Chamber Cartel: Simulcast with Guest Artist Margot Rood

This evening was the fourth of seven shows in a series by Chamber Cartel called “Don’t Look Back: Beyond the Zero” that Orpheus Brewing Company has been presenting at their brewery off of Monroe Drive near Piedmont Park. The program opened with a solo percussion piece by Anthony Donofrio entitled “Meditation on Italo Calvino’s Castle of Crossed Destinies”. It was contemplative and lovely and Caleb Herron brought a sweetness out of it that made it a wonderful way to start the show.
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Bang on a Can All-Stars: Field Recordings

Upon parking on Georgia Tech’s campus, I was greeted with the sound of dance music being blasted from a nearby quad so loudly that the sound was distorted until I was nearly in front of the Ferst Center. When I finally took my seat, I could hear the bass from it very clearly inside the auditorium. It was so loud that I actually went back outside and asked the person in charge of whatever the event was if they could turn it down. He merely said that he had police permission and I could file a complaint if I want. I spoke with someone in admin at the Ferst Center and she said that they’d already tried but that the police wouldn’t do anything and that there really wasn’t anyone else whom she could contact. The whole this is absurd because, as I said, the music was too loud for the event itself and it would not have harmed a thing to turn it down enough that it wouldn’t have penetrated the Ferst Center’s auditorium. Since he told me to file a complaint, though, I probably will and I recommend anyone else who was there to do the same. It’s not the Ferst’s fault, so I’d reach out to the university’s division of administration and finance.
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Bach Bowl 2017

I love the Bach Bowl. Timothy Albrecht will always have a place in my heart for creating something for me to look forward to every year on Superb Owl Sunday since I’m a fan of neither football nor hot-wings. He always puts together a pretty good program of Bach’s work and, thanks to Bach being such a prolific composer, each year’s program always has its own character. I thought that this year’s program was particularly good.
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ECMSA: Violamania!

How many violists does it take to induce mania? Yinzi Kong seemed to think that nine would be enough when she programmed “Violamania!” for the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. The program consisted of nine pieces arranged for viola ensembles of sizes ranging from solo to eight, with occasional accompaniment from piano or harpsichord.
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Bent Frequency and Michael Fowler: Sound Worlds – The Sonification of the Japanese Garden

At work today, I was told that I should have worn red and black instead of purple and black. Apparently, this was to signify support for some local falcons who might get to go to the superb owl. Apparently ornithophilia1 is pretty wide spread in Atlanta because the performers at this evening’s concert at Kopleff Recital Hall got the memo and wore red and black, as well. I’m not sure if this owl is like the one from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH or more like Wol from Winnie the Pooh – both are superb in their own, distinct ways – but it must be impressive to have so many people excited about local birds visiting it.
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Georgian Chamber Players: Piano Eight Hands & String Octet

The Georgian Chamber Players had some fun with the program for yesterday’s concert by playing with the number eight. Three pieces were for piano eight-hands and the final piece was for a string octet. There was one odd work out that was for piano six-hands, but the smiles on the musicians faces while they played this particularly novel piece excuses breaking the quantitative theme. Besides, taken all together, there were 46 hands needed for all of the works and that is the birth year of Plutarch and also the channel number for the local CBS affiliate which, of course, totally means something.
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ASO: Pre-Concert Chamber Music

I had this plan, see: I was teaching a class at a professional conference in Buckhead and I’d been told that I’d probably get out early so I’d finally have the time to make it to one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s pre-concert chamber music performances. It’s hard for me to make it to them these days because my commute is so awful on Thursdays, so I was excited to take advantage of this opportunity. Doubly so because there was a piece on the program that I really liked and wanted to hear live. I figured that I could grab an early supper nearby and pop in to hear the show.
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