January 2013 Newsletter
January 2013 November and December passed quickly and with some difficulty in my part of the world. When Hurricane Sandy visited New York my neighborhood, Red Hook, was among those badly hit. Although the storm passed swiftly through the news cycle, many of my neighbors are still living in its aftermath. So it was with special ...
October 2012 Newsletter
Dear Friend, The two classes I teach for New England Conservatory’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship department have become high points of my week. They’re sites of lively, complex and illuminating discussions about the meaning of music, making a difference, and making a living. But if anyone had told me back when I was in music school that one ...
September 2012 Newsletter
September 2012 Dear Reader, For the past two years I’ve been involved in teaching and developing curriculum for New England Conservatory’s Department of Entrepreneurial Musicianship. In undergraduate classes and graduate seminars I help young musicians lay the groundwork for not just a musical career, but a life in music. One of the things about teaching ...
Music and Entrepreneurship at the IASJ Meeting in Graz
Last week I was in Graz, Austria to present at the 2012 meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz. Both presentations concerned the future of the professional musician — from the standpoint of schools preparing musicians for professional careers, and from the standpoint of young musicians seeking to build the foundations for sustainable ...
With Wilbert de Joode and Korhan Erel in Istanbul, December 2011
With Wilbert de Joode and Korhan Erel in Istanbul, December 20 – 24, 2011. Haghia Sophia, Kadıköy, Fazıl Bey’in Türk Kahvecisi, Çiya, recording with Şevket Akıncı and Wilbert’s fascination with a small lyre-shaped table.
Viola Duo: Mat Maneri and Tanya Kalmanovitch
Last September the Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory paid tribute to the life, music and legacy of Joe Maneri. Joe’s son Mat and I improvised this viola duet. From the concert “Love Lines: A Tribute to Joe Maneri”. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, 15 September 2011.
Making A Life In Music: Not Surviving, but Thriving In the Outside World
You may remember the parting letter to students that I co-authored last spring with Eva Heinstein from NEC’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship department. Well, I’ve decided to make it a semi-annual tradition. The points raised here speak to the concerns that came up in my undergraduate section of my entrepreneurship class. These are little nuggets of advice, ...
Last afternoon in Kabul.
I spent my last afternoon in Kabul with the girls. Marjan covered our palms and forearms in drizzles of henna paste. After, we sat out in the yard, arms outstretched, palms up, waiting for the paste to dry. A posture of pleasant helplessness. More girls gathered to use the rest of the tube, sketching intricate ...
Musicians Speak for Themselves
In July, before I left for London, and eventually Kabul, I convened a group of musicians – friends, students and colleagues from Boston’s New England Conservatory – to perform in a fund-raising concert. I asked each performer to choose a piece of music that reflected his or her thoughts, feelings and hopes for the culture, ...
Renee Loth in the Boston Globe on NEC-ANIM
The songs of Kabul The radical sound of music comes back to Afghanistan Renee Loth, The Boston Globe, July 16 2011 IMAGINE A world without music. It’s like something out of a soul-deadening, dystopian future. And yet the people of Afghanistan living under Taliban rule in the 1990s were forbidden to sing, play an instrument, ...
