Stand Partners For Life
Los Angeles Philharmonic violinists Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto share ‘The Secrets of the Symphony’, telling tales and sharing tips from decades on the world’s stages with the greatest orchestras, soloists, and conductors.
Latest Episodes
Shostakovich had never had it worse: his latest opera, Lady Macbeth, had been panned. And not just by an ordinary critic: Joseph Stalin himself had paid a visit to the opera house. The official Soviet opinion of the work? “Muddle instead of music.” Shostakovich therefore pulled his Symphony No. 4 out of rehearsals and regrouped. Read more…
Have you ever “discovered” a major piece, live, in the concert hall? Nathan remembers sitting right next to a big star performing Prokofiev’s second Piano Concerto, with its massive and breathtaking first-movement cadenza. Then he and Akiko talk about sitting right next to another big star this week for the same piece. They also reminisce Read more…
This week’s landmark episode marks the return of Akiko, plus a pair of fellow stand partners for life: violists Kate Reddish and Eric Lea! We discuss the slings and arrows of a career in music, what you can and can’t get from music school, what it’s like to be part of a string-playing pair, and Read more…
I’m joined in the backyard this week by Violympian and VMC participant Travis Maril, as well as his fellow USC alum and my Director of Operations, Kate Reddish. Our wide-ranging conversation includes no small measure of pedagogical geekery, as well as such diverse topics as Tae Kwon Do bribery and Michael Jordan’s private Space Jam Read more…
Today I’m talking with Kerstin Tenney, VMC violinist par excellence, as well as my Director of Operations, violist (and VMC alumna par equally excellence) Kate Reddish. We talk about Kerstin’s musical education, her experience in the Virtuoso Master Course, and the new album she’s recorded with Simon Kiln and the English Symphony Orchestra! Violinist Kerstin Read more…
It’s tour time! While you’re listening, we’ll be flying, driving, and playing our way through Boston, New York, Mexico City, and Guanajuato. So to kick off the trip, let’s talk tour repertoire and hand out some awards. Tour rep includes Copland’s Third Symphony and Mahler 1 as the “big pieces”, plus violin concertos from Arturo Read more…
Akiko and I are back for the 2022-2023 season! In this first episode we share with you a fun new format: awards in all kinds of different categories. Next week we’ll focus on the season-opening tour prep weeks at the LA Phil, but for today we’re handing out some All-Time awards. Discover which composers we’d Read more…
We took quite a long break from recording the show with everything going on at the moment, but we are so glad to be back. To kick things off again we thought we would use this episode to go through a bit of what we have been up to, staying home with the LA Phil Read more…
Here at Stand Partner HQ, we get this question a lot! And that should tell you something without even knowing the answer. Nobody asks what a pilot does, or if we really need one for our airplanes. But the conductor’s role isn’t nearly so obvious, to our audiences and even, at times, to us! Do Read more…
Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a “higher power” rub some people the wrong way. As orchestral musicians, we only know one “higher power”: the conductor, who rules every aspect of our musical lives! Here are some slightly rewritten twelve steps toward embracing musical Read more…
What Our Listeners Say
Free Guide: 8 Most Common Practice Mistakes
If you’re making any of these mistakes in the practice room, you could be killing your progress and wasting your hard-earned time. Here’s what to do instead:
