Missed concerts
Well, I had thought that I would probably go to the MIT Symphony Orchestra concert last Friday night, and the Boston Chamber Music Society concert on Sunday, but I flaked out. Friday night I was feeling very sleepy at work and before I realized it, it was already past when the concert would have started. I had totally forgotten about it the whole day. And I’d made plans for Sunday night with friends, so there went the BCMS concert too. I been wanting to hear them play the Chausson piano quartet. And the MITSO concert also sounded like it would have been great, with a tango piece by Piazzola plus some Gershwin and Bartok. Bleh. Practically-free concerts, with great programs, and I have to go and miss them. At least I got to see the BSO play a week or two ago.
There are so many great classical performing groups in Boston, it’s a shame I don’t make it to more concerts. Some of the reason I don’t is that the season for concerts is mostly in the winter, when I least feel like going out. I’m sure I would make it to more if they were in the summer. I know, there’s always Tanglewood, but a three-hour drive in each direction makes it less than ideal. Also, it can be a pain in the neck trying to get to Symphony Hall or Jordan Hall. Street parking is impossible to find and garage parking is ridiculously expensive, so I end up parking over in Cambridge and catching the Number 1 bus over into Boston. Of course then I have to make sure to give myself plenty of time to get there, and that’s not always the easiest thing for me, especially after work.
March 16th, 2004 at 10:27 am
Hi, came across your site through The Man In Blue… I’m a graduate of New England Conservatory of music, haven’t been to Boston in years. Are there still free concerts in Jordan Hall on Wednesday nights?
March 16th, 2004 at 12:08 pm
Hi Hasan, I’m not really sure. I think maybe the only NEC concert I’ve been to was a performance of the NEC Philharmonia (is that the right name?) last year playing Mahler 5 (MIT’s conductor, Dante Anzolini, conducted there the year he was on sabattical from MIT). But this year, at least, I have chamber music coachings on Wednesday anyway, so I couldn’t make concerts then if I wanted to.
What instrument do you play? (I play viola.) Do you play professionally?
March 16th, 2004 at 4:15 pm
Lol, i play viola! I studied violin with E. Rosenblith, then started adding viola and barely touch the little fiddle anymore. I made a living for a long time as a musician, but never got hired full-time with a top-level symphony (principle viola, Anaapolis MD, substitute, Baltimore S.O.) I burnt out and am trying other things now. Acually, I’ve barely started learning HTML, want to help me out? Groovy Newbie
March 16th, 2004 at 5:38 pm
Hey, your site looks great - especially for a newbie! You picked a good time to start learning HTML, what with the big movement towards semantic markup and standards - you don’t have to worry about getting into bad habits with tables and such! I’ve been through it all, myself, starting in 1994 creating my very first little homepage freshman year in college.
Glad to meet another violist! I’m afraid I don’t know of E. Rosenblith. I studied with Marcus Thompson while I was at MIT (and still get coached by him for chamber music). I would really love to play professionally, but I know there’s so much competition out there that I probably wouldn’t have a chance, plus software engineering pays a lot better!