Orchestra Quotations | Page 2

I don't think I am going to play in London with an orchestra until I can be assured that I'm getting adequate rehearsal,"" declares Kennedy. ""And if that's never, I won't play in London with an English orchestra. I'll have to bring one in from somewhere else.

He really was one of the orchestra leaders. You could really count on him to come through. He was not one to step aside. He was out in front.

Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal - the vision, the structure, the architecture.

There aren't many rests in Jennifer's concerto. She's done her homework well and knows what works. But I have to be more like a long distance runner for this concerto, while orchestra playing is more like being a sprinter.

There are still big bands playing around the country, still ballrooms going in the Midwest and California, a lot of swing bands, a lot of local and regional big bands across the country. The Glenn Miller Orchestra still travels around.

I sang 'O Holy Night' with the Vatican orchestra, but also a Blake - a lullaby that William Blake wrote for the Christ child, and I set it to music, and the Vatican orchestra played the music.

I remember when we did the Tchaikovsky (concerto), he just flew. We weren't used to that. But when we do things like that, it makes the orchestra grow.

Our Orchestra must also continue to play its leadership role in the community and in our nation. The young look to us to provide substance in place of dross, emotional depth in place of shallow titillation.

My own impression when I first heard the orchestra ? was a combination of perfection and warmth -- the perfection is not cold.

I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band.

I think if I wasn't a musician, I would be a high-school band director or orchestra director. I like working with large groups of musicians and bringing out the dynamics and accomplishing something as a team.

I think I decided to play the organ because the instrument is like an orchestra at one's fingertips.

It is extraordinary - the orchestra tells you so much about the stage and what's going on,

To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.

We really make an effort to sound exactly like the originals. The orchestra score is exact, right down to every note and instrument that was on the original recording. ... On 'A Day in the Life,' can you imagine that big orchestra crescendo happening live?

When you're that young and you play with an orchestra -- I debuted with the New York Philharmonic -- they call you a prodigy and that name sticks with you even when you're 15 or 16. What I liked even then, though, was that the conductors treated me like a colleague, not like a 'prodigy,' ... Then, when I would be invited back, it became a wonderful cycle for me: I would create friends at these places, such as New York and Berlin, and they have watched me grow up.

We wanted to help the school districts enrich their curriculum. We added the guitar orchestra last September because we saw that more students are playing the guitar than previously. Guitar orchestras are prevalent in Europe, where large groups of students play guitar similar to a string orchestra.

We can start using that building for special events on weekends and some of the upcoming holidays, maybe start a community orchestra or community choir.

The quality of the orchestra is truly outstanding. I do think they have an extraordinary kind of collective identity and esprit that's wonderful, ... The way they have contributed to bringing the orchestra back to financial health has been very laudable. They're very committed to the orchestra and the city. They're very proud of what they contribute to Pittsburgh.

We're not saying we're the pros from Dover, ... This is just something that's not being done here and it's very important. A modern and sophisticated city needs this kind of theatre in the same way that it needs a symphony orchestra or an art gallery -- to engage and inform its citizens and artists through exposure to the great works of humankind.

When we're in a state of health, the vibrations in our body sound like an orchestra playing a symphony. When we have disease, the sound is out of tune.

Remember, if you do the same act for 20, 30 years it gets a little boring unless you've got something else going for you... And the orchestra really kept you going. They'd laugh at all your jokes, even if they'd been hearing them for the last 30 years.

Over the years, I've loved being on stage with an orchestra, waving my hands around.

An Israeli who thinks that his government is doing everything right wouldn't join the Divan Orchestra in the first place.

We would do a tour into the elementary schools every year, and then we did another kind of program where upper level students were brought into E.J. Thomas for a performance. What the Children's Concert Society did was share the cost with us, so although we were just doing excerpts, we could do it in a full production sense with orchestra and costumes.

The reason Martin studied Japanese is because orchestra members teased him that he was illiterate in seven languages. He knew a little bit of French; he knew a little bit of Russian; he knew a little bit of Italian, but none well at all. They teased him, so he studied Japanese, because it was the hardest language.

The orchestra plays the first movement as usual, but there are two sportscasters narrating it as if it were a baseball game.

The orchestra matured and so many great things happened at a speed that outpaced the internal infrastructure in the organization. They're having some growing pains, and it's unfortunate when people get caught up in it.

The orchestra confides in me about their music director or their conductor, and I've never seen a conductor that's been liked by everyone.

What appeals to me about an American music directorship is the involvement of the conductor with the orchestra and the community. I think that's a fantastic thing. In Europe, being principal conductor means merely that you're the person who does most of the concerts. For me, that simply isn't enough.

We think it is a very nice way to further develop our relationship with their orchestra and their city.

This (opera) has got that, but it's got a huge range of other amazing lyrical moments, for the chorus, the orchestra and the soloists. It's the variety of the music in it that is almost the hardest thing about (conducting) it,

Bernstein's appearance with the CMF Festival Orchestra on July 20 and 21 is an act of homage. It's our grateful acknowledgment of the contribution that he made in founding the festival.

Communities define themselves by the things they hold dear, and because this community appreciates the arts, it supports its own symphony. In 1951, the orchestra held rehearsals in a school gym, and today many of our season-ticket subscribers are second-generation symphony supporters.

Andy Hull was 17 the first time I saw Manchester Orchestra play. His songwriting was way more intelligent and mature than I would expect from someone his age.

There was a band called the National Youth of Orchestra who did a version of Queen's 'We Will Rock You,' ... They were good. It was different.

There's a great difference between having 20 in an orchestra and having 70 in an orchestra. Seventy is a big sound, a symphony orchestra sort of size, and 20 is a lot more intimate, and you can hear a lot more of the individual instruments rather than the wash of symphonic sound. It depends on what you want to do.

I soon see the day where the symphony and the opera company will be doing a full opera with a full symphony orchestra in the new Performing Arts Centre,

The Royal Festival Hall, I don't know whether it was 80 or 70, gave a whole festival of my music there with orchestra and everything. String quartets.

The show is an extension of our mission statement. This is taking us one step further in developing young professional musicians, so for me it?s in between the youth orchestra and children?s choir and the Missouri Symphony Orchestra.

Same, just the same. Nine pieces ---- a trumpet, two trombones, reed, congas, drums, piano and vocalist. That's what a Latin jazz orchestra should be.

People ask if we made this kind of record with an orchestra because of the classics and I say no, it's made up of the music I had stuffed into my ears as a kid,

A smaller core orchestra must be part of any mediated solution.

This is an important milestone both for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the American orchestra industry. For the first time, an American orchestra is making available its archives on iTunes and other commercial download sites, finally realizing the promise of the groundbreaking AF of M (American Federation of Musicians) Internet Agreement of 2000.

Acceptance into the All State band, chorus or orchestra is the only criteria for this honor.

It's just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.

It's a big Vegas-style finale, with the entire orchestra onstage and the lights going into the house. We want energy washed over the house.

It's like the whole world is this orchestra and I'm the conductor,

It seats 1,100 and the stage itself is almost big enough by itself to fit the whole orchestra on. We are very excited about it. It has multi-media capabilities with screens on either side of the stage.

It's funny, but to me, when you go to a concert hall and hear electronic pieces from the '60s, I think they sound really dated. But when an orchestra plays a piece from that period, and it's going to sound different every time, it feels more modern to me.

Cynthia's violin is beautiful. Her father is a trustee on the Cape Symphony Orchestra board, so we know her work very well and it's beautiful.

The Norris is delighted to present the West Suburban Symphony Orchestra and Singers. This concert not only showcases one of the finest classical ensembles in the Chicago area, but it offers the local community a perfect way to observe the historic milestone of Mozart's 250th birthday.

It's such an important work in the development of opera as an art form - the orchestra is not just accompanying, it's playing a big part in telling the story.

The best part of the high school in Hastings must have been the Music Department. Its orchestra and concert band did well in county competitions, and the dance band formed by its students was the best in the region. I played lead trumpet in all of them.

The beauty of Janice?s gift was that there were no restrictions. But we, in a sense, created a restriction because we wanted to honor her for this quite amazing gift. But not just buying a new set of orchestra chairs but by creating an event that would honor her gift and put the Missouri Symphony Orchestra on the map, above and beyond having a great summer music festival, and see where it goes from here.

It's different for people who have not seen a symphony conductor conduct from a chair. I feel very connected to the orchestra in a way that a conductor sometimes does not feel. I think it's more visceral.

I've had students who have not been really excited about the orchestra program that have decided they're going to practice an hour a day.

Oh, my God, ... I remember I had a great time. It was a great orchestra with many young, fresh players. I also remember too many good restaurants and too many late nights.

They become the second-largest donor to the orchestra behind the Fund for the Arts. It sure shows their loyalty to the 71 they were basically willing to put their money where their loyalty was.

They couldn't show people what they were really doing, because what they were really doing was illegal and inhumane, ... It's such a fraud. It reminds me of the special concentration camps set up in World War II. They would take the Red Cross there to see there was an orchestra and all sorts of nice things.

They just jumped into the orchestra pit, put baby oil on themselves and called it water. Obviously, today we have much better resources. You want to see the splash, but you don't want to see the water. You want it to be a surprise to the audience and not reality. Reality is kind of not very magical.

There's too much of an opportunity for indoctrination here. What a young person could gain from working as a team and something like that would be better learned on an athletic team or playing in an orchestra or a band.

As you know, we have been struggling recently to keep our non-profit symphony orchestra afloat in the midst of a changing community and cultural environment. Symphony operational costs have risen and our donations and sponsorships are down sharply.

Their challenge is to become a good corporate citizen, which means not always being the star of the show but being a supporting player. That might mean sometimes standing under the spotlight; at other times it means taking a seat in the orchestra pit.

I kept thinking, 'How do you make a modern musical?' Then it became clear that I could do it just like a small indie art-house movie, very naturalistically. I could create a world where it's o.k. to break into song, without an orchestra coming up out of nowhere.

I love the way Monteverdi's opera embodies the triumph of evil love in such a luscious way. The closing love duet is just pure amoral, liquid passion. The Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment sound great in the Albert Hall, and the Glyndebourne cast is fabulous.

I loved the orchestra from the beginning, ... In addition to allowing me to play, it soon evolved into a volunteer outlet for me.

I mean, the great secret is that an orchestra can actually play without a conductor at all. Of course, a great conductor will have a concept and will help them play together and unify them.

I'm very interested in the color of sound. And I'm very interested in the juxtaposition of different things, ethnic instruments juxtaposed with symphonic instruments, and I'm interested in the ancient and the modern. I don't know why, but it has always been something that's fascinated me, from when I first heard a symphony orchestra I wanted to know how those sounds were made.

In the restaurant business, as opposed to the theater, center orchestra is an 8 P. M. reservation. Orchestra on the side is 7 or 8:30. Mezzanine is 6 and 9. But people don't take it personally when they call the theater and can't get what they want.

Being a cover conductor is really like being an assistant conductor because I'm there as the orchestra rehearses with the (full-time) conductor. I'm there following along (on the score) and watching. It's just incredible to be around one of the best orchestras in the world.

But it is also so exciting, because it allows us to really address the fundamental artistic direction of the orchestra for the coming years.

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing

The very day I purchased it, I christened my guitar as my monophonic symphony, six string orchestra.

I don't think many people noticed it. You couldn't hear it because the orchestra was also playing.

I didn't play it with the Florida Orchestra but with its predecessor, the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, under Irwin Hoffman in 1980. It has been a long and very nice association.

I often play on the cello-bass side of the orchestra, because I prefer the deep sounds. I can't hear the violins well.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra, not choreography to the audience.

My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony.

Someone came too sooner.

Start three bars before something.

Start at B. Yes. No. Yes. No.

Did you play? It sounded very good.

After two minutes after this time, and I am already there.

This is one bar you should take home.

Something went wrong. It was correct when I studied it.

That's the way it was every time I studied it.

During the rests - pray.

It has no rhythm, but it will because it's so much faster.

I don't get into politics, general or musical, but just call me if you get jury duty. Even in New Jersey I was able to help somebody.

It's hot as hell as can be.

I was trying to help you, so I was beating wrong.

I am thinking it right but beating it wrong.

The next movement is still in the factory.

Suddenly I was in the right tempo - but it wasn't.

Don't ever follow me, because I am difficult.

Watch me closely - only one can spoil it.

More basses, because you are so far away.

I need one more bass less.