15th MOCM Festival - the spirit that moves us

Arnold00:00:00

What do these things have in common?High quality concerts, nationally recognized artists, chamber music concerts as part of an annual festival, new and commissioned works, they all happen in St. Louis. It's the Missouri Chamber Music Festival, which is going to take place June 9th through the 20th, 2025. More on St. Louis in Tun. Welcome to St.Louis in Tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston.

Mark00:00:49

Yeah. Hey, Arnold.

Arnold00:00:50

Greetings to you, Mark. Yeah.

Mark00:00:51

Good to hear you. Good to see you.

Arnold00:00:52

It's good to be seen and good to be heard.

Mark00:00:54

Yeah. Yeah. Got quite a fun show today.

Arnold00:00:57

We do. We have a guest who has been on the program. I think she is pushing the limit as far as who has been on the show the most times.

Mark00:01:06

Do we have to get her like a blazer or something? Colored blazer on Saturday Night Live.

Arnold00:01:11

Maybe give her a sticker that says, I've been on St. Louis in tune.

Nina00:01:14

I'm very excited about this.

Mark00:01:17

Give her something. I know.

Arnold00:01:19

We're glad that you joined us today, folks. We want to thank you for being here. Want to thank our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage for their support of the show.You can listen to previous shows@stlintune.com please help us continue to grow by leaving a review on our website, Apple Podcast or your preferred podcast platform. Our return to civility today is about time. A very good one. Right?

Mark00:01:42

Okay.

Arnold00:01:42

And I'm sure everybody will identify with this. Everyone. If someone mispronounces a word, politely correct them instead of poking fun at them. Now, I've been on the receiving end of no.So here's the little added thing. Some people say mispronouncing words is a symptom of an avid reader who's read lots of different words but just hasn't heard them spoken.Or maybe you mispronounce it. As we get a little older and we buffer and we can't. What's that word?

Mark00:02:15

Buffer.

Arnold00:02:16

We say it wrong. I buffer a lot. But there are people who like to be the walking thesaurus and walking dictionary and the walking correctionist.

Mark00:02:23

I know that person.

Arnold00:02:26

Your mom was an English teacher, right?

Mark00:02:28

She was at Webster College at the time, so, yeah, she was. Yeah, we were just talking about it earlier.

Arnold00:02:33

Yeah.

Mark00:02:33

I'd say, I'm done, Mom. She'd go, you're cooked. Done means you're. You finished cooking it? You're finished, Mark. You need to Say you're finished, not done.So she was always falls right in with today's arts.

Arnold00:02:45

Can I do this? I don't know. Have you ever.

Mark00:02:47

Yeah, that's right.

Arnold00:02:48

It's.

Mark00:02:48

May I? Right, correct.

Arnold00:02:49

So when you mispronounce a word, there's always somebody who will, you know, give it to you. The correction. Some people do it gracefully, and some people are not very graceful in delivering the correction.

Mark00:03:00

And sometimes it's controversial, like root and route, or I actually think, when in broadcast school, they told me it was root, like Route 66. So when they're on, okay, Route 3 in Illinois, I'm always, like, cringing. It should be Route 3.

Arnold00:03:16

And in music theory class, the professor said, route, root, root. The root. This is the root of the chord. And I was like, okay, okey dokey.If someone mispronounces a word, be nice, politely correct them instead of poking fun at them. And you have to watch what part of the country you're in because that's maybe how they pronounce the word.

Mark00:03:38

Here we go. That's a whole. That's a whole show right there.

Arnold00:03:42

Nina Ferrigno's in studio. Nina, welcome back to St. Louis in Tune.

Nina00:03:45

Thank you so much, Arnold.

Arnold00:03:47

She is executive director of festival and the pianist of founding member of the Boston based Calyx Piano Trio. Where'd the name Calyx come from?

Nina00:03:56

My colleagues Jennifer and Kathy and I, when we were trying to name ourselves, we were thinking of lots of different things, but primarily, since we all formed out of playing contemporary music, working with composers, and we knew that we wanted to have balance in our programming, we wanted something to feel very organic. And so calyx is a botanical term, and it has to do with the. It's a protective pre flower. It's a bud, but that's in three. That opens.Like, the most probably recognizable calyx is on a fuchsia plant that hangs down and it opens and then the flower comes out. So we were thinking about that in terms of spiders. Yeah, the three. And having natural elements.And we also really like the graphic nature of the L, the Y, the X. And we were. And this was many years ago, over 22 years ago now.

Arnold00:04:52

Wow.

Mark00:04:53

Wow.

Arnold00:04:53

You learned something.

Mark00:04:54

That's A wow.

Arnold00:04:55

Yeah.

Mark00:04:55

20 years.

Nina00:04:56

Although to your point, before, with pronouncing words, a lot of people will say calyx. I don't know actually if it's a either or pronunciation. I always said calyx.

Arnold00:05:07

Yeah. Some people would say the phonet as they're doing, like, the phonic portion of it.It May be short A because you got the cal, pal, but Y is often used as a vowel.

Mark00:05:18

Wow.

Nina00:05:19

I know.

Mark00:05:19

This is educational.

Arnold00:05:21

It is.

Nina00:05:21

It's also making me sleepy. I'm gonna need a break.

Arnold00:05:26

So you got. Interesting show coming up here June 9th through the 20th. There are actually four performances and I would like to go through those a little bit.And you've been doing this for obviously 15 years. And this one really caught my eye. It's a world premiere performance of hey, Mr. Drum Machine Man. Hey, Mr. Drum Machine Man. Play that drum for me.That's. I know. Is it something like that?

Nina00:05:53

It is. So this is a piece that was written by a composer out of Pittsburgh named Eric Moe.And I had a great good fortune of working with Eric a bunch of years ago through my connection with the Boston Modern Orchestra project. And we had gone to U of Pitt where Eric teaches. And we're doing kind of a music festival there. And Eric writes. He's just a brilliant guy.He's a brilliant pianist and he writes really just lively music. Lots of ironic and fun titles. Like he's got a piano concerto that he. It's called Kicking and Screaming.And so this piece really caught my eye because a lot of the thematic part of the festival this year is about spirit and what we think of with the word spirit. We can think of something being spiritual or spirited in an energetic way or the spirit of people.So that forms the basis of the whole programming for the festival this year. And this piece, hey, Mr. Drum Machine man is really fitting into that idea of rhythm and spirit and getting up and moving. So Eric wrote this piece.I have a bit of his program note here. He asks, is it possible to write a good piece that has a pseudo canned Drumbeat? And hey, Mr.Drum Machine man attempts to answer this question in seven action packed minutes. The world premiere. This actually is a world premiere performance of it with two live humans. He has performed this piece with an actual drum machine.Drum machine.

Arnold00:07:36

Okay.

Nina00:07:36

But this is. And it's been really fun. He got very excited when I asked him about doing the piece and he said, this is going to be a world premiere.And then he's been really working with Kevin Rittenhauer who's playing drum set and giving us reign to change things to make sure fit in with actually having humans do it instead of machines. So he writes here the relationship between the piano and the drums changes in a larger time frame throughout the piece. And it.Though it flirts with familiarity. Eric says, I think most listeners will find a number of surprises throughout its course. And it is really.He uses a really well known rock motive in the piano and it's. It's great.

Arnold00:08:19

He could have titled this. Let's see, what's a music A world. Hey, mister. Hey. Two percussion instruments. Piano's a percussion instrument, Mark.

Nina00:08:29

That's true.

Mark00:08:30

What.

Nina00:08:31

That's classified as a percussion.

Mark00:08:33

Is that really?

Arnold00:08:34

Yes.

Mark00:08:34

A piano?

Nina00:08:35

Yes.

Arnold00:08:36

Because it's struck.

Nina00:08:37

Yes.

Mark00:08:38

Ah, the keys. You hit the key and the hammer hits.

Arnold00:08:41

So it'd be really interesting to hear that.

Mark00:08:43

I have never thought of it as a percussion instrument.

Arnold00:08:47

Most people don't.

Mark00:08:48

Fascinating. Interesting.

Arnold00:08:49

You can use that on a trivia contest.

Mark00:08:51

I will, let's say. Yeah, I know. That's good. I never.

Arnold00:08:57

So you're going to be performing piano on that one.

Nina00:08:59

Yes.

Arnold00:09:00

So what's. What, what can we. You gave us a little glimpse into that. Give us a little bit more. What are we. What do we expect to hear? Is it more rhythmic?Is it more tonal in that piece or.

Nina00:09:14

Yes. So the piece is. It's really. This is going to sound ridiculous to say. It's very catchy.The drum set is just rocking out back there the whole time and there's a lot of dynamic shifting and piano. It's a really virtuosic part, but it's lyrical. There's this sort of bass line that's very. Really pulled right from a Jimi Hendrix tune.And then the right hand of the piano starts to set percolate. I think that's a good word for it.

Arnold00:09:48

Yeah.

Nina00:09:48

In the middle of the piece, we all of a sudden get like kind of a full blown lyrical melody. But the whole time this drum set is pushing and urging and then the whole thing explodes at the end with a. Goes. What was fast Goes Breakneck fast.

Arnold00:10:07

You know drummers, it's like you have to be in shape. Oh, you just can't get up there and. Okay, I'm going to play the drum set. Oh, it's like wear yourself out real fast. It's like running 100 meter dash.

Mark00:10:18

Yes.

Arnold00:10:19

You know, 15 times or something.

Nina00:10:21

And Kevin Rittenhauer is just a fabulous musician and he's one of the percussionists in the St. Louis Symphony. And though I.I knew I wanted to do this piece, I actually had approached Kevin about a year ago to see about having him curate the rest of the program. I knew I wanted this idea of what we talked about before, just having things be rhythmically spirited.But I also wanted to put together a performance, a concert that was going to be make sense for a Percussionist. So Kevin jumped in and.

Arnold00:10:58

Cool.

Mark00:10:59

So Kevin brings a different perspective, totally percussionist to the whole thing.

Nina00:11:04

Yes. And he. I had asked him to think about doing this, and. And when he put this beautiful program together, really lovely.He had mentioned to me he's like, often percussion is presented alone, and he wanted to do the exact opposite and program a lot of mixed ensembles.

Mark00:11:23

No drum solos, then.

Nina00:11:25

No, there is that. We're doing the Elliott Cole flower pot music, which is for two percussionists that are playing eight flower pots. And that's quite a beautiful piece.They have a lot of. They have a lot of imagination and creativity built into it because they get to choose the timbre of the pots that they're using.

Mark00:11:46

That's a great way to put it. Imaginates. It really is. It's different.

Nina00:11:50

Yeah.

Mark00:11:50

How they do that.

Nina00:11:51

Yeah.

Mark00:11:51

And the sound that it makes is that. That's what really pulls me in.

Nina00:11:55

Yeah.

Arnold00:11:56

I would be curious if some of those were all dry pots or some of them had some moisture put on them. If the. Change the timbre.

Nina00:12:03

That's. No, that's. It's true. I think. I think they are all just empty pots. But it's the different material in the ceramics and of that and the size.

Arnold00:12:13

This is for all those parents out there and teachers who. Where you've got that. Those couple kids that just were beaten on the desk or something. They're always percussionists.

Mark00:12:22

When we go to the baseball games and we've got some guys out there with buckets and Lowe's buckets and they're beating on them, they make a good sound. I'm like, going, okay, this is all right. There's some artistic value going on here.

Nina00:12:33

Yeah, absolutely.And we go from that, which is relatively unpitched, playing that in that duet between these two percussionists, to a piece by Anders Koppel called Toccata.And I think Anders Coppell is very well known in the percussion world, and he's written this toccata, which is contrapuntal music for melodic instruments. So there's a. A duet between vibraphone and marimba.

Arnold00:13:01

Oh, that'd be nice.

Nina00:13:02

Yeah.And then we feature the vibraphone in a piece by local composer, I should say he's locally based, Christopher Stark, called Stars and Dead Reflection. And that has piano, double bass clarinet, and vibraphone. And that's quite a beautiful. Again, timbre or group sound.

Arnold00:13:23

And that's just the first concert you're talking about.

Nina00:13:25

Yeah.

Arnold00:13:25

Wow. Yeah, that's the first one, folks. And that's June 9th, that's at Webster University.And I want to mention you can get some information on the Four Concert Festival pass at mochambermusic.org M O chambermusic.org so Nina, walk us through later on you have. It's a very short season if people aren't like if they're going to be out of town or something. So it's June 9th to June 20th.So you have the 9th, the 12th, the 19th and the 20th. So let's go to the next one. Concert number two. Bygone.

Nina00:13:57

Yes, so bygone I'm thinking of as that guise of spirit where we miss people who have gone. And so we're playing, let's see the Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello Revel wrote.He was asked to contribute to a special commemorative edition of La Revue, which was dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy who had died in 1918. And this was in 1920 when Ravel was asked to do this. So the first movement of this incredible piece was submitted for that. He finished the rest.It's a three movement work and he finished the rest of it in 22.And then we play the Debussy A string quartet, which in and of itself was like a dedication to Foray, but also just to show just what was going on in the composition. This was in a particularly fertile era for Debussy.It was written in the 1890s and it's really where he establishes his creative voice because he was just an incredible innovator.

Arnold00:15:11

And it's interesting what's going on historically during that time. If you're listening to music of 1890s, you would think because we're Western, you would think, okay, what's going on in the United States?But what's going on in Europe and what's going on politically in Europe and things like that, people are responding musically and in literary areas to the things that are going on.

Nina00:15:35

And the last piece on that concert is another homage work. It's by modern composer Georgi Kurtog.

Arnold00:15:41

And.

Nina00:15:42

And it's an homage to Robert Schumann. And this is played brilliantly by clarinetist Su Ying Kuang, violist Chris Tantilo and pianist Shen Wen.And it's a very colorful work in six movements, I believe. And each 1K kind of takes on, in commemorating Schumann, these alter egos that were very present in Schumann's work.So Schumann, when he wrote Carnaval, he always had the Florestan and Eusebius and these kind of conflicting, yeah, competing aspects of personality. And so in this homage K is also using this.

Arnold00:16:31

Wow.

Nina00:16:31

And I should mention that the quartet and the Revelle duo are being performed just by amazing musicians that are right here in St. Louis. Nathan Lowry, Anne Fink, Chris Tantillo, and Bjorn Ranheim on cello.

Arnold00:16:48

And these aren't pieces that you would normally hear in the area except at the festival that you're doing.

Nina00:16:55

Yes. Yeah. And it's just.It's a thing that I love is this being able to take while and dream about getting these pieces together, seeing how they play off each other in a concert format.

Arnold00:17:10

This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. We're talking to Nina Ferrigno.She is the executive director of the festival and the one of the founding members of the Boston based Calyx Piano Trio.For folks if you're not familiar with the Missouri Chamber Music Festival, they were formed in 2010 to educate, cultivate, promote, foster, sponsor, develop and encourage understanding of and public interest in classical chamber music. Can you believe 15 years?

Mark00:17:39

Wow.

Nina00:17:39

I can't.

Mark00:17:40

That's a long time.

Nina00:17:41

I know. It's really snuck up on.

Mark00:17:44

I think it's working.

Nina00:17:45

Yes.

Arnold00:17:47

And you have a lot of support from area groups.

Nina00:17:51

Yes, yes. So we are funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission. We have a robust community of private donors.And through the years, we've also gotten some national recognition through commissioning grants with Chamber of Music America. And.

Arnold00:18:14

Yeah, that's cool.

Nina00:18:15

We continue to try to bring our message or bring knowledge of the festival to a wider audience.

Arnold00:18:22

Have you seen more people attend year after year?

Nina00:18:27

Yes. I will be honest and say that since COVID it's been a different thing. We're still getting our feet back on the ground. Feet back on the ground.

Arnold00:18:37

So all the more reason that you need to go, because they're close. They're at Webster University or they're at Washington University.Matter of fact, the one that Nina just mentioned is at Graham Chapel on June 12, and it's a great venue to hear music at.

Mark00:18:52

Webster. Where are you at Webster University?

Nina00:18:54

We are performing in two different spaces. Three concerts in two different spaces. So the first concert is at the concert hall, which is part of the community music school.That's that modern building that is near to opera Theater. Okay. And then two of our concerts on the 19th and 20th are at the Winifred Moore Auditorium, which is off of Lockwood Avenue.

Mark00:19:21

Okay.

Arnold00:19:22

That big old building off Lockwood.

Mark00:19:24

Big old building.

Arnold00:19:24

Big old building.

Nina00:19:25

Yeah. It looks like a castle.

Arnold00:19:27

Yes, does.

Mark00:19:29

Okay. Yeah.

Arnold00:19:30

So we've had Concert one, I notice on some notes here, get up. And concert number two, bygone. Concert number three naturally explores the spirit of our surroundings.

Nina00:19:41

Yes. So here we have the Joaquin Torina Piano Quartet. And Torino is a Spanish composer. And this piece is just.He's considered one of our, like a nationalist composer. So this piece really captures the spirit of a particular place and time.And also on this piece, on this concert, excuse me, is the Sariaho Cloud Trio. And this is Kaya Sariaho. She's very recently deceased, but was a modern Finnish composer.And this trio is really dealing with our physical surroundings, the spirit of clouds as they're changing and moving. And so this, it's a string trio that is really using a lot of effects in their, in their playing, extended technique and creating atmosphere.And then on there, this concert is also some solo piano works performed by Hugh Hinton, a couple of Artie Matthews. They're called Pastime Rags. And Matthews was a composer living and working here in St. Louis.

Arnold00:20:57

Was he a contemporary of Scott Joplin? Yes.

Nina00:21:00

And so these were really great pieces. I had the great good fortune of hearing them in the spring when Hugh came to St.Louis and he gave a presentation recital at Webster University where I'm on faculty. And also on this concert is another solo piano work by Florence Price called the Fantasy Negre.And that's another just shining a spotlight on time and place and our surroundings.

Arnold00:21:35

We're going to come back after our break and talk about concert number four because Nina's going to be playing on concert number four also. And we want to ask a couple more questions here, but don't go away, folks. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis and Tomb.We'll be right back. As strange as it may sound, at Better Rate Mortgage, we love talking to people about mortgages. Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate.But what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage. At Better Rate Mortgage, we open the door to so much more. So where are you in the home buying process?Researching, maybe wondering how much you can afford? House hunting. Get a pre approval from Better Rate Mortgage Ready to buy. Our team is ready to make your mortgage process fast and easy.Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier. Our door is open. Come on in and get started. Today we'll show you how. Call Sean directly at 314-375-3293 or online@betterratemortgage.com.remember, at Better Rate Mortgage, a better rate is just the beginning. Betterratemortgage.com and MLS IDCH 401335 an equal housing lender, the United States has a strong tradition of welcoming newcomers and refugees.The welcome Corps is a new service opportunity for Americans inspired to welcome those seeking freedom and safety and in turn help strengthen their own communities. Welcome Corps is a public, private partnership that is inspired by what Americans represent to so many around the world. A beacon of hope and refuge.All it takes is a helping hand. Are you ready? To learn more? Contact the International Institute of St. Louis at infoistl.org or call 314-773-9090.That's infoiistl.org or call 314 203-9090.

Mark00:23:34

Foreign.

Arnold00:23:40

Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston.We are talking to Nina Ferrigno about the upcoming Missouri Chamber Music Festival and that is taking place from June 9th through the 20th.And folks, you can get tickets@mo chamber music.org mo chambermusic.org and we've talked about the first three concerts, but Nina just informed me there's a special she's got something up her sleeve right now she's going to tell us about.

Mark00:24:12

Really.

Nina00:24:13

Thanks. We are offering a free event and this is on June 17th at 12 noon also at the Winifred Moore Auditorium of Webster University.And what it is a chance to get a preview and delve inside a bit. This last concert. So we're performing a very large scale work for two pianos.Hugh Hinton and I will be the performers and also handling this, I guess for all intents and purposes, a lecture demonstration by Oliver Messiane. And it's called Visions de la Main.And so what we're doing is delving inside Visions and presenting some of the thematic material that Messian builds.This very large the performance time of this piece, this one piece is about 40 to 45 minutes, a seven movement work that is basically telling the creation story. And it's a really transformative piece of music. I played it about the first time I played it maybe 17 years ago, something like that.And it really changed my life, honestly.

Arnold00:25:33

And in what way?

Nina00:25:34

It's. Yeah, in what way, if I may ask? Yeah, absolutely. It's. You really journey through this, this music.You go through something when you're playing it and hopefully when you're hearing it too. And it's a piece that is what he says about it. The piece takes its inspiration from a Quote of Ernest hello.Which is Amen, the word of Genesis, which leads to Revelation. Amen, the word of Revelation, which is the consummation of Genesis.And he says that this piece is composed for all who give thanks are living in gratitude for their existence, basically. And when he wrote this piece, he had been. It was commissioned for the Concerts de la Pleiade that were held during the German occupation of Paris.

Arnold00:26:36

Oh, wow.

Nina00:26:37

So in 1943. And Messiah, I think people maybe do know that he had been interned in a work camp during the occupation.And that's where he had written another very spiritual and deep work, the Quartet for the End of Time. So the piece is. Yeah, it really. It starts with the creation of the world, basically.And so the way that comes up musically, and it's just something that really sticks with you. He's written the piece. He wrote the parts for himself and his wife, Yvonne Lorio, who was also a fabulous pianist to play.And he explains that each of the pianists has a different role.He assigned the primo part, which is usually considered the first part, to have all the rhythmic difficulties, chord clusters, all that has speed, charm, and quality of sound. And the second part, which in the premiere he played, he assigned the principal melody, the thematic elements. All that demands emotion and strength.And so it's interesting that between the two pianists, you have the head and the heart.

Arnold00:27:54

Right.

Nina00:27:55

And it's. Yeah.

Arnold00:27:58

Did you. Are you playing the same part that you played 17 years ago?

Nina00:28:01

Yes. Okay, so I'm playing the. I actually am playing the second part.

Arnold00:28:05

Which is, Mark, what I find in performance. And this is.This could be for music, I'm just going to identify as the musician part, that when you are involved in the music and you've got all the technical portions out of the way, you can really focus on what the composer is trying to communicate.And I think, Nina, as you were talking about how things can change you or move you, and even listening to music, if you're listening to it carefully at the right time, like some musical scores who do this for movies, they do this very effectively. I'm thinking of one of the last scenes of the Godfather and where the daughter gets murdered on the steps.For those of you who hadn't watched the Godfather 3. I'm sorry, I just gave it away. There it was.But how music can capture a moment, and if you got something visually to look at, but even if you don't, if you're just closing your eyes and you're just listening, how music can just grab you and move you in your emotion, a lot of it depends upon where you are emotionally at the time. You can have different emotions with that.

Mark00:29:10

True.

Nina00:29:10

I think with Messian as well, he very famously had synesthesia, which is like a little like wires get crossed in the brain when it's like tasting a smell or something. So he would see. He would hear music and see colors.And as part of that, I think that it informs his musical language in a sense, because when he's clustering pitches together in compositions, I always think of this word colorful. He's creating sounds that vibrate in a different way. And we will be adding that dimension of light to this performance.We have for each of the seven movements, a different ambient light that will change. I can tell you that. Back to your original question of how does it. How did it affect me so deeply?And I started to think of the word amen as the truth of something.And so in the different movements, it's the truth of creation, the truth of the stars and of the ringed planet, the truth of Jesus's agony, truth of desire. Though Messian was very spiritual and religious Catholic person, he also had this way of being able to never deny the. What's happening in humanity.You know what I mean? It wasn't all. All for that. It's so this way of putting the secular and the spiritual together was. Is just. Yeah.

Arnold00:30:48

Interesting. Be it the Amen.

Nina00:30:51

Yes.

Arnold00:30:51

Question on is it going to be. When you talk about this with. I want to get my name correct with your cohort there, Hugh, who's going to be performing with you, Hugh Hinton.Hugh, is it going to be like a.Not a master class, but you're going to be talking about the piece and are you going to be demonstrating like this is what you need to listen for and stuff like that? Okay.

Nina00:31:11

Yes.

Arnold00:31:12

So those are fun, Mark.

Mark00:31:12

Oh, yeah.

Nina00:31:13

So we give a little bit of background of the piece and then we play a few of the movements, a few of the shorter movements to. Because there's one theme that goes through the entire piece. So musical theme. So we show how that's appearing in different parts of the piece. Yeah.And we had. We also give a chance to ask questions and a little audience interaction there.

Mark00:31:39

That's great.

Nina00:31:40

Some people are really interested in what does it take to play two pianos together?So going full circle from the first and talking about the piano as a percussion instrument, it is what makes it very difficult to play two instruments, two pianos, because the attack is very specific. So you either feel that together or you don't.

Mark00:32:06

Yeah.

Arnold00:32:07

I Totally get that.

Nina00:32:08

Hugh and I have known each other almost our whole lives where we studied with the same piano teacher in Boston in when we were teenagers. So playing with him, it's been.

Mark00:32:22

And here you are together.

Nina00:32:23

Yeah. Still, over the years we've played together. It's great because we have the same approach technically. So I. It takes very little by way of cueing.I know just where he's going to be and I hope that he feels the same way with me in terms of when we're playing together, having the.

Arnold00:32:44

Same teacher, that really helps.

Mark00:32:45

Oh, that's crazy. Now, are these. These are grand pianos.

Nina00:32:48

Yes.

Mark00:32:49

Put together like end on end.

Nina00:32:51

Yes. They nest in each other. Yeah.

Mark00:32:53

That's okay. So you're looking right at them. Okay.

Nina00:32:55

But that's a little tricky because we can't see each other's hands.

Mark00:32:58

Ah. And what kind of pianos are they?

Nina00:33:00

They are Steinway grand pianos.

Mark00:33:02

Steinways. Okay.

Arnold00:33:03

All right.

Mark00:33:03

That's neat. Yeah, I played Baldwin.

Nina00:33:06

Webster University is an all Steinway school.

Mark00:33:09

Is that right? Okay.

Arnold00:33:10

Shameless plug for Steinway piano. Wow.

Nina00:33:14

Actually this plug for Webster University. No, it's a plug.

Arnold00:33:18

And that concert, that free concert, folks. June 17th at 12 noon at Winifred Moore Auditorium in Webster University. So now we're to the fourth concert. June 20th is the last one.

Nina00:33:29

Yes.

Arnold00:33:30

And that is going to be with Hugh also.

Nina00:33:32

Yes. And that is where we perform the whole piece of the Messiane. And starting. It's really tricky to just go right into that.We have a solo viola piece by Shulamit Ran, who is a composer for a number many years. She was teaching in Chicago. I believe she's retired from that job. But she's incredible composer, very expressive, very lyrical composer.And that piece will be performed by Sixto Franco, who's a Spanish violist who's been coming to the festival last couple seasons.

Arnold00:34:12

Yeah, you get all these international artists to come into St. Louis to perform all these pieces and it's. It's not an easy thing, folks, to get to organize this.You might think there's only four concerts, five concerts. You have to go out way in advance to get the people who are really good that you want to have perform these things.Just not like calling somebody up, hey, next week. What are you doing?

Mark00:34:34

Come on by.

Nina00:34:35

This is true.

Arnold00:34:36

It doesn't work that way.

Mark00:34:37

Got to get that word out about these things at this concert.

Arnold00:34:41

Mochambermusic.org mochambermusic.org the four concert festival pass is $80 single tickets or 25 student tickets. $5 with an ID. Is there a senior discount at all? And here's the thing.If you can go to something that's involving the arts every week, go to a concert or go to a museum or go to something. It keeps you involved in what's happening, supports groups that are really striving to keep our culture moving.And this is a great festival to support. So it's the 15th year, folks, the Missouri Chamber Music Festival. You want to go see one or all of these concerts?Mochambermusic.org Nina, thanks for coming in again.

Nina00:35:32

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak about the festival and hope to see everyone there.

Arnold00:35:39

That's great. If you don't mind staying for. You can stay and hear our ending of the show or if that's all right.

Mark00:35:47

Sure.

Arnold00:35:48

Okay.

Mark00:35:48

Hang around.

Arnold00:35:48

You can even participate with some of these things. It's a participatory.

Nina00:35:53

No, I'm really intrigued.

Arnold00:35:55

She's probably perked up now. Mark, I have a new section segment to the show.

Mark00:36:00

Oh, good. All right.

Arnold00:36:01

I've gotten rid of the word for the day.

Mark00:36:03

Okay.

Arnold00:36:04

And I've gone to mental floss. Mental floss is a.

Mark00:36:07

Is what?

Arnold00:36:08

It's. It's a little podcast kind of thing where. And I'm getting this off a website, but they have some amazing facts. But I'm trying to tune these things.I used the word tune. I'm trying to tune these things to the guests that we have and the topic we're talking about.

Mark00:36:23

Oh, good.

Arnold00:36:23

So the mental floss for today is the Vienna. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra turns produce into musical instruments. Wow.It's a group recently set a world record for the most concerts performed by a veggie powered band. 344 shows and counting.

Mark00:36:39

Come on. I guess a garden pots, but yeah.

Arnold00:36:43

They utilize instruments made of carrots, leeks, pumpkins, artichokes, etc. And like the carrot flute and egg eggplant clap feature only one vegetable. Others are more creative.For example, the cucumber fone is a bell pepper skewered by a hollowed cucumber. The veggies are typically hollowed with drills and cut with knives and other tools to create the desired sound.And other instruments like the celery guitar. They need to be plugged into sound generators to produce tones.And you can go to YouTube and see some of these food instruments demonstrated and the unexpected sounds that they make.

Nina00:37:18

I have to jump in and just say that there's a barrier to performing this because you can't fit people even into a Large scale freezer. Because this has to be refrigerated. You can't play the cucumber thing on a hot day.

Mark00:37:37

Well said.

Arnold00:37:39

Oh, that's great. Because they do say this. The musicians don't let the edible equipment go to waste. They're only good for one performance.They distribute them to the audience after each concert.

Nina00:37:50

Oh, gross.

Arnold00:37:51

Either raw or cooked into a soup.

Nina00:37:54

All right. Your hands and you've been blowing on this. That is gross.

Arnold00:37:58

So the unsalvageable produce is used for organic composting. And they have a 10 person ensemble. Recently set a Guinness world record for the most concert performed by musicians who play vegetable instruments.

Mark00:38:12

I don't sure about this.

Arnold00:38:15

So there's mental floss for the day. And it was. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra turns produce into musical instruments. Now here's where my mind goes.My mind goes to New Year's Eve and the Vienna. The Vienna Philharmonic plane.

Nina00:38:29

Yeah. Are they going to play the Magic Flute but turn it into the Magic cuke.

Mark00:38:34

Wow, that's really good for you.

Arnold00:38:37

The magic leak.

Mark00:38:38

I like that.

Arnold00:38:42

I want to hear some Strauss from the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra.

Mark00:38:45

There you go. Ladies and gentlemen. Here they are.

Arnold00:38:48

All right.

Nina00:38:48

You don't want them slipping on a banana field.

Arnold00:38:53

Yeah.

Mark00:38:55

Wow.

Nina00:38:55

You told me I could participate.

Arnold00:38:57

Absolutely. This is great. This is great.

Mark00:39:00

I know.

Arnold00:39:01

Mark, you have a day for the day.

Mark00:39:02

No. How can I follow any of that today? Interesting. Seeing how you're talking about food. Today is national egg day.Do you not have anything to say about that?

Arnold00:39:12

Eggs are going up again. They will be.

Nina00:39:14

Oh, really?

Mark00:39:15

We have a chicken producers I know.

Arnold00:39:18

In Arizona lost 95% of the chickens.

Mark00:39:21

How did they do? Bird flu.

Arnold00:39:23

So you know eggs are going to be going up.

Mark00:39:26

So much for that campaign.

Arnold00:39:33

All right, what's next, Mark? We have national egg on your face day.

Mark00:39:36

Egg on your face day. A national chocolate macaroon day. Oh, do you like chocolate macaroons?

Arnold00:39:43

Yeah, I like any macaroon.

Mark00:39:44

It's national repeat day. Repeating can be a wonderful thing. Especially when it involves an activity that we love.

Nina00:39:52

Music.

Mark00:39:53

Yeah. Going back to the same thing. A world bicycle day. I know you like to ride a bicycle.

Arnold00:39:58

Yes, I do.

Mark00:39:58

I don't know. Yeah.

Arnold00:39:59

Electric bicycle.

Mark00:40:00

World cider. Electric bike.

Arnold00:40:03

That's right.

Nina00:40:04

Isn't that just called sitting?

Mark00:40:05

Yes.

Arnold00:40:06

No, it's pedal assist. Or I can turn it off. So it just depends upon how my knees are feeling.

Mark00:40:12

He doesn't ever turn it off though.

Arnold00:40:14

Or I could just. I could just throttle the whole way.

Mark00:40:16

Okay. Global running day.

Arnold00:40:19

Global Running day. Ask those folks where their knees will be at age 60.

Mark00:40:24

Cheese Day? You like cheese? I am a big cheese. I love cheese. I don't know what's wrong with me. How about national hug your cat day?

Arnold00:40:33

Hug your cat day?

Mark00:40:34

Sometimes they scratch. They have those.

Arnold00:40:36

My cat got the pillow thrown in him this morning.

Mark00:40:38

Is that right?

Arnold00:40:39

Scratched my foot hanging off the side of the bed. Woke me up at4.57.

Mark00:40:44

National Old Maids day. The card game. Card game, not the Old Maids. That's terrible. A National Cognac day. You like cognac?

Arnold00:40:52

Never really had it.

Mark00:40:53

No. Shopping cart day. Check that shopping cart. Do you have stuff in shopping carts that you never bought?

Arnold00:40:58

No, no.

Mark00:40:59

I got a few things in my shop.

Arnold00:41:01

So it's not a physical shopping cart, it's the virtual shopping cart.

Mark00:41:04

Yeah, the virtual shopping cart. Yeah, I've got a couple of those. Just a couple left. This is one of Arnold's favorites. A national Moonshine day.He waits all year for the national Moonshine Day.

Arnold00:41:18

Just wait. I've got the jokes for you, Mark.

Mark00:41:20

Oh, no. Let's see. I don't know if I have a hot air balloon day. Have you ever been up in a hot air balloon?

Arnold00:41:24

I've not love it.

Mark00:41:26

Been up many times.

Arnold00:41:27

Really?

Mark00:41:28

I was even in the hare and hound race. And I was the hare.

Arnold00:41:31

Really?

Mark00:41:32

That was spectacular. It's Six Flags.When I was at another radio station, we did a promotion where I was on that first balloon and we went up and it was spectacular to look back and see all the balloons rise up and take off. I got hooked there for a couple of years. I'd take little balloon rides. Has to be.The winds have to be 10 miles an hour or less to go on a hot air balloon.

Arnold00:41:56

And you have to have a lot of insurance.

Mark00:41:58

Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. When you hit them. But of course. What.

Nina00:42:02

How do you land hard?

Mark00:42:03

Yeah, but the chase crew, they have a chase crew that chases you. But the tradition is they bring champagne. So you got to get. Have some champagne as soon as you hit the ground. Gotta look. Yeah, it's tough.You gotta look for those power lines. You can't really steer a balloon very much. They can go up and catch a wind and go down and catch a different wind. So that's how they try to move it.

Arnold00:42:32

Power lines that freak me out.

Mark00:42:33

Power lines are the. Yeah, that's the scary thing. But and one last thing. National thank you day.

Arnold00:42:39

It should be every day.

Mark00:42:40

Yes. Yeah. I don't know why you just pick one day.

Arnold00:42:42

Should Be every day.

Mark00:42:43

That's about all I got. Probably more than I need.

Arnold00:42:45

You like ballooning? So skydiving. I went skydiving today for the first time. This guy strapped himself to me.We jumped out of the plane, and as we were plummeting, he said, so how long have you been an instructor?

Mark00:42:57

Oh, no.

Arnold00:43:01

Have you been in one of those moods where you. You don't really know what's wrong, but you feel really irritated with everyone and everything?

Mark00:43:09

Yep.

Arnold00:43:13

This morning I talked about the cat, but this morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious they. Obvious that she thought her cat understood her. I came to my house, I told my dog, and we just laughed a lot.

Mark00:43:28

Have to put up with this all the time. Time. That's what I'll let you know.

Arnold00:43:32

Let's see here.

Mark00:43:33

Oh, there's more. That's too bad.

Arnold00:43:36

There we go. Out of all my body parts, my eyeballs are in the best shape because I roll them, like, 342 times a day.

Mark00:43:43

There you go. Thank you. Take a bow. Okay. That's great.

Arnold00:43:48

Oh, and how do people go to sleep as soon as they close their eyes? Have you ever found that out? Some people, boom.It takes me three hours, 11 pillow flips, seven different positions, two trips to the bathroom, and a partridge in a pear tree. Wow.

Mark00:44:03

Tough road, isn't it?

Arnold00:44:05

And I need everyone to wish me luck because I have a meeting later at the bank, and if all goes well, I will be out of debt. I'm so excited, I can barely put my ski mask on.

Mark00:44:16

One more time.

Arnold00:44:19

And let's see. Here we go. Last one, Mark. No, he goes. Thank goodness.

Mark00:44:22

Thank goodness.

Arnold00:44:23

I helped my neighbor out with something this morning, and she said to me, I could marry you. I couldn't believe it. You do something nice for someone, and they threaten to ruin your life in return.

Mark00:44:33

Take a mile, please. All right. Take a mile.

Arnold00:44:38

Not really, folks. Not really. Thanks for listening. That's all for this hour.If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stlintune.com consider leaving a review on our website, Apple Podcast, Podchaser, or your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow.I want to thank Bob Berthasel for our theme music, our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, our guest, Nina Ferrigno, and co host, Mark Langston. And we thank you, folks, for being a part of our community of curious minds. St.Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network. Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, Walk worthy and let your light shine for St Lucian till tuned I'm Arnold Stricker.

Mark00:47:03

It.