Handel Messiah Comfort Ye Every Valley. Stephen Wall tenor. George Shangrow conducting from the harpsichord. J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Orchestra Seattle — Seattle Chamber Singers George Shangrow, Music Director Seattle is in mourning today and for all time on the death of George Shangrow. Seattle area conductor George Shangrow was killed in a car crash [...]
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Finally got some pics from our recording session of the Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA soundtrack in Hong Kong – December 2008. Most of our tracks were recorded on location in Macau but we did string section and piano recordings in Hong Kong.
Continue reading about Conrad in Hong Kong piano recording session
Clip from My Bodyguard movie starring Matt Dillon, Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Ruth Gordon from 1980. Classic clip from My Bodyguard where the bully Mike gets his ass kicked! Excellent Movie from 1980!! I have been watching the sci-fi series Firefly and really enjoy the character that Adam Baldwin plays. That made me remember when [...]
Continue reading about Adam Baldwin – My Bodyguard fight scenes
Well this is certainly a trip. A friend showed me this photo of a Freddy Fender memorial sign in Lucerne Valley, CA. And I guess it’s just a sign out in the middle of the California High Desert but to me it has much more significance.
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I was going to wait until the uploads were finished to announce this but Google is already indexing my audio – so you can download audio I’ve written and produced at http://www.ConradAskland.net It’s the “dot net” version of my name. The site you’re on now is “dot com”. I split the downloads into a new [...]
Short movie about John Cage and two of his most famous works: Water Walk, and 4:33. It’s interesting to view in retrospect. The audience is laughing, but this piece has so much ambience in it that is part of our everyday lives — it’s actually sublimely beautiful.
You might have heard the piece 4’33″ (Four minutes and 33 seconds) by John Cage for piano, but here it is presented by a full orchestra. John Cage talks about Silence. “We don’t know a difference between time and space, we don’t know where one starts and the other stops.”
Comedian Lee Evans performs the Lee Evans Trio.
(Part Two is the performance, so I post it first) Itzhak Perlman and Peter Schickele mix it up in a hilarious duet at a Boston Pops Concert with John Williams conducting. Part 1 is mostly the setup, with Peter Schickele expounding on the life of P.D.Q. Bach, “the 21st of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 20 children.” [...]
An update on current activities. I’ve received a couple emails asking why I’m not blogging so much. After making it through Chinese New Year here in Macau, China I was able to take a long overdue vacation and return to the United States for the first time in two years. (Beloved Skagit County, Washington USA [...]
“Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own,” he said. “Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you…failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it’s a leap of faith.” “In whatever you’re doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.” – James Cameron – TED Talks [...]
You’ll notice a definite “Cirque du Soleil” influence on this presentation by Pink at the 2010 Grammy Awards. Hope you enjoy it.
Continue reading about Pink – Glitter in the Air – Grammy’s 2010
There is a little confusion in China when it comes to Western holidays. For instance, on Christmas Eve the street was littered with confetti as people exploded party poppers at the stroke of midnight for the beginning of Christmas Day. And then Auld Lang Syne is playing on all the bar sound systems. Christmas Eve, [...]
What a trip. Someone posted this photo on Facebook. I think it’s 1982 at Interlake High School (Bellevue, WA) at a Symphonic Band concert. I am the third French Horn player from the right. I graduated the following year in 1983 first chair. So I think I was 15 years old in this photo. Leo [...]
Such a beautiful song by Jacques Brel (recorded in 1959). Here is an English translation. Jacques Romain Georges Brel (8 April 1929–9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer-songwriter. Brel composed and recorded his songs almost exclusively in French. The quality and style of his lyrics are highly regarded by many leading critics of popular music. Brel’s songs are [...]
In Christmas 2008 I received a donation given in my name. I made a nasty blog post about giving donations at Christmas presents which has gotten me a lot of hate mail. The nasty blog post is here: http://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2008/11/making-donations-as-christmas-presents/ But one person from the Great White North took pity on me for Christmas this year [...]
I get many emails from people asking variations of the question “How do I start a career in the arts?”. It comes from singers, writers, hip hop producers – all people who perform and create. They are starting out, they have a drive, they think they have what it takes but they are not sure [...]
November 12, 2009 was the celebration for the 500th performance of the ZAIA show by Cirque Du Soleil in Macau, China. Cirque founder Guy Laliberte flew in for the performance and toasted the artists and crew. Family and friends were also invited for the occasion. Conrad Askland (ZAIA keyboards and assistant bandleader) and Guy Laliberte.
I recently updated DNS on websites that are not active to point here to my personal site. Thank you to the person who emailed me about that. Over the years I had many websites on different servers and I didn’t update DNS on websites I wasn’t using. When those old IP’s were reallocated, new owners [...]
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Did you know that the latin root of ”to entertain” means “to hold between”? (Official dictionary definition at the end of this blog post). When an audience is no longer held, they are no longer being entertained. The mighty brass ring for any theatrical production is to keep the audience engaged so they are not [...]
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