Posted by John Patrick on Apr 16, 2006 in
Music 
The taxi ride from the hotel in Manhattan to Brooklyn was a short thirty minutes, although passing by "Ground Zero" was a long and sobering reminder of the fateful day. After dinner at Five Front we headed to the Barge on the East River, an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. The setting was modest with roughly ten rows of ten seats for a capacity of one hundred. Attendance was only about 70 and it was significantly disproportionate to the incredible performance by Dmitri Alexeev.
After six movements of Chant sans Paroles (P. I. Tchaikovsky), Mr. Alexeev played four movements of Scriabin’s Sonata No. 3. The Steinway piano filled the room and from the fourth row, the resonance and brilliance were stunning. After the intermission came Twelve Preludes of Shostakovich and three preludes of Rachmaninov. The standing ovation led to two encores. Dmitri Alexeev was truly incredible. The Russian pianist lived up to a well-deserved reputation. Ray Kurzweil may be right that man-made computers will overtake our biological computing abilities in the next dozen or so years but listening to the thousands of expressive notes played by Mr. Alexeev showed how unique the human mind is. I can not imagine a computer providing any experience like this performance any time soon.
The unsung hero of the evening was Olga Bloom — a very unpretentious 87 year-old former symphony violinist who greeted us as we boarded the barge and offered a glass of wine as. Ms. Bloom bought the barge thirty years ago and turned it into Bargemusic — a concert hall of sorts. Olga manages four concerts per week. The supporters listed in the program numbered more than five-hundred. Olga told us at the break that she thought it was really important to provide a low cost way to enable artists to express themselves and share their musical talents in a public forum. Well said. There are many other unsung heroes in towns and cities around the world who keep the arts alive through the ups and downs of the economy.
Other patrickWeb music-related stories
Posted by John Patrick on Apr 9, 2006 in
Conferences,
IBM,
Travels 
Short stories are usually better than long stories but this past week contained so much to share that it can not be told in one short story. The highlight was when five-hundred of us entered the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel in a rare way — the buildings had been closed to the public and were empty — and then even more rare was having dinner in the Braccio Nuovo Gallery of the Vatican Museum. The Business Leadership Forum was led by Sam Palmissano, chairman of IBM and it focused on "Innovation That Matters".
Just about every company these days talks about innovation but IBM is actually walking the talk — and innovating in innovative ways and on a global basis. CEO’s at the forum from around the world talked about how their companies were breaking new ground and setting new records by innovating with IBM. During coffee and lunch breaks at the rapid-fire day-and-a-half forum there were demonstrations of technology that can make the world a better place by using RFID (radio frequency identification tags) to track the movement of cargo containers and hospital patients. With incredible humility, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux talked about the past and future of open source software development. The week even allowed a few geocaching trips on arrival day. The link below provides an index to the stories about what I learned this week.
Roman Rendezvous Stories
Posted by John Patrick on Apr 5, 2006 in
IBM 
The month of March was cold in many places but another hot one for IBM. There was a slew of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and corporate initiatives — including the 2005 annual report and collaboration with gaming companies. Here are the announcements made by the company during the month. The complete index of prior IBM Happenings is here.
Posted by John Patrick on Apr 3, 2006 in
Music 
In December 2002 I was fortunate to have a once in a lifetime opportunity — conducting a symphony orchestra. Mozart’s twenty-fifth symphony (first movement) was a very challenging yet rewarding experience. Three and a half years later, I was again fortunate — for a second time in a lifetime — to conduct Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture. Maestro Sidney Rothstein, my friend and instructor, suggested a more complex piece this time and Creatures of the Prometheus filled the bill.
It was indeed a challenge, but at the same time an exhilarating experience that is hard to describe in words. The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra is always a privilege to hear but as three years ago, the difference between sitting in the audience and standing inches from the musicians — was amazing. It was being right in their space, seeing them at work in great detail and hearing the unique character of each instrument like never before. I have always had great respect for orchestral musicians but once again even more so.
I didn’t count how many times I listened to mp3 recordings of the Prometheus and how many times I read the thirty-page score, but it reached the point where the notes were playing in my head nearly every waking hour. After all the hours of rehearsing, there were no more excuses — it was
time to raise the baton and conduct.
I made
two introductory beats and then away we went! To watch these professionals at
work, to hear the actual instruments instead of an mp3, to see the musicians in front of me and occasional encouraging smiles from them — I was on cloud
nine. If the orchestra senses that you know the music, they will actually follow you! I made a few mistakes, but I don’t believe the audience noticed. At the end, I congratulated them on their performance
and was humbled as *they* applauded. Here are the reivews from the The Ridgefield Press and The Danbury News-Times.
Beethoven
Conducting
Mozart
