Loeffler & The Soloist

I meant to mention this earlier, but on Thursday I went to a Camerata Pacifica concert at Colburn featuring Nicholas Daniel. They played several lovely works, but the highlight of the evening for me and my friend Izumi, who plays piano and has accompanied both my masters recitals, was the Loeffler Trio. Izumi's piano teacher, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, played it with Richard O'Neill (formerly principal viola of AYS--we accompanied his Walton Concerto last year) on viola and of course Mr. Daniel. I loved being coached with Izumi on the Poulenc Sonata by Kevin, who always has a twinkle in his eye and can be brutally honest but says it so nicely you don't even notice--an excellent quality in a teacher. Anyway, they are three marvelous musicians, and they played soo well together, and Mr. Daniel actually MADE THE OBOE SOUND LIKE A BAGPIPE, for REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to try that!!! Their performance was thrilling--and that's not an easy feat for the Loeffler, which can, I must admit, be occasionally a tad dull if not played with enough sparkle. After hearing them play, Izumi and I want to play it again! (She played it with me on my last recital). OK, anyway, it was just pretty awesome and I am so excited to study with him at Banff this summer :)


Same evening, at midnight, I saw The Soloist with several of my USC friends who were in it as "The Juilliard Orchestra." They had some good screen time! The movie was OK. There were some disappointing aspects (umm, WHAT were you thinking with the pigeons, Joe Wright?!). I was REALLY annoyed by the character of Graham Claydon, the "principal cellist" of the LA Phil who to me was the stereotype of a classical musician: white, male, geeky/snooty, and he's also portrayed as a religious nut. In a film about how classical music is NOT just for white, male, geeky/snooty types, couldn't they have eliminated this tired stereotype? Just saying. At least Esa-Pekka got his cameo. All in all, it was pretty much just Hollywood.