Around the Internet: Two Great Blog Posts

Two very fine posts today:

1. From A choral musician's blog, an interview with Donald Teeters, director Boston Cecilia. A snippet:

And I was at first very negative about it, because the Cecilia reputation was not good in those days. And I told them, "You know, I'm not interested in taking over a chorus that performs in church basements and suburbs all the time. If you folks are committed to wanting to get back into the center of the city, doing serious concerts with high standards, we can talk." And they were all young people, and they were full of idealism, and full of enthusiasm about the potential.

2. From Richard Sparks, a post about conducting Monteverdi's Orfeo with a focus on collaboration:

When I work with soloists, vocal or instrumental (and having conducted lots of major works, I've had that opportunity regularly, as well as conducting a number of instrumental concertos) it's absolutely collaboration--and the better the soloist, the more I need (and want) to listen to what they bring to the party. Their ideas, their knowledge of the music (which they may have performed many times), and their knowledge of what works for them, technically and musically, means I listen carefully to what they're doing. In this sense, I want to become the perfect accompanist, supporting their interpretation (it's a different experience working with students, since their experience is much less, and there has to be much more coaching of all aspects of their performance).

The Sparks' post also includes a great moment from Leonard Bernstein. Check it out.