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I want Josh on Oprah!

Life in general: I am in desperate need of your help.

From Sydney Menees
Posted March 1, 2006 at 02:44 AM

I've another discussion forum on my side too.

Please. Give any reason you can:
-Mozart's 250th
-Children that hear classical at a young age are smarter than those who do not.
-The classical music stereotypes are wrong.

Any information about Joshua Bell:
-He has recorded about 30 CDs.
-Recorded soundtracks for 4 movies.
-Won a Grammy
-Done numerous TV and radio interviews
ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF!

If you are looking at this discussion topic right now, I would ask you to post something. "I e-mailed Oprah!" Or why did you not e-mail Oprah - "I have no time right now." "You are stupid."

I hope we understand each other.

Hey, GREAT IDEA! I e-mail Oprah 5 times a day too!

http://www.joshuabell.com/

email: jb@joshuabell.com

I think Chang is great because she was one of the most mesmorizing prodigies ever to have live (well...everyone including menuhin, the greatest prodigy of them all arguably, thought so) so She knows what it's like to be a kid/prodigy. And she is very articulate and sparkly.

Well, and especially he does get on, I wonder if the same thing works for getting tickets XD.

Anyway, that's what I thought too. He is a good spokesperson, but you're right, we need more violinists. Great! Everyone e-mail about Chang too!

First of all, the greatest prodigy who ever lived was Mozart.
As for prodigies of the 20th century, the greatest, in my opinion, would have to be Michael Rabin.

I think Joshua Bell is certainly an American treasure with regard to his entire career (prodigy to pro). Not only did he master the classics, but he has had innovative recordings of American music (Porgy & Bess, West Side Story, collaborations with the great American composer John Corigliano, etc.) Bell is also well-spoken during interviews and has great insight into music.

I certianly hope Hilary Hahn would NOT be asked to appear on behalf of the violin or classical music world after her absolute disaster of an appearance on the "Art of the Violin" DVD. Great player, but arrogant and empty in the head.

-Peter

In response to Mattias: I'm also not an Oprah fan, but the point is that her book club has encouraged people who didn't read to start reading. Whatever we think of the show, the fact is that she has *huge* influence! So if she uses that influence for this, and more people give their kids violin (or other) lessons, great!

I just e-mailed Joshua's assistant, Leah. So, if I get a response from her I'll let you all know what it is.

Thanks for your support!

Anyway, ever since the passing of Isaac Stern, we have not had anyone else take the reigns of classical music (in terms of representing it vocally)in the way Stern did.
Josh Bell certainly does it through his actions in terms of covering the field (crossing all genres).
And I do believe that it would be a healthy thing to see great young players on such shows as Oprah, because it brings in a whole new audience.

I couldn't help but include a PS to the Oprah folks: "My second question to you is, why do you spell forgoing/foregoing two different ways in your "Please Note" section? " Jeez... Maybe I should send another email, requesting the presence of a group of English teachers on her show.

Terez

PS - Sydney, if I get spam from sending that email, I'm coming after you with my bow.

But WAIT! You're telling me it was only an auto reply?! So maybe my message WASN'T important? Oh, woe... : (

Regardless, onward with your battle!

Peter,
With all due respect, I don't think calling Hilary "arrogant or empty-headed" on Art of the Violin sums up her appearance. She was, what, 18? and probably quite unsure of what to say on a widely distributed DVD. She is extremely unassuming and quite shy and modest.

As Tavani stated on an earlier post...just my $.02...

And can we please go easy on Hilary Hahn? She's certainly earned her stripes and is an articulate young woman.

And there are SO many good things that will come from it, Americans listen to Oprah, and if something doesnt change now, the new generation of american kids will become even more ignorant to classical music... the saddest part is they will never know what they are missing!

With regard to "The Art of the Violin" DVD, I was absolutely thrilled by the interviews with the various fiddle players throughout the film. However, every time the camera came to Ms. Hahn, she simply was out of her league. I appreciate the fact that the filmmaker was trying to get someone to represent the younger generation of violinists. The problem here was that I think Ms. Hahn has a great agent for booking, but poor preparation. To give her the benefit of the doubt, it seemed as though Ms. Hahn was shown old footage of great violinists and then was immediately put on camera for comment. In light of her youth, perhaps it would have been practical to give her several days to review the films and prepare intelligent commentary.

For my money, I think someone like Leila Josefowicz would have been perfect. I'll bet Sarah Chang would have done a nice job. For that matter, why not interview Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, or Maxim Vengerov? Of course, Hilary Hahn is a fantastic player. This was never in question. But not everyone is well-suited to speak on behalf of an entire generation of violinists for what will arguably be the only significant DVD on the history of violinists for quite some time.

Hope that cleared things up a bit.
Respectfully,
Peter

To be articulate in front of the camera is very difficult, and I really think she should be given the benefit of the doubt at her age to comment alongside people who have had a great deal of time to mature and mull over their ideas. I think some equally adept performers at the same age would have had trouble matching the expert commentary of Ida Haendal or Gitlis...

What leads you to believe that Chang would have been better? Have you ever spoken to her?

I do not know her personally, so I suppose I should keep such opinions to myself (the negative ones). If you do know her well and she is indeed humble, shy, and unassuming, then I stand corrected.

-Peter

Peter,
I don't know Hahn personally, but me & my son went to her concert a month ago. She played in the first part, then wait for more than an hour for the L.A. Phil to finish a lengthy Shastokovich symphony so she can sign autographs. We waited in the long line, & by the time me & my son got to her, she yawned slightly & apologized. She asked my son what song he is working on & give my son some good advise on practicing. She is very down to earth, extremely nice & humble to me.

"What's so hard about it? It's just a bunch of scales..."

Maybe it seems like I am just trying to justify Hilary's comments, but for someone who really does not have any technical obstacles, whether it's Beethoven, Ernst, Paganini, or Ysaye--that sounds like a young, inane comment on her part. Not necessarily arrogance. She has nothing to prove to anyone. Now, we can argue if her Beethoven concerto recording scratches below the surface... :)

Seriously folks, after all the testimonials, Hilary Hahn is totally cool in my book. And for the record, I have ALWAYS been impressed with her playing, from Bach to Bernstein.

I simply thought the producers of "The Art of the Violin" DVD could have done without interviewing the younger generation about violinists they perhaps didn't know.

Please accept my apologies. I promise to stick to areas of discussion that are of a positive note.

All my best to everyone on Violinist.com!

-Peter

Hey Peter, I think we have the same barber.

For the record (well... the DVD), I'm wild about her Beethoven concerto recording. It is the recording that made my appreciation of her turn into wild admiration. That, and hearing the positive comments about how she comports herself with the public.

Oh my. Anyone heard him do this? I really am attached to Hilary's Beethoven, but then again, I'm wildl about Joshua's Sibelius, and I love his interpretation of Romantic repertoire in general. But the Beethoven is in a category of its own, isn't it?

Anyway, be it on Oprah or the SFS stage, guess I'll be seeing Joshua again within the next year!

PS - Looks like Hilary will be playing the Korngold. And Sarah Chang will be performing Bruch #1. Quite a year they've got planned...

Hey, there's another prodigy . . . Korngold. Anyone ever played his Piano Trio? I just did last season. WOW. It was his Opus 1 and he wrote it when he was 12!!! Okay, so he wasn't a VIOLIN prodigy.

-P

BTW - Still no response from Leah, so I did send something to Josh.

I think the real question is, should we try to get Josh on General Hospital?

Wait a minute, that's not the real question.

On the topic of whether or not young people's views should be heard, I obviously think they should, as you can see from this board. Like anyone's comments, the more experience, information and thought behind them the better.

I think that a child prodigy or young performer does have the unique vantage of having performed quite a lot, and often being able to perform with great facility. The combination of that high ability and childhood is rather fascinating, and as a journalist I would certainly seek out that perspective.

That quote is really quite interesting, too. The best art seems to come from the simplest, most streamlined ideas. Even interpretation, all those fine points, can stem from one or two central ideas. Like the Bach Chaconne: acceleration. Or Debussy: impressionism, watercolory.

So to boil the Beethoven down to a bunch of scales, it's actually very much at the core of that concerto.

And, I agree Laurie, lots to be gleaned from that quote.

There's nothing wrong with getting a young person's opinion, but most of the comments were about the players' personalities and styles of playing and I would think that you'd have to live at least a little bit in that generation to make meaningful comments.

And BTW in defense of Peter W,
there is nothing wrong with having opinions about Hillary or whomever.
It is not cool to start rumors as the previous ejected member did. :)

But yeah, for appearing on a TV show, or for being interviewed live in general, I'd definitely say Joshua Bell or Sarah Chang are better picks.

(By the way, I defined "most successful musician of ALL TIME" as the one who has made the most money. John Williams is head and shoulders above people like Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Sting, etc. simply by his NBC theme, alone--which is played EVERY DAY, multiple times. This is to say nothing of the countless arrangements of his music for all levels of bands and orchestras, marching bands, videos, dvds, cds, movies, etc. Naturally, success can be defined in many ways. I chose money for this definition. Let's not forget about Williams' Kennedy Center Honor, either!)

-Peter

And you can talk to him. You just have to go to a concert and stick around afterwards. With the amount of fan mail the guy gets, I certainly don't blame him for not being able to respond individually.

Anyway, I second Hahn and Chang. They're up there in my top favorites amongst living violinists. Hmmm...Gil Shaham? There are many other contemporary musicians I'd like to see get some exposure, but if this is supposed to be a PR type thing for classical music, more popular people might fare better.

Oh I liked Hahn on the video. I think all the interviews were filmed live (even Milstein's ^^). Hilary Hahn does her "was that the Chausson", Perlman does his "certain...certain...quality" while moving his fingers, and...was it Laurent Korcia? he does his "playing out of tune in a way...a way...that...that...sounds...that sounds... ... ... ... ... right"

Unfortunaty, I somewhat doubt that Opera cares about classical music very much. Of course...if she did even ONE show on it, half the women in the US would suddenly become classical music junkies. The potential is endless.....

BTW, I'm not a Hilary Hater.

Maybe Josh and Hilary should go on Oprah and play the Bach double. We will get Luke Strong a front row seat so he can appreciate this work.

I've been posting, and I'm not interested in seeing classical musicians on the show. I don't watch TV. :) Besides, we're hardly a representative segment of the population, seeing as how this is a forum for (mostly classical) violinists.

* Agree that Ms Hahn did not do herself any favours in Art of the Violin, but doubt she's empty-headed.

* Think Jim should stop teasing the kids. ;)

* Wonder if Sydney knows there are laws against cyber-stalking Josh and Oprah.

* Wonder why Oprah can't spell her name properly. And why I've never heard her sing.

All that for less than $0.02

Neil

Perhaps that's just urban legend. I dunno.

Preston

Of course, I cannot confirm this.

Neil left out a bullet:
* It is possible to be completely empty-headed, yet be a great musician. Figure that out, geniuses.

Maybe we can write a Harp concerto specially for her.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/01122004

It was on Soundcheck produced by WNYC. Josh goes on the first part (around 25 min.) then Sarah comes on the second part (around 25 min. as well). It's very interesting to listen to, and you definetely get a sense of how both these two artists are very articulate and have very fun-attractive personalities.

ALSO OTHER LINKS:

Interviews with Josh:
http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/0401_jbell/

Interview with Sarah (VIDEO CLIP AT END OF PART II) (ALSO HAS SNIPPITS OF SARAH PERFORMING THE SHOSTAKOVICH VIOLIN CONCERTO 1):
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/theworks/20050531.html

I had pretty long fingernails, and I would use them to help the vibrato lol. Nobody ever told me to do this or anything, it just kind of happened I suppose. But my latest teacher immediately made my chop my nails down to size and she's taught me to vibrato in different ways from what I used to do.

All in all I think it is only better :) Though I still think that having a nail gets a really cool fast vibrato in high positions!

Preston

Anyway, Joshua and Leah don't check their mail apparently. That, or Neil's 3rd bullet (* Wonder if Sydney knows there are laws against cyber-stalking Josh and Oprah.) is right and they think that I'm a stalker! So, I would ask you to keep your bombarding of e-mails on Oprah, but hit Joshua and/or Leah with the question "Does Joshua Bell want to be on the Oprah show?"

jb@joshuabell.com
leah@joshuabell.com

Thanks!

syds like the farthest thing from a stalker cuz she knows what its like it be stalked hehe....

harpo orpho oprah w/e , lets just get josh on that show!!! :D

I have e-mailed Oprah 5 times already! I have e-mailed Joshua and Leah twice (total), but no responses! Can they not type 'yes' or 'no'? It makes me angry. You don't need to make your e-mails to Josh and Leah long, just a simple "Does Joshua want to be on Oprah?" will do. Thanks!

You've emailed Josh twice in 4 days. You DO realize how busy the man is don't you? You do realize how MANY emails he likely gets every day don't you?

When I email James Ehnes, who is my friend, it sometimes takes him a week to get back to me (especially when he's on tour), and he's probably not even as busy as Bell nor recieves as much mail.

Chill out and stop bothering him. One email that says the same thing is enough.

And don't be angry if you don't hear back. You've done all you can which is plant the idea in Bell's head and you never know, it just might work even if you don't hear back.

Preston

They do read their email, but these are people with busier lives than you and I can even imagine. Stop bothering them.

not only will i email oprah, i'll camp on her front lawn, follow her in an unmarked car, broadcast my plea on every channel of her television and every dial of her radio, flood her answering machine, lie in front of her doorstep every morning, and if that doesn't work i'll handcuff myself to her. eventually she'll get the message and joshua bell will be put on her show.

it's not considered stalking if i do it for joshua, is it?

Geez! Sorry people!! You all must be the ones guarding Oz ; ) (I miss the place myself; I come from KS) Here is the reason why I was being so pushy:

I too have e-mailed Joshua (thrice?).
1st time - Giving him the pic of me and him after the concert. Leah got back to me within a day.
2nd time - Asking him about how he came to UMKC. Leah got back to me within hours.
3rd time - Asking about more details on a concert (i.e. location and whatnot). Again, it was a day at max (from Leah).

So, I have the suspicion that they are ignoring this one, but I can't figure out why! I don't expect to get any mail from Joshua himself and I never have expected that, but is it terrible to assume that Leah will get back to me within 3 days when, in all my experiences, she has given me quicker responses?

Ok, Sydney. I'm guessing that fans writing for the first time get responses more quickly (at all), because that was my experience as well. I would bet huge amounts of money that no one is purposely ignoring you. They're just BUSY, and while we all know that getting Josh on Oprah is a huge priority for you, I'm sure it isn't for him. And if they are ignoring you, what makes you think getting a lot more mail from V.com members is going to accomplish anything other than irritate them further?

So I propose a truce: we'll stop yelling at you for your personal crusade, if you'll stop telling everyone and his dog and his dog's water bowl to spam Oprah and Josh and Leah. Ok?

Btw, Sydney, I should have added that I totally support your goal of popularizing classical music for the masses. I just really don't think that emailing someone 5 times a day is the best way to accomplish that.

SPAMMING?!???!??!?!!!!!!! I don't "spam" people! I'll have you know that every single one of my messages is written with care and for consideration of the person reading it!

And I apologize for the "spamming" accusation; I was using the loose definition of the term, which just refers to unwanted email. True spam is not only unwanted but untargeted, and I know Sydney writes her email with consideration.

Our culture is no longer amazed by all types of talent, which it was moreso during the variety show era, and even further back to the depression when any story of personal achievement got the attention of many people.

Oprah has a commercial power at her disposal that is totally unbelievable. She can turn an instruction book into the #1 New York Times best seller, and she can do that for anything. She had this harpist on her show the other day, who was definately no triumph, and I'll bet he's gone platinum several times now because of the appearance.

It would be interesting to hear Josh's experience for he is truly an American prodigy virtuoso who has made a succesful transition to being a superstar (adult superstar that is).
They could touch on where do we go from here in classical music etc.

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