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AMN mentors Early Music and Period Instruments Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass Talking about Music Workshops

Meet cello mentor Bonnie Hampton

San Francisco cello legend Bonnie Hampton says her chamber music instincts evolved early: Although she began playing piano at age 4, “I wanted to play with other people so that’s why I wanted to start on the cello.” And she remembers that “it was a big thrill when I started working on that Prelude (of the first Bach suite). That was a big day in my life!”

Bonnie calls the 20th century “the Cello Century.” That’s when the cello emerged as a solo instrument and saw a huge growth in popularity, and particularly for solo performance. She says that there’s just something about that one person on stage; the audience’s attention is naturally concentrated in a way that brings everyone deeply into the music itself.

“As a cellist,” she says, “if there’s one thing that I want to be able to achieve in my life, it’s being able to play these works as well as I can. Because they symbolize something that is so pure, musically, for the cello.

“Bach is our granddaddy! He expressed everything. It was the language of his day, but it has all of the passion, all the love, and of course the religious and spiritual side of things – just everything!”

Join Bonnie on April 5 to learn more about her passion for the cello and for Bach!

Learn more in this preview video!

ATTEND ONLINE

Online participants will be part of the conversation, adding questions and comments in real time. And all registered participants will receive a video link to the workshop recording.

Tickets are $20.

DATES, TIMES, AND TOPICS

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 1 – Oliver Herbert

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 5 – Robert Howard

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 2 – Jean-Michel Fonteneau

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 6 – William Skeen

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 4 – Bonnie Hampton

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 3 – Stephen Harrison

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AMN mentors Early Music and Period Instruments Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass Talking about Music Workshops

Cello mentor William Skeen uses his inside voice

For William Skeen, it’s all about the tone quality.

As a period instrument specialist, Bill is used to having to coax the sound out of his cello. “It’s just more difficult on gut strings,” he explains. “You work on resonance, and you don’t have vibrato as an extra tool to warm up the sound, so you have to do it all yourself while working with these strings which are very temperamental.” With period-accurate equipment it’s also much harder to stay in tune. So why would someone want to make a career in period instrument performance at all?

Bill was drawn to the intimacy of the sound and performance style. “Yo-Yo Ma goes to the Hollywood Bowl and plays (the Bach suites) for 20,000 people! You have to have a certain (kind of) tone to do that. But these Baroque instruments are naturally suited to a very small room. When I play these pieces I prefer to keep them intimate and use my inside voice.”

Learn more in this preview video!

To learn more about period instruments, check out our blog post “A New Way to Perform Old Music.”

ATTEND ONLINE

Online participants will be part of the conversation, adding questions and comments in real time. And all registered participants will receive a video link to the workshop recording.

Tickets are $20.

DATES, TIMES, AND TOPICS

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 1 – Oliver Herbert

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 5 – Robert Howard

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 2 – Jean-Michel Fonteneau

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 6 – William Skeen

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 4 – Bonnie Hampton

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 3 – Stephen Harrison

Categories
AMN mentors Early Music and Period Instruments Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass Talking about Music Workshops

Bach’s breadcrumbs: listening for interpretive clues

AMN is partnering with San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Continuing Education Division to present the IMAGINE! workshop series. This is a guest post by our creative partner Michael Roest, Associate Dean & Executive Director of Pre-College and Continuing Education.

Mike spoke with the eminent French cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau who will explore Bach’s dark yet beautiful Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor on March 22.

I had the opportunity to chat with Jean-Michel by zoom to learn more about his personal relationship to this particular suite, which started in his early teens, and how it has evolved over time. We also talked about the various “breadcrumbs” that Bach leaves in his music which give us clues “about what to do,” From exploring manuscripts to studying the dance forms, Jean-Michel explains what kind of detective work he does to better understand and perform the suites.

I have seen firsthand how Jean-Michel has helped students–collegiate and pre-collegiate–navigate these suites and start their own lifelong journey with these pieces. Our conversation on Tuesday will undoubtedly help us all find more ways to look at these suites. I look forward to spending time with Jean-Michel and Lolly at the Bowes Center for Performing Arts at SFCM to take a deep dive into the second suite. I hope that you will join us! 

Learn more in this preview video!

ATTEND ONLINE

Online participants will be part of the conversation, adding questions and comments in real time. And all registered participants will receive a video link to the workshop recording.

Tickets are $20.


DATES, TIMES, AND TOPICS

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 1 – Oliver Herbert

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 5 – Robert Howard

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 2 – Jean-Michel Fonteneau

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 6 – William Skeen

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 4 – Bonnie Hampton

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 3 – Stephen Harrison

Categories
AMN mentors Early Music and Period Instruments Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass Talking about Music Workshops

Cello mentor Robert Howard on gut strings, sound quality, and the pandemic

I’m too Baroque for the modern people and too modern for the Baroque people,” says cellist Robert Howard, who has played regularly with both Philharmonia Baroque and San Francisco Symphony, as well as many other ensembles from the Bay Area to Lincoln Center and beyond.

Robert will join us on March 15 to share Bach’s 5th cello suite in our second session of Six Suites in Six Weeks.

Robert’s longtime interest in period instrument performance has informed his playing in many ways, even when he’s playing on modern equipment. By learning how to use the Baroque bow and learning the responsiveness of gut strings, he came to realize how much it’s all about sound quality. “Once you know how it works you can emulate that on any equipment.”

Robert joined AMN founder Lolly Lewis for a Zoom interview recently where he shared his enthusiasm and deep respect for Bach, and he reflected on how Bach sustained him through the pandemic. Take a look and then join us on May 15!

ATTEND ONLINE

Online participants will be part of the conversation, adding questions and comments in real time. And all registered participants will receive a video link to the workshop recording.

$100 for six sessions, $20 for single sessions


DATES, TIMES, AND TOPICS

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 1 – Oliver Herbert

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 5 – Robert Howard

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 2 – Jean-Michel Fonteneau

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 6 – William Skeen

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 4 – Bonnie Hampton

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Pacific

     Suite no. 3 – Stephen Harrison

Categories
Community Talking about Music

Celebrating 50 years with Blue Bear

We were just doing this while we were waiting for the band to get famous,” says Steve Savage, who founded the Blue Bear Waltzes School of Music in 1971 with friend Steve Strauss and their colleagues in the rock band Wolfgang and Strauss. And now, 50 years and 40,000 students later, Blue Bear School of Music is a San Francisco institution.

A percussionist, recording engineer/producer, and musicologist, Steve is an avid student of how the very technology that has advanced our access to hearing music – recorded performance – has pushed active music-making to the sidelines. Before the ubiquity of recorded music, for most people music was something you DID, not just listened to. Recordings could be edited to achieve an artificial sense of perfection, making music more intimidating for amateurs to attempt. And over time, that division between being a musician and being a listener has widened dramatically.

With his own roots in rock, Savage sees playing in a band as a natural, welcoming path for amateur musicians. Blue Bear supports everyone who want to learn to play and sing for the joy of it, whatever their skill level or past experience.

Amateur Music Network loves this, of course, and we salute Blue Bear School of Music and wish them another successful 50 years – and many more!

Watch the whole interview with Steve and AMN founder Lolly Lewis in this video.

Blue Bear Executive Director Steve Savage, Ph.D., a Blue Bear founder and current President of the Board of Trustees, is an active producer and recording engineer and has been the primary engineer on seven records that received GRAMMY nominations, including CDs for Robert Cray, John Hammond, The Gospel Hummingbirds and Elvin Bishop.  He is former Chapter President and National Trustee of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy and teaches in the Humanities Department at San Francisco State University.  Steve has a Ph.D. in musicology from The University of London and has three recently published books: Mixing and Mastering in the Box from Oxford University Press, The Art of Digital Audio Recording from Oxford University Press, and Bytes & Backbeats: Repurposing Music in the Digital Age from The University of Michigan Press.  Steve also sits on the board of Spirit Series, which is a drama-based character education curriculum that brings inspirational biographies to life.  More at stevesavage.net.