A lot of us are trying to find new ways of presenting music to audiences our age and younger.  There’s a lot of that going on in San Francisco these days.  Recently Joshua Kosman reviewed a concert with the New Century Chamber Orchestra and conductor Paul Haas and his REWIND format. In one week (February 1), SF Symphony resident conductor Benjamin Swartz, composer/DJ Mason Bates and stage designer Anne Patterson present a happening called Mercury Soul.  I’m terribly sad that I won’t be in town to hear/see it. I know that all involved have poured their hearts into it.  If you’re in San Francisco, check it out; if you’re not, have a look at the website, and get a taste of things to come in our beloved artform.

By the way - Mason will be joining me in Kitchener-Waterloo next year on my “new format” concert series, INTERSECTIONS.

This week — working with the Hubbard St. Dance Company and the CSO, and doing Mahler 1 with Civic. The orchestra (Civic) has been prepared for me. That’s a first!

Used some of the hotel downtime to catch up with some friends. Had an awesome conversation with Owen Lee, who is principal bass of the Cincinnati Symphony, and my stand partner from Santa Monica High School. He describes himeself as an “enthusiast” and it’s always fun to hear what he’s raving about.

One thing (person) he’s really into is Paavo Järvi, his orch’s music director. Paavo invited him to play some Beethoven Symphonies with his German orchestra, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, at Carnegie a little while ago. He loved it, and he turned me on to this YouTube clip from a concert in Japan.

Damn.

Ok, it’s fast — but the focus, virtuosity, and instensity of the orchestra — the sforzandi in particular — are stunning. It’s like listening to Count Baise. Or James Brown. Why don’t more orchestras play like this? According to Owen, Paavo’s doing great work in Cincinnati too. I’d love to hear that orchestra again, it’s been a while.

After a rollicking performance of Symphonie fantastique and Lélio excerpts, Michael Tilson Thomas and Joshua Robison invited all the conductors in town over for dinner. Seven showed up. It was unusual to have so many conductors under one roof, along with author Amy Tan (who also admitted to waving a chopstick to music when she was young — who knew?). In attendance: MTT, Ragnar Bohlin, James Gaffigan, Peter Grunberg, Alasdair Neale, Benjamin Shwartz, and myself.

There was

food;

some piano four hands ( a really interesting Schubert Rondo/Polonaise, that went in all sorts of harmonic directions, played by MTT and Peter Grunberg);

catching up on the Howard Stern/Z’s conflict (MTT: “Howard’s 50 years late on that one”);

The Cambridge folks reminisced about the Cambridge University Music Society (C.U.M.S. — yes, really, hahaha);

memories of Stockhausen (Beni Shwartz studied with him, and recalled that his 75th birthday was a celebrity gala sponsored by RED BULL, which ultimately horrified the composer — MTT recalled a comment from him after one his works to the effect “That was very lovely, but it really had nothing to do with what I composed …” — MTT recounted another story about a very famous pianist who saw a woman backstage with an enormous Stockhausen score and asked her “what are you doing with that crap?” to which she replied “well, he’s my father!”);

an around the campfire moment where MTT asked the conductors to recount their first conducting experience (Alasdair Neale: “So there I was, conducting for the first time — they asked me to run this woodwind sectional with people much older and more experienced than I was and I had absolutely nothing to say.” MTT: “So did you remain silent, or say something anyway?” ***this is a gold-star moment that every conductor has experienced at one point of another (even ones with a lot to say)***);

Conducting is such a lonely profession in so many ways, after all, it’s just you up there. So it was nice to get together. A very San Francisco thing, really — musicans, writers, artists all get together from time to time and just hang out around here. It’s a small town like that, but without the small-town rivalries.

As fun as the conductor dinner was, it couldn’t compare to the SUPER NERD dinner last year at MTT’s with MTT, Joshua, Christian Tetzlaff, Robin Holloway, and yours truly. The conversation was truly out there. I mean really — outer space. The highlight was to hear Tetzlaff try to convince Robin to listen to Queen, though Robin was too busy singing the praises of Delibes to notice.

While in Wales, I learned that my friend and colleague, Kenneth Woods, has an awesome blog. It’s read by quite a few people and was even featured in a recent issue of Gramaphone Magazine. He’s one of the only conductors I know who is blogging like I am! You can find it HERE.

Just landed in Hong Kong for two weeks of concerts. I think this is my fifth time back. It feels like my home base in Asia.

Before I left SF, I got to see “Legally Blonde - The Musical,” with music and lyrics by my friends Larry O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. It’s a really fun time - clever, catchy, energetic, and VERY funny. If you’re in SF, I strongly recommend that you check it out before it heads to Broadway. You won’t be disappointed.

Meanwhile Nathaniel Stookey is deep in his residency at San Francsico Recycling & Disposal (aka the dump). Instead of the usual sculptor artists-in-residence, the dump has commissioned Mr. Stookey to creat a JUNKESTRA. More soon.

Also, Matthew Cmiel, the man behind Formerly Known as Classical, came by for a conducting lesson. He showed me a very convincing performance of Adams’s Shaker Loops, and he knew the score cold. Rock on.