Friday, October 29, 2010

Nova Performs with Paul Dateh's "Top 40 Mashup"

Three violinists from Orchestra Nova accompanied hip-hop violinist Paul Dateh on his “Top 40 Mashup” video in front of an enthusiastic audience of over 600 attendees at the San Diego Asian Film Festival Gala Awards Dinner last weekend. Playing from original orchestrations created just for this event, Artistic Director Jung-Ho Pak conducted the piece from his Mac laptop under blue stage lights and the glow of two large video screens.

More great videos from Paul Dateh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Xt-XeWnHM&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr8p8DHXHfw&feature=channel

Check back on the San Diego Asian Film Festival website for more information on next year's events.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

4ARTS Makes Date Night Affordable

Yesterday we met with representatives from all of our 4ARTS partners to discuss our exciting new collaboration – four local arts organizations, from four different genres of art. The four partners are Orchestra Nova, Cygnet Theater, Malashock Dance and the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA). The idea was conceived during a weekly Orchestra Nova staff meeting and, soon after, the other three groups came on board. We feel truly privileged to be joining forces with each of these organizations, all of whom are enriching San Diego culture with their unique presentations of art.

Currently, subscribers of any one of the 4ARTS partners, such as our Club Nova members (subscribers and donors of $100+), are allowed 2-for-1 admission to any of the other partners’ regular season concert, performance or museum exhibit. If you subscribe to one of us, you get benefits from all of us. It’s a community of art-love.

If yesterday’s meeting is any indication of what is to come, you will be seeing some amazing things from the four of us in the future. There’s a whole lot of creativity happening here.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Nova's Very Best? You be the judge.

Getting criticized by a critic is, well, par for the course when you're in the business of entertaining. There's a reason many artists, especially actors, don't read reviews of their performances - can't let that fluff get you down. But occasionally, when a review is just plain unfair, it warrants a response. After all, if a critic gets to put their opinion out there, then so should we.

But first, here's an article printed on SanDiego.com singing the praises of Orchestra Nova's season opener on Friday night, Mozart's Very Best:

http://www.sandiego.com/arts/orchestra-nova-opens-with-stylish-mozart

The original title of the Union Tribune (U-T) article written by newly-minted critic James Chute on Friday night titled "Entering The Nova World Proves A Painful Experience" was published not once, but twice, in both the Saturday and Sunday editions of the U-T!  At least they toned it down for the online version on SignOnSanDiego.com to "Are You (Orchestra Nova) Experienced?"

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/15/orchestra-nova-san-diego-classical/

Another oddity is that the U-T has pulled a recent article with a positive tone - an interview with Jung-Ho written by Mr. Chute and published in the Night & Day section last Thursday.  As of Saturday, it no longer exists online [Note: they put this article back up on Friday, October 22].

We chose to respond by sending a letter to the editor at the Union Tribune - we'll find out soon enough if they have the guts to publish it. All's fair in love and war...and, truly, no hard feelings toward Chute, but we just want to let the world know that we are so much more than meets the critic's eye.

Our letter to the Union Tribune:

http://www.orchestranova.org/orchestra_nova_gets_it_right.shtml

We have had an outpouring of support from our fans in the last week and we deeply appreciate all your kind words.  Many of you said you also planned to write a letter to the editor and we would love it if you sent your letters to us as well (we won't publish anything without your consent):  marketing@orchestranova.org

How was your experience at Mozart's Very Best?  Please write your comments, suggestions and criticisms in the space provided below - we want to hear from you all!

Sincerely,

The Orchestra Nova Team