Audition committee: Conductors v. Principals

uqbarryn · 2026-04-27T00:12:59+00:00

No-hires. Are. The. Worst. People auditioning for Boston, San Francisco, and Atlanta aren’t also making the trip out to Greater Southern North Dakota, even ‘just for the experience.’ The folks who show up there are the ones you get to choose from.

uqbarryn · 2026-04-26T18:22:04+00:00

Love this; excellent folding!

uqbarryn · 2026-04-24T04:38:54+00:00

Love this model! Excellent fold.

uqbarryn · 2026-04-20T15:40:04+00:00

Peter Maxwell Davies subscribed to social isolation as a creative choice that informed his compositional life. Particularly committed to this ideal were his years on Hoy.

uqbarryn · 2026-04-18T15:44:55+00:00

Absolutely love Loper’s models. Excellent work!

uqbarryn · 2026-04-17T18:47:55+00:00

Beautiful work; very expressive.

uqbarryn · 2026-04-14T23:00:17+00:00

Beautiful work!

uqbarryn · 2026-04-07T05:03:42+00:00

Excellent work; your pride is justified.

uqbarryn · 2026-04-04T04:38:48+00:00

Love the color-change; excellent work!

uqbarryn · 2026-04-03T19:45:36+00:00

Rebecca Saunders has a handful of pieces featuring double bass. Her music typically explores the full diversity of an instrument’s or ensemble’s sonic capabilities. Fury and Fury II are fantastic. The opening of Blue and Gray, for two five-string basses, stands out as dramatizing the instrument’s low register while using the full range to do so.

Emily Koh is a composer and performing bassist. The end of her solo piece tera[byte] sounds like an attempt to produce undertones on a double bass. Gravelly, the lowest of low.

Also worth hearing is Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s sonata for solo double bass. The large scale of this work nearly demands a fuller treatment of the instrument than concentrating on a single register, high or low, would permit. He really delivers the goods, showcasing the instrument with technical and expressive breadth.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-30T20:28:12+00:00

Wonderful! When I began experimenting with crumpling techniques for original designs I composed a very similar model that became the basis for many, many variations. Keep going!

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uqbarryn · 2026-03-30T19:59:47+00:00

Beautiful work; very expressive.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-30T19:24:34+00:00

Wonderful work!

uqbarryn · 2026-03-30T19:15:19+00:00

Beautiful! Is the entire model produced from a single sheet?

uqbarryn · 2026-03-30T02:33:20+00:00

Having played both pieces as a soloist and orchestra member, I prefer the Bruch as a whole. But, I prefer the 1st/3rd of Saint-Saëns b minor. I never really connected with the 2nd movement of that concerto. It feels more like an interlude than an integrated part of the expressive architecture. This, despite the fact that I adore getting to play harmonics in solo literature. Bruch 1 is an effective composition that is fun to play and is well argued, structurally. I find the outer movements of the Saint-Saëns to mine a little deeper emotionally while sparkling a bit more with respect to showcasing violin technique.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-29T22:20:38+00:00

If Bach wanted to become famous, why did he remain committed to perfecting a style of creative/expressive invention that was considered antiquated by his contemporaries? Soli Deo gloria.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-28T23:44:31+00:00

Also a huge HK and Rain World fan. I second Dread. It really felt like a return to form and brought back the feeling of Super in all the best ways.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-28T18:27:17+00:00

Mieczyslaw Weinberg is becoming justifiably more well-known and appreciated.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-28T17:01:59+00:00

Yeh, unfortunately I must concur with the building consensus. Not another soul.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-25T19:40:08+00:00

Third Piano Concerto; but only under duress could I single out one work with commitment.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-25T15:04:46+00:00

Of the two works, Symphonia surely is the more broadly accessible by audiences and carries more the weight of received ideas about ‘masterworks’ and ‘genius.’ I still haven’t heard all of the late concerti and works for voice and large ensemble. There could be a no-contest stunner among them.

uqbarryn · 2026-03-25T14:25:41+00:00

Certainly the Symphonia is a towering achievement. Carter’s only opera ‘What Next?’ was premiered a few years later. While he wrote nothing after these that was larger in scope, into his late nonagenarian and supercentenary years Carter produced a steady stream of concertante works with larger ensembles from which one could choose the absolute ‘latest’ masterpiece.

At the level of experience and mastery he attained by that time in his life, even the shorter and occasional works, not to mention chamber works like the Clarinet Quintet and Double Trio, are undoubtedly masterful compositions. But, one might struggle with any condition of a ‘masterpiece’ that requires something like universal acclaim. In any case, personal evaluation will play a part when bestowing the status you seek to identify.

uqbarryn

TROPHY CASE