For Posterity

An entry from Ian Crofton's History Without the Boring Bits:

1922

A Conductorless Orchestra The Pervyi Simfonicheskii Ansambl (or Persimfans) was founded in the Soviet Union. This orchestra was unusual in that, in accordance with Marxist ideology, it had no conductor, decisions on interpretation being made by a number of elected committees.

OI Haiku

concert tomorrow
brahms beethoven rimsky-k
come hear charlton play

On the Eve of the Concert

Well ladies and gentlemen, faithful readers of the blog, we thank you for taking the time to listen to us. Our much anticipated concert is in less than 24 hours! We have been through a lot together in the last three weeks. We have rehearsed nearly 35 hours for tomorrow's performance. During these long hours of rehearsal, we have learned a lot about playing large symphonic works in a chamber music setting. Perhaps the most important skill that most of us have gained from this process is our refined rhetoric. Communication has been our largest obstacle. Learning how to refrain from ascribing fault has been extremely important to our development as a musical group. This has helped us overcome some of the inevitable differences of the winds and strings. These differences are precisely what makes the process of orchestrating a symphonic concert without a conductor difficult and thus rewarding. We hope that many of you do come hear us tomorrow!

Again, thank you for reading!

Run Out Concert A Success!

Congratulations to the OIMSM for a successful run out concert. Here are some pictures of last Thursday. Photos courtesy of Robert Smith.

OI in Action

Members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Christof Huebner (viola) and Eric Bartlett (cello) with MSM's Jenny Stenson (cello).

Left/Above: MSM's Brittany Roach on horn. Right/Below: Orpheus member Peter Lloyd (bass) with MSM's Micah Schub (bass).

Cynde Iverson (bassoon) from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with MSM student Charlton Hughes (bassoon).

Happy Hour = Happy Orpheus

Increasing our level of communication through social interaction...beer anyone? - anonymous

Tempi by Charlton Hughes

After listening to several recordings of Brahms' Serenade No. 1 in D major, I've decided that our group needs to work on its tempi. Without a conductor, our ensemble's rhythm is at times, questionable. Often, we stray away from our desired tempi. As a result, we've been rehearsing too much too slowly. In particular, the first and third movements are under tempo as well as rhythmically unstable. My suggestion for the upcoming rehearsals is that we decide on tempi markings for each movement. That way, when we stray from the desired tempo, we can compare it to our metronome markings and thus rehearse more efficiently.

Orpheus Institute Terminology - Core Rehearsal vs. Full-Orchestra Rehearsal

In the core rehearsal, the student leadership team gets together for the first time to establish an initial concept of the piece as well as to create an outline for the full-orchestra rehearsals later in the week. Generally, the core consists of the principal players from each section. In larger works, such as Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, the core involves nearly 20 musicians as the piece itself requires a wide variety of instruments. Brahms' Serenade No. 1 in D major, however, does not require the same expansive instrumentation. As such, the core rehearsal only includes 12 musicians from the OI.

In the full-orchestra rehearsal, all musicians have the opportunity to suggest and critique interpretations as well as to help refine the execution of these ideas. Core members are responsible for leading and managing this process in preparation for the public performance.

The Inside Scoop on How the Programming Committee Took Care Business by David Sullivan

After the Orpheus Institute at MSM decided the Programming Committee members, those of us on the Committee did our preliminary planning through email (exchanging contact info, setting up meeting times, etc.). The Programming Committee included at least one member from every major section in the orchestra. Representing the woodwinds were Sandy Hughes and Amanda Sparfeld. From the strings we had Amos Fayette and then I served as the voice of the brass section. We decided that for the first meeting everyone should bring a list of selections so that we could have a large list of music to choose from. When we met for the first time, we discovered that since everyone had pretty lengthy lists, we did not need to research more music and instead, could start planning programs. We compiled all of our choices into one long list and went over all the works asking ourselves if each piece was feasible without a conductor and more importantly, if it would be fun to play. This cut our selections down to a reasonable number of works that we felt we could work in depth. We organized this shorter list by orchestration, style and length. This was where we really began our planning.

We knew that timing was extremely important to consider when planning a program. We also needed to make sure that everyone in the Orchestral Performance program had at least one piece in which to participate. After some discussion, we realized that most of our ideas were falling into a kind of formula: overture, middle piece, intermission and the “big piece.” With this thought, we put together four programs (one each) keeping in mind timing and orchestration. Thus ended the Committee’s independent planning. We knew that these were not finalized sets and were open for improvement. In addition, we wanted the opinion of the group. We understood that bringing in semi-complete ideas to the group was better than basic sketches and that they would help ensure things would run smoothly and at a reasonable pace.

At the first large programming meeting, we were able to narrow down our four programs to one. Deciding that for posterity we should have at least two programs to choose from, we collectively put together a short list of pieces that could possibly fill one more program. Since some of these pieces were unknown to a handful of OI members, the works were placed on streaming audio and the scores on reserve so that when the time came to vote, everyone would a more intimate knowledge of them. We scheduled an emergency meeting to vote on the second program as well as to have one last vote to choose the final repertoire. At the emergency meeting, we quickly put together a second program, and then at last, had one final vote to choose the official repertoire. Ironically, the vote was unanimous for the second program.

Upcoming Concerts

Upcoming Concerts

Thursday, October 30th
Orpheus Institute at Manhattan School of Music Run Out Concert
Westchester, NY
Information coming soon...


Thursday, November 6th
Orpheus Institute at Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
Borden Auditorium, 7:30pm


Repertoire for the 2008 season:

Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont Overture
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol
Brahms' Serenade No. 1 in D major

Welcome to the Orpheus Institute at MSM!

Who are we?

In 2003, members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra began working with Manhattan School of Music instrumental students to hone their interpretive, leadership and communication skills by preparing these aspiring young artists to present an orchestral performance in which the musicians themselves fulfilled all of the roles and responsibilities of a music director.

Under the guidance of Orpheus coaches, students in the MSM Chamber Sinfonia are directly responsible for selecting their own concert program, choosing their own leaders, creating their own interpretation, running their own rehearsals and directing their own performance.

The Orpheus Institute at MSM of 2008 is already underway. While rehearsals do not begin until the third week in October, much must be done in preparation for the final performance on Thursday, November 6th. The purpose of this blog is for the students involved in the Orpheus Institute at MSM to reflect on the process of creating a program without a conductor. In the upcoming weeks, you will hear from students invovled in a variety of the OI processes.

We hope you enjoy our blog!