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!

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.

This week's landmark episode marks the return of Akiko, plus a pair of fellow stand partners for life: violists Kate Reddish and Eric Lea! We discuss the slings and arrows of a career in music, what you can and can't get from music school, what it's like to be part of a string-playing pair, and much more. Kate Reddish is a Los Angeles-based freelance violist. She enjoys a busy and varied career subbing with nearly every major orchestra in the Southern California area, performing as a chamber musician, and teaching and coaching individuals and groups. Kate can be heard on hundreds of film scores, albums, and TV shows, and has appeared on television and on film. Kate comes from a “numbers” family: her father was a tax attorney and CPA and her mother a bookkeeper; her sister followed that path to work as a bookkeeper and financial analyst. Meanwhile, Kate, who started playing the viola through the public school system in Riverside, was certain that a life in music was the only life she wanted. Kate earned her BA and MM from UCLA (go Bruins!), studying with former Los Angeles Philharmonic principal violist Evan Wilson. Feeling nothing like a Master, she then trotted across town to USC (go Trojans!) to complete an artist’s diploma with eminent pedagogue Donald McInnes. Since finishing her formal schooling, Kate has also participated in intensive courses with Burton Kaplan, Rob Knopper, Noa Kageyama, and Nathan Cole. In June of 2021, Kate started her own business, KMR Creative, consulting for online educators and coaches. She currently works closely with Nathan Cole to design and implement his many online offerings and to build the communities that rise up around those courses. Kate enjoys yoga and dance, good food and wine, card games and crossword puzzles, and creating order out of chaos. She currently lives in South Pasadena with her husband, violist and composer Eric Lea, and their sweet kitty, Misha. Eric Lea is a reasonably tall violist. He has a BM from the University of Arizona and an MM from USC (see above re: Trojans), both in viola performance. He has subbed with many symphonies and played and recorded with many bands. As the violist for the band Get Set Go, his playing could be barely discerned by millions under snappy dialogue in several episodes of Grey's Anatomy, and he has toured Japan with songwriter/producer Mike Viola (coincidence?), with whom he and Kate recorded an album called Acousto de Perfecto. He fancies himself as something of a composer now, and his song cycles can be heard at ericlea.bandcamp.com.

I'm joined in the backyard this week by Violympian and VMC participant Travis Maril, as well as his fellow USC alum and my Director of Operations, Kate Reddish. Our wide-ranging conversation includes no small measure of pedagogical geekery, as well as such diverse topics as Tae Kwon Do bribery and Michael Jordan's private Space Jam gym. Violist Travis Maril is String Coordinator and Viola Faculty at San Diego State University (SDSU), where he has taught since 2007. At SDSU he also serves as Co-Director of the Community Music School’s String Academy, a pre-college program for young musicians, which he co-founded in 2012.  As violist with the Hyperion Quartet, Travis was a prizewinner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Over the years he has collaborated in chamber music projects with principal players of the LA Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Miró Quartet, and Brooklyn Rider, among others.  Locally he performs frequently with Camarada, Art of Elan, and with the San Diego Symphony. Inspired by the Violympics in 2021, Travis started String Gym, his own online program for violinists and violists. Through String Gym, Travis works with players across the US, Australia, Germany and Taiwan.  From time to time he also writes about music-related topics on his blog, String Theory. You can also follow Travis on Instagram. If you’re interested in joining us for the fifth iteration of VMC, starting in 2023, you can find out more information here, and apply here.

Nathan, Kerstin and Kate (and Kate's SPFL Eric) in Pasadena Today I'm talking with Kerstin Tenney, VMC violinist par excellence, as well as my Director of Operations, violist (and VMC alumna par equally excellence) Kate Reddish. We talk about Kerstin's musical education, her experience in the Virtuoso Master Course, and the new album she's recorded with Simon Kiln and the English Symphony Orchestra! Violinist Kerstin Tenney finished recording her first solo violin album in England earlier this year, and is now preparing for its release in the early months of 2023. Her 16-track album, Light, features four newly commissioned pieces, and 8 new arrangements written specifically for this project. Following a lifelong desire to learn, Kerstin has worked with Nathan Cole in every iteration of his Virtuoso Master Course. She plays with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, does freelance work, and has a private violin studio, teaching in person and online. In her teaching, along with focusing on the musical and technical aspects involved with playing, Kerstin incorporates the mental in addressing thoughts and fears that inhibit progression, the physiological and anatomical components of playing in understanding the structure of the body and how this affects one's playing, and looks at the role the neurological system has in playing the violin.  Kerstin can be found on her website at http://www.kerstintenney.com, her newsletter at https://bit.ly/KerstinsNewsletter, and on Instagram at @kerstintenney. If you're interested in joining us for the fifth iteration of VMC, starting in 2023, you can find out more information here, and apply here.

It's tour time! While you're listening, we'll be flying, driving, and playing our way through Boston, New York, Mexico City, and Guanajuato. So to kick off the trip, let's talk tour repertoire and hand out some awards. Tour rep includes Copland's Third Symphony and Mahler 1 as the "big pieces", plus violin concertos from Arturo Marquez and Gabriela Ortiz. Which composers would we love to have dinner with? What are the scariest moments in these concerts? And what was the most memorable on-stage exchange during tour prep?

Akiko and I are back for the 2022-2023 season! In this first episode we share with you a fun new format: awards in all kinds of different categories. Next week we'll focus on the season-opening tour prep weeks at the LA Phil, but for today we're handing out some All-Time awards. Discover which composers we'd love to have dinner with, which excerpts terrify us in auditions, and which conductor gestures stand the test of time. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, just by clicking the link below the podcast player. Welcome back to SPFL!

We took quite a long break from recording the show with everything going on at the moment, but we are so glad to be back. To kick things off again we thought we would use this episode to go through a bit of what we have been up to, staying home with the LA Phil out of action, some of the work and practicing we have been doing and then to field a bunch of listener questions. We look back at the last few days of regular work before quarantine began and then talk a bit about how we adjusted our schedules after things completely stopped. Nathan talks about his Violympics group, Akiko shares some of her dreams of home fitness and we explain the home recording process we have been working on. This unusual period presents a somewhat useful possibility to musicians; we all have areas of our playing that we wish we could improve and spend more time developing — and this could be the time to do it. After the complete rundown of our work-from-home life, we get into answering questions on quieting inner critics and protecting the joy of playing, practical concerns of changing strings and re-hairing bows! Key Points From This Episode:  The last days of work and the changes in our schedules since the pandemic began.  Shifting plans and changing the focus of our practice for time at home.   The video recording we did and the insecurities that arise in watching yourself.  Unusual repertoires and more practice time in the work from home world. The 'Violympics' and the questions that came from the group. Staying motivated and practicing during this time with the LA Phil on hiatus.  Considering the plight of young musicians finishing music school right now.  Investing in different skills and upping your game during this downtime.  Personal qualities that lend themselves to a successful career in an orchestra.  Tips for quieting the inner critic when performing or recording.  Separating and protecting the joy of playing from the need to do it for a living.    The importance of friendships and connection within a job in an orchestra.   Changing strings, re-hairing bows, off the string strokes and more.Divisions for practicing a new piece and ways to focus on tricky passages.  Tweetables:  “I think it is scary to think of coming back together. I think we’ve all changed. I think it’s going to be such a substantial amount of time that we all would have changed in a lot of ways.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:24:20]  “Our whole lives I think so much of our self-worth is wrapped up in how we play. I don’t know that that’s healthy or right, but it’s inescapable.” — Nathan Cole [0:25:10] “It is reassuring to know that orchestra or no orchestra, we’re still musicians.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:25:25]  Transcript EPISODE 39  [INTRO]  [00:00:00] NC: Hi and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. I’m Nathan Cole.   [00:00:05] AT: I’m Akiko Tarumoto.  [EPISODE]  [00:00:19] NC: And last time we came at you, the world was a very different place. Needless to say, we’ve taken quite a long break, but we’re happy to be back talking with each other and talking to you. Yeah, even though things have changed quite a bit. We were just trying to come up with what our last episode had been and we were talking conductors. How important is a conductor? Do we really need a conductor?   [00:00:43] AT: Who knew we wouldn’t need a conductor for months?  [00:00:46] NC: Yeah. We got our wish. Didn’t see any conductors for months. Yeah, it’s like the monkey’s paw. Got more than we bargained for.   [00:00:56] AT: The corpse showed up at the front door.   [00:00:58] NC: Yeah. I mean, we certainly won’t be the first people sharing our thoughts about the changed state of the world on classical music since the pandemic began. Maybe our thoughts don’t have to run too deep. But what do you think about our musical and our artistic lives since this all took route? When was the last time we were at work?   [00:01:26] AT: It was what?

Here at Stand Partner HQ, we get this question a lot! And that should tell you something without even knowing the answer. Nobody asks what a pilot does, or if we really need one for our airplanes. But the conductor's role isn't nearly so obvious, to our audiences and even, at times, to us! Do we really need someone up front "driving the train"? Do a conductor's responsibilities begin and end with a downbeat and a final cutoff? Key points Akiko's forthcoming appearance on the Every Little Thing podcastAudience fixation on the conductor as the focal point of an orchestraThe job of the conductor during rehearsal and performanceGiving instruction vs. providing a "guiding current"Examples of time wasting, directionless rehearsalExamples of showing appreciation for the work of the players; giving credit where it's duePetty retaliation: talking in rehearsals and other signs of discontentSetting aside grudges for the concert and putting the music ahead of everything elseDo musicians always agree who's a great conductor?How to balance exerting control and letting go of itThe "dreaded hand": play quieter!Components of a perfect conductor; designing the Robo-conductor! Links Every Little Thing Podcast Gimlet Media  Jeopardy Sean Connery Full Metal Jacket Andrew Manze Robocop Kurtwood Smith Transcript EPISODE 38 [EPISODE] [00:00:01] NC: Hi and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. I’m Nathan Cole. [00:00:04] AT: I am Akiko Tarumoto. [00:00:18] NC: And today we are talking about conductors and not just because we see a conductor all the time at work, see many conductors. There’s actually a special reason, that’s because you are going to be a featured guest on another podcast. [00:00:33] AT: Yeah. [00:00:33] NC: I couldn’t be more proud. It’s like a spinoff of Stand Partners. It’s great. We got a call from the show Every Little Thing, which is a Gimlet Media show. They answer or try to answer questions that you can’t find out just by Googling. Their recent example was how to police sketch artists really. Can they really come up with a picture that’s so close to the person you’re thinking of and they went through it. It was really fascinating, and all the episodes come from listener questions. It’s actually a great idea for this show. [00:01:13] AT: It’s true. Should steal that. [00:01:16] NC: I know. I think I might. They actually play the call – If someone calls in and leaves a message, it’s very 90s. You have to leave a message on the machine. In this case, someone was calling up to say if, "I were ever the victim of a crime, I would be the worst witness. There was no way the police could ever pick up the person because I wouldn’t be able to describe to a sketch artist anybody’s face. I’m the worst and I really don’t believe the sketch artist could help me. Do they really work?" They actually found a sketch artist. So that was the expert on the call and they had this person describe his best friend, I believe it was. [00:01:58] AT: Aha. And it worked? [00:01:59] NC: And it worked. [00:02:00] AT: That’s just too much pressure. I can't produce on this level tomorrow. [00:02:04] NC: In this episode, they have someone asking about conductors and about all kinds of things that go on in orchestra rehearsals and concerts. So that is going to be you. Now, you do have to share the episode with a conductor in addition to the caller. [00:02:23] AT: Yes. Not in real-time, but yeah. [00:02:24] NC: Right. Since you might – I don’t know. You might feel like you couldn’t say everything you wanted to about a conductor. Who knows? We thought this might be – They might not give you all the airtime. You might – [00:02:37] AT: Did you say this conductor? Right. I mean, I hope that I won’t be carrying the entire episode. It would be funny if I described my ideal conductor and just synthesize this person to see if they’re really an effective leader.

Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a "higher power" rub some people the wrong way. As orchestral musicians, we only know one "higher power": the conductor, who rules every aspect of our musical lives! Here are some slightly rewritten twelve steps toward embracing musical anonymity in the orchestra of your choice. The Twelve Orchestral Steps Admit you are powerless over your musical decisions and life has become unmanageable.Surrender those decisions to a higher power to reclaim musical sanity.Turn your musical life over to that higher power (the conductor).Make a searching and fearless inventory of your audition self.Admit the nature of your wrongs to yourself and a practice buddy.Be ready to have the conductor remove your defects of character.Actually ask the conductor to humbly remove those defects.Make a list of colleagues you have musically harmed, and seek to make amends.Make direct amends to these colleagues, especially if you must sit near them.Continue taking inventory and promptly admit wrong accidentals.Through meditation and score study, improve conscious contact with the conductor.After your musical awakening, carry this message to other musicians in the orchestra. Quotes “If you join an orchestra, you’re just a shareholder, but you’re still receiving dividends.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:08:47] “Getting a job is truth time.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:11:12] “There is that hope that joining this group, it’s like there’s a power greater than yourself. There’s power in experience.” — @natesviolin [0:17:57] “It’s okay to be wrong a lot as long you admit it.” — @natesviolin [0:24:20] “You could follow these steps and actually be a great orchestral player.” — @natesviolin [0:27:46] “There’s just no way around the anonymity being an orchestral player, but there are positive things about being in an orchestra nevertheless.” — Akiko Tarumoto [0:27:52] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: ColburnSir Laurence OlivierLA PhilChris Still Transcript EPISODE 37 [INTRODUCTION] [00:00:00] NC: Hello and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. This is Orchestra Players Anonymous. I’m Nathan Cole. [00:00:08] AT: We’re supposed to be anonymous. [00:00:10] NC: Oh! I already broke the rule. All right. [INTERVIEW] [00:00:27] NC: Well, I have to figure you already know who we are. That’s Akiko Tarumoto over there. Welcome back. If you haven’t seen the website in a little while, head on over to standpartnersforlife.com. We got a bit of a new look and as it befits the new year, 2020 episodes of Stand Partners for Life. There you can make sure you’re subscribed on iTunes, on Google Podcasts, however you get your podcasts. Today we are talking about the anonymous nature of orchestra playing, and this actually came up recently. I teach the violin orchestral rep class at Colburn now, and I got a really good question just today actually. [00:01:10] AT: What was that question? [00:01:13] NC: That’s for that prompt. They asked, they said, “Well, we have a friend,” who that’s always kind of a tipoff, but they said, “We have a friend who says that he would never play in orchestra because you would lose your artistic identity. You’d become anonymous.” First of all, I love how you can’t really talk about orchestra. It’s kind of like how kids learn about the birds and the bees on the playground. It’s like playground wisdom. [00:01:43] AT: You can’t talk about – [00:01:44] NC: Well, I just feel like there’s not a constant dialogue about orchestra playing. You have to kind of ask in secret like, “I have a friend who says this is how it works.” [00:01:53] AT: Right. Well, sure. I mean, we all know why that is. It’s like the vast majority of working musicians, working – Not pianists obviously, but that were out there and orchestra is not being soloists or chamber musicians necessarily,