ABC V - Anna (Morena Baccarin?) plays the flute (Debussy Syrinx)

The Visitors have arrived.

"We are of peace. Always."

Lately people have been stopping me on the street to tell me that I look a lot like the leader of the Alien world.  I was starting to get offended until I realized that they were talking about the new ABC television series V and that I resemble the character of Anna played by Morena Baccarin.  Do I really resemble an Alien High Commander...or could it be that Anna is in fact a classically trained flutist who has been inhabiting earth to learn all our secrets and deviously plans to take over the world by way of the internet?   Don’t believe me? Check out these pictures and videos below. Coincidence? You decide. Even movieline.com thinks there is something "insane" going on here!


Scroll down to see Nina’s videos performing Debussy’s Syrinx, alien style, and plotting her defense against the aliens.

From the V website:

“FBI Counterterrorism Agent Erica Evans (the always rockin’ Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost) stares in disbelief at one of the 29 massive alien ships hovering over the major cities of the world. Erica makes her way through the panicked streets of New York...just as a video image of Visitor’s High Commander, Anna (Morena Baccarin), fills the sky. For an alien, Anna looks pretty darn human (i.e. stunningly beautiful) as she soothingly says, “Don’t be frightened. We mean you no harm.” The word you’re looking for is “whew!” 

The Visitors need water and a mineral which is abundant on Earth to survive. In exchange, they’ll share their technological advances, including cures for the sick. Anna’s closing words, “We are of peace, always” brings cheers from the masses. The people of Earth embrace the V’s (that’s their nickname) as there are 65 ailments they can cure. Life on Earth is good, right? Not so fast.” Quote from ABC episode-guide.

Here is the actual video clip from the TV show

And here is the other spoof video I made, which was mentioned on movieline.com!

YouTube Symphony Behind the Scenes Videos by others (showing me)

YouTube Symphony: Jam at Poisson Rouge

The YouTube Symphony Team asked us if we would like to have an open mic night jam session in NYC with DJ/composer Mason Bates so I thought I would experiment with some ideas of how a classical flutist like me could collaborate and improvise with an electronica MASTER!

Members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and other surprise guests take to the stage at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge for some open mic performances. Featuring guest performer and DJ Mason Bates and musicians Fabio Gianolla (bassoon), Marco Antonio Mazzini Herrera (bass clarinet), Michal Shein (cello), Flueras Besa Titus (violin), Nina Perlove (flute), Celso Garcia Blanco (guitar), Tino Balsamello (piano), Manuel Ramos (violin), and cellist Joshua Roman. MC Ed Sanders on the mic. 

Nina and Celso play at about 2:50 on this video. We are playing Piazzolla’s Cafe 1930

I also played a  little improv with Mason. He played his electronica piece Blues7 and I improved over it using the JS Bach Partita in a minor.  Sorry the sound is not so great on this vid.

Nina and Mason

YouTube Symphony: Playing Carnegie

Two hours before curtain I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Martin Steinberg, a cellist and supervising editor of the Associated Press, and we shared our similar experiences of playing in Carnegie Hall. Read his story here. Steinberg’s story inspired me to write my own account of what it felt like to play in Carnegie Hall for the first time (see below).

And read Steinberg’s review of the YouTube Symphony concert here.


carnegie hall, for the first time

I was excited, but also a little cynical.  As a winner in the YouTube Symphony international music competition, I was invited to Carnegie Hall to perform as a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.  I was excited to work under MTT and to play in an orchestra with so many fine musicians from around the world who had also won the competition.  Playing on the stage at Carnegie added a layer of prestige to the competition.  People were really impressed when I told them I was going to New York to play a concert in Carnegie Hall.  But to me, the venue was less meaningful than the actual music making that would take place and I wondered, would the YouTube Symphony performance really feel like a legitimate, magical Carnegie concert, or would it just be an expensive hall hosting a one night event?  

I have never played in Carnegie Hall but I have played in some pretty nice venues.  I practically grew up in Hill Auditorium in my hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a space respected worldwide for its pin-drop acoustics in a hall which seats nearly 4,000 people.  In addition to being the auditorium where I had seen performances by the Vienna Philharmonic, Rostropovich, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Yo Yo Ma, Cecilia Bartoli, James Galway, the New York Philharmonic and many others, it was also the concert hall for various special school concerts in which I performed.   Later, as a student at the University of Michigan, I played in Hill Auditorium on a weekly basis.  Another hall I performed in which I remember fondly is the Esterhazy Palace outside Vienna, Austria, where my high school orchestra played on a European tour in 1989.

After a day and a half of intense rehearsals, the members of the YouTube Symphony prepared to enter Carnegie for our first rehearsal in the hall.  By this time I realized that the YouTube Symphony was a very serious musical endeavor. Yes, there was hype and a fun but talent-show-like atmosphere to the contest voting, but when it came time to play in New York, this was the real deal; serious musicians making music at the highest level, a level worthy of Carnegie Hall.

The backstage area was unremarkable and crowded with stage hands. As I neared the stage, I saw a flash of red and a sparkle of gold.  For a moment I was blinded by a spotlight, and then with another step my vision cleared and I was standing at the threshold of the legendary Carnegie Hall stage.  The ghostlike emptiness of those 2800 seats just waiting for music to burst forth filled me with a strange and eerie awe.  You could almost hear the faint echo of applause trapped within the plaster walls.  It hit me. Playing in Carnegie meant something, to the public, to my family, to my friends, and to me.  I was suddenly fighting back tears.  I could feel the presence of my late grandfather, Papa Jerry, a talented guitar and banjo player from New York, who took me to a Broadway show or to performances at Lincoln Center every time I came to visit.  He was my first music teacher, showing me how to play a chord on his guitar or shake a maraca while he sang Tin Pan Alley songs, and he instilled in me a love for performing which made me dedicate my life to a career in music.

At the performance the next night, the house was sold out and electrified.  We began with the third movement of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony and the warm sound of strings, winds, and brass burst from the stage, wrapping itself around the audience. As the three-hour concert progressed, the energy continued to build and the audience grew more enraptured, cheering after each piece. At the night’s conclusion, the audience members rose to their feet without hesitation.  There is nothing as delightfully shocking to a performer as frenzied applause, especially when it reverberates in an acoustically perfect space like Carnegie Hall.

On April 15, 2009, something magical happened at 57th and 7th, and I know the spirit of my Papa Jerry was there with me, in his beloved New York on the most prestigious stage in the world, and he was proud.

       by Nina Perlove      
Visit my YouTube Symphony 2009 Photo Album

YouTube Symphony orchestra: the concert videos

april 15, 2009

carnegie hall, new york city

7:30 pm

sold out!

standing ovation!

what a rush!


Visit my YouTube Symphony 2009 Photo Album

I play in the Brahms at 7:17 and on the Wagner at 53:50. But don’t miss the rest of the concert.

I play in most pieces on the second half of the program.

Here is the video of just the Brahms Symph No. 4 mvt 3

YouTube Symphony Behind the Scenes Videos

Below are my behind the scenes videos from the amazing YouTube Symphony Orchestra summit in New York City, April, 2009.

You can also visit my YouTube Symphony 2009 Photo Album

Throat Tuning on the Flute

  Singing and playing together helps open and resonate the sound, place the embouchure, and control the air quantity. It can be used as a warm up or extended technique as in Ian Clarke's The Great Train Race or in Jazz, as in Roland Kirk! 

If you want to beatbox flute like Greg Patillo, this will help. I can't teach you how to beatbox, but this will help you combine your beatbox with the flute!

This technique is also discussed on the second embouchure flexibility video of fluteloophost and in Robert Dick's Tone Development through Extended Techniques. See Robert Dick’s new videos on this technique below! He is the master.

Recognize great art when you hear it?

Violinist Joshua Bell participates in a social experiment. Read the full article here.

I received the information below in an email and I had to share it with you!

-Nina

A  Violinist in the Metro

A  man sat at a Metro station in Washington, D.C. and started to play the  violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it  was calculated that thousands of people went through the station,  most of them on their way to work.

Three  minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician  playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to meet his schedule.

A  minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman  threw the money in the till and without stopping, continued to  walk.

A  few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to  him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again.  Clearly he was late for work.

The  one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother  tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the  violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued  to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by  several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced  them to move on.

In  the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and  stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk  their normal pace. When he finished playing and  silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was  there any recognition.

No  one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best  musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces  ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million  dollars.

Two  days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a  theater in Boston and the seats averaged  $100.

This  is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro  station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social  experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.   The  outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate  hour. Do  we perceive beauty? Do  we stop to appreciate it? Do  we recognize the talent in an unexpected  context?

One  of the possible conclusions from this experience could  be:

If  we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best  musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how  many other things are we  missing?