Eliesha Nelson » Cleveland Orchestra Tours

The Cleveland Orchestra in Miami

Eliesha — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:30:49 +0000

For those interesting in the whereabouts of the Cleveland Orchestra after their fabulous production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, we will be in Miami completing the third and final week of our Miami residency. The Orchestra plays a couple of concerts and provides educational outreach to schools and local organizations. If you are in the Miami area, you can catch a concert at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts April 3 and 4, 2009.

Bow Repaired!

Eliesha — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:25:03 +0000

My wonderful E. Tubbs violin bow was repaired by master bow maker Yung Chin in New York. He very kindly did the repair in one day, knowing that the Cleveland Orchestra was leaving New York over the weekend. The repair is called a spline, but the bow depreciated 75% because of the placement of the break.

Wild Concert Experiences

Eliesha — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:35:34 +0000

As a professional musician in the Cleveland Orchestra, I’m happy to say that I have had very few strange or unsettling concert experiences. I think the oddest thing to happen was the loss of a scherzo from a Bruckner symphony that fell under the risers at Severance Hall a few years ago. But yesterday in Carnegie Hall during the Ligeti Atmospheres, the tip of my bow broke off, barely hanging on by a sliver of wood. I registered my shock by saying a silent, “Oh my G-d!” and then continued to fake my way through the rest of the piece. At the very end, the complete tip heaved it’s last final breath and fell off completely.

Tomorrow I will go to the esteemed bow maker Yung Chin to see if it indeed reparable, and to hear the catastrophic loss of value of my Tubbs violin bow. Wish me luck!

What to Listen for While Editing

Eliesha — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:51:45 +0000

I received the first pass of my Quincy Porter Viola Works recording right before my departure for the Cleveland Orchestra European tour. A first pass, for those who don’t know, is similar to a first draft that one would have for writing a book. My producers act as editors putting the best tracks together of what they like, also considering the suggestions I gave them. Often several tracks can be accurate, but there might be a turn of phrase that is more compelling versus straight accuracy. When I recorded, I played large sections repeatedly, and for the shorter pieces I ran the whole thing. I like the idea of large sections because the musical goal stays intact. While recording the Porter Viola Concerto, we would have even longer takes of up to 11 minutes – the piece is 20 minutes long. I copied all 12 CD’s of all the tracks onto my laptop plus the CD of the first pass before leaving for Europe. I also brought the track notes from the producers, Victor and Marina Ledin. I must say, I was pleased listening to the first pass. It was such positive reinforcement to hear everything put together, to see that it all had a good flow and made musical sense. There are just a few small ensemble and intonation issues to clean up.

Here’s a sample of Speed Etude from the first pass.

02-speed-etude

My time in Salzburg has been spent listening to a lot of Quincy Porter, so no mountain climbing on this trip. The Cleveland Orchestra concerts were well received, and I’ve had fun practicing my German. Everywhere I go, people smile at my viola case. It looks like it came out of the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, but it is light and travels well.