This coming Sunday, October 1st and Monday, October 2nd, the Chicago Sinfonietta will open its 20th Anniversary Season. We have a fantastic opening concert featuring the Van Cliburn winner, Alexander Kobrin and Sphinx competition winner Melissa White performing works that should delight the audience.
However, it’s the closing piece of this concert that is generating ALL OF THE BUZZ, and has created a level of media coverage never before seen at our organization.
The Sinfonietta will perform the World Premiere of Concertino for Cell Phones and Orchestra composed by David Baker, which the Sinfonietta commissioned following an idea that Maestro Paul Freeman Since we announced the concert earlier this year, we have received a great deal of attention including articles in the L.A. Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and many others. Last week the media coverage accelerated to another level. ReutersArticles appeared in over 30 countries altogether, and interviews on BBC Radio, an Irish radio station, and a Brazilian newspaper soon followed. Closer to home, the New York Times informed us that they were sending Dan Wakin to cover the concert, Time.com conducted an interview, John von Rhein will probably review the concert, and the Today Show expressed interest, though subsequently decided against covering the concert. I am writing this on Tuesday, September 26th so who knows what will happen in the next few days? proposed. interviewed David Baker and Maestro Freeman, and within a few hours, articles appeared in newspapers in the United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey, to name just a few.
Our good friends at the Ungar Group created a very cool television commercial for the premiere that is running this week on cable television throughout Chicagoland. Check it out in either Windows Media or Quicktime.
We are excited and appreciative of this global interest in our upcoming concerts, and are hard at work trying to figure out what household appliance or electronic gadget to feature next season. Any suggestions?
Got to run now – Canada’s on the phone…
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Victor Hugo (not verified) | Thu, 09/28/2006 - 9:43pm
Mr. Hirsch,
What happens if someone has some really loud pop-song ringtone like I hear on the red line everyday? Also, this reminds me of the Flaming Lips project where each audience member was handed a small tape player with a specific piece of music on cue. They used the same concept by having a concert in a parking garage where each attendant played a tape on their car stereos.
Nice to see you taking even more chances. Nice ad too!
Bon Chance!
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»Guest (not verified) | Mon, 10/02/2006 - 2:15pm
Hi Victor,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I had heard about the Flaming Lips project, though never found out how it worked. I am writing this the day after we performed the piece so I can tell you that with over 200 cellphones ringing simultaneously, it really didn't matter what the individual ringtones sounded like. As the composer envisioned, it was "chaos into order into chaos". And it was fun, too! As for the ad, a beautiful job done by our firends at the Ungar Group. I'll let them know you liked it! And yes, we will continue to take chances.
Jim Hirsch
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»Guest (not verified) | Thu, 09/28/2006 - 10:18pm
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»Guest (not verified) | Mon, 10/02/2006 - 2:18pm
Hi Guest,
I'll have to keep this story away from Maestro Freeman and David Baker lest we have a "Concertino for Alarm Clock and Orchestra"! Good story.
Jim Hirsch
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