Monthly Archives: January 2018
The Minnesota Orchestra at Symphony Center
The first time I became aware of the Minnesota Orchestra and its long-time conductor Osmo Vanska was upon receiving its 2006 Grammy-nominated recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as a birthday gift from my father-in-law a few years ago. The Minneapolis-based Orchestra’s recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies are considered extraordinary. Indeed, the group has numerous Grammy nominations […]
The Mortal 80s
We hosted a dinner party last night, and as we often have for gatherings of our contemporaries, we chose music from the 1980s as the soundtrack – peppy, yet nostalgic. I think Google Play picked a list it called “80s to sing along with” or some such. None of us were singers, but at multiple […]
Deeper Appreciation
It probably goes without saying that the more you know about something the more you can appreciate it. As I approach this new movement of the Vivaldi concerto, its layers of musical wonder are being made manifest to me – I see in the work beauty that, prior to playing it, I could never have […]
A King Day Song
My organization held a screening of the film Soundtrack for a Revolution back in November of 2016 – the PBS film highlights music as a tool for social change during the civil rights movement. Our screening was a response to the then-recent election of an unapologetic racist to the highest office in America. Since, the […]
New Year’s 2018 – Notes on Focus
One year ago today, I published my 500th post on Musical Me. Today’s post is my 545th. I started this blog both to chronicle my project to learn to play the violin, and to foster disciplined writing. The twin pursuits emerged as an epiphany one Monday afternoon back in October of 2013, each conceived as […]
Ryan Libel 