Midori in Nashville

September 15, 2007 at 12:44 AM

I have been busy up to my earballs and really miss my daily or sort-of-daily time reading v.com.

Midori is playing with the Nashville Symphony this weekend. I can't afford to go right now, unless I can find a friend who is a student who might take me as a guest for $10. It is probably sold out, though, so I don't know that that would work, either.

Can you sense the negativity oozing like mayonaise out of this email?

Because Nashville just built this amazing and awesome new hall for the Symphony, it now costs more than a few bucks to get in.

Most musicians I know who aren't playing in the hall can't afford to go see concerts there.

What is wrong with this picture?

I mean, it could always be a "splurge" purchase. We all make those from time to time whether we can afford it or not, right? But somehow I can't justify it.

Well. Besides that, all sorts of good things going on. I'm back in the swing of teaching, and love teaching from my home. I've got mostly viola students, but not exclusively. It would be fun to put them together into little ensembles and coach them. I cower in fear of the thought of being an orchestra director in the schools or being in front of a classroom, but a trio or quartet sounds very stimulating.

Right now I'm recoridng for them. The 12 little duets by Mazas arranged for violin and viola. Actually, tonight I'm just doing no.1 and 2. I put all new strings on both instruments yesterday so I have to keep checking and re-tuning so they are in tune with each other when I put the tracks together.

*hi Buri*

-Sals,
Jennifer

It is really a shame that concert tickets are so expensive.
e mail still dysfunctional. Glad you are staying ahead of the game.
what is she playing
I just played a benefit concert with the sons of Otis Redding. It was $100 a ticket. Definitely couldn't go if I wasn't playing! We splurged once last year to see Andrew Manze and the English Consort at Emory University. It gets really pricey when we have to add the cost of babysitter to anything we do.
I'm fortunate. Where I live, near Washington DC, there are many classical concerts with lowest price tickets at $22-$32. If all the seats are not sold shortly before the concert, the management often drops the prices down to the reasonable/affordable level. There are also low priced tickets designed to bring younger audiences into the classical music scene, but you can buy them regardless of age. Last night I went to hear a preview concert by the Baltimore Symphony (not one of the top 10) in which they played bits of various pieces on their 2007-8 calendar, with the conductor giving explanatory remarks before each piece. The price was $10 for all seats.
The most I have paid for a ticket was $60.00, a few years ago, to hear Olga Kern play Rach 3. That was worth it. However, it was my piano buddy that picked the seats, and I had stipulated "Not TOO expensive", but we are in different tax brackets, so I guess we have different perspectives on "expensive" too.

I am willing to pay up to $40.00 per ticket, although I will pay less, if I can! Fortunately for the thrifty concert-goers around here, the local Performance Barn has the best acoustics in the cheapest balcony seats.

Also, I looked at the NSO's website, and tonight's cheapest seats seem to be $35.00. That is fairly expensive. So, did this hall get built with local and state $$$? If the NSO built the hall with private funds, then they have the right to charge whatever they want, but if they are using tax dollars (Jennifer's tax dollars), and maintain a not-for-profit status, well, that does look pretty greedy, doesn't it? Take $$$ from many to benefit the few?

Someone I took lessons from, in a Big 15, once made the comment "Classical Music in this country is for the rich". I see his point.

I found some 15 dollar tickets, but they are on the very back row of the balcony and then you have to add 2.50 for some surcharge I don't understand. And then...
There is parking.
Which is anywhere from 15-25 dollars. THere is a free parking lot for concert-goers, but you have to show your ticket to get in and out, so if you order your ticket online to pick up when you get there, well, you can't use that lot then, can you? So...season subscription holders or people who ordered their tickets to come in the mail weeks before the concert can get free parking, but those who wait and try to get cheap tickets have to pay 15 dollars to park.

Yay.
I thought about just going and paying the money and sitting in the very last row possible, but I think I'd be unable to really appreciate the concert....

Oh well. I'll be able to see a good concert at some point there.

I don't know if state funds were used to build the center, but it is really extravegant and a huge deal for Nashville. I keep my eyes on the audition openings for the symphony because they have awesome locker rooms and lounges and are the best paying orchestra (salary) in Tennessee right now. A cushy orchestra job. It exists!!! I haven't seen any openings yet, though.

Sals,
Jennifer

Oh, and she is playing the Tchaikovski. Concerto.
Maybe you can print out the page that shows you have tickets to show to the parking lot people. That might work.

I love being a student. :)

Anne, please remember that the NSO under the direction of Leonard Sladkin is among the 5-10 best orchestras in the world. I recently bought a series of tickets to the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to hear some great musicians. I always buy the very cheapest tickets because the acoustics are good everywhere. I wrote in my blog (4/17/07) about the tickets I bought. I'll give you some more details, i.e., the prices: Yo Yo Ma ($45, the most expensive), Kathleen Battle ($23), James Galway ($36), Joshua Bell ($45), Lang Lang ($32), and Perlman ($41). There is another concert hall with world class acoustics here, the Strathmore, which is closer to my home and has lower prices. The most I have ever paid in my whole life for a concert ticket was last year, for the NSO playing an all Tchaik program with JB playing the Tchaik Cto. Before the concert, I felt awful about the amount of money I paid. After the concert, I felt that it was worth every cent just to hear JB play the cadenza of the concerto.
Music is the one and only thing I spend money on which is not essential for survival -- or maybe it is.
Hey Pauline, the NSO I referred to was Nashville, not National. Sorry I wasn't clear about that. (Insert smiley face here).
Anne, now that I know what you meant, I'd be awfully bothered by it, too.
The funny thing is that the Nashville Symphony is actually under the direction of Leonard Slatkin as well. He only conducts one or two concerts, though. Actually, he might have just been replaced. He was acting director until they found a permanant one after Schirmerhorn died (the conductor they built the hall for, otherwise known as the Schirmerhorn Symphony Center). :)

They are a pretty good orchestra, but not any NSO National Symphony Orchestra. I was actually really surprised to hear the prices for THAT NSO being so reasonable...Hm...

Do other big cities have parking prices like that? 15-25 dollars to park?

-Jennifer

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