Lydia Kavina performs at Caramoor August 13th

so close, and I can't make it

Here's an article from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/arts/music/11ther.html) about the upcoming performance.

Well, this is really exciting.

I would be an idiot to miss this.

Two weekends in a row of brilliant theremin performances?

What is going ON!?

Somebody get Guinness back on the phone!!

Peter Pringle just posted this link on LVENET to this NY Times article about the event:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/arts/music/11ther.html?ex=1124424000&en=275f94b2205f3e0a&ei=5070&emc=eta1

There is an error in the article. It claims that there is no special effort involved in holding a note for a very long time. I'm sure that Lydia would disagree!

Ahh, Jason already posted the same article.

Syke!!

Found what I thought was a nice website on Schillinger here:

http://www.schillingersystem.com/

Thanks!

So did any of our readers attend the event? How was the concert?

The SSoMC looks so complicated! Yet incredibly intriguing. . . . .

I went to this.

First of all, going to Caramoor is an adventure in itself. I didn't know what I was getting into, other than the "Air-Conditioned" Caramoor Coach(there was a bit of an AC fiasco, and we had to change buses mid-route - it was 99 degrees that day) was going to pick me at the 92 Street Y at 5:10 and that I was to pack a picnic dinner.

Caramoor is a truely fascinating taste of, like, 1932 without the Prohibition. Everyone picnics on the grounds before the concert in the Venetian theatre.
Next time I go, I'll bring some friends, 'cause I felt like a total loser looking for a place to picnic by myself.

You can walk around the grounds until you hear a chorus of bells heralding 30-minutes-till-concert time. I saw the sunken gardens. Someone asked me where the zoo was.

I saw Lydia Kavina walking with an escort on her way to tune as some drunken aristocrat shouted, "you know, I know some of your family!" to her.
That's Westchester for you. She kind of rolled her eyes and tried to smile at him.

I sat in the last row next to a couple who were all, "It's a singer tonight and a thermin player. It's some kind of electronic instrument, I don't think it's on stage yet. Do you see anything, honey??!! I bet she'll carry it out with her."

I pointed out Lydia Kavina's theremin to them and they shut up.

The concert itself was beautiful, in my opinion, as a mix of excellence in theremin technique and excitement in being in a crowd of people who were awed by the instument.
The Airphonic Suite was first on the program and the conductor said a few words about the theremin and it's connection with Caramoor and that Lucie Rosen had played the Shillinger piece many many times. The piece itself was very interesting. I enjoyed it. It was "Bravo"-ed, or, she was, either one. And then Lydia played "Vocalise"(I think! It wasn't in the program) as an encore. That brought tears to my eyes.

When the conductor went to take Lydia's hand after she was finished, she did a hilarious "I'm electric! Don't touch me!" bit with hand before they shook.

Then, the singer, Audra McDonald, sang a little Greshwin and some other things. Then, Ms. McDonald called Ms. Kavina out back on to the stage and they did a duet to a Duke Ellington song. Again with the tears.

Then they did Tchaikovsky's Symphony #4. That was long.

Then, the crowded Caramoor Coach took me back into the city.

The entire event made me feel exceedingly proud to be involved in any way with this fascinating and beautiful instrument.

~Hammy

Hammy, thanks for the wonderful account! I wish I could have attended too, but your description helped me imagine being there, which is the next best thing I suppose. Thanks!!