May 2019 - Craig Urquhart

MY FAVORITE CONCERT HALLS PART 1 : CARNEGIE HALL

May 23, 2019 by Craig

Artur Rubenstein, Carnegie Hall, Clive Gillinson, Craig Urquhart, Ella fitzgerlad, Leonard Bernstein, Music for Life, New York City, Vladimir Horowitz

Over the years I have been fortunate to hear concerts performed in some of the greatest concert halls in the world. Especially when I worked as the great conductor Leonard Bernstein’s assistant.

It was my good fortune to travel around the world and hear him perform with the greatest musicians in some of the greatest concert halls. I will say upfront that I have not been in every concert hall in the world and this is a very personal selection, and in no order of ranking.

So in the coming weeks I will share my stories about those that I love the most. Over the years I have been fortunate to hear concerts performed in some of the greatest concert halls in the world. Especially when I worked as the great conductor Leonard Bernstein’s assistant

I will say upfront that I have not been in every concert hall in the world and this is a very personal selection, and in no order of ranking.

So in the coming weeks I will share my stories about those that I love the most. Let’s start with Carnegie Hall in New York City.

I probably have heard more concerts in this hall, that in some ways it is my “hometown” hall, Though I no longer live in New York after 43 years.

I was first exposed to Carnegie Hall, like so many of my generation by watching Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concert on our 1950’s black and white television. Even as a 4 year old in Michigan, the electricity came through our 20 x 20 television set! At that moment I knew I wanted to be there.

18 years later I moved to NYC – sight unseen – and the first full day I was in NYC (July 3, 1976) I went up to 57 Street to gaze at Carnegie Hall, then found the stage door on West 56 and boldly said to the gracious gentleman manning the door, “I am new in NYC and have wanted to see Carnegie Hall since I was 4.” And to my surprise he said, “come with me.”

He introduced me to who I now know was the House Manager who said, “Come with me.” And before I knew it I was standing on the stage of Carnegie Hall, which little did I know at the time would become and integral part of my life and still is.

When you enter the Hall history surrounds you – it was none other than Tchaikovsky who gave the opening concert! And then there are the legendary concerts – to numerous to list – of Artur Rubenstein, Vladimar Horowitz, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, and The Concert of the Century – to name a few.

I remember the Hall (Stern Auditorium) before and after it’s renovation.

I attended so many amazing concerts of the great orchestras, and musicians of the world.

The Music for Life concerts that Bernstein organized to raise awareness and money to fight the AIDS Crises; were especially memorable.

At the reopening of the hall and being introduced to Frank Sinatra by LB himself.

On November 14, 1990, Memorial Concert was held for LB seated with supportive friends (all 1000s of them).

And let’s not forget The Weill Recital Hall where I have heard so many friends do recitals and Zankel Hall where I oversaw a memorial for the legendary Public Relations Agent Margaret Carson.

A concert hall is not just a space but an experience, and the staff and management of this great hall all have something special.

The Executive and Artistic Directors have always been special people – Judy Aaron, Robert Harth, and Clive Gillinson, all stand out in my time.

I can not leave out all the others from the ushers to the legendary back stage hostesses Debbie and Diane as well as the whole team that makes the Hall so special and have been so graciously kind to me over the years.

It still is astounding to me that this great temple of culture was threatened by corporate greed for destruction in the 1960, to be replaced by some ugly red office tower.

Thanks to the great violinist Isaac Stern and others, it was saved for generations to come and is thriving in ways that Andrew Carnegie could never had imagined.

The acoustics in the Hall are uniquely NYC – yes, it is true, you can hear the subway pass underneath, sometimes at the most quiet moments!

But that’s New York City, there is no way to escape it, but being in Carnegie Hall you can transcend it.

And truly the best way to get to Carnegie Hall is to “Practice, Practice, Practice.”

How Classical Music Can Benefit Your Health

May 21, 2019 by Craig

Are you feeling stressed at work or at home (or maybe both)? Could you use a little zen in your commute? Or maybe you just need a pick-me-up for the project you’re working on? Try putting on some classical music!

For many years, expectant mothers have played Mozart to their bellies, hoping their growing babies would benefit from the music they were “hearing” before they were even born. While the effectiveness of this long-used method is questionable at best, classical music has been proven to have both mental and physical benefits.

Whatever your ailment or aspect of your physical or mental health you’d like to see improved, there’s a good chance that cranking up some classical music can help with it.

It would be difficult to go into detail on all of them here, but I will explain a few of them that just might surprise you.

First, some physical benefits. The benefit that might be the most welcome news is that listening to classical music can help improve time falling asleep and quality of sleep. At least one study reveals that listening to classical music about 45 minutes before going to bed helps people fall asleep and stay asleep. This has been tested on both younger and older people. Music that has a regular rhythm, low pitch, and calming melodies are understandably best for inducing sleep.

Another physical benefit that pretty much everyone will be happy to hear: listening to classical music helps relieve blood pressure and reduce stress. In one study, classical music was shown to decrease blood pressure in participants, while other genres like rap and pop had the opposite effect.

Classical music can also reduce cortisol levels in the body, which helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. While research on this is still ongoing, it is possible that the tempo of

the music is similar to that of the heart, which helps minimize stress. This is particularly true of pregnant women–so while playing Mozart may not make your baby smarter, it will help you chill out during the stressful time that is carrying a baby!

Classical music has its benefits for the mind as well. Whether you’re a student or in the work force, there is evidence that listening to classical music can help your creativity, brain power, and overall productivity. Studies have shown that listening to classical music can help

improve performance on tests. This may be due to classical music putting you “in a heightened emotional state,” which makes people “more receptive to information.” This in turn helps focu

Having classical music on in the background while doing repetitive tasks at work can help pass the time.

All of this is particularly true of baroque music, so if you are a fan of Bach (or if you if you’ve never listened to his work in your life), put a Brandenburg Concerto or the Well-Tempered Clavier on your next playlist!

Thanks to technology like Spotify and Apple Music, music is easily portable and can be listened to almost anywhere, including your commute on the train or at your desk.

If you are new to classical music or just need ideas, one study suggests some of the best composers and types of classical pieces to maximize these effects (besides Bach and baroque music, mentioned above): solo piano pieces – like my music.

String quartets by composers like Mozart, guitar/lute music (again, Bach is a good choice here), and 16th century Elizabethan consort music, which was originally composed as background music for courtly affairs.

Avoid large orchestral pieces, especially with a lot of loud moments, if you’re trying to relax–it’s best to stick with pieces that have a generally consistent tempo and mood, at least for these health benefits–but by all means, please explore all genres and composers for your pure enjoyment!

As noted here, most of these benefits have been explored in only a handful of studies. As research into these benefits continues, we will likely clarify and learn more about these benefits and possibly even more down the line.

What is especially interesting about these benefits is that many of them are interconnected: as we’ve learned, listening to classical music can help lower blood pressure, thereby reducing stress, anxiety, and even depression. This in turn promotes healthy sleep, productivity, and creativity.

So the next time you are feeling down or need something to get your brain juices flowing, turn off the pop and turn on some of my music!

Sources:

● https://musicoomph.com/classical-music-benefits/

● https://takelessons.com/blog/benefits-of-listening-to-classical-music-z15

● https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/scientific-benefits-listening-to-classical-commute/

● https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/classical-music-effects/

● https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2004.03281.x

● https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15296685

● https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1069901/Listening-classical-music-relieve-preg

nancy-stress.html

● https://news.usc.edu/71969/studying-for-finals-let-classical-music-help/

● https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090423132615.ht

Will Classical Music Make A Comeback?

May 7, 2019 by Craig

It’s an oft-heard story in the classical music world: classical music is for the grey-haired, not the young. Classical music just doesn’t have the appeal for those in the Gen Z, Millennial, or Gen X generations as it does for the Boomers and the Silent Generation.

This group is being introduced to classical music in different ways than their parents or grandparents were: 48% of them discovered it by hearing their favorite pop songs played in a classical style, and 74% have heard classical music at a film screening accompanied by live orchestra, an increasingly popular programming choice for orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.

There are various reasons why young people have lost interest in classical music over the years: changing interests, the music being less relatable to a younger audience, and the view that attending a concert is a stuffy, sleep-inducing experience.

With the shuttering of smaller regional orchestras across the United States as well as shrinking budgets and support and labor disputes, access to the genre is more and more limited. As the above numbers indicate, however, orchestras and other classical performers have had to be innovative in order to bring fresh faces to their concert halls.

The key to getting people in seats is presenting engaging programming that give concertgoers more of an experience than traditional classical performances. One of the most popular of these new types of programming is film screenings, where an orchestra accompanies the film with its musical score

A quick look at the New York Philharmonic’s upcoming performances reveals a few of these types of performances: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II (sure to be popular with the youngest of music fans), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Psycho, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (sure to be popular with Millennials who read the Harry Potter books as kids).

Also popular are two well-known films scored by the versatile composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story and On The Waterfront.

11/25/11 9:58:21 PM — Chicago Symphony Orchestra. West Side Story Live! .. ¬© Todd Rosenberg Photography 2011

Besides film screenings, performers are also incorporating more “mainstream”, namely popular music, into their programming choices. This ranges from a cover of a Taylor Swift song by Brooklyn Duo to Sting performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Finally, orchestras and performance venues are catering to the reality of people’s more packed and varied schedules by offering performances at non-traditional times. For example, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center offers repeat performances of some of its concerts at 9:00 pm, which offers “cabaret-style seating, a complimentary glass of wine, and engaging commentary.”

These are just some examples of the latest innovations and attempts to stave off the stuffy cliché in the classical music world. What they all have in common is that they attempt to relate to listeners who likely have not been steeped in the classical tradition since childhood–they make the music accessible to those outside their usual expected audience.

This is true of performing the scores of well-known, widely popular movies; equally popular pop songs and artists; and updating offerings for the constantly busy young professional. Of course, there are those purists who will lament these changes as the “dumbing down” of classical music for the masses–why isn’t classical music the same as it was in the “good old days”?

There are two reasons why this is a misguided reaction. First, classical music, like all art forms, has constantly changed over time. In the early days of opera, for example, audiences did not sit still in complete silence as they do at performances today–they roamed around the opera house, caught up with friends, and even ate and drank.

Going to the opera was a social occasion, not a funereal one. Second, though classical music certainly does have a history of being for the elite, particularly royalty, there have been many composers who intended their music to be for the masses, from Beethoven in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to Copland and Bernstein in the 20th.

So the latest developments in classical music are just part of the ongoing process of the genre reinventing itself. As Brian Reinhart states in a response to violinist Les Dreyer’s common complaint about declining audiences,“Classical music is not dead; it’s not even resting. The classical world is evolving.”

Sources:

● The Guardian, The New York Times, Chamber Society of New York

Monthly Archives: May 2019

MY FAVORITE CONCERT HALLS PART 1 : CARNEGIE HALL

How Classical Music Can Benefit Your Health

Sources:

Will Classical Music Make A Comeback?

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