My 10 Favorite Conductors

The following is a list of conductors who have influenced me or shaped my conducting:
1 Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Mariss Jansons.
These three form the triumvirate of modern conductors who seem to represent my ideal conductors. They lead their respective orchestras with ease. Each is mild mannered in their approach and supportive of the musicians. When [...]

Brahms Requiem

While many musicians offer differing views on the interpretations of Brahms’ works, most seem to advocate performances that passionately and clearly communicate the balance between his backward looking classicism and his forward looking harmonic and structural innovations. Brahms music confounds interpreters with his supreme mastery of all the structural components of music and how he [...]

Listen and Watch

On April 9, 2007, the Classical music world experienced a shock of seismic proportions. Countless critics had been constantly proclaiming the death of classical music. The LA Philharmonic announced that its music director, composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, was stepping down and that Gustavo Dudamel was taking over. Gustavo Dudamel, who has spent less than three decades [...]

Neo-Classical Perfection

In my opinion, the future of music will have more in common with the music of Stravinsky and Debussy than with Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Esa-Pekka Salonen, in a DVD, made a similar assertion and after much thought, I agree. While the influence of the Second Viennese School cannot be denied, I do see a [...]

Christians as Sub-Creators

A while back, I posted some thoughts about Bach and his creativity as it related to man being created in the image of God. I stumbled upon a very interesting essay by Jerram Barrs of Covenant Theological Seminary. The essay, entitled Christianity and the Arts, provides a distinctly biblical view of the relation between the [...]

Dr. Liu on Science

Dr. Liu, one of the most intriguing professors at my alma mater, posted a very helpful and concise article on Maranatha’s website.
MBBC’s website provides the folowing information on Dr. Liu:
Yingguang Liu says he teaches biology on a level Darwin did not know. “The delicate interplay of molecules within biological systems was still a black box [...]

Green Psychology and the Awakening of a New American Conscience

The simple word, “green,” has been used to describe individuals who are ecologically conscious. Another term, “tree-hugger,” has taken on a very derogatory meaning. Vermont, the state just next door to mine, has built a reputation as being environmentally conscious. Some psychologists have begun pioneering a new emphasis in psychology. Some call it ecopsychology while [...]

John Piper on Tolerance

I thought I would post a link to John Piper’s article Tolerance, Truth-Telling, Violence and Law: Principles for How Christians Should Relate to Those of Other Faiths.
Some may consider his assertions to be extraordinarily arrogant. He carefully lays out twenty principles for Christians in this pluralistic society. Anyways, it is worth a read.

Tolerance

Tolerance—what is it? Is it the same as acceptance? Is it synonymous with open-mindedness? Our society, in my opinion, has become crippled by its understanding of what tolerance means.
Perhaps, we ought to examine what individuals call intolerance. For some, holding a belief strongly equals intolerance. For others, merely expressing your opinion is intolerant.
It seems to [...]

Thoughts on Emergence Part 1

I have always been independent from others. As far as I am concerned, doing what “everyone else” is doing has never interested me. Furthermore, I have never accepted what the supposed “authorities” on a particular subject have said unless I have worked through it in my own mind.
Recently, in American evangelicalism (for lack of [...]