surrounding the apse and altar, a tall vaulted ceiling and a magnificently decorated pipe organ in the back balcony.
The acoustics were wonderful and the sound of the strings easily breathed into the naves and vaults of the church and thanks to the more residential setting, lacked the distracting downtown Manhattan roar of buses and jackhammers that accompanied yesterday's performance at St. Pauls Chapel. Listen to the difference between the performances of the Bloch Concerto Grosso (in the next couple of postings) and pay particular attenton to the brief moments of silence between the attacks of this stormy piece and you'll hear the deadness of the recording studio compared to the livelyness of church, allowing the sound a few more milliseconds of life before it tapers off. Seems that this dark piece of music is a little more at home in a neo-gothic church than a recording studio!
We ended the day with a balmy evening cruise down the East River, around lower Manhattan and up the Hudson to take in the incredible New York City skyline as well as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, a symbol trite and timeworn as sometimes seems, when you see it in real life and think about it's meaning, you have to wonder if some of the people running this country forgot.
The acoustics were wonderful and the sound of the strings easily breathed into the naves and vaults of the church and thanks to the more residential setting, lacked the distracting downtown Manhattan roar of buses and jackhammers that accompanied yesterday's performance at St. Pauls Chapel. Listen to the difference between the performances of the Bloch Concerto Grosso (in the next couple of postings) and pay particular attenton to the brief moments of silence between the attacks of this stormy piece and you'll hear the deadness of the recording studio compared to the livelyness of church, allowing the sound a few more milliseconds of life before it tapers off. Seems that this dark piece of music is a little more at home in a neo-gothic church than a recording studio!We ended the day with a balmy evening cruise down the East River, around lower Manhattan and up the Hudson to take in the incredible New York City skyline as well as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, a symbol trite and timeworn as sometimes seems, when you see it in real life and think about it's meaning, you have to wonder if some of the people running this country forgot.
Bach Double at Kaufman Center
Listen to the first performance of our tour: Concerto in D minor for Two Violins (BWV 1043) by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed on June 22, 2007 with Maya Ramchandran and Lyly Li soloing on violin and Lisa Grodin conducting. This was performed in a small recording studio in Kaufman Center, near Juilliard. It will be interesting to see how the performance of this piece sounds towards the end of the tour, after a few more rehearsals and performances. Stay tuned!
Note that this recording sounds best when heard on headphones, as it was made using binaural recording techniques. This typically involves inserting small microphones in the ears of a dummy head (in this case, mine) to produce a realistic image of the sound, especially when played on headphones. Try it and send comments!
Note that this recording sounds best when heard on headphones, as it was made using binaural recording techniques. This typically involves inserting small microphones in the ears of a dummy head (in this case, mine) to produce a realistic image of the sound, especially when played on headphones. Try it and send comments!
Keith's Tour Photos
Keith Copenhagen posted some great photos from the tour today. Check out Keith's Northeast Tour '07 Photos and enjoy!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Zeroing In
A trip to New York City these days is not complete without a visit to Ground Zero to pay your respects and try to grasp the enormity of what happened there. Being Crowden, of course, we didn't just visit, we paid tribute in the form of a mid-day concert at St. Pauls Chapel, an amazing little church that has been around since the days of George Washington and miraculously escaped unscathed when the twin towers collapsed right across the street on 9/11. 
The chapel has become a well adorned memorial to 9/11 and was an extraordinary venue for our early afternoon concert, which was performed wonderfully and captivated many an unsuspecting visitor. The highlight of the performance was the premiere of two movements of Laurence Rosenthal's Vienna: Sweet and Sour, which was attended by none other than the composer himself. The waltz movement was particularly well played, moving some listeners close to dancing in the chapel!
Following the performance, we walked back through the weathered gravestones of the churchyard to Ground Zero, just a hundred yards or so away, where we met with our tour guide to explore a few historic parts of lower Manhattan. Ground Zero is one of those things that you can't really explain and we walked over to the site and just stared into the great, grinding construction pit, not quite sure what to make of it, wondering what they've been doing down there for the past 6 years and what will appear there in the future. So we just stood there, with hundreds of others, presumably sorting through the blur of the thousands of images that have filled our heads since that tragic day. Ultimately, it's just impossible to fathom what makes human beings so want to annihilate one another.
We moved on, in our giant tour bus, weaving chaotically through bicycles, cars and pedestrians, usually with only inches to spare, accompanied by occasional gasps from the front passengers, to Little Italy, where we took to the streets and walked through what is probably still one of the most Italian neighborhoods outside of Italy itself, streets closed, endless shops overflowing with jewelry, handbags and sunglasses, and every inch of sidewalk blanketed with outdoor cafes and restaurants, packed with people, many of whom appear to be families out having their weekend lunch at the same family-standard restaurant they've been attending for decades without thought or question, taking a break from work and life in general to enjoy the company, food and atmosphere.
We boarded the bus for our next destination, for what some thought was going to be a simple drive-by or walk-through tour of the Lower East Side tenements, but this, in fact, turned out to be much more intriguing when we arrived at the Tenement Museum for an interactive immigrant experience. Our museum guides began by thrusting us into a discussion about the question of what makes Americans American... Diverse, free, tolerant, inventive, hard-working and wealthy? Or are we really obnoxious, self-centered, obese, over-achievers? No easy answers, but it got us to talk and think about the shift that immigrants make from foreigner to American, and what that meant then compared to what it means now, in this day and age. We proceeded by moving into an authentic, tiny, claustrophobic tenement apartment where we played the role of an immigrant family just off the boat, and asked questions of a more experienced tenement inhabitant–an actor in full character, including eastern European dress and heavy, yiddish accent–who gave us tips on life in the tenements, including finding jobs, food and doctors and how to survive and stay out of trouble. Hard to complain about the size and condition of your own house or bedroom after this experience.
The evening was spent at the South Seaport (Manhattan's version of San Francisco's Pier 39), complete with questionable food, kitschy souvenirs of all kinds and spectacular views of world famous bridges including the fabled Brooklyn Bridge across the East River. What a day!
The chapel has become a well adorned memorial to 9/11 and was an extraordinary venue for our early afternoon concert, which was performed wonderfully and captivated many an unsuspecting visitor. The highlight of the performance was the premiere of two movements of Laurence Rosenthal's Vienna: Sweet and Sour, which was attended by none other than the composer himself. The waltz movement was particularly well played, moving some listeners close to dancing in the chapel! Following the performance, we walked back through the weathered gravestones of the churchyard to Ground Zero, just a hundred yards or so away, where we met with our tour guide to explore a few historic parts of lower Manhattan. Ground Zero is one of those things that you can't really explain and we walked over to the site and just stared into the great, grinding construction pit, not quite sure what to make of it, wondering what they've been doing down there for the past 6 years and what will appear there in the future. So we just stood there, with hundreds of others, presumably sorting through the blur of the thousands of images that have filled our heads since that tragic day. Ultimately, it's just impossible to fathom what makes human beings so want to annihilate one another.
We moved on, in our giant tour bus, weaving chaotically through bicycles, cars and pedestrians, usually with only inches to spare, accompanied by occasional gasps from the front passengers, to Little Italy, where we took to the streets and walked through what is probably still one of the most Italian neighborhoods outside of Italy itself, streets closed, endless shops overflowing with jewelry, handbags and sunglasses, and every inch of sidewalk blanketed with outdoor cafes and restaurants, packed with people, many of whom appear to be families out having their weekend lunch at the same family-standard restaurant they've been attending for decades without thought or question, taking a break from work and life in general to enjoy the company, food and atmosphere.
We boarded the bus for our next destination, for what some thought was going to be a simple drive-by or walk-through tour of the Lower East Side tenements, but this, in fact, turned out to be much more intriguing when we arrived at the Tenement Museum for an interactive immigrant experience. Our museum guides began by thrusting us into a discussion about the question of what makes Americans American... Diverse, free, tolerant, inventive, hard-working and wealthy? Or are we really obnoxious, self-centered, obese, over-achievers? No easy answers, but it got us to talk and think about the shift that immigrants make from foreigner to American, and what that meant then compared to what it means now, in this day and age. We proceeded by moving into an authentic, tiny, claustrophobic tenement apartment where we played the role of an immigrant family just off the boat, and asked questions of a more experienced tenement inhabitant–an actor in full character, including eastern European dress and heavy, yiddish accent–who gave us tips on life in the tenements, including finding jobs, food and doctors and how to survive and stay out of trouble. Hard to complain about the size and condition of your own house or bedroom after this experience.
The evening was spent at the South Seaport (Manhattan's version of San Francisco's Pier 39), complete with questionable food, kitschy souvenirs of all kinds and spectacular views of world famous bridges including the fabled Brooklyn Bridge across the East River. What a day!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Tuning Up
After a brief pause to sleep, the group continued with the giddy energy of the previous day, and participated in a joint performance 
with the Special Music School at Kaufman Center, a New York City public school with some intriguing similarities and differences from Crowden.
The highlight of the evening was dinner at Ellen's Startdust Diner on Times Square, which features singing waiters and waitresses (struggling New York actors working their way up) who roam the tables singing '50's tunes, Broadway numbers and other popular songs, hamming it up with the patrons, while old musicals (Singing in the Rain tonight) play on a drive-in like screen in the back. Afterwards, we took a little bus ride around mid-town, battling taxi cabs on 5th Avenue and trying to see the Empire State Building without a glass roof. We then headed back to Kennedy Center and a little swing dancing at the outdoor band that offers free music and dance lessons to hundreds who show up every Friday here. Finally a little time to chill back at the dorms here at Juilliard, catching some great views of the city at sunset from our rooms on the 26 & 27th floors.
with the Special Music School at Kaufman Center, a New York City public school with some intriguing similarities and differences from Crowden. The highlight of the evening was dinner at Ellen's Startdust Diner on Times Square, which features singing waiters and waitresses (struggling New York actors working their way up) who roam the tables singing '50's tunes, Broadway numbers and other popular songs, hamming it up with the patrons, while old musicals (Singing in the Rain tonight) play on a drive-in like screen in the back. Afterwards, we took a little bus ride around mid-town, battling taxi cabs on 5th Avenue and trying to see the Empire State Building without a glass roof. We then headed back to Kennedy Center and a little swing dancing at the outdoor band that offers free music and dance lessons to hundreds who show up every Friday here. Finally a little time to chill back at the dorms here at Juilliard, catching some great views of the city at sunset from our rooms on the 26 & 27th floors.
We hit the road!
They say that Mozart starting touring at the age of 5... ahh, well, we have little catching up to do. But finally, all the planning, emailing, calling, meeting, practicing, driving, playing and paying is behind us and we're on our way for the big Crowden tour of the East Coast. OK, so one kid forgot his music and was a little late to the start. And another shed tears of home sickness an hour into the flight. But the energy level (and noise level) stayed high throughout the day as we cruised across the mountains, deserts, plains and lakes of this amazing country to be greated by lightning and thunder and cars that have the right of way (and take it.) Tired and hungry but still buzzed, we made our way to the Upper West Side, finally stopping to get off this ride at Juilliard. No matter that we have miserable little jail-cell-like dorm rooms... we're in New York CIty and ready to start shlepping our instruments around like pros!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)