Comments on: Customer Facing

By: Raymie

Raymie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:51:14 +0000

iPhone has a new app called Line2. Skype-like calling, free wifi, good for international travel I think? Here’s the link in the Times, good luck! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/technology/personaltech/25pogue.html?src=me&ref=homepage

By: Thom Swann

Thom Swann — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:02:26 +0000

Just got back from the Norwich performance of the new work, just amazing! Are you spending much time in Norwich? It’s made me pick up my old violin I haven’t played for ages and re-write all the music for my band (cello, violin, guitar et al) before our next gig tomorow..
Thankyou for all the inspiration!
Thom x

By: charles sullivan

charles sullivan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:33:45 +0000

why does tuna smell so very good when you’re eating it, and so incredibly horrible when you’re not? thanks, nico, for turning me onto owen pallett’s “twelve songs.” very grateful.

By: Ed Verbeke

Ed Verbeke — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:44:14 +0000

Nico,
I’m with Patty. I’d already copied & pasted your quote, “That tremolo may not be the most important thing in the texture at that time, but you have to play it like it is â€” otherwise, what are we all doing with our lives?”, into my FB status when I read her mentioning the same. It speaks to how life really should be viewed and lived.

Thanks yet again for sharing your inspirational writing with us through this insightful and entertaining blog.

EdV

Pittsburgh, PA

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:42:19 +0000

So great to hear a composer’s perspective! Would really be interested to have you elaborate on exactly what it is that makes a piece of music too short, too long or just right. One reads a lot about musical “architecture”, and I think I have some idea what’s meant by that (at least from a spectator’s perspective) in more classically organized pieces that have themes and development, but where does this come into play in a piece by, say, Kaja Saariaho that doesn’t necessarily give a listener traditional structures to hang onto? How does someone writing in a “minimalist” idiom decide when they’ve gone on too long or just long enough?

By: Salicional

Salicional — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:41:58 +0000

FONE PHRAUD!!!

By: Tristan

Tristan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:03:25 +0000

this reminds me of last week when i spent 9 hours on the phone over 5 days trying to track down lost luggage that contained electronic components for my installation that was to open three days later… and of course these luggage handling companies (in specific, Novia) have no reputation to maintain like the airlines do so there is absolutely 0% chance of improvement. (read: they still use telex machines to communicate inter-airport.)

By: St. Bride Library

St. Bride Library — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:23:55 +0000

Don’t miss the St. Bride Library off of Fleet Street: http://stbride.org/

By: Seriously

Seriously — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:35:00 +0000

You should have gone with O2. They are way better than Orange. (I’m an American and I have both a bank account and a legit iPhone, but I probably scored by getting the bank account bc of my school visa)

By: Chase

Chase — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:10:50 +0000

Nico– My group has been exploring your piece called “I Know Where Everything Is,” and I’ve gotta say, I think I love you… And I’m pretty sure audiences love you too. We had our first performance of it Friday night. Nice to read the thoughts on the explorations of life from the composer whose piece I’ve been working on.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:43:22 +0000

I think taking Haydn on tour is a brave choice for the same reason that ending — rather than beginning — a concert with Haydn is a brave choice – and a good one!

By: Judd

Judd — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:12:53 +0000

To the Haydn question: What Is The Point of The Tour? You’re suggesting that it should be to bring something new to Europe, and of course I agree, but I also wonder if American orchestras, especially the older ones, are still caught in a vestigial “look-we-can-do-it-too” mindset when they go Over There. That sense-of-self and especially in-relation-to-Europe is certainly where US orchestras began, and those original self-conceptualizations tend to linger, institutionally. From that perspective, doing new American music, except for something that’s passed the Euro-standard for acceptability (which Adams has), would send precisely the wrong message. And Haydn makes too much sense. As a very different example of the same kind of thing, I remember going to Carnegie to hear the Tokyo Philharmonic, back in high school, and they played the fucking Star Spangled Banner, I think as an encore. I was like, um, thank you?

By: MaPeel

MaPeel — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:40:02 +0000

Last summer I was surprised to find that the choral singing at Westminster Cathedral is as exquisite as at St. Paul’s. If you are still in London for Ash Wednesday, Westminster is singing the Byrd Emendemus in melius.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:24:54 +0000

You should try tweeting a highly curtailed and slightly more abusive version of your experience with Orange. You may well find that someone their end picks up on it (this happened to a friend of mine). By the way, I also don't understand the don't play Haydn injunction. Haydn's wonderful! It's true that large symphony orchestras don't play him well, but that's because they don't play him enough. And the discipline required to play him well can only benefit the orchestra that does so. [Nico Responds: I'm not saying don't play Haydn. <3 Haydn. Just, don't be the New York Philharmonic playing Haydn on Tour. All the effort required to do Haydn right is already being taken care of in Germany, the UK, Copenhagen, MalmÃ¶. Wouldn't it be divine if the New York Philharmonic turned up with a fantastic American piece for the same forces as Haydn 40 or whatever that was? They sounded FINE and clearly they had received a talking-to about the articulation and bow-stroke, and they sort of obeyed teacher's orders, but it was nothing compared to how great Egmont was. That was a bow-stroke with thought, heart, and mind.

By: Mab MacMoragh

Mab MacMoragh — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:19:57 +0000

Bernstein funniest English horn queef? Hahaha, I want to hear that! And strangely enough thanks to you I can hear it in my head. Sorry about your London phone imbroglio- maybe you could incorporate it into your next work though along with that sublime walk past St. Paul’s Cathedral in the winter light.