Lara St. John Concert

If you don’t like classical music, or are only interested in technology based info, you can delete this entry from your aggregator or skip on to the next post.

Okay, so this is pretty late in writing, but on the 12th of March my wife and I headed down to Danville, KY to watch a recital given by world-renowned violinist Lara St. John. She was giving a recital with Martin Kennedy (piano) at the Norton Center for the Arts. Now, Miss St. John has played for several Asian symphonies and orchestras, visited and played with many of the big orchestras here in the states and has a few CDs out. She’s been playing since the age of 2 and made a debut with an orchestra at the age of 4. The story behind the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini she plays is quite unique as well (she refers to it as the Resurrection - at one point it had been buried with a former owner). Needless to say her abilities are astounding. Kennedy’s skills on the piano equally as great.

I happened to notice Miss St. John was playing at this tiny little theatre in Danville, KY of all places and snapped up two tickets for $20 each. The seats were excellent, we ended up about thirty feet from her on stage. The acoustics were awesome and the violin and piano were heard with no assistance. There were only about a hundred or so people there. This was my kind of concert….everyone was there for the music (except the crowd that were required to be there for a music class; the Norton Center is on Centre’s campus).

They played for about two hours, which included Miss St. John playing the Chaconne, BWV 1004 by Bach. This is a solid 14 minutes or so of violin solo in what my instructor refers to as “a piece all violinists strive to be able to play”. Many places throughout this piece it truly sounds as if there are two violins playing. Incredible.

It was funny, when we arrived at the theatre about 30 minutes early I saw someone outside in the back smoking. Having seen some pictures of St John I thought it might have been her. After she came out on stage a little later I was positive it had been her.

Now, I like several different types of music, everything from classical to rock (Bach to the Doors), but I’m usually listening to classical or modern instrumental music soundtracks when I’m coding. It’s a habit I picked up from college. The music is enough to block out other noise, but there aren’t words that draw my attention away from the task at hand. Anyway, I have listened to several of St. John’s CDs prior to attending the concert and plan on picking up more of them.

On another note, if you live in Cincinnati and want a nice theatre to try out for a mini-trip, take a look at the Norton Center. They even had BB King on the 26th of last month. They have a big season planed with a host of other shows and artists.

It was one heck of a show. I’m glad we went. Plus it was a great overnight trip with just me and the wife!