A few weeks ago, a friend asked if I was interested in coming to a dinner hosted by "Friends of the BSO" (Boston Symphony Orchestra) - I said, sure, why not? ...and found the place where it was supposed to be held (the math lounge 2-290) and there were lots of people there I didn't know. I was a bit late (experiment took longer than expected), and as I walked through the halls of math professors, I found the room, saw absolutely no one I knew, so I decided to try and find my friend. Unfortunately, they were all speaking an obscure language spoken by very few; in English it is known as "math").
Not only sushi, but this delicious concoction called Mochi Ice Cream - it's basically ice cream balls wrapped in a rice paste fondant. And it's amazingly addictive. As in...wow. Green tea ice cream rice paste deliciousness.
Most of the students there were only there for the food (slightly typical, but apparently there is usually a higher turnout to the actual performance than 3/30. We walked across the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge and all the way to Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. The performance was the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and they played almost exclusively new music, including a concerto for trap set (=drumset).
I know how hard it is to play modern music sometimes...you have no one to look for to how things "should" sound, parts are almost impossible if not extremely difficult or in obscure ranges, and people in the audience don't usually appreciate/understand it as well as, say, Mozart or Bach.
Yet, as someone who has played a lot of it, as well as someone who knows lots of great composers (hey Daniel!), playing new music is sometimes more rewarding than actually listening to it only once. When you rehearse a piece over and over, you begin to appreciate the intricacy of certain rhythms, or how certain harmonies you find at first distasteful begin to make sense.
However, I was VERY impressed by all of the composers and had a great time.
Lisa Bielawa
Geoffery Gordon
Thomas Oboe Lee
Eric Moe
Lewis Spratlan
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