Kirill Gerstein has been playing the piano with such fervor and talent that he received the Nobel prize equivalent for pianists, the Gilmore prize with a purse of $300,000. Unlike the Nobel prize, there are strings attached to the monies, though, he can only blow $50 grand of it on bling-bling, the rest has to go to "musical purpose." We'd hire a good lawyer. What's a rolex, if not a 60 bpm metronome? And there must be a musical purpose to a mood inducing bottle of Chateau Yquem before a performance. more ›

It's easy to interview someone who is an interviewer: we just ask her to ask the questions! Orli Shaham is the pianist who'll play Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini with the SF Symphony at Stern Grove this Sunday. Rachmaninoff, Paganini: you don't need to know much about music to know that this is all about sheer virtuosity and crazy technicity. But Orli also had her radio show, Dial-A-Musician, where she asked her pro friends in classical music to answer questions from the listeners. Orli is the best person to query: she knows the business from the soloist angle. Then she often plays accompanist to her brother, Gil Shaham, the violinist who visits frequently with the SF Symphony. And if she ever wanted to know the point of view of the conductor, she can ask her husband, David Robertson. Robertson leads the St Louis Symphony, and will be guest conductor of the SF Symphony (starting tonight!) to wrap up the 2007-08 program. As Orli says, "he closes the season, and I open the summer." more ›