Audience at the Sauti Za Busara music festival in Zanzibar

So says Rocco Landesman, the NEA chairman, earlier this year.  I’d read about Landesman’s provocative comment (his response is to decrease supply and prune the arts) some time ago at the Asking Audiences blog (which is, bt/… Read full post »

Renée Fleming doing choreography by Sara Jo Slate for "Thaïs" at the Metropolitan Opera 2008 December

“I hope next time we’ll have an opera in Arabic and I think it should feature the oud, which is one of my favourite instrumentsâ€

-Renée Fleming

But…but, Ms. Fleming�… Read full post »

New York Arabic Orchestra

I like the sound of that.  Amidst all the hustle and bustle surrounding recent events with the Louisville Orchestra and Kentucky Opera (which likely won’t have an orchestra for their next production) and with the Louisville Bach Society‘s finally closing/… Read full post »

Scab letter sent to Louisville Orchestra Musicians by LOI

This comes after the LOI decision and announcement to hire replacement musicians for the orchestra.  So much news this past week that I can’t hope to summarize the situation right now.  Here is the piece in the Courier Journal.… Read full post »

I just found this wonderful video of Taiseer Elias teaching Arabic music at the Perlman Music Program in Jerusalem during the PMP residency last year.  There needs to be more training programs like this for classically trained musicians!

Sorry, no convenient parking so I can't see you!

So, a recent piece at Fast Company takes a more sophisticated and nuanced look at audiences for Orchestras.  The bottom line?  Parking!

No, that’s not the only bottom line, but in the case of  the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the tre… Read full post »

I just wanted to throw out a couple of blogs I’ve been reading regularly lately.  The first is Profuse and Various: Thoughts on music, teaching, and whatever else happens to strike me.  The author, Jazzman, has some fascinating takes on music education and, like me, being relatively new to th… Read full post »

Since the beginning of September I’ve had some of the most incredible musical and performing experiences I think I’ve ever had in such a short amount of time.  I think I’m still processing all of this (and may do so for some time) and really, after writing my previous post, I… Read full post »

Jon Silpayamanant as Noiseman433 and DJ Leprakon doing a collaborative experimental noise and action painting performance at Va Va Vegas Burlesque show in Louisville, Kentucky at the Art Sanctuary (June 18, 2010)

A recent post by Eric Edberg, Painting to Music, reminded me of some of my past e/… Read full post »

Where does most funding go?

I just posted this piece to my facebook wall but will copy some of the quotes I highlighted as it has to do with numbers regarding funding for underserved communities which includes not only rural areas but populations of ethnic minorities.

This is the title of a recent Huffington Post piece that discusses a study by the Washington-based National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.  Given the demographic trends I’ve been blogging about, this is, as Drew McManus says, obvious.  What is also obvious is that the ‘Chicken L… Read full post »

Jon Silpayamanant with Raks Makam, Sabah (director of the Bellydance Superstars) and members of Crescent Moon Dance after our performance in Louisville during the Club Bellydance tour

So I’ve technically done my first drum solo now.  Sure I’ve drummed for dancers for years and hav… Read full post »

S.A.R.A. "Sounds and Rhythms of Afghanistan"

So tonight I will be going to the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts to see S.A.R.A. (Sounds and Rhythms of Afghanistan).  This show will be exciting as I’ve spent so much time the past couple of years learning about the Uzbek/… Read full post »

Image/still from "Music Makes a City" documentary about the Louisville Orchestra

Drew McManus has a good roundup of the current LO situation in his most recent post.  I really don’t have much to add except that given how closely I’d been following the situation I kinda s/… Read full post »

A scene from Commedia Beauregard's production of "A Klingon Christmas Carol"

“I am the Spirit of Kahless Present.”

Sometimes I have to be in the business of creating culture, not just re-creating culture (or ‘re-presenting culture’ as I sometimes refer to… Read full post »

Raks Makam (from l. to r.) Jessica Hamilton, Jon Silpayamanant, Jo Hadley

So today, after several exhausting days with little sleep but much exciting activities (see my previous post for some details) I went to rehearse with Raks Makam for our upcoming performance this Friday.  My brain is st/… Read full post »

Yo-Yo Ma speaking at DePauw Discourse 2011. The talk was titled 'Reflections on a Life in Music'

So on Thursday I drove up to my Alma mater, DePauw University, to attend this year’s DePauw Discourse.  This year’s guest was Yo-Yo Ma, who probably doesn’t need any in… Read full post »

The mbira is a thumb piano found in the music of Eastter and Southern Africa

This seems like an odd idea in many respects, but for those of us who are classically trained musicians, it’s really precisely what we do when we go to music school, right?  Also, all those masterclasses… Read full post »

Splash image for the website

If some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve changed the look of the blog. This template is a bit cleaner and less distracting than the previous one, I think. I also spent most of last night completely overhauling my website. Though most of the content is previo/… Read full post »

What happened to the composers, anyway?

I just read a strange piece at Cracked.com about Orchestras, 5 Bizarre Dark Sides to Modern Orchestras, which left a bit to be desired regarding some facts (what’s a third violin, anyway?  Viola?).  But some of the links posted in the piece were,/… Read full post »

Jon Silpayamanant playing with the Eastern Caravan Group at Cafe D'Jango in Bloomington, Indiana (Sep 4, 2011)

So last night I had the opportunity to perform with the Eastern Caravan Group in Bloomington, Indiana.  I was sent a handful of sheet music to work with just a couple days ago,… Read full post »

A comment (and a few of the responses to it) from a recent Salon.com piece about Orchestras by Lewis Whittington caught my attention:

White folks are dying out!

And it is white folks who have always attended and paid for the symphony. Jobs and businesses are exported

… Read full post »

A comment (and a few of the responses to it) from a recent Salon.com piece about Orchestras by Lewis Whittington caught my attention:

White folks are dying out!

And it is white folks who have always attended and paid for the symphony. Jobs and businesses are exported overseas, so

… Read full post »

Last night I was meeting and rehearsing with my Central Asian music and dance project, Raks Makam, and tonight I get to meet and rehearse with my String Quartet.  The previous night (Tuesday) I rehearsed with the IUS Orchestra which, as I said I do in alternation with the Klezmer group,… Read full post »

Jon Silpayamanant singing with il Troubadore at Tribal Revolutions Bellydance Festival in Chicago (June 2010)

This is a topic I explored a little bit in a past blog post but what got me thinking about it again was an experience during a lesson I was giving last week.

One of my… Read full post »