Spotlight: Lee Ann Womack

“You’re trying to catch a moment of someone’s life, and in my case, make the best kind of country music you can, because country music – to me – is real life.” –Lee Ann Womack

Lee Ann Womack

Best known for her single “I Hope You Dance,” which hit #1 six weeks in a row in 2000, Lee Ann Womack grew up in Texas at the heart of the country music scene. She has released six studio albums and is currently working on her seventh. “I don't put albums out as fast as some people, but being in the studio is probably the favorite thing about my job,” she said last year.

Favorite Classical Artists, Part 1

Chamber Music at Strings Music Festival

Along with classical pieces, favorite memories of Strings Music Festival include classical musicians. Here’s who you remember most: 

Eroica Trio playing at Storm Meadows
Marie Rossano
Adela Pena practicing violin just outside my office at Storm Meadows.
Adela looking for her shoes.
Benny Kim and his fun socks.
Lambert Orkis - his music making with Russian artists during and after the Soviet era.
The Carnegie Mellon Trio
The Meridian Quartet

What classical musicians would you like to see return to Strings?

Steamboat Grooves To The Tune Of 27 Inches Of Powder

(c) SSRC / Larry Pierce

With the record breaking 27 inches of Champagne Powder that fell at Steamboat Ski Area Sunday night and the additional 21+ inches of snow that have fallen since then, all anyone can talk about around here is snow. 

But when eight people are crammed into every gondola cabin and the lift lines are the biggest I’ve ever seen, it might be necessary to tune out the crowds. The best way to do that? Music. 

Spotlight: Gary Hoffman

Cellist Gary Hoffman

As an internationally acclaimed cellist, Hoffman has performed with orchestras in America and abroad, esteemed music festivals including the Bath International Music Festival, and the Tokyo String Quartet, among others. 

This summer at Strings Music Festival, Gary Hoffman will perform the Dvořák Cello Concerto, arguably one of the most famous cello concertos of all time. In fact, Brahms is said to have commended Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor: “Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? Had I known, I would have written one long ago.” In an interview with Tim Janof of cello.org, Hoffman shares some secrets.

Strings Music Festival History - A Chapter on Fundraising

Strings Music Pavilion

Strings Music Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and has a long history of successful fundraising. Our 2012 Annual Fund Campaign is underway and we invite you to look at the levels of support and donate today! Thank you to everyone who has helped us reach 25 years.

Here’s how we made it happen:

The Appoggiatura Isn't the Reason Some Songs Make You Cry

People can’t stop talking about Adele’s sweep of six Grammy Awards and her come-back performance after undergoing vocal surgery. Now everyone wants to know, how does she do it? 

The Wall Street Journal thought they found her secret recipe for success in a musical term called an appoggiatura.  

Without starting a debate about the real definition, an appoggiatura is really just a composer’s abbreviation. If you’re reading an article on NASA you know that NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. If you had to read National Aeronautics and Space Administration every time instead of NASA it would take you longer to read the article. Just like an abbreviation, the appoggiatura makes certain musical phrases easier to read. Even if you can’t read music, which example below looks like it would be easier to play?

It seems unlikely that this musical shortcut is the trick to producing a #1 selling record.

Favorite Different Tempo Artists, Part 1

Tibetan Monks - Strings Music Pavilion - 2010

With so many artists performing at Strings, it’s not surprising that some of our patron’s favorite memories are of Different Tempo artists. Here are some of the names that keep popping up: 

Neville Brothers
Ruthie Foster and Keb Mo
Front row at Paula Cole.
The Buddhist Monks were the best. We loved the caterpillar and mock turtle.
Natalie MacMaster's 1st concert.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. We bought a recording and relive that concert often.

If Ruthie Foster was your favorite memory of Strings MusicFestival, you can see her in Steamboat Springs again Tuesday February 14th for a special Valentine’s Day Concert with Paul Thorn. Order tickets online or by calling the Box Office (970) 879-5056 x 105. Tickets are $39 in advance and $44 the day of the show, so buy your tickets now!

Joshua Bell Plays in a Metro Station: Would You Stop to Listen?

Joshua Bell Incognito

A while back, professional violinist Joshua Bell conducted a social experiment with The Washington Post. He played some of Bach’s greatest works, on the violin, in street clothes, at DC's L'Enfant Plaza metro station, during rush hour. The concept behind the experiment was, would people recognize great music and beauty in a mundane setting at an unexpected hour? If they recognized the beauty would they stop and listen? Out of thousands of people, only a few stopped to listen, and only one recognized Joshua Bell.

Joshua Bell certainly has a significant presence in the subway. The Washington Post article notes, “You don't need to know music at all to appreciate the simple fact that there's a guy there, playing a violin that's throwing out a whole bucket of sound; at times, Bell's bowing is so intricate that you seem to be hearing two instruments playing in harmony. So those head-forward, quick-stepping passersby are a remarkable phenomenon.”

It does seem to be a remarkable phenomenon that such an anomaly could be so blatantly ignored, so why didn’t people stop to listen to one of the best violinists of our time, playing one of the most intricate pieces of famous classical music, on a $3.5 million violin?

2012 Strings Tickets On Sale April 4th

My favorite memory of Strings is "the excitement of the first show of the season!"

"Strings gets better every year! Horray for Strings!!"

Storm Meadows - 1989

Mark your calendars: Tickets for Strings Music Festival’s 25^th Anniversary Season go on sale Wednesday, April 4 at 9:00am Mountain Daylight Time.

Keep checking our website to see who's coming this summer!

Ticketmaster Watches Through the Eyes of Facebook and Spotify

In 2005 a new term was developed: social commerce. According to Wikipedia, social commerce uses social media to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. And with more than 800 million active users, it’s not surprising that a subset of social commerce is Facebook Commerce.

Ticketmaster recently released an application taking advantage of Facebook Commerce. The interface lets you to buy tickets through Ticketmaster without leaving Facebook. In addition, the app makes suggestions as to what concerts you may like, based on your Spotify listening history. You can also tell your friends which events you want to go to, when you’ve bought tickets, and where you're sitting.

While it seems like more than ever big brother is watching every key stroke we make, the real goal of the program is to promote concerts. Officials say that 40 to 50 percent of tickets at shows go unsold because people didn’t know about them. By plugging into our Facebook and Spotify habits, Ticketmaster hopes to fill and sell-out more shows. But if the goal is to promote bands, then Spotify, and other groups, should take it one step further.