Violinists (and husband and wife) Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto give you an inside look at performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Each week brings new repertoire, conductors, soloistsā¦ and new stories from their life-long love affair with classical music, the violin, and their family.
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Shostakovich had never had it worse: his latest opera, Lady Macbeth, had been panned. And not just by an ordinary critic: Joseph Stalin himself had paid a visit to the opera house. The official Soviet opinion of the work? "Muddle instead of music."
Shostakovich therefore pulled his Symphony No. 4 out of rehearsals and regrouped. He determined to write "a Soviet artist's response to justified criticism," a work that would become his Symphony No. 5.
Join me and Akiko as we talk Shostakovich, Saint-Saens, and Francisco Coll, along with guest artists Gustavo Gimeno, conductor, and Javier Perianes, piano!
The best cadenza ever? Prokofiev and Ma Vlast
Sunday, November 27, 2022 ā¢ Duration 01:26:50
Have you ever "discovered" a major piece, live, in the concert hall? Nathan remembers sitting right next to a big star performing Prokofiev's second Piano Concerto, with its massive and breathtaking first-movement cadenza. Then he and Akiko talk about sitting right next to another big star this week for the same piece.
They also reminisce about those stacks of records, cassette tapes, and ultimately CDs from which they learned all the repertoire.
Finally, they debate the categories for this week's rep: Qigang Chen's l'eloignement, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor, and Smetana's Ma Vlast, with Bezhod Abduraimov as piano soloist and Xian Zhang conducting.
036 ā Johnny Lee wasnāt meant to be a Harvard MD
Sunday, December 22, 2019 ā¢ Duration 57:47
Violinist Johnny Lee is Akiko's mirror image on stage at Disney Hall: he sits fourth chair second violin, while she's fourth chair first violin.
But they have something else in common too. Both went to Harvard, where there is no music performance major. Akiko thought she'd be a lawyer, Johnny a doctor (or was he just pretending?), but they both found their way back to the violin by the time they graduated.
The Stand Partners have logged thousands of hours of "unofficial" conversation with Johnny, so we're excited to present him on the podcast. Here's Johnny's path to the LA Phil and beyond!
Transcript
[00:00:00] NC: Hi and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. Iām Nathan Cole.Ā
[00:00:04] AT: Iām Akiko Tarumoto.Ā
[00:00:18] NC: And we are thrilled to be here with our great friend on weāve been trying to get on this podcast actually ever since we started this show. Good friend Johnny Lee, violinist with us in the LA Phil. Frequent hanger outer here at the Cole-Tarumoto residence. Youāve got a heavy dose of the kids tonight. You got to experience dinner, TV watching time, bedtime. Ā
[00:00:43] AT: You missed violin practice time though. Lucky you. Ā
[00:00:47] JL: I have my wine. So itās fine.Ā
[00:00:49] AT: Thatās actually how we got you here. We bribed you with food and drink.Ā
[00:00:51] NC: Thatās true. Johnny showed up wearing his Stand Partners for Life t-shirt, which made all of us happy, especially Hannah noticed it right away. If you too would like a snazzy Stand Partners for Life t-shift, go to standpartnersforlife.com/shirts. Thatās shirt, plural, and guys and gals designs. But thank you so much for being here, Johnny.Ā
[00:01:12] AT: Yay!Ā
[00:01:13] NC: Yay! There are a few reasons to get you here. One, we talk about the orchestra all the time, and LA Phil life all the time. But in addition to that, you and Akiko have some real similarities, I guess besides the fact that Akiko is 4th chair first violin. Johnny, 4th chair second violin.
[00:01:34] AT: Heās my mirror.Ā
[00:01:34] NC: Thatās right. We do since first and second, mostly sit across the stage from each other. Here in L.A. Not Akikoās favorite setup at the moment.
[00:01:44] AT: I think everybody is tired hearing my opinion on where the violin should sit. Ā
[00:01:49] NC: But you do get to mirror each other across the stage quite often. The bigger similarity is that you both went to the same school for undergrad and you actually overlapped.
[00:01:58] AT: We went to school in Boston.Ā
[00:02:00] JL: Cambridge.Ā
[00:02:02] NC: They went to Harvard. I get to hear about it a lot. No! You guys are good about it. Actually, tonight I really do want to hear about it in quite some detail. But, yeah, neither of you went to conservatory for undergrad. So thatās something that I know a lot of. You guys out there have asked about just the difference between going to conservatory, not going to conservatory, at least for undergrad. Yeah, the different paths that people take to get to the LA Phil.
Johnny, if you would back us up from Harvard, from Cambridge, and tell us a little bit about where youāre from, how you got started on the instrument and all that, and then weāll get toĀ get to school days.Ā
[00:02:41] JL: Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. So I was at the Cleveland Institute of Music for prepschool ā Not prepschool. Preparatory program, age 7 I would say. So I started when I was 5, but started at CIM at 7. But that was of course because my parents were Korean immigrants and they just wanted us to play violin. Us being me and my two older brothers just to put on our college application.
[00:03:10] AT: So were you all at āĀ
[00:03:11] JL: Yeah. So would have lessons on Friday after school. My mom would drive us all there. Sheād take notes during lessons. Then on the way home weād get KFC as a reward.Ā
[00:03:24] NC: I thought you were going to say on the way home youād get yel...
035: Playing by numbers, or Advanced Orchestra Stats
Friday, November 22, 2019 ā¢ Duration 55:43
How many times have you been jealous of the box scores for baseball and basketball, or the advanced statistics for football? Don't you wish that you too could be measured by notes attempted, notes played in tune, entrances successfully counted?
If we got our wish, orchestra concerts would have their own advanced metrics! Here are the stats (and penalties) we'd like to see.
034: The spirit is willing, but the Flesch is weak
033: The audience experience, with superfan Roderick Branch
Sunday, October 27, 2019 ā¢ Duration 56:18
Chicago Symphony cellist Brant Taylor may have been our very first special guest here at the Stand Partners, but so far we've been missing the perspective of his partner Roderick Branch. Roderick is a musician, though his day job (and sometimes into the night job) is as a partner at a giant law firm. Roderick is what you'd call an extremely savvy listener, otherwise known as a superfan.
So today Akiko, Brant, and I talk with Roderick, to remember just who it is we're playing for. Roderick elaborates on the dynamics between orchestra and audience in the context of different halls around the world. We speak about the room for error in a magical rendition, the performer as an audience member, and how the level of familiarity with an orchestra affects our experience of it.
We also get into the pros and cons of designs, histories, and acoustics of different halls. Next, we share many stories about what made a particular concert life-changing, and then weigh up the various traits of our favorite conductors. Finally, our pet peeves about off-putting audience or performer behavior take center stage.
Key Points From This Episode
Performers and audience members might feel differently about the quality of a symphony.
The distance of a performer or observer from the orchestra changes how it sounds.
Minor mistakes are less meaningful when there is great spirit in a performance.
The mood of an audience member might change their experience of a performance.
Live symphonies sound different to recorded and mastered ones.
The way a musician reacts to something unexpected is an indicator of how prepared they are.
Experiencing different hall acoustics is neither good or bad but special.
Sometimes one has to try to be less critical to have a good time.
Knowing the orchestra might change the experience of watching them for better or worse.
Knowing who is playing could change whether Roderick goes to a concert or not.
Disney Hallās modernity compared to the sense of history of Symphony Center.
The acoustics of Disney hall are like a soft focus lens, while Chicago Hall is less forgiving.
Less forgiving acoustics can be liberating because it allows for powerful playing.
Hearing the same orchestra playing in different halls is a good way of seeing their difference.
Great conductors bring out aspects in a symphony not heard before.
The respect the orchestra has for a good conductor is palpable in their body language.
It is difficult to be fully present as a musician in every performance.
Several stories of the most life-changing performances the group have ever seen.
Barenboim, Boulez, Haitink and Muti compared by Roderick.
Off-putting performer behavior: not looking engaged and talking during the applause.
Off-putting audience behavior: humming, cellphones, leaving too early, coughing.
Links
Brant Taylor
Roderick Branch
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Bartok Concerto For Orchestra
LA Philharmonic
Disney Concert Hall
Symphony Center
Orchestra Hall
Daniel BurnhamĀ
The Burnham Plan of Chicago
Barbara Walter
Milli-Vanilli
Musikverein
Carnegie Hall
Concertgebouw
Severance Hall
Riccardo Muti
Krassimira Stoyanova
Pierre BoulezĀ
Ben Molar
Daniel Barenboim
Ma Vlast
The Moldau
Bernard Haitink
Shakespeare
Beethoven 9
Verdi: Requiem
The Hollywood Bowl
Jumbotron
Anne-Sophie Mutter
āIf youāre performing a string quartet or a solo piece, the way you react to things that donāt go totally as planned is the biggest indicator of how well prepared something is.ā ā @ Akiko Tarumoto [0:12:07]
āIf you listen to the concert with your music critic hat on, that detracts from the enjoyment of the experience.ā ā @ Roderick Branch [0:18:10]
āItās actually an interesting hobby to hear an orchestra you know well, play in different halls. Itās the best way to figure out exactly how much d...
032: What about Bob? Robert deMaine, our principal cello
Saturday, October 19, 2019 ā¢ Duration 01:02:17
Today we're joined by our good friend and LA Phil principal cello, Robert deMaine. Bob tells us about his childhood, his musical family and an early teacher who gave him a complete musical education, including piano and composition.
He also unpacks how he fell out of love with the cello during his teen years and took an extended break from playing. Eventually he found his way back and went on a tear, pursuing a solo career and at the same time winning principal jobs in Hartford, Detroit, and finally Los Angeles.
Bob doesn't hold back as he discusses anxiety, negative self-talk, and the long road toward mastery of an instrument.
Key Points From This Episode:
Different orchestral seating arrangements
Bob's upbringing, important places and inspiration from his family
Having and then losing the best music teacher in the world
The difference between relative pitch and perfect pitch
Disasters in ice cream shops and disasters on stage
Bob's early jobs in music and testing boundaries with senior musicians
The Detroit Symphony and the strike that ended with Robert moving to LA
Bob's audition for the LA Phil and the hand problem he had leading up to it
The steps toward improvement and how they widen as you grow as a musician
Differences between teaching and coaching; bringing out the best in students
Recreating sounds, learning accents and the power of cultivating the ear
The event that precipitated Bob's performance anxiety, and the way through it
Upcoming projects for Bob, including his
Tweetables:
āI grew up playing on my mother's cello, and my sister played the cello that my mother played when she was a child, and it was a real beater.ā ā @robertdemaine [0:06:35]
āI donāt think I would have played as well as I did had it not been exactly that way. So much of it has to do with just timing.ā ā @robertdemaine [0:39:15]
āIāve never really separated how one prepares for a symphony concert versus how one prepares for a concerto.ā ā @robertdemaine [0:39:51]
Links Mentioned in Todayās Episode:
Robert deMaine on Twitter
Robert deMaine
Strings Magazine
Mariano Rivera
Leonard Rose
Janos Starker
Eastern Music Festival
Juilliard
Curtis
Central State University
Eastman
Good Will Hunting
Dexter
Days of Wine and Roses
Irving Klein Competition
Paul Paray
George Szell
Neeme Jarvi
Joseph Silverstein
Sliding Doors
The Matrix
Goofus and Gallant
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Guido Lamell
Anthony Bourdain
Now Hear This
Handel
Joe RoganĀ
Mash
Taxi
Transcript
EPISODE 32
[INTRO]
[00:00:00] NC: Hi and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. I am thrilled to be here not only with Akiko.
[00:00:07] AT: Hello.
[00:00:07] NC: But our good friend and close colleague, Bob deMaine, principal cello here at the L.A. Phil, and actually weāre right here in Disney Hall, the bowels of the hall.
[00:00:16] BD: Our home away from home.
[00:00:18] NC: Yeah.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:00:32] BD: Thanks for having me on. I feel like Iām sort of your honorary stand partner, because I sit next to you in the orchestra.
[00:00:37] NC: Yeah. Actually ā I mean, yeah, the usual. If everybody's there, we've got Martin, and then I'm sitting second right next to him, and then on my other side is you. When I first came to the orchestra, they had the violas where you are instead. So principal viola was on my other side.
[00:00:53] BD: The viola was there?
[00:00:55] NC: They did.
[00:00:55] BD: Thatās something Iāve never seen before.
[00:00:58] AT: Wrong seating number two.
[00:00:59] BD: Thatās right. Isnāt that David Sanders, like his lingo from Chicago or something?
[00:01:04] AT: I think weāre currently in wrong seating number four.
[00:01:06] BD: I like right seating number one. I mean, cello is on the left.
[00:01:10] NC: The outside.
[00:01:10] BD: Yeah,
031: Thatās life in the hot seat, Mr. Concertmaster!
Friday, October 11, 2019 ā¢ Duration 52:07
Today we're talking concertmaster, and what it means to sit in the hot seat. What are the duties and expectations, and what makes "first chair violin" attractive or unattractive to different players?
Is playing concertmaster more like being the point guard in basketball, or the quarterback in football? Remember: besides playing all those juicy solos, you have to deal with walk-outs, bowings, section concerns and principal relationships.
Just know that even though the concertmaster position puts you in the spotlight, there's a price to pay for all that attention. How happy you are depends not just on the rest of orchestra but your own temperament.
As Akiko says, "Let's just say it plainly. I don't like being concertmaster." But should we take her seriously?
Key Points From This Episode:
The position and duties associated with the title of Concertmaster
Walk-outs, hitting the right piano octave and making sure not to fall over
Comparing the role of the concertmaster with positions in team sports
How the concertmaster relates to the other members of the orchestra
The issues that arise when a conductor is ahead or behind
Communicating with the conductor; bringing issues up at the right time
The importance of solos in getting hired as concertmaster
Bowing decisions, and shutting out some of the noise and chatter
Leadership principles and focusing on what is most important
Our best and worst experiences as a concertmaster
Quotes
āIf you had to pick one leader of the orchestra that isn't the conductor, but a player, it's the concertmaster. They're visible, they're up front.ā ā Nathan Cole [0:07:29]
āNo one even really knows I'm technically a concertmaster, so I have to give myself the title of emergency concertmaster!ā ā Akiko Tarumoto [0:10:15]
āIt's a fun job. It's fraught with danger, but fun and rewarding and you get those juicy solos too.ā ā Nathan ColeĀ [0:51:48]
Links Mentioned in Todayās Episode:
Stand Partners for Life
Carnival of the Animals
Holly Mulcahy: More than wearing pretty shoes
The Suzuki Method
Seinfeld
David Kim
West Side Story
Pines of Rome
The 14 Leadership Principles that Drive Amazon
Jeff Bezos
Transcript
[INTRO]
[0:00:00.6] NC: Hello and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. I am Nathan.
[0:00:03.5] AT: Iām Akiko.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:17.5] NC: Today, we thought weād talk about the concertmaster, the duties of a concertmaster and what itās all about. I mean, should we at least define the concertmaster, the first chair of violinists?
[0:00:28.7] AT: Sure. I assumed people know that, but there are times, a lot of times people donāt necessarily get what that means.
[0:00:36.3] NC: We donāt even say that. We donāt say concert mistress, right?
[0:00:39.4] AT: Not that I know of.
[0:00:40.3] NC: Because I hear people say that sometimes.
[0:00:42.2] AT: Yes. I think some people still say it.
[0:00:44.9] NC: Itās like president, right?
[0:00:46.0] AT: Well, it's like stewardess. We donāt say it anymore.
[0:00:49.3] NC: Right. I'm not sure if people ever did say concert mistress, if that was ever really appropriate.
[0:00:53.4] AT: Sure, they did. I donāt remember.
[0:00:56.6] NC: Yeah. Concertmaster, it's the first chair violinist. Both of us get to do that duty sometimes and we both have concertmaster somewhere in our titles, First Associate Concertmaster and your assistant. That's largely the reason we came out to LA from the Chicago Symphony was the chance to do be concertmaster sometimes.Ā
Why is this a special position and why? What does the concertmaster do?
[0:01:24.8] AT: So are we ā start enumerating the duties?
[0:01:27.5] NC: Yes. We're going to tell what the concertmaster does.
[0:01:30.8] AT: Well, so my first disclaimer is that I don't play concertmaster very often, as you know. I'm drawing on a very small amount of experience.
030: All about Amadeus
Thursday, October 3, 2019 ā¢ Duration 51:39
Nathan says: "My top three movies of all time would be The Godfather, Rocky, and Amadeus in some order."
Akiko's not into those "top whatever" lists.
But both of us love Amadeus so much that we would drop whatever we're doing and watch it again right now.
Here's why...
029: Living the rock star life at the Hollywood Bowl
Monday, September 23, 2019 ā¢ Duration 01:07:45
It isn't every day that you get to perform for 18,000 screaming fans... especially if you're a violinist. But a handful of times each summer, we get the rock star treatment at the Hollywood Bowl!
OK, so those 18,000 folks probably aren't screaming just for the two of us... there might be some famous movie tunes thrown in, or some fireworks, or Katy Perry. But we take it all in stride as we navigate the summer home of the LA Philharmonic.
Listen up for the inside scoop on one of the most amazing performing arts venues anywhere in the world!
