The Philadelphia Orchestra

It is completely true: The Philadelphia Orchestra sounds like none other.

Philadelphia is famous for many things: The birthplace of America, the Liberty Bell, Philly cheese steaks, but as I shared with the audience at The Mann Center on July 25th last, to me as a kid, Philadelphia was famous for one reason only: it's where the Philadelphia Orchestra lives!

Photo by Derek Brad

As excited as I was by the prospect of another performance at Philadelphia's incomparable Mann Center, and as exhilarating as I found last year's performances with The Pittsburgh Symphony (one of my favorite American orchestras at the moment), the chance to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra and experience that legendary sound from the inside - one I had been listening to from childhood - was something I had been looking forward to for months.

Conducting with the Wind Waker,  and a little Hyrulian
Photo by Derek Brad

The riches of musical life are such that two great orchestras can sound so different and bring equal measures of pleasure: the finest of restaurants with different flavors.

Every moment on stage was exhilarating, every turn an adventure. It was difficult not to get distracted when that Philadelphia string sound, coupled with Koji Kondo's famous melodies, came toward me like a wave. The violin solos were exquisite under the fingers of our concertmaster for the night, Juliette Kang, a true audience favorite.

Photo by Derek Brad

The atmosphere at The Mann was electric with cheers of pride from the home audience when I explained how "epic" the contribution of their very own Philadelphia Orchestra was to music history.

Before the concert I took part in a video installation project featuring some of The Mann's performers, created by photographic/video artist Derek Brad, official photographer for The Mann. The concept of the project was intriguing to me but I daren't spoil the surprise before Derek's launch.

Thanks to Juliette Kang and the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra (especially those who came to my dressing room afterwards and gave me a thumbs-up, it meant the world to me!); Travis Wells and the orchestra's administrative staff; Derek Brad and a big hug to my friends at the Mann: Catherine Cahill, Nancy Newman, Ed Kasses, Debbie Lobel and Tony, the worlds best driver/tour-guide/all-around-great-Philly-guy.

Here's a quote from a review of the performance by Vir Animus of The Knights of Hyrule (probably the most poetic review I've ever had...):

"Eimear Noone’s own performance was mesmerizing. Despite her delicate physical condition, Mrs. Noone commanded the prodigious orchestra with a dance of great technical skill. She ambulated every jointed point of her body, leaning forward and back to urge the musicians on and carry their instrumental voices into the heavens. At several points, she was moving with such ferocity and passion that she almost appeared to be battling the enemies on screen at her pedestal. Her love of the material was maternal and evident by the smile on her face that grew as she first stepped out on stage and did not dissipate until long after she stepped out of the spotlight."

Two young fans - Photo by Derek Brad

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Sydney Opera House: Armed Adventures in Oz

It's definitely time for me to get blogging again, before memory rot sets in.

One of the most incredible experiences of my career to date was performing at the Sydney Opera House with the fantastic Sydney Symphony Orchestra in February.

That iconic bastion of music and architectural brilliance simply takes your breath away. It absolutely reminds you of the famous Goethe quote: "Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music".

The orchestra was electrifying, the opera house magnificent and the staff of the house treated us like family.

It simply couldn't have been a better experience.

Click on the Video below for video of the Overture to Symphony of the Goddesses at The Sydney Opera House:

Evidently the Aussies have a great sense of humor... (So does The Almighty judging by some of the lizard-life I saw there) All joking aside, I've seen some serious weaponry come through the doors of many a concert hall at this point so the Opera House staff didn't know how actually appropriate their "joke" was to us.

The Australian media were there to greet us and we got to do a fun featurette from the creative geniuses at ABC's Spawn Point. It's an exciting piece that shows off the orchestra beautifully to a new young audience.

Check out Andrew Taylor's article here:

The Sydney Morning Herald came to interview us, curious as to what we were getting up to... invading Sydney with our swords and shields perhaps?

http://media.smh.com.au/system/ipad/the-legend-of-zelda-at-the-sydney-opera-house-3995817.html

Sydney Symphony in full flight

With the marvelous Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Our friends from Zelda Universe

With some very cool Zelda fans

A spectacular view of Sydney Harbor from the conductor's dressing room at Sydney Opera House

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The Goddesses at Madison Square Garden

Performing at Madison Square Garden is something of which every performer dreams and although we were in The Garden's smaller 5,500 seat theater I nonetheless relished the opportunity to open the show with "Good Evening Madison Square Garden!" and told the audience how much I'd always wanted to say that.

What a dork!

Our orchestra for the night was The Orchestra of St. Luke's under expert concertmaster Krista Bennion Feeney (I much prefer the European non-gender-specific term "leader"). Krista was an absolute professional and consummate artist in light of some unforseen technical difficulties at the beginning of the show - the gods (and goddesses) of the theater were being mischievious as is their wont from time to time; I assured the audience that such were the joys of real live performance. Without skipping a beat Krista gracefully lead her section and her heart-stopping solos soared through the sparkly seventies-disco-esque rafters of the MSG Theater.

After an inauspicious start the performance with OLS was became one of the most joyful and exuberant of the tour. The musicians rose to the occasion and captivated the audience with their boundless energy and brilliance. The audience responded in turn and I found myself in the enviable position of being in the middle of this feedback loop of pure passion. Heartfelt thanks to Valerie Broderick, Jenny Kampmeier and the artists of the Orchestra and Chorus of St. Luke's.

The Zelda audience was as exuberent as ever and showed their love for the orchestra in no uncertain terms.

When I took out the Wind Waker baton above the roar of the crowd I could hear one guy yell "OH MY GAAAAAAWWD!!!".

I also spotted a stunning replica of Majora's Mask from the stage - it was unmissably enormous actually.

Performing for this audience never gets old...

Jeron took this photo of the audience from the wings.

Here we are on stage at MSG - a bit blurry. Thanks to Z.fan Laura Kimpel Moncada for the photo

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Nintendo World NYC and a Guy Called Triforce

Before our Toronto performance we flew down to New York for a short promotional teaser for the MSG show at Nintendo World in Rockefeller Plaza. With reduced versions of the score and some new arrangements, we gave Nintendo fans a taste of the Zelda Symphony via live Septet at the Nintendo World store.

It blew my mind to see hundreds of Z.fans sitting on their hunkers in anticipation of hearing a string quintet flute and harp play chamber versions of their favorite themes. It was absolutely magical.

This is actual "chamber music" guys (perhaps I shouldn't tell them...).

Our friends from IMGMR flew down from Montreal to be with us and the photos used in this entry are theirs.

However, big eye-opener for me: The night before the performance we were still on West Coast time so we decided to drop by 30 Rock and see what was going on. It was about 1am NYC time when we got there and we experienced firsthand the passion and tenacity of dyed-in-the-wool Zelda fans: there were about 20-30 people sleeping outside the store to make sure they got in to see the performance!!!

I couldn't believe it. Actually in hind-sight, they were right; security was so tight the next day that I couldn't get past the black-clad giant pillars of man at the door to get in and conduct the ensemble.

Our favorite Zelda Symphony veteran, Triforce was there in all his Hyrulian glory. Yes, Triforce is his real middle name - he had it legally changed... of course...

I'm intensely excited to deliver the full power of the symphony to these guys tomorrow night; they deserve the very best we've got.

Thanks to Mark Robertson in LA and Ralph Farris in NYC for putting together an excellent septet for us.Thanks to all at IMGMR for being a constant support and taking some great shots.

Thanks to Triforce for being... well... Triforce!

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The Leaning Bassoon of Pittsburgh

It has been a touring whirlwind from Toronto to NYC, Dallas, Philly, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, San Antonio, Calgary... and at this very moment I'm on a plane to NYC for our performance at the Madison Square Garden Theater (very excited!). I haven't had a moment to keep up with the blog but I'm going to give some of the highlight so far including some very funny moments.

THE LEANING BASSOON OF PITTSBURGH

(All of the photography in this entry is by brilliant photographic artist, Derek Brad; You can check out his work here: http://www.derekbrad.com)

Working with Pittsburgh Symphony was a magnificent experience that I would love to repeat as often as possible over this lifetime and the next few. We gave two performances of The Symphony of the Goddesses together - at The Mann Centre in Philadelphia and the orchestra's home of Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh.

Performing at The Mann and meeting the team there was unforgettable and ended in a bucket of champagne and a beautiful card in my dressing room after the performance - never a bad thing! Thanks to all at The Mann for making us feel so welcome and comfortable - you guys really are a class act.

Thank you so much in particular to Catherine Cahill, Nancy Newman and Ed Kasses.

On stage at The Mann Center with the Pittsburgh Symphony

Most Memorable Moment (besides the brilliance of the brass - for God's sakes don't tell them...):

Photo of the Mann Center by Photographer extraordinaire, Derek Brad

One of the movements of the symphony has "drunken solo" written in the bassoon part for a particularly showy solo and the consensus - between bassoonist David Soggs and I - after the first performance was that although slurred and stumbling, the level of bassoonic innebriation hadn't quite reached the depths I had observed on a wet St. Paddy's Day in Dublin.

When that over-21s moment came in our second performance - this time at the PSO's home in the opulent Heinz Hall - Mr. Soggs dug into the depths of something like musical method acting and brought the druken solo to a whole new level of intoxication.

I looked up from the podium to give David his cue to find a cross-eyed "bowsie" (a Dublin term - you can probably guess...), his spectacles askew on his face and the bassoon held at an angle that made the clarinets extremely nervous.

I hardly think it proper concert etiquette for the conductor to get a "fit of giggles" on the podium (very manly and maestro-like you know), but the bold Mr. Soggs set me up you see...

Look away Z.fans!: spoiler alert!: it's the nigh mythological Wind Waker

What is it about bassoonists? It must be all of those brain-chemistry-altering ostinatos...

Ok, perhaps I am a little partial - the bassoon being one of my favorite instruments; "Le Sacre" being no.1 on my desert island discs (I know there are lots of great recordings but Markevich's are my favorites).

Thanks to David Soggs for bringing his brilliance to our performance and not being afraid to "go there", foregoing convention for the theatre in the performance and - making me laugh!

Thanks to that kind and enthusiastic usher at Heinz Hall who took care of me when I was exhausted and wanted me to come back and perform again - very sweet...

Thanks to the musicians and staff of the PSO and chorus for a memorable and ahem... intoxicating experience.

With the PSO

Members of the PSO Chorus

Making shadow puppets on the screen... ok maybe not...

Our loyal and beloved Z.fans on the lawn at The Mann

 

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