Off The Podium: Lectures & Pre-Concert Talks
Presenting with Elisabeth Adkins, violin, at Wintergreen Music. Photo credit: Paul Purpura
“I just wanted to tell you how delightful it was to sit in on your Bach’s Mass in B Minor lecture at the Strathmore. I repect your knowledge and passion for music.”
“You have enriched my knowledge and appreciation and enjoyment of the music performed at each concert. Thank you so much!”
Throughout my career, I have presented pre-concert and special occasion lectures and interactive talks for organizations from the National Symphony Orchestra to the Wintergreen Music. With topics ranging from women in music to the world of ballet, lectures often include interactive elements and audience participation, leading to a heightened appreciation of the power of classical music.
Click the organization to read about some of the topics I have presented on.
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2015: Conducting, Part 1: History of the Maestro/a
2015: Conducting, Part 2: Considering Ballet Pits, Tempos, and Tchaikovsky
2015: Conducting, Part 3: Conducting 101 – A Crash Course in Gesture
2016: Explore with Us Seminar 1 – Rock the Rhythm! with Erin Freeman
2016: Explore with Us Seminar 2 – Note the Notes! with Erin Freeman
2016: Explore with Us Seminar 3 – Investigate the Instruments! with Erin Freeman
2016: Explore with Us Seminar 4 – Honor the History!
2016: Honoring, Borrowing, Stealing, or Just Coincidence? With special guest Olufunmilayo Arewa
2016: Women in Music (2 part series)
2017: Brahms – The Creation of Symphony No. 1
2017: Music & Dance- Lessons from the Pit
2017: Music 101 – Building a Symphony with Erin
2017: Music 101 – Read Music Like a Pro (4 parts series)
2017: You Don't Say - A game-show inspired morning with a panel of your favorite Wintergreen Musicians
2018: Bernstein’s Facsimile: A Ballet Worth Hearing
2018: Copland’s Appalachian Spring: More than Just “Simple Gifts”
2018: Hearing Haydn’s 90th Symphony
2018: Leonard Bernstein & American Song
2018: Robert Shaw: An American Choral Legend
2019: Inside The Drawings & Music of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
2019: Music Fundamentals – Harmony
2019: Music Fundamentals – Instruments & Expression
2019: Music Fundamentals – Melody
2019: Music Fundamentals – Rhythm
2019: Stravinsky’s Pulcinella – Commedia dell’Arte at Its Finest
2019: Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5 – Bringing The English Countryside to The Mountains of Virginia
2020: Online Community: How We Got Here: Music History (7 parts)
2020: Online Community: Music And Art
2020: Online Community: Music And Ballet
2020: Online Community: Music And Shakespeare
2020: Online Community: Music And… (4 part series: Shakespeare, Art, Ballet, Nature)
2020: Online Community: Vines & Music Tasting (5 parts)
2020: Online Community: You Don't Say! Happy Hour (5 part series)
2022: A Guided Tour of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony
2022: Beethoven's Dramatic Decision
2022: Carnival of the Animals and Other Musical Regrets
2022: From a Barhall Piano to a Viennese Salon: The Many Sides of Johannes Brahms
2022: The Magic Behind Movie Night
2022: The Stories Behind the Season
2022: What Does American Music Actually Sound LIke?
2022: What to Listen for in Brahms Symphony No. 2
2023: "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha”: Beethoven's Symphony No. 4
2023: Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony
2023: Hidden Melodies: Songs about Country, Love & Fish
2023: Near Perfection – Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
2023: Ola Gjeilo's Sunrise Mass
2023: Rain, Thunder, Sunshine & Fresh Air in Music
2023: Season Preview with Erin Freeman
2023: The Trumpet as Story Teller
2024: 100 Years of French Camp – A Portrait of Darius Milhaud
2024: From Vienna to Atlanta – Explore Beethoven & Carlos Simon
2024: Inside the Orchestra
2024: Musical Depictions of Faust
2024: Season Preview with Erin Freeman
2024: The Bird Saves the Day: Stravinsky’s Epic Firebird Suite
2024: The Composer of Carmen Takes on the Symphony
2024: The Life Changing Magic of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto
2024: The Musical Language of “Je Ne Sais Quoi”
2024: The Role of a Conductor
2024: The Unknown Art of Marianna Martines
2025: Alex Berko - Sacred Place
2025: Anniversaries, from the Resort to the Music Festival, from Bizet to Ravel!
2025: British composers and their connection to nature: Britten, Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Elgar
2025: Designing a new symphony – for the mountain!
2025: Elgar Enigma Variations
2025: Grieg - Piano Concerto
2025: Life as a Conductor
2025: Mandolin with Orchestra!?
2025: Season Preview with Erin Freeman
2025: There's a Storm a Brewin’ - Beethoven 6
2026: Aaron Copland - Beyond Appalachian Spring!
2026: Am I missing Something? How to listen
2026: Concertos - Price & Beethoven
2026: For the love of Voice - Mozart's operas, masses, and symphonies
2026: No Conductor, No Problem: Chamber music from Gabriel Faure to Isabella Leonard
2026: Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
2026: Season Preview with Erin Freeman
2026: Sunlight and Shadows: Unpacking Brahms’s Second Symphony
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Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
Groundbreakers in the Concert Hall – A Celebration of Five Extraordinary Performers: Marion Anderson (voice), Ann Hobson Pilot (harp), Maud Powell (violin), Jacqueline duPré (Cello), Dame Myra Hess (Piano)
Singing from the Heart: Schubert Symphony No. 3, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, Adams On the Transmigration of Souls
Sisters, Wives, and Daughters – Composers in their Own Right: Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler-Werfel, Fanny Mendelssohn, Francesca Caccini
Teachers and So Much More: The Legacies of Nadia Boulanger and Dorothy Delay
Turning the Tides at the Turn of the Century – Three Female Musicians, Three Different Paths: Amy Beach, Ethyl Smyth, Amy Fay
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Haydn – Creation
Orff – Carmina Burana
Standing in the Middle: The Role of a Conductor
The Maestro is Coming! The History of the Conductor
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Bach B Minor Mass - Is There a “Correct” Way to Perform It (Co Presentation with Dana Marsh of the Washington Bach Consort
Beethoven – Mass in C Major
Great American Song Book
Haydn’s Creation
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat
Mahler’s Choral Symphonies
Mozart – Finding the Words to Describe His Music
Opera Choruses
Rossini – Petite messe solennelle
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A Celebration of Mozart (Sort-of): Tchaikovsky March Slav, Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
A Mirror into the Minds of Mozart and Markis: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4, Mozart Symphony No. 4, Makris Anamnesis
A New Approach to Three Standards: Mozart Overture to The Magic Flute, Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Beethoven Symphony No. 5
A Passion for Place: Beethoven Leonora Overture #3, Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faune, Lalo Symphony Espagnole
Absolute v. Programmatic: Beethoven Violin Concerto, Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
Bach: Christmas Oratorio
Bach: Mass in B-Minor
Beyond the Notes: Mozart Overture to Marriage of Figaro, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Buona Sera: Guiliani Guitar Concerto, Castelnuovo-Tedesco Guitar Concerto No. 1, Mendelssohn “Italian” Symphony
Chopin – A Romantic Mozart: Mozart Overture to Marriage of Figaro, Mozart Symphony No. 40, Chopin Krokowiak, Chopin Fantasy on Polish Airs
Expect the Unexpected: Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3, Mozart Symphony No. 39, Prokofiev Violin Concerto
Experiments in Orchestration: Dvorak Serenade for Strings, Martin Etudes for Strings Orchestra, Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1
Exploring the Program Notes – What Exactly do they Mean?: Bach Violin Concerto No. 1, Makris Anamnesis, Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
“Failure is the True Test of Greatness” – Herman Melville: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Handel Messiah
Handel Messiah – Mozart Orchestration
Inexplicable: Mozart Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Mozart Requiem
Inspiration in All its Forms: Beethoven Coriolan Overture, Dvorak Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Lutoslawski Partita, Beethoven Symphony No. 6
Inspired by Strangers: Shostakovich Symphony No. 14, Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Melodious Composers: Tower Made in America, Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, Schubert Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”
Mendelssohn Elijah
Mozart – Don Giovanni
Mozart – Marriage of Figaro
Not Your Typical <Fill in the Blank>: Mozart Divertimento, K. 136, Vivaldi Four Seasons, Peck Signs of Life II
Passion: Gershwin American in Paris, Creston Saxophone Concerto, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Past and Future Meet: Grieg Holberg Suite, Gerber Clarinet Concerto, Haydn “Farewell” Symphony
Sensational Strings: Pachelbel Canon in D, Mozart Divertimento 135 and 137, Glass Company, Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1
Simply Splendid – Splendidly Simple: Mozart Serenade in G Major, Bartok Divertimento for String Orchestra, Schubert Mass in G
Slavic Celebration: Dvorak Symphony No. 9 and Cello Concerto
Symphony as Concerto – Concerto as Symphony: Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and Symphony No. 1
The “Standard” Concert Format Broken Down: Rossini Overture toL’Italian in Algiers, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, Mozart Symphony No. 41
The 20th Century – More Diverse than You Might Think: Adams The Chairman Dances, Elgar Cello Concerto, Stravinsky Firebird (1945 Suite)
Three Concertos – Two Players: Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Mozart Bassoon Concerto, Strauss Duo Concertino
Up-Close and Personal with the Strings: Gerber Ode for String Orchestra, Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, Dvorak Serenade for Strings
What You Didn’t Know about What You Thought You Knew: Rossini Overture to The Barber of Seville, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Beethoven Symphony No. 6
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Celebrate!: Bernstein Overture to Candide, Haydn Symphony No. 104, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
Dance!: Dvorak Slavonic Dance No. 8, Adams The Chairman Dances, Haydn Trumpet Concerto, Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Fire!: Shostakovich Festive Overture, Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Inspired by the Voice: Verdi Overture to La Forza Del Destino, “Dich Teure Halle” from La Forza Del Destino, Wagner Arrival of the Guests, Wagner “Prelude und Liebstod” from Tristan und Isolde, Borodin Polovtsian Dances
Joy!: Rossini Overture to Semiramide, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, Brahms Symphony No. 1
Power!: Beethoven Overture to Egmont, Mozart Bassoon Concerto, Franck Symphony in D Minor
Spain!: Bizet Carmen Suite No. 1, Lalo Cello Concerto, De Falla Three Cornered Hat, Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol
Travel to Russia: Rimsky Korsakov Russian Easter Overture, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
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Britten – War Requiem
Grieg – Peer Gynt
Mozart – Requiem
Mozart – The Magic Flute
Ravel – Daphnis and Chloe and Puts – Virelai
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Form – The Ultimate Journey: Chopin 24 Preludes, Schumann Fantasy in C Major, Schoenberg Opus 11 - Shriver Hall Concert Series
Hedge Fund Down? Music’s Up! Why Art, Specifically Music is Imperative in a Financial Crisis - Richmond Speakers Series
Leading without Words - Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Telling a Tale: Stravinsky Firebird, Strauss Ein Heldenleben - Savannah Symphony
