Category: Musical

My Musical Career| Part Sixty-Seven

Drums in Chicago

Have Drums, Will Travel – How I managed to get around with my drums The subtitle for this entire blog site is called “Have Drums, Will Travel. It is a tip of the hat to an old western entitled “Have Gun, Will Travel”, which starred the actor Richard Boone as “Paladin”. Eighteen or so years …

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My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Six

The DMMO Years – The 2003 Season The 2002 summer festival was blockbuster, with three big productions back-to-back. Normally, one would expect that after such a season, the programming would be more conservative, especially with the expenses of the previous festival in mind. However, that was not the case with the 2003 Festival season, another …

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My Musical Career| Part Sixty-Five

The Des Moines Metro Opera YearsThe Eventful 2002 Season The 2002 DMMO Summer Festival was one of those memorable seasons for more reasons than one. First, musically it was a blockbuster season. Three fantastic productions, all full of challenge. For this season, Dr. Larsen and the management decided to stage Puccini’s Turandot; Richard Strauss’s Salome; …

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My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Four

Blank Performing Arts Center

The DMMO Years The 2001 Season The 2001 DMMO Summer Festival season was among the most memorable of my nineteen seasons with the company. For two reasons. First, the repertory was extraordinary. Dr. Larsen had chosen the repertory with care. In January 2001, the company presented an off-season production of Puccini’s La Boheme, which is …

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My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Three

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – The 2000 Season A Very Interesting Season One fact about the Des Moines Metro Opera (hereafter referred to by its acronym DMMO) that has been constant over the years, is that its repertory has never been boring. Each season has always had something of interest, whether repertory, casting, …

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My Musical Career | Part Sixty Two

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – Season Two My last blog post dealt with my first season with the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival – which took place during the summer of 1998. I had just began my terminal leave from the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and considered myself fortunate to join up with a …

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My Musical Career I Part Sixty-One

Blank Performing Arts Center

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – Part One I ended my last blog post with my winning the taped audition for the post of Principal Timpanist of the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival Orchestra, a post I was to hold for eighteen years – or nineteen seasons. To recap, as a result of our …

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My Musical Career| Part Sixty

Blank Performing Arts Center

.The Transition – from the Oslo Philharmonic to the Des Moines Metro Opera….. June 1998…. With the final glorious chords of the finale of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony resounding in my ears, I stood behind the Hinger timpani on the stage of the Oslo Konserthus with the orchestra accepting the applause of an appreciative audience for …

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My Musical Career | Part Fifty-Nine

On the job at last!

The Year 1998 – The last Six Months with the Oslo Philharmonic We now come to the last six months of my tenure with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. To recap, my wife and I made the decision to move our family back to the United States at the end of 1996, and the actual move …

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My Musical Career I Part Fifty-eight

The Year 1997 – Some Afterthoughts Wow! Three long blog posts to describe my musical comings and goings as well as those of the Oslo Philharmonic in the year 1997! Until I started with Part One, I did not realize how musically busy that year was! On top of making the decision to move the …

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