Classically Speaking

“Music is my life, my joy, it’s my passion…it brings us to a different place, it allows us to find another world than the one that we are in this current moment.  It’s a very powerful thing, and I feel fortunate to work in the field of music.”  -- Sylvia Alimena
 

Today, the National Symphony Orchestra is heading home to Washington DC after their eight-day residency in West Virginia. The orchestra took up residence in Wheeling, Morgantown, Glenville, Huntington, Charleston, and Princeton, and from these cities, the musicians traveled to towns throughout the state, where they shared music through a variety of classes and concerts.

Monday afternoon, just a few hours before the NSO played an excellent concert at the Clay Center in Charleston, horn player Sylvia Alimena stopped by WV Public Radio for an interview. She had already played two concerts earlier in the day!

Alimena has played horn with the NSO for 25 years. She also conducts the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, a smaller ensemble made up of members of the National Symphony Orchestra. The Eclipse Chamber Orchestra has two recent recordings – one of comic opera overtures by 18th-century composer Florian Leopold Gassmann and one of music by contemporary composer Mark Adamo. They are currently working on the third recording in this set, featuring music by Truman Harris. Alimena's other projects include conducting the McLean Orchestra and directing the youth program Brass of Peace.
 
You can download our interview as a podcast, or listen to it as a web stream, right here on this page. 
 
Note: If you have trouble viewing the player below, try this link.

Related links:

* Sylvia Alimena bio 
* National Symphony Orchestra Scrapbook 
* Here Comes the NSO! 
* Eclipse Chamber Orchestra 
* McLean Orchestra 
* Brass of Peace 
* National Symphony Orchestra 

Congratulations to Jennifer Higdon!  She has just been awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music, for her Violin Concerto. 

Here's some of what she wrote about this music:

"I believe that one of the most rewarding aspects of life is exploring and discovering the magic and mysteries held within our universe. For a composer this thrill often takes place in the writing of a concerto … it is the exploration of an instrument’s world, a journey of the imagination, confronting and stretching an instrument’s limits, and discovering a particular performer’s gifts."

She also has a West Virginia connection: The Wheeling Symphony has featured music by Higdon on its concerts, including her "Concerto 4-3," which the Wheeling Symphony co-commissioned with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Read more about Jennifer Higdon and the Pulitzer Prize here. (Sorry to run, but I have an interview with a horn player in three minutes!)

The National Symphony Orchestra has been touring West Virginia for the past week (they play in Charleston Monday night).  They've played orchestra and chamber concerts, taught master classes, given talks, presented at schools ... I've heard that they've been part of at least 60 different events this past week! 
 
You can check out the rest of their schedule here, read more about residency in the The Washington Post, and take a look at some pictures from the National Symphony Orchestra's classes and concerts in Morgantown:

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Thank you to Charlene Lattea and the WVU School of Music for sharing these pictures.  

This afternoon, I'll be interviewing Sylvia Alimena, a horn player with the NSO, and I'm looking forward to hearing their performance tonight at the Clay Center. I'll try to to have the interview posted as soon as possible!
 
Related Links:

* National Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia 
* WV Classical Calendar -- April 
* "National Symphony Orchestra Treks to W.Va. to Serve Up Classical Music" by Anne Midgette, The Washington Post 
* National Symphony Orchestra 
* WVU School of Music