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One of my favourite jazz artists right now is Esperanza Spalding. If you have never heard of her or have never heard her, check out her youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb3MC_Hob44&list=RD022aRC3YY3svs) for some live performances and you will be blown away. Last week she was working with the students at the Banff Centre and gave a few concerts with her trio. I was lucky enough to see her Friday night concert in the basement of the Banff Centre, in a tiny venue called The Club. The place was packed full of students and faculty and other jazz lovers like myself who were lucky enough to know that the concert was taking place. My friends and I sat right in the front row, dead centre, about three feet away from Esperanza on stage. Sitting so close, I not only got an incredible acoustic experience, but I could see every glance between her and her pianist, every smile at a great chord and even watch her feet dancing to her own tunes. The music was amazing, I was blown away by the groove of her trio, how fast her fingers could get around the bass, and her beautiful singing!
What struck me the most though was how into it she was. I have never seen anyone so lost in their own musical world and enjoying every second of it. I felt like I was witnessing a private rehearsal with her group, each member experimenting and trying something new and Esperanza loved all of it. It was a series of completely natural, authentic and organic moments and all three of them were having so much fun! I was almost surprised when she spoke to the audience at the end, I had forgotten the rest of us were there. The other amazing thing about this concert is that it was FREE! If I was able to go see her concert in Calgary when she is here (June 26th at the Epcor Centre) I would pay between $40-70 for a ticket (would still be 100% worth it by the way) and would never experience something as intimate as Friday night at the Banff Centre. One of the most amazing reasons to live in Calgary is we have all these incredible, internationally renowned musicians working and studying only an hour and a half away, performing and giving concerts all the time at the Banff Centre. Not all the concerts are free, but a lot of the student performances are and if you've ever tried to get accepted to study at the Banff Centre, you know you have to be very VERY good in order to go. Check out their website regularly to see who is performing this week and definitely make the trek up there to see some amazing concerts!
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As many of you will know, I am a huge fan of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. I love going to their concerts and recently had a fantastic experience at their performance of the Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring movie score. They played the music for the entire 3 hour long movie! It was incredible, hearing my favourite score with a live Orchestra, full Chorus and the Cantare Children's Choir. I now think I'd like to see all movies performed this way - a big screen, some candy and a full Orchestra to perform the music.
For me, I get so excited when the CPO announces their new season. I can't wait to plan which concerts to go to and am so excited to see which monster pieces of Classical Repertoire they are going to play! The big ones I am most excited about next year are the Five Famous Fifths: They will be performing (at separate concerts, don't worry) Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mahler and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphonies! These are incredibly tremendous BIG works and I cannot wait to hear all of them. What other concerts am I most excited about? Probably the CPO performs Disney! Take a look at their upcoming season and definitely get your tickets right away! If you're a student of mine, let me know which concerts you are attending and we can try to arrange our tickets for the same night. There is definitely nothing better than a night out with classical music so take a friend, take your family and make a special evening of it! I hope to see you there! Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra 2013-2014 Season Just a reminder for everyone that there are no lessons this coming Monday due to the Victoria Day Holiday. I hope everyone has a great long weekend! I will be taking a nice break and going camping, hopefully it won't rain too much. Also, for the start of the long weekend, I am going to see tonight's Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performance of the Lord of the Ring's, the Fellowship of the Ring! The Orchestra will perform the score while the movie plays - should be a great night! I hope they have popcorn...
Lesson are back to normal on Tuesday, May 21st. Many of my students have begun their preparation for my upcoming Student Recital, taking place on Saturday, June 8th at St. John's Music in Calgary.
Pieces have been chosen, notes are being learned and in a little over a week, students will have their first opportunity to perform their pieces for each other at my Saturday Master Class on May 25th. This will be a great chance for those who are a little nervous to practice their performance in front of a group of peers who are just as nervous as they are! Just as with learning an instrument, learning to perform takes practice and the more often you perform in front of people, the easier it becomes! I'm very excited to watch the transformation as these works go from being sight-read to masterfully performed in only a few weeks! I will keep continue to update as the process continues.... I have now joined LinkedIn! You can view my profile and connect with me at:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/amanda-curtis/71/1/764 Also, if you ever want to check any of my other Social Media sites, you can do so by clicking the icons at the top right hand corner of my page. Another corner of the internet covered! Hello everyone!
In my quest to conquer the internet, I have now created a new Twitter account just for Amanda's Music Lessons: @amandaslessons. I will use this account to tweet out new lesson information and announcements from my studio, as well as re-tweet any exciting news about concerts and music events around Calgary. Thanks again and see you next on LinkedIn! Amanda Also new to announce today - I have a Facebook page!
If you're a Facebook member - check me out at: https://www.facebook.com/AmandasMusicLessons I will be using both this site and my Facebook page to announce any new information or schedule changes, share articles or videos related to music and details about upcoming concerts and Calgary Music Events! Be sure to check back regularly! Next up....TWITTER! Hello everyone!
Just a short announcement that I have updated the Master Class section of my website. The next Master Class will be happening on May 25th, 2013 and is a chance for students to prepare for their upcoming Recital on June 8th! If you are interested in the Master Class but not able to perform at the Recital, feel free to still attend! I hope to see you all there! |