Orchestras Quotations

It is very gratifying to see the music from 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy find a new life on the concert stage as it is performed by different orchestras and choruses throughout the world.

Orchestras are not used to playing the kind of stuff jazz musicians like to play. It requires a lot of rehearsal and recording time, so it's much easier to do on a synth or sampler. So, we came up with that idea.

Ergo, because of the money problem, it is probable that our orchestras will soon go down in quality.

But still as compared to many, many orchestras in the world, I think you find a lot more new music and living composers on our programs than many other places.

It's not all that different with the orchestra. There are orchestras that seem to be encased in dough, so that first you have to break through the normal routine, and clear out the openings.

It seems always to have been difficult to have been a New York Philharmonic conductor because of the nature of New York. We are in direct competition with the great orchestras in the world who come to play in our hall or in Carnegie, and we are constantly compared. I think that 's a good thing.

I endeavor that all orchestras I conduct sound Central European.

One of the principal differences between the work that I have done at other places, either as a guest conductor or as a music director, and that of St. Louis is that I feel the biggest potential we have here is that we play the music with the type of emotional understanding that few other orchestras match. So while we're trying to come as close to technical perfection as human beings can, what we're really working on is trying to get the raison d'etre , the reason for being, of that music.

I grew up listening to hipster jazz and classical records... we went and watched ballet and orchestras - lots of cool stuff. Which I'm really grateful for - it's pretty nice being introduced to that when you're little.

Musical 'fusion' projects have earned themselves a bad name, but that's mainly because they often involve pop artists conscripting orchestras to play unimaginative backdrops to their acts. What's really exciting is when you spark off a dialogue between very different musical forces.

I have hundreds of hours of this music on tape performed by orchestras at the college that, as I said, have never seen the light of any other day.

We submitted an application, and we were one of two orchestras (to be chosen for 2007) ? the other is in North Carolina.

Orchestras are having trouble across the country. Lots of orchestras have deficits, but the larger ones have a better cash flow and are not threatened. All orchestras have very large fixed costs, but the smaller ones have the challenges of fundraising and meeting those costs.

I thought with fury of the wonderful American orchestras that cared nothing for my music; of the critics who repeated for the hundredth time, 'Beethoven is a great composer,' while balking violently at new works; of the managers who arranged long tours for artists playing the same hackneyed programs fifty times over.

I was never that into the movies. Never. Even as a youngster. I became interested in movie music only because of the studio orchestras in Hollywood.

We wanted to help the school districts enrich their curriculum. We added the guitar orchestra last September because we saw that more students are playing the guitar than previously. Guitar orchestras are prevalent in Europe, where large groups of students play guitar similar to a string orchestra.

What I really enjoy about writing for orchestras is realizing that - and it's kind of self-evident - but the fact that they are 48 individuals. It's not, you know, a preset on a keyboard. It's all these people who have opinions and who are making decisions about how to play.

Dmitri has put a personal stamp on them - they are one of the best orchestras in the world.

I had actually always wanted to be a film composer, but when I was at college there didn't seem to be any easy route into it-or any route into it at all. I found myself in this pop world and arranging things for people and dealing with orchestras and string sections, and I suppose I thought I ought to be doing this myself.

The Berlin Philharmonic has a music director, and the Vienna Philharmonic doesn't. They're two of the best orchestras in the world.

All orchestras have problems, and I can see it all over Canada. We just bailed out the Winnipeg orchestra, three years ago,

Concert-going has become much less the thing to do, while people are still going to opera. This might be a harsh judgment, but it could easily happen that orchestras could slowly atrophy.

The clear opportunity in doing something like The Lord of the Rings is that we can attract first-time concertgoers to Severance Hall. There are other ways to attract new audiences, and some used by other orchestras that don't, in my opinion, meet the standards of the Cleveland Orchestra, but Howard Shore's artistry and his music certainly meets our standards.

These are incredibly talented people who do wonderful work and enter careers that are not high-paying, ... Even members of the great symphony orchestras don't make a lot of money.

Being a cover conductor is really like being an assistant conductor because I'm there as the orchestra rehearses with the (full-time) conductor. I'm there following along (on the score) and watching. It's just incredible to be around one of the best orchestras in the world.