Oh Twitter. I woke up this morning to a message from a German performance group called ZEE (Zaboura Eichstaedt Experience) who informed me that they performed with iPhones BEFORE the U of M concert. I felt kind of bad for my mistake, until I saw that they were an “orchestra” of 12. Now, I just have questions:
- Is an ensemble of 12 considered an orchestra? Maybe they were the first “Chamber Orchestra”, which would mean that U of M can keep their title!
- Why do colleges and groups like ZEE insist on using an antique word like “orchestra” to describe such innovative ideas? Is it to make the group seem more credible? I guess that makes sense to an extent, but it reminds me of music schools that have groups with names like “Rock Combo” or “Latin Ensemble”. Do you use those names help keep the riff-raff out of your institutions?
Colleges and “legitimate” musicians: quit being pretentious and come up with names that reflect the spirit of your group! We’re all creative people, so that SHOULDN’T be hard. If the music is good, it won’t matter if you call your group “The Glennhaven Conservatory Festival Portable iTelephone Konsort” or “Band of Geeks”, because people will respect you for what really matters: the quality of the performance…
…and if the music is lousy, don’t desecrate the word “orchestra”. ;-)
Learn more about ZEE at http://www.zeeing.de/home.htm. For a quick peek at a school with great ensemble names, take a look at the Berklee Ensemble Department homepage (and then send them a note asking to remove the word “ensemble” from all the names).
This fall, University of Michigan professor Georg Essl began teaching a class to explore the use of the iPhone/iPod touch as a musical instrument. A joint effort of the The department of Computing and Engineering and the School of Music, the course discusses programming and performance technique on Apple’s famous hand-held devices…
Now before anyone tries to label me a health nut, or thinks that I want the whole world to be skinny, please hear these words: If you want to play your best, you have to stay healthy. I mean it. You’ll never have the mental focus or the physical stamina to endure a rigorous class and practice schedule if you don’t eat right and stay in shape. And during flu-season, it may just keep you from getting sick.
