NWS Mix Tape - NWS Fellows: Music That Inspired Us
NWS Mix Tape: New World Symphony Fellows, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, are preparing for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles by studying with and performing alongside the world’s finest musicians. Here they share the music that inspired them as they began their journeys towards bring professional musicians.
Read more…Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major op. 8 - Chad Goodman, Conducting Fellow
The first ten years of my musical life, I was a trumpet player through and through and listened almost exclusively to brass-centric repertoire. When I was a freshman at the Eastman School of Music, my ears were (thankfully!) opened to the seemingly endless catalog of non-brass chamber music. One day, a friend working in the music library recommended this Beaux Arts Trio recording of the Brahms Trio No. 1. I had never heard the piece before, so I headed into the library listening room, put on my headphones and closed my eyes. I got goosebumps within the first 10 seconds of the recording. The sensitivity of their phrasing blew me away. To this day, I consider this trio to be my favorite piece of chamber music.
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor op. 95 B 178 “From the New World” - Amelia del Cano, Bassoon Fellow
When I was in high school, I played bassoon for fun because I was good at it, but it wasn’t until my private teacher urged me to attend orchestra camp that I considered taking it more seriously. I went to Camp Luzerne in the Adirondack Mountains and those four weeks changed everything for me. During that summer, we played Dvorak’s New World Symphony and also heard the Philadelphia Orchestra play it at their summer home in Saratoga, NY. Since then I’ve always associated it with the summer that made me decide to pursue music as a career.
Schubert: String Quintet in C major op. posth. 163 D 956 - Tara Lynn Ramsey, Violin Fellow
When I was fourteen, I attended my first chamber music camp. I had never been around other kids who were obsessed with music the way I was, so the experience was a revelation. A group of older students were playing the first movement of the Schubert cello quintet. I would sit unseen in the entryway to the hall and listen to their rehearsals, completely overwhelmed by the beauty and longing of this piece. I was basically having all the feelings of falling in love, but rather than with a person, it was with the experience of finally feeling at home, of finding that the things I’d been dreaming of actually existed. This piece seemed to carry all of the wonder and pain at the fragility of that experience. When I listen to it today, my heart still feels like it’s falling out of my chest.
Knussen: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra op. 28 - Scott Leger, Horn Fellow
A criminally underrated piece of music recorded by maybe the best solo horn player of the 20th century. Mr. Tuckwell very recently passed away and Oliver Knussen passed in 2018. I never had the opportunity to meet Knussen though he had planned a trip to Tanglewood a summer that I was also there. However, a recording of Barry Tuckwell was what convinced me to pick up the instrument when I was 11 and start playing music. Knussen is my favorite recording of Mr. Tuckwell’s from his catalogue.
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor op. 13 MWV R 22 - Margeaux Maloney, Violin Fellow
Mendelssohn String Quartet Op. 13 was one of the pieces that inspired me and is a big reason I decided to pursue music professionally. I chose this recording of Pacifica Quartet because they coached me on this piece back in the summer 2007 and because I used to study with the 2nd violinist, Sibbi Bernhardsson. It always brings back happy memories whenever I listen to it.
Márquez: Danzón No. 2 - Chava Appiah, Cello Fellow
When I was in high school a video circulating of Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar orchestra in a live performance of the Danzon #2. I watched it hundreds of times because I was so inspired by the energy of the performance (and I played clarinet as well back then, and the solos were great). A few years later I got to actually play it with Márquez conducting the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, so it's a very special piece for me!
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme op. 36 “Enigma” - Dillon Welch, Violin Fellow
My mom bought me this recording (paired with Holst’s The Planets) when I was in the sixth grade, and it was the first piece of classical music that I truly loved. I listened to it obsessively on repeat and still adore it to this day.
Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major op. 77 - Michael Turkell, Violin Fellow
I was 13 or 14, and my brother got me the recordings of Heifetz performing Brahms and Tchaikovsky Concertos with Fritz Reiner for Hanukkah, and I obsessively listened to both of these recordings for the next 5 or so years. I still obsess over the sound he gets, his interpretation, and simply how easy he makes it sound.