Low Strings, Rehearsal. San Jose, California. September 27 ,2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Members of the cello and double bass sections of Symphony Silicon Valley at a September 27, 2013 rehearsal

And now, as they say, something entirely different. I am midway into a three-year project that has me photographing classical musicians in San Jose, California – primarily the Symphony Silicon Valley and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. Symphony Silicon Valley is the direct descendant of the San Jose Symphony, a group that has been described as the longest running symphony orchestra in the western United States. The San Jose Chamber Orchestra is a smaller group that has a reputation for exciting and high quality performances and for promoting new works by living composers.

Since many of my usual photographic subjects are inanimate objects – as we like to say, “Rocks. Trees. Water.” – photographing performing artists is, in many ways, a very big change for me. This work is all about the people and, in fact, the point of the project is to tell the stories of these artists in a more complete way, showing and telling aspects of what they do that are not usually seen by the public and concert-goers. It was a bit of a stretch for me at first, walking around among performing artists and finding ways to see what they do photographically and record what they do and show who they are. However, I may have an advantage or two over some who might try to photograph such subjects. I have a lot of background in music, having taught it at the college level for many years, having been a performer myself at one time, and being married to a fine musician. There is as much music as photography in my life, and for this reason I believe that I am sensitive to aspects of the musical life that might not be apparent to other photographers who don’t have this background. Related to this, I have personal friendships among many in this world, which gives me a bit of an entre that has helped a lot.

I’ll likely share more of this work from time to time – from among the 2000 or more photographs that I have made so far. This photograph was made at a rehearsal of Symphony Silicon Vally in late September, 2013. Here the orchestra is preparing their performance of Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite. (Folks who know the music might even be able to figure out where they are in the work – there is a hint in the photo.) For this shot I photographed from the balcony with a long lens in order to compress the perspective of this part of the stage occupied by some of the orchestra’s low string players.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.