NPT Arts Break: Nashville Symphony: Grand Re-opening Concert with Itzhak Perlman

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We're Back (mostly!)

The entire administrative staff moved back into their Schermerhorn Symphony Center offices yesterday after almost 8 months of flood-related displacement. WSMV was on hand with cameras to capture some of the move, as well as some of the concert hall's fine tuning. The center's box office is now open, and the fences surrounding the hall will be coming down soon!

Click here to view the WSMV story.

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More Grammy Nominations for the Nashville Symphony

The Nashville Symphony's recording of Michael Daugherty's Metropolis Symphony and his piano concerto, Deus Ex Machina, was nominated for five Grammy Awards, as announced last night. The orchestra, Music Director and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, pianist Terrence Wilson, composer Daugherty and album's engineers -- Mark Donahue, John Hill and Dirk Sobotka -- were honored in the categories of "Best Classical Album," "Best Orchestral Performance," "Best Instrumental Soloist (with Orchestra)," "Best Classical Contemporary Composition" and "Best Engineered Album (Classical)." What's more, the album's producer, Blanton Alspaugh, is nominated for "Producer of the Year." Congratulations to all!

If you don't already own this album, I highly suggest picking up a copy from our Naxos Direct store.

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Ben Folds is Serious....

Ben Folds is serious about rebuilding the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, even if he does like goofing around on the Internet (Nashville Scene)

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Thanksgiving Sale

$20 Tickets!

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Rob Bironas Kicks Off Music Mobile Project!

Rob Bironas, placekicker for the Tennessee Titans, presented a major gift from the Rob Bironas Fund, a component fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. This contribution kicks off Nashville Symphony’s new Music Mobile project. The Music Mobile is a rolling music activity center featuring an “Instrument Petting Zoo” filled with classical, country and bluegrass instruments. Children and adults alike will also share music-making experiences, live music demonstrations and multi-media instrument exhibits. “Children, when introduced to music, are more likely to succeed in school and in life,” Bironas says. “Applying the same commitment to mastering an instrument can be as challenging as attaining touchdowns on a football field. I am proud to be a part of this project.” The Music Mobile will become one of the many learning opportunities offered through the Nashville Symphony’s commitment to music education. Last year, the Nashville Symphony served more than 170,000 children and families through music education and community engagement activities. Goals for this ambitious project are to provide children with a hands-on introduction to instruments; to bring music activities to community locations; to serve as the region's instrument lending library for at-risk youth; to inspire and motivate participants to pursue musical studies; and to bring music education to underserved populations with this “musical field-trip on wheels.”

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Unfortunate News

Just heard that Thomas Hampson had to cancel his NSO appearances this weekend due to illness. But, turning lemons into lemonade, we'll be performing Mozart's Symphony 40 in the place of Danielpour's Songs of Solitude. Here's a preview:

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Thomas Hampson this Weekend!

I know a lot of you are excited to hear the orchestra perform Stravinsky's masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, this weekend at TPAC. You may not know it, but the first half of the concert - featuring the music of composer Richard Danielpour - will be recorded each evening for a future Naxos CD release. Much of Danielpour's work embodies his distinctive American sound, and indeed many of his compositions are influenced by American authors and themes.

It's fitting, therefore, that the NSO, whose own rich history of recording American music has earned it three Grammy Awards, will be collaborating with the great American baritone, Thomas Hampson. Hampson has been a force in the world of classical music since he won the famed "Met Competition" almost 30 years ago. It's hard to imagine a more popular and revered singer working today. He'll be singing Danielpour's Songs of Solitude, a piece written for the baritone.

If you don't have tickets to these concerts, I urge you to purchase them today and lend your applause to what promises to be another great Nashville Symphony recording.

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Typical Friday

Most Fridays at the Nashville Symphony offices feature a visit from a giant bird of some type. Today was rooster day. Happy birthday, Kristy!

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Rebuilding Update - Getting there!

I just popped over to the Schermerhorn to take a look a the rebuilding efforts. Things certainly look a lot more complete since the last time I was there. The air handlers have arrived and are being installed in segments. It's a monumental task; when the Schermerhorn was original built, the air handlers were installed first so that the rest of the building could be constructed around them!

I also stopped by the kitchen, which had to be completely rebuilt. I was pleased to see that it too is coming together. In fact, there were a few snazzy new appliances already in place. The Food and Beverage team selected top of the line products from Electrolux to help them create the gourmet dining experience our patrons have come to expect. They are excited, and so am I!

Another kitchen shot:

Underneath Laura Turner Concert Hall, our chair wagon storage area - whose floor buckled due to the immense hydrostatic pressure from the flood - is showing signs of life. Here's a shot of the staircase used to get to the stage from our flat floor seating being built in this room. The original was a total loss.

I also saw some seats here:
Finally, no trip to the Schermerhorn worksite would be complete without seeing something completely unexpected. I snagged this pic of an engineer standing on top of the elevator near the musicians lounge.


Onward and upward!

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YOUR REVIEWS - Brahms Second

Did you attend the Brahms Second concert at Lipscomb? If so we'd love to hear about your experience. Please submit your review of this concert in the comments section of this posting.

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Spring For Music - New Site

In case you haven't heard, we're going to Carnegie Hall next season as part of the second annual Spring For Music festival. The festival features concerts by North American orchestras, who are selected based on proposals which showcase each orchestra's artistic philosophies through distinctive and creative programming. You can read all about Spring For Music on its newly redesigned website; you can even comment and rate the programing proposals of the 2013 applicants. Check it out!

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YOUR REVIEWS - Gershwin "Here to Stay"

Did you attend the Gershwin concert at Lipscomb? If so we'd love to hear about your experience. Please submit your review of this concert in the comments section of this posting.

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Karaoke with Jewel

I came across this Funny or Die video, where Jewel dons a disguise and sings her own songs undercover at a karaoke bar. I guess I was the last person to see this; it's been viewed so much that TBS is making a pilot out of the idea! Enjoy, and don't miss Jewel doing "live karaoke" with the NSO next month.

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

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Groupon Today!

Get them while they're hot (or still here).

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We're Back - New Year's Eve at the Schermerhorn!

Some great news that you might have already heard about, we're going to be back in Schermerhorn Symphony Center beginning with a just-announced concert on New Year's Eve! We're also thrilled the Itzhak Perlman will be interrupting his vacation in Florida to join us for the occasion. The program is being ironed out as I type, but I can share with you some details that I know of:

Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town”, Leonard Bernstein
Blue Tango, Leroy Anderson
Plink, Plank, Plunk!, Leroy Anderson
The Syncopated Clock, Leroy Anderson
Overture to “Die Fledermaus”, Johann Strauss, Jr.
On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Johann Strauss, Jr.
Thunder and Lightning Polka, Johann Strauss, Jr.
Radetzky March, Johann Strauss, Sr.

More to come!

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Home for the Holidays with Martina McBride!

This just in, Martina McBride is joining the NSO and conductor Albert-George Schram for our "Home for the Holidays" concert December 10. If the cooler weather hasn't yet, I bet this video will begin to put you in the holiday spirit!

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YOUR REVIEWS - Michael McDonald

Did you attend the Michael McDonald concert at Lipscomb? If so we'd love to hear about your experience. Please submit your review of this concert in the comments section of this posting.

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Ben Folds VIP Update

Well, Ben's fans are coming out in droves, and we've sold a good number of tickets to his benefit already. In fact, someone has already swooped up the $800 seats to sit on stage with Ben and the orchestra. Tomorrow morning tickets, which start at $55, go on sale to the general public.

Grab 'em while you can!

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YOUR REVIEWS - Watts Plays Beethoven

Did you attend the Watts Plays Beethoven concert at Lipscomb? If so we'd love to hear about your experience. Please submit your review of this concert in the comments section of this posting.

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Your Reviews

We had a long discussion this morning about how to most effectively leverage social media outlets in spreading the word about all that we do at the Nashville Symphony. One of the ideas was to solicit and publish NSO concert reviews from our patrons. Starting today, I will be creating a entry each Friday morning of a SunTrust Classical and Bank of America Pops weekend to collect your reviews. To participate, simply add your review in the comments section of the corresponding entry. The Watts Plays Beethoven post is now up and ready for your review!

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Ben Folds Benefit Announced

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds has announced that he will perform a benefit concert for the Nashville Symphony's flood recovery efforts and some of the area's volunteer firemen on November 27 at TPAC. The concert, Keys to Music City, will conclude Folds' current tour in support of his newest release, Lonely Avenue.

The flood happened in a matter of hours, but digging out of it will take years,” Folds says. “This concert is an effort to help keep the recovery in the front of our minds and to help restore our great symphony hall. Of course, a donation to our first responders like our volunteer firemen is in order too, because without them the Middle Tennessee community would have lost so much more.”

Tickets to this concert will go on sale Friday, September 17 at 10 a.m. to Symphony donors and subscribers and to Ben Folds Fan Club members. They go on sale to the general public exactly a week later. Tickets start at $55, but those interested in a once-in-a-lifetime experience may purchase a special ticket package — limited to two people —that includes two seats on the stage and a post-concert meet-and-greet with the artist for $800.

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We're still here!

Please forgive the lack of blogging over the last few weeks! The lull has been caused not by a lack of blogworthy news, but rather by a new addition to this blogger's family!

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Flood of Support Update

You may remember the generosity of Marc van Bree, who used his blog and other social networks to raise money for the Nashville Symphony's flood recovery. While Marc was unable to reach his (admittedly arbitrary) goal of $1,000 (one dollar for each of his Twitter followers), his efforts resulted in a much appreciated $235 for the NSO. This figure is particularly impressive, since Marc exclusively used his social networks to raise the funds.

Using social networks to aid in non-profit fundraising is becoming hot topic in our industry, and Marc's post mortem on the campaign is becoming fodder for bloggers around the country.

Marc, the Nashville Symphony is grateful for all of your hard work. Please feel free to experiment on us like this anytime!

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STOS Deals!

As promised, I have specific info on our August 14 Single Ticket On-Sale day (STOS) special offers. STOS is the first opportunity for non-season ticket holders to purchase tickets to the 10/11 season. In years past we've invited the public to purchase STOS tickets in-person at the Schermerhorn, but given our situation, we're going to hold the event exclusively online and over the phone this year.

$20 Tickets from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
So what's the big deal that day? From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on August 14, you can purchase special $20 tickets for most of our fall concerts! Choose from:

• Beethoven’s Ninth on September 10-11
• Michael McDonald on September 23-25
• David Sanborn with Joey DeFrancesco on October 10
• Gershwin "Here to Stay" on October 14-16
• Brahms Second Piano Concerto on October 21-23
  
• The Rite of Spring on November 4-6
• Jewel on November 11-13
• Beethoven and Schubert on November 18-20
• Home for the Holidays on December 10
  
• Handel’s Messiah on December 16-18

Bonus!
As a bonus, for every $100 you spend, you will receive $10 in credit to be used for future 10/11 season ticket purchases.

How to purchase
All 2010/11 season tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on August 14. Purchase them on our website, or over the phone at 615.687.6400. Remember, the $20 tickets are only available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CST on August 14 and are in limited quantity, so make sure you shop early.

Let us know if you have questions. Thanks!

-Jared

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Tickets On Sale Soon

Single Tickets for all 2010/11 events will be going on sale Saturday, August 14 at 10 a.m. There's going to be some really great deals available online and over the phone. I'll have more on this in the coming days, but wanted you to know as soon as I did.

-Jared

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More Schermerhorn Recovery Photos

Alan Valentine is giving a presentation to the Nashville Downtown Partnership tomorrow, and I've been asked to put together a photo slideshow to be shown during his talk. I already had access to some of photographer Alan Poizner's dramatic shots from the video we created, but I hadn't been inside the Schermerhorn since the flood. Yesterday afternoon I took my camera, grabbed a hardhat and went down to the basement and subbasement of the building to capture the images below. While my photos certainly don't do it justice, I was awestruck and how complex these areas of the building are. At times I felt like I was on the set of Aliens with massive electrical cables and huge temporary air ducts protruding everywhere. Have a look for yourself:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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Our "One Man Arts Education Industry"

Mitchell Korn, our esteemed VP of Education and Community Engagement and a man whom the Wall Street Journal called a "one man arts education industry," will be leading an eight-week adult learning class at Vanderbilt this fall. The class, New Ears: Developing Your Musical Sensitivity, is described below:

"An engaging and participatory discussion of classical repertoire and the Nashville Symphony season. Discussions are timed to explore upcoming Nashville Symphony Orchestra programs. They focus upon listening skills, the composer’s personal and artistic thinking, social and cultural factors, and the pure enjoyment of music."

If you are a music lover looking to delve deeper into our 2010/11 Season, I highly suggest you register for Mitchell's class. You can do so by visiting the Vanderbilt website and downloading the Pre-College & Adult Course brochure.

-Jared

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Classical Music's New Golden Age

Check out this great article from Heather Mac Donald, the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, on living in Classical Music's "New Golden Age." Enjoy!

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U Txt?

We talk here a lot about how best to utilize social media and technology to communicate with current and (hopefully) future patrons and supporters of the Nashville Symphony. We've had our Facebook and Twitter presence for a few years and have used these media to engage our public with a good deal of success. This blog is yet another avenue in our non-traditional (for orchestras at least) communications effort. I wanted to share a few other ideas that have been floating around here, and would love to hear what you think.

A mobile-friendly version of our website - This is one project on my shortlist, and while it has some significant technical hurdles to jump, the benefits are obvious.

An iPhone, Blackberry or Android app - I love the idea of a specific app for the iPhone, which constitutes almost 30% (and growing) of all smart phone ownership. Android phones are also on the rise, and Blackberrys are here-to-stay; we could potentially develop specific apps for these platforms too. Besides informational and ticket purchasing functionality, these apps could one day allow us to present Nashville Symphony audio and video to our fans in an easy-to-consume fashion.

Text messaging - As an opt-in, respectfully used way of communicating emergency concert information (cancellations, major traffic issues, etc...) or even last-minute deals, I feel many patrons might prefer to get small bursts of info from us via text. What do you think?

Would you like/use any of these services if offered by the NSO? Are you reading this blog on your smart phone right now? Do you communicate with other businesses via text?

-Jared

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More For Our "Zoo"

Some terrific news today. Mr. Tommy L. Turner, an accomplished musician and lifelong member of the Jacksonville chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, presented the Nashville Symphony with four family heirlooms:

• A 1915 Gibson F-hole guitar;
• A 1960 Epiphone Classic guitar;
• A Martin ukulele; and
• A dulcimer handmade by Tommy’s father.

These instruments will be used as part of the NSO's Instrument Petting Zoo, which was lost in the flood. Tommy was inspired to make his gift after seeing coverage about a similar donation of a fine violin by Billy Ray Hearn.

Mr. Turner made his donation in person today and brought with him lots of documentation about each instrument. Here he is, at far right, with (from left to right) NSO President & CEO Alan Valentine, Billy Ray Hearn and NSO VP of Education and Community Engagement Mitchell Korn.

Our Temporary Home

"Where are you working from?" I've been asked this more times than I can count. Most of the staff is working in downtown Nashville on the sixth floor of the new SunTrust Plaza building. We certainly can't complain, what with plenty of space, floor-to-ceiling windows and our own Panera in the building! We're so thankful that SunTrust has helped us to find a home during this period of displacement.

Our Patron Services specialists and box office staff, who were working in Murfreesboro for the last two months, have just moved in. We're all very excited to have them here. So are they...

-Jared

Imagine

Herbie Hancock tickets go on sale today. We're presenting this concert at the Ryman on August 22 at 7 p.m. Herbie will be performing music from The Imagine Project, the new CD and DVD in which the 70 year old globetrotter collaborates with everyone from Pink to The Chieftains. This concert will sell out fast, so take my advice and get your tickets now. In the meantime, enjoy the Imagine Project teaser video below.

-Jared

A few rep changes

With all of the moving around this season, Giancarlo and his colleagues made a few changes to the repertoire for certain concerts. The most obvious was the postponement of Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Mahler 8 requires a massive orchestra, a large adult and children's choir and 8 vocal soloists. Holding this event someplace else would have been fraught with logistical problems. But the real reason we're holding off on it is that there's going to be no better place to perform or experience it than Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Beethoven 9, which replaces Mahler 8 for the opener, will be a joyous and appropriately bombastic way to launch the season from War Memorial Auditorium.

We've also postponed the Duruflé Requiem, which with its magical blending of voice, organ and orchestra, is tailor-made for the Schermerhorn. I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing the orchestra's performance of Beethoven's beloved "Pastoral" Symphony in its stead.

-Jared

Flood of Support!

What a guy! Marc van Bree, culture blogger, communications/social media consultant and all around great human being, has just started a campaign to raise money for the Nashville Symphony! Marc is celebrating his 1,000th Twitter follower by giving back to us in what he calls "Flood of Support," whose motto is "from slacktivism to activism." His goal is $1,000 or one dollar for each of his followers. He is relying totally on the power of social networking to spread the word, so those of you in the Twittersphere please help us by using the hashtag #floodofsupport . You can find donation information on "Flood of Support" here. Thanks, Marc!

PS - If you don't read regularly Marc's insightful postings on culture and communications, I highly suggest you visit his excellent blog Dutch Perspective.

-Jared

Tour of Nashville

Today's a busy day around the Nashville Symphony offices. After months of hard work and negotiations, we've finally confirmed most of the new venues for this year's remaining concerts and are busy calling subscribers to let them know the details. As I mentioned earlier, we are moving back into the Schermerhorn at the beginning of January, but the September - December shows had to be relocated. At the beginning we worried we might have to hold each concert in a different place and thought about branding it the "Tour of Nashville." Thankfully our staff was able to secure just four venues to present the lion's share of the shows.

Here's a brief rundown on some of our September - December concerts.

• Opening Night (featuring Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) will take place at TPAC's War Memorial Auditorium; and Handel's Messiah will be there too
  
• The four SunTrust Classical Series concerts will take place at three different places: TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall, War Memorial and Lipscomb's Collins Alumni Auditorium
• Our Bank of America Pops shows (Michael McDonald, Jewel and Gershwin) are moved to Lipscomb's Allen Arena

Our website calendar has the most up-to-date information. There's also a press release for you media-types. We hope you'll join us on "tour" this fall!

-Jared

Welcome to our new blog.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our new blog! We've been meaning to start a blog for a while now and decided that now was the right time to launch one. You see, our musical home, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, was severely damaged in May's flooding and is undergoing repairs. We thought that this blog would serve as a great way to keep you apprised of the latest rebuilding efforts, as well as up-to-the-minute concert details and everything-else-Nashville Symphony. Please visit often and drop us a note via the comments section.

Many of you have asked how you can help during this time of need. Our answer is simple: Join us for a concert! That's right, the best way for you to support your GRAMMY-winning orchestra is by simply continuing to purchase tickets. Our amazing 2010/11 Season, which begins September 10 with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, is chockablock with interesting and enjoyable music. We're back in the Schermerhorn at the beginning of 2011, but we've managed to move the rest of our season's concerts to Nashville's other great concert venues. The most current information can always be found on our website. Look for more details on 2010/11 on this blog soon.

-Jared