• About Jeff von der Schmidt, the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble & LA International New Music Festival

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

~ A blog about new music, travel and food

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

Category Archives: Vienna

From Vienna to Việt Nam with the Influence of Leonard Bernstein

14 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Cong Ca Phe, Famous Father Girl, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Tanglewood, Uncategorized, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic, Vietnam

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Austria, Bayreuth, Beethoven, Cong Ca Phe, Famous Father Girl, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Serge Prokofiev, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic, Vietnam

93154BD5-800D-4142-84B1-543675B7DB0C

St. Joseph’s Cathedral from a Cộng Cà Phê in the Old Quarter of Hà Nội.

“There are no coincidences.” – Leonard Bernstein

A day before concluding my eleven week residency this April with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble, I did something routine before I leave Việt Nam. I went across the street from where I stay to my local Cộng Cà Phê, which has hands down the world’s best coffee.

“Cho anh cà phê nâu đá,” I ordered in Vietnamese, which frankly I don’t need to do anymore. The young and attentive staff greet me, often generously coach me in Vietnamese pronunciation each morning and usually just show up with my order. Being older in Việt Nam has its advantages. “Hello, grandfather!” is their normal salutation.

Continue reading →

A Few Berlin Stories & A New Hall for Pierre Boulez

13 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Composers, Contemporary Music, Diplomacy, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Kent Nagano, Music, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna, Vietnam

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Arnold Schoenberg, Berlin, Caspar David Frierich, Checkpoint Charlie, Christopher Isherwood, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Liebeskind, Edward Said, Frank Gehry, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Holocuast Memorial Berlin, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, Pierre Boulez Saal, Reichstag, Silke Hilger, Travel, Universal Music, West-Divan Orchestra, Yasuhisa Toyota

2017-06-07 16.49.00

Enjoying Caspar David Friedrich in Berlin

Berliners love to talk – with a blunt directness which is both rude and friendly – and even in their grumbling there is a note of pleasure. Christopher Isherwood

I’ve benefited from a good dose of internal California breathing space after visiting Berlin last month. The city was long overdue for me to experience and this was my first chance. And my lasting impression is not of monuments, museums, concerts or one of the best bus systems on the planet. No, my memory remains fixed on one thing.

Charming, grumbling, and usually laughing Berliners!

Continue reading →

Los Angeles International New Music Festival Plans: Pasadena Meetings

20 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Austria, Composers, Contemporary Music, Coyoacan, Diplomacy, Food, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, REDCAT, Silverlake, Song Hong Ensemble, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, California, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Javier Alvarez, L&E Oyster Bar, Larry d'Atillio, Los Angeles International New Music Festival, Mario Lavista, Martin Haselboeck, Ricardo Gallardo, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Ton That Tiet, Tuyet Trinh Dao, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Veracruz

Javier Alvarez Corazon de Metal with Tambuco and Southwest at REDCAT July 2015.

Javier Alvarez’s Metal de Corazones with Tambuco and Southwest at REDCAT July 2015.

“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca

My last post brought you up to date on December meetings we had in Tokyo about the Los Angeles International New Music Festival. Jan and I have had a lot of important visits from new and old friends during January and the first part of February here in our Pasadena home. We’re setting the stage to weave elements of Latin America, Asia, Europe and the U.S. together as I plan the next festival’s incarnation.

Let me take you behind the scenes. We’ve had a busy beginning to 2016!

Continue reading →

A Barcelona Diary

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Barcelona, Benet Casablancas, Catalonia, Composers, Contemporary Music, Education, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Antoni Gaudi, Arnold Schoenberg, Barcelona, Benet Casablancas, Domenech i Montaner, Frank Gehry, Girona, La Pedrera, Liceu, Montserrat, Morton Subotnick, Moses und Aron, Palau de la Musica, Park Guell, Rafael Moneo, Richard Meier, Sagrada Familia, San Sebastián

A majestic sky over Barcelona.

A majestic sky over Barcelona.

Dreams often get tucked away – but hopefully not forgotten.

From a youthful spark of excitement their inspiration often takes years to become reality. And after visiting Barcelona, I know that dreams in my family now have a new home in a Catalan city we intend to visit as often as possible.

Continue reading →

The Autumn Gold of Vienna

12 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Austria, Food, Uncategorized, Vienna

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Arnold Schoenberg, Cafe Demel, Cafe Landtmann, E. Randol Schoenberg, Gustav Klimt, Hollywood Exiles, Leonard Bernstein, Roland Berger, Solti Ring Cycle, The Seccession Building, The Woman in Gold, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic

The Seccession in Vienna.

The Seccession in Vienna.

To the Time, Its Art. To the Art, Its Freedom.

My home of Hollywood was the exiled haven of a legendary list of emigres, my mom serving many of them at 20th Century Fox or Chasen’s. Older teachers and colleagues spoke rapturously of working with Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter when they were with the Los Angeles Philharmonic or Columbia Symphony. That meant discovering Mahler would not be far away. Lotte Lehmann was at the Music Academy in Santa Barbara. Erich Wolfgang Korngold invents the film score here, his violinist granddaughter Katie living down the street from our house in Eagle Rock. Alma Mahler lives with Franz Werfel in Beverly Hills. Schoenberg is friends with Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers and his entire family are now great friends. And a very young Zubin Mehta was leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recording Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Varese and William Kraft, so the name Hans Swarowsky was in the air.

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (I could stop right there but it wouldn’t be honest) Schubert, Brahms, the Strauss Family, Bruckner, Wolf, Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern. The strongest list of local composers on Planet Earth. The Viennese feel they own this music so in September of 1977 I set out to find out their secrets.

Continue reading →

Categories

  • Alexander Goehr (1)
  • Alexandra du Bois (1)
  • Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin (23)
  • Anderson Valley (1)
  • Antoine’s (1)
  • Arditti Quartet (1)
  • Arnold Schoenberg (5)
  • Asam Laksa (3)
  • Austria (3)
  • Bangkok (1)
  • Barcelona (3)
  • Batu Caves (1)
  • Bela Bartók (1)
  • Benet Casablancas (1)
  • Betty Freeman (3)
  • Big Sur (2)
  • Bogota (2)
  • Brennan’s (1)
  • Buddhism (10)
  • Café Giang (1)
  • California wine (6)
  • Cambodia (2)
  • Carlos Chavez (5)
  • Carlos Fuentes (1)
  • Cartagena (2)
  • Cat Ba Island (2)
  • Catalonia (3)
  • Central Coast of California (1)
  • Chasen's (3)
  • Chichen Itza (3)
  • Christopher Isherwood (2)
  • Cobá (2)
  • Colombia (4)
  • Composers (77)
  • Cong Ca Phe (1)
  • Cong CaPhe (4)
  • Contemporary Music (95)
  • Coyoacan (3)
  • Dalton Trumbo (1)
  • Diego Rivera (1)
  • Diplomacy (11)
  • Eastern and Oriental Hotel (2)
  • Education (8)
  • Elbphilharmonie (3)
  • Elliott Carter (13)
  • Ensemble Modern (1)
  • Evan Hughes (4)
  • Famous Father Girl (1)
  • Farmers Markets (1)
  • Food (70)
  • Frida Kahlo (1)
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1)
  • Gabriela Ortiz (10)
  • Georgetown (5)
  • Gurrelieder (1)
  • Gustavo Dudamel (1)
  • Halong Bay (4)
  • Hamburg (5)
  • Hanoi (37)
  • Hanoi New Music Ensemble (54)
  • Hanoi Social Club (1)
  • Hanzhou (1)
  • Healdsburg (1)
  • Hermann Hesse (2)
  • Hoi An (1)
  • Hollywood (6)
  • Hong Kong (7)
  • Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (9)
  • Humphrey Bogart (1)
  • Igor Stravinsky (2)
  • Jacob Zeitlin (2)
  • Jamie Bernstein (1)
  • Japan (10)
  • John Cage (8)
  • Jonas Baes (1)
  • Jorg Widmann (1)
  • Jose Maceda (1)
  • Ken Burns (1)
  • Kent Nagano (6)
  • Kim Ngoc Tran (10)
  • Kuala Lumpur (2)
  • Kurt Rohde (1)
  • Kyoto (8)
  • LA International New Music Festival (95)
  • Laos (5)
  • Latin Grammy Awards (15)
  • Laura Mercado-Wright (3)
  • Lauren Bacall (1)
  • Leon Trotsky (1)
  • Leonard Bernstein (1)
  • Loading T Coffee (1)
  • Los Angeles (28)
  • Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1)
  • Luang Prabang (6)
  • Lucas Fels (1)
  • Malaysia (7)
  • Manila Composers Lab (1)
  • Manzi Art Space (4)
  • Merida (2)
  • Mexico (24)
  • Minh Dam Quang (11)
  • Music (80)
  • New Jogjakarta Contemporary Ensemble (1)
  • New Orleans (1)
  • New York City (2)
  • Nguyen Minh Nhat (9)
  • Nguyen Thien Dao (9)
  • Nina Janssen-Deinzer (1)
  • Nom Calligraphy (2)
  • Oliver Knussen (1)
  • Pang Vongtaradon (1)
  • Paris (9)
  • Paseo de Montejo (2)
  • Penang Island (5)
  • Perigueux (1)
  • Phillipines (1)
  • Ramon Santas (1)
  • REDCAT (12)
  • Ripieno Ensemble, Manila (2)
  • Russian River (1)
  • San Francisco (3)
  • Secret War in Laos (1)
  • Sian Ka'an (1)
  • Silverlake (2)
  • Singapore (3)
  • Song Hong Ensemble (4)
  • Southwest Chamber Music (71)
  • Spartacus (1)
  • Stanley Kubrick (1)
  • Taipei (4)
  • Tambuco Percussion Ensemble (19)
  • Tanglewood (1)
  • Tea (2)
  • Tet Lunar New Year (1)
  • Tetsuji Honna (1)
  • Thailand (1)
  • Ton That Tiet (3)
  • Toru Takemitsu (3)
  • Toshio Hosokawa (3)
  • Travel (97)
  • Tulum (2)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Uxmal (3)
  • UXO Removal (1)
  • Valladolid (2)
  • Vienna (5)
  • Vienna Philharmonic (2)
  • Vietnam (78)
  • Vietnamese Cuisine (3)
  • Vietnamese Egg Coffee (1)
  • Vu Nhat Tan (34)
  • W. Somerset Maugham (1)
  • Walt Disney Concert Hall (12)
  • Wat Xieng Thong (1)
  • West’s Hollywood (1)
  • William Kraft (4)
  • Woman in Gold (1)
  • Women's March (1)
  • Yogyakarta, Indonesia (1)
  • Yucatan (3)
Follow Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt on WordPress.com

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Archives

Translate

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt
    • Join 73 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...