National Symphony Orchestra News

The first state dinner of the Obama White House had it all: Oscar-winning entertainers, Hollywood moguls, a knockout guest chef and even a wardrobe malfunction.

National Symphony Orchestra violaist Bill Foster gives a private lesson on Nov. 4 to Emilio Carlo, 15, as part of the NSO Fellows program.

Pianist-composer Michel Camilo laughs as he recalls one particular performance of his Piano Concerto, several years ago at Royal Albert Hall in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin conducting.

BEIRUT: "This program might seem a little mixed up," said maestro Robert Lehrbaumer, standing on the conductor's podium at St.

Lang Lang , that famed piano superstar , is at the ripe age of 27 now, and over the hill, so to speak, in Wunderkind years.

Perhaps it's due to long years of habit that the National Symphony Orchestra appears to treat its Thursday night concerts like a final dress rehearsal. The opening chords of Brahms's Violin Concerto sounded lackluster, as if the performers weren't fully awake. By the middle of the movement, though, they had all shown up, engaged and present.

Ivan Fischer, the orchestra's principal conductor, would never miss out on the start of a piece like that. But on the podium Thursday night was Alexander Vedernikov, making his debut with the orchestra, and -- along with the evening's soloist, violinist Vadim Repin -- a part of the symphony's year-long 'Focus on Russia' (something indicated in the program, rather alarmingly, with little crosses, as if marking them deceased).

Leonard Slatkin, the music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and former music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, suffered a heart attack on Sunday while conducting a concert with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He is recovering in a hospital in the Netherlands after an operation to insert two stents.

Slatkin, 65, was aware of chest pains during the afternoon performance, but was able to finish the concert -- Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Lars Vogt, and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 -- before going to the hospital. 'Maestro Slatkin feels great,' his manager said, according to a posting on the Rotterdam Philharmonic Web site, adding, 'he is getting the best of care.'

Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Spirit Night Quiz: What 'Nihilistic' Classical Masterpiece Premiered on April 3, 2011? a a oea a Hint Extra credit: Will Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra be able to match James Ross and the University of Maryland's exceptionally high level of orchestral programming? * Another hint: ...

National Symphony Orchestra conductor Lu Shao-chia will use Shostakovich's Symphony No.5 as the base for October's "The Triumph of the Spirit" concert.

Photo: Psychologist Charles T. Snowden teamed up with cellist David Teie to create music for tamarin monkeys out of their calls.

There were two surprises in store Thursday evening as the National Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Ludovic Morlot, presented its second regular season concert in the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall.

Pianist Stephen Hough once called Brahms' First Piano Concerto a 'big, human uttering.' That sounds like a description of essentially any speech by Fidel Castro, but Hough had a point.

Most college students only dream of sharing the stage with a musician like Ben Folds.

After a gala opener of short vignettes last weekend, the National Symphony Orchestra plunged into its regular subscription season Thursday night with two long, meaty narratives.

Storytelling was the theme of an unusual but interestingly balanced program. The first half was given over to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the 'Pastoral,' in which the composer illustrates a day in the country, from a babbling brook to a thunderstorm.

The second half offered Bart?k's ballet 'The Wooden Prince,' which, as the conductor Iv?n Fischer succinctly described it in brief but engaging comments from the podium, 'is a simple fairy tale with a prince, a princess and a fairy.' (It sounds better when you say it with a Hungarian accent, and a conductor's timing.)

It was a three-day spectacular designed to blow away the blues, and on Sunday opera diva Katherine Jenkins and the National Symphony Orchestra brought the Big Gig to a triumphant conclusion.

New season. New beginnings. New music directors.

No, not at the National Symphony Orchestra, which Saturday night opened its second interim season under its principal conductor, Iv?n Fischer, while waiting for Christoph Eschenbach to take charge in the fall of 2010. But the New York Philharmonic welcomed Alan Gilbert on Sept. 16, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic is gearing up for the arrival of the 28-year-old wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel. The demand for free tickets to a 'Welcome, Gustavo' concert on Oct. 3 produced lines around the block.

Program notes are currently available for the following six works to be performed by the National Symphony Orchestra this autumn: KODALY - Dances of GalA nta BARTA"K - The Wooden Prince MARTINU - The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca BARBER - Violin Concerto, Op.

Concerts from Kirkwood opened its 2009-10 series with a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet on Saturday, Sept.

The Jazz Ambassadors presets a diverse program of big band swing, Latin music, contemporary jazz, popular tunes, standards, Dixieland, and patriotic selections.

Whales have songs, and so do birds, of course. But does music lift the spirits of a swallow? Do humpbacks hum to make themselves mellow? Although bird songs and many other animal vocalizations have been the subject of intense scientific study, the effect of music on the moods of creatures other than humans has remained mysterious.