Talking about Music

Meet Pianist and New-Music Mentor Sarah Cahill

November 30, 2020
amnadmin
AMN mentors, Composers, Piano, Talking about Music
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What better way to ring out 2020 and ring in a new year than with Sarah Cahill, a renowned pianist and advocate for new music? On Saturday, December 5, Sarah will join us via Zoom to talk about her multifaceted musical life, which spans performing, commissioning and premiering new works, writing about music, and hosting “Revolutions Per Minute,” a long-running radio program on KALW-FM in Berkeley. We chatted with Sarah via email, eager to learn more about her influences, her…

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SF Classical Voice Profiles AMN Workshops

October 8, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Community, Talking about Music, Workshops
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AMN early music workshops featured in SF Classical Voice! We were pleased to see this in-depth coverage of our Early Music for Modern Instruments series. SFCV’s article conveyed the adventure we hoped our community of musicians could travel, learning how to incorporate stylistic elements of “historically informed performance” into their playing for repertoire of the Baroque and Classical periods. Read more on the SFCV website!

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Fall in Love with Music

September 28, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Community, Talking about Music
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  At Amateur Music Network we wear the “amateur” label with pride. The word comes from Latin—remember amo, amas, amat?—and it originally meant “someone who has a love of something.” For us, it still has that meaning. Love of music is what we’re all about.Think about your own love of music. Perhaps you played with a toy xylophone or took Suzuki violin lessons or were offered a free clarinet from the school orchestra. Did you sing in the church choir? Play drums in…

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A New Way to Perform Old Music

September 12, 2020
Lolly Lewis
AMN mentors, Early Music and Period Instruments, Piano, Talking about Music, Workshops
2 Comments

This is a guest post by Nancy Friedman, an AMN volunteer. You’ve played Bach, Vivaldi, and Haydn for years on your modern instrument. But have you ever wished to play that music in historically-informed style … without investing in costly period instruments? Now you can! Throughout October, Amateur Music Network is presenting Early Music for Modern Instruments, a series of online workshops for skilled amateur musicians taught by early-music mentors Elizabeth Blumenstock (violin), Eric Zivian (piano and fortepiano), and William…

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Rufus Olivier and the Musician’s Toolbox

September 9, 2020
Lolly Lewis
AMN mentors, Talking about Music, Woodwinds
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This is a guest post by Nancy Friedman, an AMN volunteer. We hope you’ve registered for our October 10 online conversation about “the musician’s toolbox” with the accomplished and delightful Rufus Olivier Jr. A consummate musician and educator, Rufus is principal bassoonist with the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet, and a former member of the San Francisco Symphony. We chatted with him on a warm September afternoon while he was taking a break from a nonmusical activity:…

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Meet Ken Smith, Guitarist, Guitar-builder, and Singer-songwriter

September 3, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Community, Jazz and Beyond - Non-Classical Music, Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Talking about Music
8 Comments

This is a guest post by Nancy Friedman, an AMN volunteer, who writes: “I’ve known Ken Smith as a friend and a photographer for many years, and I’ve enjoyed his Instagram posts and music videos. When I learned that he’d posted a listing on the AMN website, I saw an opportunity to learn more about his musical life and to share our converstion with the AMN community.” Your listing says you’re a singer-songwriter and rhythm guitar and fingerstyle player. What…

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Meet Garrett Fischbach, Violin and Viola Teacher

June 24, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Community, Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Talking about Music
No Comments

This is a guest post by Nancy Friedman, an AMN volunteer. We were thrilled when Garrett Fischbach posted his teaching services to our online Listings. Not only does Garrett have 25 years’ experience with three of the most prestigious orchestras in the United States, but he also has a true passion for teaching adult amateurs. Furloughed along with the entire Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus since March 31, he spoke to us from his home in New York about his teaching…

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(Take me out to the) Music Game

May 9, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Chamber Music, Community, Talking about Music
One Comment

photo by Lolly Lewis They’re renovating the park across from my house. It’s a two-square-block area that includes a playground, a soccer field, and two softball diamonds. I was worried, when they really tore it all out, that they’d use the space for something else, but today it’s almost done and the softball fields, one whole square block, are getting green again. Of course, they don’t seed the field these days; they just roll out huge swaths of lawn. Well,…

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Lonely for music

April 30, 2020
Lolly Lewis
Orchestra and Symphonic Music, Talking about Music
7 Comments

I miss music. I miss going to the concert hall. I miss the anticipation, seeing the artists come onstage and get ready to play. I miss the upbeat, the intake of breath, the communal exhalation as the concert begins. I miss immersing into the sound, feeling all the molecules in the air and in my body vibrating together, resonant in rhythm and harmony and in tune with the musical mind of the players and the composer. I miss the musical…

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