A reason to go to conferences-

Hello All-

Just got back from an action packed week long national physics conference in Chicago. You may be saying, thats wonderful Kris, but that has little to do with music. You would be right, except for the fact that I convinced a handful of friends and acquaintances to attend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for an exciting Thursday night performance. A nice concert, full of Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. As we are cheap students, we got seats in the top tier of balconies. The view was fantastic and the sound was incredible. Because the slant of the stadium seating was so severe, it felt like we could lean directly above the orchestra. I would suggest trying the nosebleed section, at least in this particular hall.

The music was good( Benjamin would be happy because no one stood during the applause). The first half was a Mozart 'symphony', number 23 followed by the Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto. They for some inexplicable reason miked the piano and then neglected to set up the sound system correctly, leading to audible squeaks at frequent intervals. (The soloist was Jonathan Bliss who the program informed me has a blog. Which he updates less frequently than we do around here). The second half of the program was Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. It was very well executed and enjoyable.

Hope everyone is surviving the end of the semester-

-Kris