Concert Review: The Insider's Guide to the Orchestra

InSight Concerts offer a unique listening perspective.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Roger Nierenberg led the InSight Orchestra concerts this weekend at the DiMenna Center.
Photo © 2015 The Music Paradigm.

You learn more sitting in the orchestra.

That's the theory anyway behind the work of conductor Roger Nierenberg. Mr. Nierenberg leads The Music Paradigm, which offers team-building and training seminars to executives looking to improve their leadership skills by working with a classical orchestra. On Saturday night, Mr. Nierenberg applied his principles to a regular classical music concert, leading the first of two InSight concerts in Mary Flagler Cary Hall, the downstairs performance and rehearsal space in the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Concert Review: Revenge of the Nerds

Andrés Orozco-Estrada debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Talk to the hands: Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada
made his Cleveland Orchestra debut this week.
Photo by Werner Kmetitsch courtesy the artist's website.

Things are changing at Severance Hall, the staid Egyptian-inspired concert hall that squats, temple-like at the side of the lagoon in eastern Cleveland, Ohio. On Thursday night, the lobby of Severance was decorated with a bright neon and incandescent sign: the word NERDS blazing red and green, inviting concertgoers to take selfies with this work of pop art.

Concert Review: His Future's So Bright...

Lionel Bringuier conducts the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Lionel Bringuler. From lionelbringuier.com.

The 21st century has seen the rise of a new breed of conductor. Debonair, talented, and above all, young, these nascent maestros have been given powerful positions within the cutthroat world of classical music, taking over major orchestras before reaching their fourth decade.

Thursday night at the New York Philharmonic featured an even younger conductor, the 26-year-old French sensation Lionel Bringuier. Mr. Bringuier is the net music director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, a venerable Swiss ensemble that happens to be one of the world's better recording orchestras. For these concerts, Mr. Bringuier offered a four-course meal of 20th century classics.