The New York City artist community was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, which destroyed many works by current painters and sculptors. When the performance artist and composer Laurie Anderson peered into her basement, she saw her personal archive - decades of papers, prop,s and important artistic keepsakes - floating.
So Anderson decided, as The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns now reports, to create a piece about it with the Kronos Quartet titled Landfall.
This week, the Philadelphia Orchestra wraps up its subscription season with a special tribute to Wolfgang Sawallisch, who died earlier this year. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the Orchestra’s beloved former music director forged strong bonds with the musicians he led.
Listen to reflections about Sawallisch playing chamber music and enjoying musical jokes from Philadelphia Orchestra musicians Davyd Booth, Gloria de Pasquale, and Richard Harlow.
Listen to reflections about Sawallisch on the podium in Philadelphia, and on tour, from Philadelphia Orchestra musicians Kathy Picht Read, Jonathan Beiler, and Mark Gigliotti.
This week, The Philadelphia Orchestra wraps up its subscription season with a special tribute to former music director and conductor laureate, Wolfgang Sawallisch, who died earlier this year. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, he’s remembered as a master on the podium.
Listen to reflections about Sawallisch playing chamber music and enjoying musical jokes from Philadelphia Orchestra musicians Davyd Booth, Gloria de Pasquale, and Richard Harlow.
Listen to reflections about Sawallisch on the podium in Philadelphia, and on tour, from Philadelphia Orchestra musicians Kathy Picht Read, Jonathan Beiler, and Mark Gigliotti.
Music lives in a quaint, historic building on Philadelphia’s Locust Street, just a few doors down from the Curtis Institute of Music, where David Michie restores and sells violins and bows, drawing virtuoso musicians from far and wide. WRTI’s Meridee Duddleston paid a visit to this master craftsman.
Master violin restorer and dealer David Michie recounts how renowned French archetier (the French term for bow maker) Eugene Sartory policed the market for counterfeits of his work. Michie also provides some advice on choosing a bow in these excerpts of an interview with Meridee Duddleston.
Michie has much to say about the importance of a high-quality bow. "What the Italians were to string instruments, the French were to bows," he explains. In the 1800s, large blocks of wood from the pernambuco tree were used as ballast in ships making their way from Brazil to France. And Francois Tourte, who developed the modern bow and is considered the “Stradavarius of bow makers,” took to the wood and started using it. Pernambuco is now an endangered species whose export is restricted. Although carbon fiber and other substitutes are now in the mix, Michie says nothing beats a bow made of pernambuco wood from Brazil. Here's the website for David Michie Violins.
