Intro post

[drplacebo]

Hi, everyone! I'm a violist and composer based in Sacramento, California, USA. Music isn't my primary job, but I play viola in a semi-professional orchestra and am principal violist in a community orchestra. I also play violin occasionally, played piano through college, played low brass in high school, and have done a fair bit of choral performance (true bass, definitely not baritone).

If I had to pick three favorite composers, both to play and to listen to, it would be Brahms, Schumann, and Shostakovich; you can probably fill in a lot of my other favorites from there. I enjoy music from all eras from Renaissance to 21st century, though.

I also like exploring lesser-known composers from all eras. I've been fortunate in that the directors of both of my orchestras similarly enjoy going off the beaten path. One of the things I post every week on my own page is "Forgotten Masterpiece Fridays," where I present an unjustly neglected piece, usually by a lesser-known composer. (I think most of those posts should be visible to the public; if any are not, it's because I had to manually change permissions to public when I imported from LiveJournal and may have missed one or two.)

I'd love to chat with any other string players, composers, and especially anyone else who likes exploring lesser-known classical music.

Comments

[espresso_addict]

I will always have a soft spot for Brahms because his violin concerto was the first classical piece I recall hearing as a child, a wonderful introduction to the expressive power of classical music.

Neither a string player nor a composer, but I do love being introduced to obscure works and will take a look at your blog -- not the mod here, but I'd be interested if you were to post such recs to the comm directly.

[drplacebo]

Ah, speaking of firsts, that might be why I have a soft spot for more obscure composers. My "Forgotten Masterpiece Friday" post yesterday was also the first symphony I ever heard -- Howard Hanson's 1st.

[used_songs]

I love Shostakovich! And I would love to learn more about lesser known composers. I'm definitely going to check out your page.

[gramarye1971]

If you're fond of Brahms, have you listened to his organ chorale preludes? They're not very well known as far as I can tell (they were published posthumously), but my organ instructor had me working on two or three of them -- they're quite nice, and deserve to be better known.

I definitely need to check out your music posts, too. Glad to see more love for lesser-known works and composers!

[drplacebo]

No, I haven't -- I haven't heard much organ music, actually, other than the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and a few organ concerti. (My listening tends to be heavily weighted toward orchestral and chamber music, much less unaccompanied solo keyboard.)

[ghostwire]

welcome & thanks for joining the community!

i play viola too. represent! :)