king david

I liked our performance.
but sometimes people think little differently.



Oscar E Moore from the rear mezzanine for Talk Entertainment.com

Based on the Biblical tale of King David, with the New York University Symphonic Orchestra of sixty plus, a chorus of some two dozen and a cast of twenty one - the Steinhardt Program in Vocal Performance presented the rarely heard oratorio by Alan Menken (music) and Tim Rice (book and lyrics). It was an incredible experience.

Not that King David is without flaws. It is a problem of too much information, too much history having to be telescoped into the over two hour presentation. We see David the shepherd boy, David taking over for Saul, David with his wife Michal, David with Goliath, David with Bathsheba, David with his son Absalom, et al. It is an episodic piece that is completely sung through. It has some beautiful melodies and some very exciting pop and choral music going for it as well. The lyrics are serviceable and sometimes trite. But as someone next to me mentioned, “I’m having trouble following the story but the music is fantastic.”

As is the production. Fluidly directed by William Wesbrooks. Simply but colorfully and appropriately costumed by Michelle Humphrey and well lit by Jeff Croiter. And some nice choreography by Stephanie Lang. The splendid orchestra was conducted by Gerald Steichen. This piece deserves an excellent symphonic orchestra and we were not disappointed. It was sumptuous. How exciting to hear them all - actors, singers and orchestra in the stirring “This New Jerusalem”.

But without a charismatic David you might as well forget the entire experience. I am thrilled to report that Jay Armstrong Johnson is terrific. He is a huge star in the making, although he already is a star at NYU. I saw him last February in the title role of Floyd Collins and was extremely impressed with him at that point. As King David Mr. Johnson soars. He is simply an amazing performer. Gifted with good looks and a glorious voice.

Everyone in the cast is wonderful: Shane Quinn, Katharine Heaton, Bryan Welnicki, Kristen da Costa, Nic Rouleau, Roy Richardson, Jacob Bichachi and Bronson Murphy standouts.

What an impressive, memorable, thrilling evening of musical theatre.

I want to introduce a great young violist

Scott Lee
In 1994 at age fifteen, virtuoso violist Scott Lee advanced to the finals of the Concert Artists Guild Competition; in 1996, he came back to win the Nathan Wedeen Award after winning numerous other top competition prizes. A student of the Juilliard School, Mr. Lee performs at festivals including the lnternational Hindemith Viola Festival and the Marlboro Festival. The combination of viola sonatas and works for solo viola with chamber ensemble make this New York debut a unique occasion.


At age twenty, violist Scott Lee has already distinguished himself by winning several competition prizes, most recently a Nathan Wedeen Award at the 1996 Concert Artists Guild Competition. In 1990, he won First Prize in both violin and viola at the Taiwan National Instrumental Competition. In 1994, he was the First Prize winner of the Rio Hondo Young Artist Competition; Second Prize winner of the Corpus Christi Young Artist Competition and of the Pasadena Instrumental Competition; Third Prize Winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition; and winner of an Honorable Mention at the Concert Artists Guild Competition, where he was the youngest artist in the 45-year history of the competition to have performed in the final round. In 1995, he won Third Prize of the William Primrose International Viola Competition.

Mr. Lee has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the International Chamber Orchestra, the Rio Hondo Symphony, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Academy of the West. Festival appearances in 1997 included the Steans Institute at Ravinia Festival and La Jolla Summerfest. In 1995, Mr. Lee was invited to perform at the International Hindemith Viola Festival. He premiered Michael Berkeley's Odd Man Out at the 22nd International Viola Congress in 1994. The 1998-99 season will include performances at the Marlboro Music Festival, and for the Tri County Concert Association in Pennsylvania.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Lee began his music studies on the violin at age eight. He took up the viola at age thirteen, and came to the United States the next year to study at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, where his viola teacher was Donald McInnes and his violin teacher was Todor Pelev. He has studied with Michael Tree at the Curtis Institute of Music and is currently enrolled at The Juilliard School where he studies with Paul Neubauer.. he's going to be a faculty Idyllwild Arts Summer Programm

he has recording
Concert Artists Guild CAG6964 (1999)

Scott Lee, Viola
Pei-Yao Wang, Piano
Miró String Quartet

Johannes Brahms - Sonata for Viola and Piano in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1
Paul Hindemith - Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11, No. 4
François Couperin - Pièces en concert, for Viola and String Quartet
Joachin Turina - Scène Andalouse, for Viola, Piano and String Quartet
Efrem Zimbalist - Tango from Sarasateana

Remembering Jesse Levine

I met professor Levine as a conductor at SUNY Purchase. I was a principle violist at there and he taught me lots of things as a violist. In my memory, Jesse was very passionate teacher and viola player. It’s very sad to lost virtuoso violist, great teacher, amazing conductor and my friend but I will remember him forever.

Renowned violist, teacher and conductor Jesse Levine died last week. He taught at Yale University and conducted several orchestras in Connecticut.

Jesse Levine was born in 1940 in New York City to a musical family. He began playing the viola at an early age..and studied at the Mannes College of Music. His first commercial job - performing with Harry Belafonte –landed him the money to buy a viola..one that he used for the rest of his career. As a young violist at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Levine played Igor Stravinsky’s Elegy, with Stravinsky. Later, he was principal viola of symphony orchestras in Buffalo, Dallas, Baltimore and New Jersey.

Cellist and Yale professor Aldo Parisot. "He had the most beautiful vibrato, the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. The sound of Jesse Levine was unique…something unique. We used to joke all the time..He used to say that I gave him the vibrato..and he taught me how to conduct. You know we joke all the time about this… "


Parisot describes Levine as a loyal friend, a master of jokes and a fantastic viola teacher. "First of all, he loved to teach. There are many people that teach because they’re making a salary..making a living. With Jesse it was the love of teaching".

Levine taught viola and chamber music at the Yale School of Music since 1983. In Connecticut, he was music director of the New Britain and Norwalk Symphonies. He played and led orchestras in Europe, South America, Israel, Australia and throughout the US. Jesse Levine died after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 68 years old. -CPBN- 11/20/08

My Favorite Music and Musician.

Heifetz and Primrose -Passacagli by Hendel-
I Play this music about 3 years ago with my friend. It was really fun to play and it became one of my favorite piece.

compare with this performance. it'll be fun
also my favorite players !!!!
Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman

William Primrose

William Primrose CBE (August 23, 1904 - May 1, 1982) was a Scottish violist and teacher, probably the best known viola player of his and all time.
Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin there and, later, at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. From there he moved to Belgium to study under Eugène Ysaÿe who encouraged him to take up the viola instead. In 1930, he joined Warwick Evans, John Pennington, and Thomas Petre as the violist in the London String Quartet. The group dissolved in 1935. In 1937, he began playing in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. When it was rumored that Toscanini would leave the Symphony in 1941, Primrose resigned. His career as a soloist took off when he started touring with Richard Crooks. He later signed with Arthur Judson, an influential concert manager. In 1946, he was the soloist in the first recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy.
In 1944 he had commissioned a viola concerto from Béla Bartók. This was left incomplete at Bartók's death in 1945, and had to wait four years for its completion by Tibor Serly. Primrose was the soloist in the world premiere performance of the concerto, on 2 December 1949.
In 1953 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
Primrose was known for his tremendous technique. When he performed Paganini's violin caprices on viola, Mischa Elman is said to have exclaimed, "It must be easier on viola!" Primrose wrote many transcriptions and arrangements for viola, often technically dazzling, including "La Campanella" (from Paganini's second violin concerto) and the famous Nocturne from Borodin's second string quartet, the latter "out of jealousy" for the cello's long melodic lines.
Later in his life, Primrose became a noted teacher, writing several books on viola playing and teaching widely in Japan and the USA, occasionally at the University of Southern California (with Jascha Heifetz), The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1972, he published his memoirs, A Walk on the North Side.
The Primrose International Viola Competition, created in 1979 in honor of William Primrose, was the first international music competition for viola players.
Primrose played an Amati viola, formerly owned by his father[1]. The ex-Primrose Amati is now owned by Roberto Díaz, who is currently the president of Curtis and recorded a CD of Primrose's transcriptions for Naxos Records. Prior to the recording, the viola was inspected and was found to have had adjustments of questionable workmanship, which were subsequently repaired. Primrose had noted that the viola had a wolf tone and did not project easily. He was also known to have owned and played on at least one viola by William Moennig Jr. of Philadelphia.
William Primrose died from cancer in Provo, Utah on 1 May 1982. His large collection of annotated viola scores became the nucleus for the William Primrose International Viola Archive at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. For his contribution to the recording industry, Primrose has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
check out this amazing playing

William Primrose Plays Paganini Caprice 24

AUDACITY

Audacity is a digital audio editor application. Audacity is cross-platform, using the wxWidgets software library to provide a similar graphical user interface on several different operating systems.
Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. Dominic Mazzoni now works at Google, but is still the main developer and maintainer of Audacity, with help from many others around the world.
The latest stable release of Audacity is 1.2.6, released on 15 November 2006. As of 13 May 2008, it was the 9th most popular download from SourceForge.net, with over 40 million downloads. Audacity won the SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Award for Best Project for Multimedia. Audacity is free software and is licensed under the GNU General Public License version two, but may update to GPLv3 after version 1.4.0
Some of Audacity's features include:

1. Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, all file formats supported by libsndfile library
2. Version 1.3.2 also supports Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
3. Recording and playing sounds
4. Editing via Cut, Copy, Paste (with unlimited Undo)
5. Multi-track mixing
6. A large array of digital effects and plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nyquist
7. Amplitude envelope editing
8. Noise removal
9. Support for multi-channel modes with sampling rates up to 96 kHz with 24 bits per sample
10. The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed while maintaining pitch (Audacity calls it changing tempo), in order to synchronize it with video, run for the right length of time, etc.
11. The ability to change the audio's pitch without changing the speed.
12. Converting cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by automatically splitting one wav (or the other supported types) track into multiple tracks based on silences in the track and the export multiple option.
13. Multi-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems (including GNU/Linux and BSD) amongst others.
The latest versions support Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, but Windows 95 and NT are not supported.

Audacity can also be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts. It can be used for finishing podcasts by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.[8]
It is currently used in the OCR National Level 2 ICT course for the sound creation unit.

iTunes

I have iPod since it was first released. So I used iTune for a long time. I thought iTune is just music library for iPod but I realized that it is more than just livbrary after I took a tech. trend class. It has much more features than I thought.

iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, introduced by Apple Inc. on January 9, 2001, at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.The latest version, iTunes 8, was announced at Apple's September 2008 keynote Let's Rock. The application is used for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone. Additionally, iTunes can connect to the iTunes Store via the Internet to purchase and download music, music videos, television shows, applications, iPod games, audiobooks, various podcasts, feature length films and movie rentals (not available in all countries), and ringtones (available only in the USA). It is also used to download applications for the iPhone and iPod touch as long as they are running the 2.X firmware.
iTunes is available as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows Vista, and Windows XP from Apple's website. It is also bundled with all Macs, and some HP and Dell computers. Older versions are available for Mac OS 9, OS X 10.0-10.2, and Windows 2000. Although Apple does not produce iTunes for other operating systems, it can be run on Linux-based operating systems through Wine, a Windows compatibility layer.
A version of iTunes was shipped with cell phones from Motorola, which included the ability to sync music from an iTunes library to the cellphone, as well as a similar interface between both platforms. Since the release of the iPhone, Apple has stopped distributing iTunes with other manufacturers' phones in order to concentrate sales to Apple's device.
iTunes 8 can currently read, write and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless.
iTunes can also play any audio files that QuickTime can play (as well as some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com audio books. There is limited support for Vorbis and FLAC enclosed in an Ogg container (files using the FLAC container format are not naturally supported) or Speex codecs with the Xiph QuickTime Components. Because tag editing and album art is done within iTunes and not Quicktime, these features will not work with these QuickTime components. iTunes currently will not play back HE-AAC/aacPlus audio streams correctly. HE-AAC/aacPlus format files will play back as 22 kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 11 kHz), and HE-AAC streaming audio (which a number of Internet radio stations use) will not play back at all. The latest version of iTunes (Win/Mac) supports importing audio CDs with the default iTunes standard file format of AAC at 128 kbit/s, but users can choose from 16 kbit/s to 320 kbit/s constant bit rates (CBR) in either AAC or MP3.
iTunes is an application that allows the user to manage audio and video on a personal computer. Officially, using iTunes is required in order to manage the audio of an Apple iPod portable audio player, although alternative software does exist. Users can organize their music into playlists within one or more libraries, edit file information, record Compact Discs, copy files to a digital audio player, purchase music and videos through its built-in music store, download free podcasts, back up songs onto a CD or DVD, run a visualizer to display graphical effects in time to the music, and encode music into a number of different audio formats. There is also a large selection of free internet radio stations to listen to.
Additionally, users can add PDF files to their library (to add digital liner notes to their albums, for example), but the PDFs cannot be transferred to or read on an iPhone or iPod.
In the most recent version, iTunes 8.0, the preferences menu was given a complete makeover. The result added very few new options, but instead removed several options that may seem trivial to most users. For example, iTunes once gave users the option to display arrows beside the selected song's title, artist, album, and genre that link directly to the iTunes Music Store. Now these arrows are not removable, except through the direct editing of a preferences file.
Importing of audio CDs into MP3 can also be accomplished using variable bitrate (VBR). However, a double-blind experiment conducted in January 2004 of six MP3 encoders noted that the iTunes encoder came last, in that the quality of the files produced by iTunes was below par. It was stated in the final results that these tests only covered VBR encodings, thus iTunes may have performed better with a Constant bitrate (CBR).
The Windows version of iTunes can automatically transcode DRM-free WMA (including version 9) files to other audio formats, but does not support playback of WMA files and will not transcode DRM protected WMA files. Telestream, Inc. provides free codecs for Mac users of QuickTime to enable playback of unprotected Windows Media files. These codecs are recommended by Microsoft.

Two different Interpreters

I studied this music, Mozart concertante for violin and viola, this semester. When I first brought this music to my teacher, she said my playing is too romantic. I was kind of confused that how I can interpret this classical period music correct. So I start to searching for the answer and I found this two different interprets. I usually liked Bashmet's playing but not this time. I like Oistrakh's playing much better. It was really simple, clean, well combination with violin and viola. It just sound like Mozart to me.

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (Russian: Давид Фёдорович Ойстрах), David Fiodorovič Ojstrah; September 30 [O.S. September 17] 1908 – October 24, 1974) was a violin virtuoso who made many recordings and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works.
His recordings and performances of Shostakovich's concerti are particularly well known, but he was also a performer of classical concerti. He worked with orchestras in Russia, and also with musicians in Europe and the United States. The violin concerto of Aram Khachaturian is dedicated to him, as are the two violin concerti by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Igor Oistrakh (Игорь Ойстрах) (born April 27, 1931) is a Ukrainian violinist.
He was born in Odessa, Ukraine and is the son of violinist David Oistrakh. He attended the Central Music School in Moscow and made his concert debut in 1948. From 1949 to 1955 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory, winning first prizes and international competitions in Eastern Europe. He then joined the faculty of the Conservatory in 1958, becoming a lecturer in 1965. Since 1996 Igor Oistrakh has held the post of Professor of the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.
He has appeared frequently internationally, both as a soloist and in joint recitals with his father, or with his father conducting.
He is noted for his lean, modernist interpretations.

Yuri Abramovich Bashmet (Russian: Юрий Абрамович Башмет, Ukrainian: Юрій Башмет; born 24 January, 1953) is a leading Russian conductor and violist. n 1971, he graduated from the Lviv secondary special music school. From 1971 till 1976, he studied at the Moscow Conservatoire. His first viola teacher was Professor Vadim Borisovsky; after whose death in 1972 was succeeded by Professor Feodor Druzhinin. Feodor Druzhinin was also the tutor of Yury Bashmet for the probation period and for his postgraduate study at the Moscow Conservatoire (1976-1978). In the late 1970s – early 1980s, Bashmet developed his career as a solo performer. He began his active concert activities in 1976, with a tour of Germany with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra founded by R. Barshay. He has performed in leading concert halls the world over: in Europe, USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. He was the first violist to perform a solo recital in such halls as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Barbican in London, the Berlin Philharmonic, La Scala of Milan, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, and the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Yuri Bashmet has performed under many noted conductors, including Rafael Kubelík, Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Édouard Dutoit, Neville Marriner, Paul Sacher, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Finale program

In the Tech. trend class, we covered several programs for creating web page. Finale was the one of them. It was quite challenge for me as a first time user.
It took a lot of time to get used to be with it but still I think I barely know about it. I never use any scorewriter program such as Finale, Sibelius, and Nightingale.
So I really don’t know which one is more convenience for me and I so afraid to start use another program I never use before. So probably I’ll stay on Finale for a while.

Finale is the flagship program of a series of proprietary scorewriters created by MakeMusic for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Finale is regarded by some as the industry-standard notation software, though there is some debate as to whether there is a true industry-standard.[1] Both Finale and its main competitor Sibelius are widely used in professional engraving and publishing, educational institutions, and for film, TV and theater music preparation, among other uses.
MakeMusic also offers several less expensive versions of Finale, with subsets of the main program's features. These include Finale NotePad, Printmusic, and Allegro. Two more such versions, Finale Guitar and Finale Songwriter, have feature sets tailored to different musicians' needs. Another "lite" program, Finale NotePad Plus, was previously made but is now discontinued.

Finale's strength is its flexibility. Almost every feature on the page can be globally or individually adjusted, manipulated, resized, replaced or altered in some way. By adapting existing notation symbols, or by creating new elements, it is ideal for contemporary and modern music that requires extensions to standard music notation.
Linked parts create orchestral parts that remain linked to the master score, so that changes to the master score will be instantly reflected in the parts.
Finale can notate anything from a textbook chorale to a cut-out score including new symbols invented by the composer. It is also capable of working with guitar tablature and includes a jazz font similar to that used in the Real Book. Virtually all score elements can be positioned or adjusted, either by dragging (with the appropriate tool selected) or by using dialog boxes with measurements in inches, centimeters or picas.
Music can be entered in a variety of ways: using the computer keyboard alone in realtime or via a command line window; using user-determined combinations of mouse clicks, computer keyboard, and MIDI piano keyboard; or by MIDI keyboard alone. Standard midi files may be also be input. It also includes a function for optically recognising printed music from a scan, similar to OCRring text. From Finale 2001 onward, the program included Mic Notator, a module able to notate pitches played on an acoustic instrument via a microphone connected to the computer.
Finale can import and export MIDI files, and it can playback music using a large range of audio samples, notably from the Garritan library. As of Finale 2009, it can use VST and AU plug-ins. 'Human playback' creates a less mechanical feel, by incorporating playing styles into the playback, including ornaments, ritardandos and accelerandos. Finale can export audio files as .aif, .wav or .mp3.

Some users have claimed that Finale "has a steep learning curve" and requires "a significant investment in ... time to learn the program."[8] This has driven some musicians to choose the software Sibelius instead, as it is purportedly learned more easily. Some Finale users disagree entirely; others claim that a steeper curve is necessary to incorporate the high level of manual adjustment of a score that Finale is known and lauded for.
The following are specific problems that some users run into when using Finale, the first few being more common than the later ones:
For pieces starting with a pick-up measure, the setup wizard enables one to put in the correct note values but it does not put in the correct rest values. If the arranger fails to notice and correct this in each part, it leads to confusion in rehearsal when the players who don't play in the pick-up measure see a whole rest instead of the correct value rest in their part.
Users sharing files between different versions of Finale will notice that it is not fully backwards-compatible. Newer versions of Finale can open older files, but a newer file cannot be converted to an older version. Finale 2003 added a feature to import and export MusicXML files, solving the problem of backwards-compatibility to a certain extent.
Finale does not yet support Unicode when entering lyrics. As of Finale 2007, only ASCII-based characters are supported. Finale also supports 2-byte (Huge) fonts.
Finale requires additional midi or similar plugins in order to effectively score marching percussion for playback.

Fantasia. more than just cartoon

Someone told me that the reason many people know the tunes of popular classical music is due to cartoons such as Fantasia, Ben & Jerry, Bucks Bunny, etc. Without them many people may grow up never getting exposed to those music at all.
Fantasia is a 1940 animated film produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. Fantasia is an experiment in animation and music, consisting of classical music presented against the backdrop of animation and featuring no dialogue, only spoken introductions by Deems Taylor before each cartoon, as well as during the intermission segment, "The Sound Track". The music is recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski; seven of the eight pieces were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Animated artwork of varying degrees of abstraction or literalism is used to illustrate or accompany the concert in various ways. The film also includes live-action segments featuring Stokowski, the orchestra, and American composer and music critic Deems Taylor, who serves as the host for the film. Besides its avant-garde qualities, Fantasia was notable for being the first major film released in stereophonic sound, using a process dubbed "Fantasound".
Fantasia was originally released by Walt Disney Productions itself rather than RKO Pictures, which normally distributed the Disney films, and exhibited as a two-hour and twenty minute roadshow film (counting the intermission) with reserved-seat engagements. The film opened to mixed critical reaction and failed to generate a large commercial audience, which left Walt Disney in financial straits.[1][2] Fantasia was eventually picked up by RKO for release in 1941 and edited drastically to a running time of 81 minutes in 1942. Five subsequent rereleases of Fantasia between 1946 and 1977 restored various amounts of the deleted footage, with the most common version being the 1946 rerelease edit, which ran nine minutes shorter than the original 124 minute roadshow version. A 1982 reissue featured a newly recorded digital soundtrack conducted by composer Irwin Kostal, but was taken out of circulation in 1990 after a restored version of the original Stokowski-conducted soundtrack was prepared. The original version of Fantasia was never released again after 1941, and although some of the original audio elements no longer exist, a 2000 DVD release version attempted to restore as much of the original version of the film as possible. Fantasia, despite its initial commercial failure, is today considered a classic film. -wikipedia-

Old tech is better!!

I purchased new MacBook about two months ago and it has iMovie 08 in it. Usually I think that new stuff is better one but not this time.
In my technology trend class, we used iMovie HD instead of new iMovie. At the beginning, I was kind of wondering that why we don’t use new version of this program. But I found out that sooner. After I worked on iMovie HD in school, I found out the convenience of old version of this program. 

I think that after they launched Final Cut, They reduced lots of effect for new iMovie version.

I brought this article from Wikipedia.

Criticism of iMovie '08
iMovie 08 has been the target of significant criticism due to a drastic decrease in features from iMovie HD 6. The loss of features caused New York Times reviewer David Pogue to state, "iMovie ‘08 is an utter bafflement...[it] is incapable of the more sophisticated editing that the old iMovie made so enjoyable...All visual effects are gone—even basic options like slow motion, reverse motion, fast motion, and black-and-white. And you can’t have more than one project open at a time."
Features removed included the classic timeline, the ability to create DVD chapter markers, and in-timeline audio adjustment and control. Most surprisingly, iMovie '08 imports a much more limited set of video codecs and metadata formats than previous versions of iMovie or today's QuickTime Player. For example, QuickTime Player can be extended to support the FLIP Video 3ivx MPEG-4 codec, but iMovie cannot use this QuickTime support. The peculiar lack of QuickTime support means QuickTime Pro can edit a far larger range of video than iMovie '08. Some users have also complained of iMovie 08 being slower and less polished than iMovie 06, and taking a long time to render clips and thumbnails.
In response to the reduced feature set, Apple released iMovie HD 6 as a free download to those who had purchased iMovie '08.

Features of iMovie '08
iMovie '08 (7.0) was released in August 2007 as a part of the iLife '08 suite. iMovie '08 was a complete redesign and rewrite of iMovie.
New features added include:
Much better HD output, and more formats to convert to.
A completely redesigned interface with an iPhoto style library. This is limited however by an undocumented restriction on supported codecs. iPhoto uses the QuickTime library and can create thumbnails for all QuickTime supported formats, but most of these cannot be used by iMovie '08. Indeed, even some of the very few formats that iMovie '08 is able to import will not be recognized when they are added to an iPhoto library. Motion JPEG encoded AVI files do appear to be recognized, this is the most common format used by digital cameras.
A new feature called skimming for quickly previewing video in the library at a user controlled speed.
A feature that allows one to highlight parts of video clips just like highlighting text.
The ability to add more than two layers of background sound, including multiple music, narration and sound effects; previous versions only had two spare audio tracks.
More exportation formats with support for iPhone size video and many other sizes.
The ability to export directly to Youtube
Support for non-tape based HD or non-HD video cameras such as DVD camcorders HDD camcorders, & AVCHD.
According to Apple's system requirements iMovie '08 requires at least a PowerPC G5 1.9GHz or an Intel Processor. G4s are not supported, though Apple sold its last G4-based Computers (iBook G4) 14 months before the release of iLife '08. However, a system hack enables iMovie 7.1 or higher to run on a PowerPC G4.

Features of iMovie HD 6
iMovie 6 was released in January 2006 as part of the iLife '06 suite. It is integrated with iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb. New features include:
Themes. Designed for ease of use, themes allow the user to drop movie clips or photos into professionally-designed backdrops. Each theme includes full-motion graphic bumpers and transitions.
Real-time effects. iMovie takes advantage of the computer's graphic processing unit to perform some effects without rendering.
Real-time titling
Enhanced audio tools and effects
Multiple open projects
Video podcasts and blogs (using integration with iWeb)
Refined look based on iTunes 5 and 6.

Want to be a Professional Orchestra Player?

I want to share this important information with all the violists out there.
sometimes It seems very hard to find a job as a professional musician.
but that's not the true anymore.
It became much easier these days because of the internet.
check this website if you want to be a professional orchestra player

http://www.musicalchairs.info

And these are the upcoming orchestra auditions for violist
Good luck for everyone!!

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Viola Associate (2nd chair)
Deadline 1 Feb 2009

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Alto, section (1 ou 2 postes)
Deadline 1 Feb 2009

Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes
Viola (section) opening

Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes
Viola 1 Fila

Orquesta Sinfonica UANL Monterrey, Mexico
Viola

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Section Viola
Deadline 27 Jan 2009

Pacific Symphony
Section Viola
Deadline 23 Feb 2009

Victoria Symphony Orchestra
Principal Viola

Victoria Symphony Orchestra
Section Players

Huntsville Symphony Orchestra
Viola 3 and 4
Deadline 29 Dec 2008

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Fellow
Deadline 2 Feb 2009

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Assistant Principal Viola
Deadline 15 Dec 2008

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Assistant Principal Viola
Deadline 15 Dec 2008
Delaware Symphony Orchestra
Assistant Principal Viola

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Section Viola
Deadline 5 Jan 2009

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Training Program for
African American Musicians (1 Position)
Deadline 15 Dec 2008

You Tube Symphony Orchestra

What a interesting event!!!

Interested in joining the first-ever collaborative online orchestra? Professionals and amateur musicians of all ages, locations and instruments are welcome to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra by submitting a video performance of a new piece written for the occasion by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). We have tools to help you learn the music, rehearse with the conductor, and upload your part for the collaborative video.

And how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice and upload. Send us your talent video performance from a list of recommended pieces. Finalists will be chosen by a judging panel and YouTube users to travel to New York in April 2009, to participate in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra summit, and play at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

The deadline for all video submissions is January 28, 2009.

Website: http://www.youtube.com/symphony

Prepare for Summer Festivals

Summer Festivals
 
1. Aspen Music Festival /Aspen, Colorado
www.aspenmusicfestival.com
The Aspen Experience begins with the opportunity to study classical music for nine weeks in a charming mountain town. Students apply to study privately with a particular artist-faculty member, but there are numerous educational opportunities beyond the one-on-one studio experience. Master classes, organized by instrument, are open to students in all disciplines and to the general public. Chamber groups are formed by audition and coached by our world-class artist-faculty and guest artists. Student competitions offer winners the opportunity to perform a featured solo with an orchestra.
 
3. Bowdoin Festival/ Brunswick, Maine
www.summermusic.org
Founded in 1964 by Robert K. Beckwith and Lewis Kaplan, the Bowdoin International Music Festival brings renowned classical musicians from around the world to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine each summer for six weeks of instruction and performance. More than 250 highly talented young performers of graduate, college, and high school levels further their artistic development through a concentrated program of instrumental study and composition with the Festival's outstanding artist faculty.
 
4. NYU Intensive String Quartet/New York, New York
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/strings/summer
Intensive String Quartet June 29 - July 18, 2009. Application deadline: March 15. Applications accepted after the deadline on a space available basis. This unique program in the art of String Quartet playing is offered to advanced high school and college students 15 years or older and young professionals. Through intensive preparation students will engage in an in-depth study of selected string quartet repertoire. Each group will learn an entire quartet and perform it during the NYU String Quartet Festival which is held at the end of the program. Students can take the chamber music workshop for undergraduate college credit.
 
5.Tanglewood Festival /Boston
www.bso.org (Click “Tanglewood” on the top of the home page)
The Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Program offers an intensive schedule of study and performance for advanced instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers who have complete most of their formal training in music. The TMC provides tuition, room, and two meals a day at no charge to participants for their eight weeks of residency at the Tanglewood Music Center. The costs are underwritten by private donation, and most attendees receive named Fellowships that reflect the source of these donations; the TMC therefore refers to its participants as “Fellows.”
 
6. Yellowbarn /Putney, Vermont
www.yellowbarn.org
Yellow Barn is a chamber music professional training program and concert presenter founded in Putney, Vermont in 1969 by cellist, David Wells. Since 1998 the festival has flourished under the artistic leadership of Peabody Trio founding pianist Seth Knopp.
 
7. Marlboro/ Marlboro,Vermont
www.marlboromusic.org
Marlboro Music is acclaimed world-wide as an institution devoted to artistic excellence and to developing new musical leaders who illuminate all areas of music today. It is where the concept of having master artists play together with exceptional young professional musicians was born—initiating a dynamic new approach to learning. Under the Artistic Direction of celebrated pianists Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida, it is, perhaps, the only place where leading musicians can spend up to seven weeks exchanging ideas, and rehearsing in depth nearly 240 works each summer
 
8. Pacific Music Festival /Sapporo, Japam 
www.pmf.or.jp
The Pacific Music Festival (PMF), founded in 1990 by the premier, conductor, composer and educator of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), is an international educational music festival.
The PMF Academy, consisting of the Orchestral, Composition and String Quartet courses, offers a comprehensive curriculum to all participants for nearly four weeks in July.
The members of PMF Academy are selected through a very competitive audition process. These promising young musicians from around the world bring fresh interpretations to traditional repertoire, transcending national boundaries and languages.

I want to introduce a great scale book for viola

When I was in pre-college, I used to use the Galamian Scale System book. I used the version of the book which was only available for violin at the time. It was a pain transposing it for viola. I recently found out that a version of this book for viola was just published and I just bought a copy about a week ago. It is terrific! I just wished this book had existed back then.

I really recommend this for every violist. It's worth every penny!

I just opened this blog!!

Hi everyone

Welcome to my new blog.

I hope that I can see you guys often.

bye~