Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, mvt 3

This quartet, written later in Beethoven’s life, has a special title written by the composer. He headed the movement with the words “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (“Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Diety, in the Lydian mode”).

Performed by Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin; Julia Noone, violin; Evan Vicic, viola; Nicholas Finch, cello

MAURICE RAVEL’S INTRODUCTION AND ALLEGRO

4.7.21

If the sound of the harp holds a special place in your musical imagination, you may find this piece to be magical. It’s on the shortlist of the “most beautiful pieces ever written” for harp aficionados.

Béla Bartók’S CONTRASTS

3.30.21

Swaggering and flashy contrasts with velvety darkness as three contrasting instruments share the stage. Béla BARTÓK: Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
Andrea Levine, clarinet Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin Kara Huber, piano

You’ll notice that the violinist uses two different instruments. The alternative instrument has its strings tuned to different pitches in a technique called “scordatura.” Playing the different pitches you hear as open strings on the re-tuned violin gives a particular effect that is often used in folk music.

BLACK MUSIC IN AMERICA

3.22.21

Teddy Abrams and Jecorey “1200” Arthur are long-time collaborators. Their dedication to using music to uplift the lives of everyone in Louisville has been their collective mission. In this conversation, the two men discuss how Black music has shaped the music and culture of our country.

VALERIE COLEMAN’S REVIVAL

3.12.21

Louisville native, virtuoso flutist, and composer Valerie Coleman created this fiery piece for a mixed trio. Performed here by Louisville Orchestra musicians Kathleen Karr, flute; Andrea Levine, clarinet; and Matthew Karr, bassoon, we hear the third and final movement of Rubispheres.

A Tale of two Pandemics

LO Clarinetist, Robert Walker discusses Stravinsky and the similarities between the world we are living in now and the world Stravinsky was in when he wrote Three Pieces for Clarinet.

MUSIC OF MOZART

Pulled from a bigger collection of ensemble music from the Louisville Orchestra Virtual Edition and performed by musicians of the Louisville Orchestra, this String Quartet No. 19 in C Major is nicknamed “Dissonance.” It is one of W. A. Mozart’s most harmonically adventurous quartets and deserves its name because of the first movement introduction.

Music of Motown

2.22.21

Motown music just gets into your soul and MAKES you move.  Here, we have an ensemble performing some Motown favorites and a few pieces that inspired the style. We tip our hat to Stephen Taylor (violin), James McFadden-Talbot (violin), Jonathan Mueller (viola), Lindy Tsai (cello), Alexander Schwarz (trumpet), and Mark Tate (drums).

ALL that Jazz

1.22.21

The LO Jazz Trio has recorded a concert for the LO VIRTUAL EDITION.  The performance includes works by Claude Bolling and Chick Corea.  Here is a sample –  Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio: Veloce with Louisville Orchestra Musician’s Donald Gottlieb (flute), Grace Baugh-Bennett (piano), and Robert Docs (bass).

Happy Birthday Beethoven

12.16.20

Teddy’s gift to Beethoven for his birthday  –  Its the “Happy Birthday” tune attributed to two Louisville school teachers Patty and Mildred Hill but in the late style of Beethoven!

Chair Snappers

11.3.20

Teddy sat down with Sam Bush and they had a great discussion. The full hour-long conversation is a part of the LO Virtual Edition, but here is a sneak peek and a funny story that Sam shares about audiences.

DUET | Andrea Levine And Jack Griffin

7.14.20

Viva La France! It’s Bastille Day so we are giving you the Duet for Two Violins by French composer Jacques Féréol Mazas.  In this rendition Jack Griffin is playing violin not his usual viola and Andrea Levine playing a violin part on clarinet.

DUET | Trio with Heather Thomas and Jack McFadden-Talbot

6.29.20

It’s been a while since we have had a duet to share, and this one is actually a trio (but with two violins).  Heather Thomas and Jack McFadden-Talbot work as a seamless unit in the beautiful Prelude to Shostakovitch’s Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano.  Special thanks to Criquet Projects Productions for the extra support for this performance.

Duet: ALEXANDER Schwarz

5.26.20

LO’s Principal Trumpet, Alexander Schwarz joins Teddy in Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.

A Most unusual Gathering

5.18.20

Some of the greatest conductors of our time just chatting about how they are doing now, and how the Covid crisis is changing and will change the Orchestral industry.  WOW.  This was coordinated by Phoenix Symphony’s Music Director, Tito Muñoz. The accompanying image will take you to the Facebook video.

SDQ on INternational Nurses Day

5.12.20

In honor of all the nurses and all healthcare professionals we have asked the Social Distancing Quartet to perform a movement from Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2.  Borodin was a highly respected composer (hanging out with the likes of Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky) but as a profession, he was a doctor and a chemist. He also founded  the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg the first higher education facility in Russia to educate women in medical science.

DUET | Hallelujah

5.4.20

Times like this give us a moment to reflect on what is important and the many things for which we are grateful.  We are grateful for these two and this song.  Violist Jonathan Mueller joins Maestro Teddy in Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

DUET | Trevor’s Treasure

4.23.20

Teddy Abrams and Trevor Johnson perform a formerly out of print piece – Nocturne; by Gilbert W. Porsch.  Our fearless oboe player took up the crusade to get this amazing music for English horn back in circulation.

Trevor Tells the story of Nocturne.

“The piece was originally published in 1940 by a company that no longer exists. I just love the piece, and got tired of preserving a very old copy fraying at the edges. I thought attempting to re-publish it would be good on so many levels. It preserves a great piece of music and introduces it to a new generation. It spotlights this under-sung composer. And it gave me a professional outlet during this period without live performances.

So I did a little editing of minor mistakes and cleaned up some notation into the publisher’s Sibelius program, and Nocturne was re-born! As far as the publishing goes, I asked a couple of composer friends for advice and approached a couple of different classical publishing companies. Ironically, the one owned by another Trevor (Trevor Cramer) was a perfect fit! I also made sure I dedicated the presentation to Mark Weiger, a late, but very important teacher of mine, who introduced me to the piece.

The publisher is TrevCo Music Publishing (TMP), and the website is trevcomusicpublishing.com

Duet :: Teddy and the Tuba

4.16.20

The second in the DUET series, Teddy Abrams teams up with our Principal Tuba, Andrew Doub on a piece originally composed for flute and transcribed for tuba. Enjoy!

A joke from the SOcial Distancing QUartet

4.13.20

The Social Distancing Quartet has been busy!  Here they are playing a little ‘joke’ on us, well maybe a joke FOR us.  It’s Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 33, No. 2 colloquially known as “The Joke.”

DUET Performances with Teddy Abrams

4.7.20

Teddy Abrams collaborates with LO’s Concertmaster, Gabriel Lefkowitz on Franz Ries’ Perpetuum mobile, Op. 34, No. 5.

Instrument Demonstrations

4.6.20

Originally created for the LO’s MakingMUSIC Home Edition, Trevor Johnson educates and entertains with a demonstration of his instrument, the oboe. For a look at all the videos in our “Amazing Instruments of the Orchestra” link HERE.

In This Together

4.3.20

Daniel Gilliam of Classical 90.5 FM WUOL teams up with our own Teddy Abrams for a series of ZOOM interviews shared on Facebook Live with notables like Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) and singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan. Watch live on Facebook on Fridays at 3pm.

Social Distancing Quartet

3.27.20

Early on in this day of being together while apart, four of our string players created the Social Distancing Quartet Facebook Group.  Violinists, Maria Semes and Andrea Daigle together with violist Evan Vicic and cellist Lillian Pettitt started by posting 20 second musical moments for fans to wash their hands to. The outpouring of support encouraged the team to do longer songs and their choices are getting more clever (Police, Don’t Stand So Close to Me).  Their 1200 fans await each post with with great anticipation.

Elizabeth Kramer wrote a piece on the new group for her blog.