Piano | ArtistWorks

It's been a busy week...

Tue, 03/22/2016 - 6:56am

Written by HughSung

It's been a busy week for me! I'm one of the main (actually, I think I may be the ONLY main...) pianists to accompany job auditions at The Philadelphia Orchestra. One of the staff members reminded me that I've been doing this for over 20 years - wow! I've helped most of the principal players win their jobs - Concertmaster David Kim, among several others. It's always a thrill to work with some of the best musicians in the world, and even though I've played a lot of this repertoire thousands of times, I still get butterflies in my stomach when it comes time to play. When you're accompanying someone for as important a audition as a position in The Philadelphia Orchestra, you have to play as if your own job is on the line (which, in a sense, it is...), and be a solid, supportive, and - at times - calming influence for each of the applicants.

George Whitty on Working with Santana

Tue, 03/08/2016 - 4:59pm

Written by GeorgeWhitty

Topics: george whitty, jazz, Piano

santana live on stage at woodstock

One day in about 1998, I got a call from someone asking if I was available to do some recording with Carlos Santana. Rodney Holmes, who was then playing drums with Carlos, had recommended me. They were recording at Electric Lady in Manhattan, and of course I was available to record with Carlos Santana - as a true believer I was thrilled to get called. That was right around a time, also, where I had become quite obsessed with Woodstock (the original, of course!), making various pilgrimages up to the site, reading several books, grooving on the excellent documentary almost nightly. And of course Carlos really lit that festival on fire.