Featured Instrument A-M

Joe Sample, Old places Old faces

In Praise of Joe and Rachel

My first encounter listening to a symphony orchestra remains permanently fixed in my memory. Not so with jazz. My love of jazz gradually seeped into my being over time –…

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Oi Vey! Not Another One!

contributor Mark Vanhoenacker offered yet another in the unending series of obituaries for classical music on January 21, 2014, entitled Requiem – Classical Music in America is dead. Vanhoenacker quotes…

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Discovery Orchestra Chat 115 – A Very Special Melody Part 2

The orchestral version of Pelleas et Melisande is used to illustrate Gabriel Faure’s lilting Sicilienne rhythm – listen for the prominence of the harp and flute in this Chat! Watch…

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Discovery Orchestra Chat 111 – A Very Special Melody

A composer will sometimes create a melody that is so beautiful, so haunting, that it just stands out as one of the best melodies ever. This was the case when…

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Musician Humor

A few blog posts ago I let some of you in on ‘conductor humor.’ I say ‘some of you’ because there are undoubtedly ‘others of you’ who may have already…

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Discovery Orchestra Chat 106 – A Taste of Mexico

Guitarist Celil Refik Kaya is back again to help Maestro Maull explore Manuel Ponce’s Scherzino Mexicano in this Discovery Orchestra Chat!

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Thank you so much for inviting us to attend the Saint-Saens “Organ Symphony” recording session. I have always enjoyed listening to this work. As is always the case, your tutorial was excellent! I cannot believe how much more I now know about the “Organ Symphony”. And with more understanding comes a better appreciation. The Discovery Orchestra is much bigger than I remember. Their performance was excellent and truly exciting! A really big pipe organ performed by Mark Miller further enhanced the entire listening experience.

— Earle Eaton, Recording Engineer of our predecessor entity the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey