January 2019 – Jonathan H. Ward

Recollections of Robert Shaw, 1916-1999

January 25, 2019January 24, 2019 by JonathanNo Comments

Twenty years ago today, the world mourned the passing of conductor Robert Shaw. Shaw was a towering figure of the American classical music scene beginning in the early 1940s when he prepared choruses for Arturo Toscanini. I had the great good fortune to sing with Mr. Shaw on two occasions in the 1990s. Those two periods were among the most profound experiences of my musical career and my adult life. Carnegie Hall, January 1995 Despite having only three years of experience as a choral singer, I somehow passed an audition to participate in one of Mr. Shaw’s annual workshops at Manhattan Center Studios, capped with a performance at Carnegie Hall. The program included two short Brahms pieces—Nänieand Gesang der Parzen(Song of the Fates), as well as Paul Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d. Making the week extra special was that my wife Jane and our good friend Dina Weiss were also at the workshop, as were several of our choral conductor friends from...

Capturing an Asteroid

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 by JonathanNo Comments

Sometimes the happiest results happen by accident. This is the story of how I unintentionally managed to image a small, distant asteroid with my Nikon camera and a wide-angle lens! Shooting Orion with a Guided CameraSaturday night, January 5, 2019 brought North Carolina the first clear skies in what seemed like ages. I planned to shoot some nebulas with my telescope and specialized camera. But tonight I also wanted to try out a new wide-angle lens I recently purchased, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens for my Nikon D5500. My goal was to point the Nikon at Orion and see how much detail I could capture if I kept shooting exposures as long as I was in the field. I set up the Nikon on my iOptron SkyTracker Pro mount and a sturdy tripod. The SkyTracker is a motorized one-axis equatorial mount. Simply put, once you've pointed it at the celestial pole, it will follow the Earth's rotation all night long. This prevents...

2019: The Year of Impulse Control

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019 by JonathanNo Comments

Every visionary leader knows of the art of motivating peak performance with audacious, challenging goals that are nonetheless achievable with great effort. Setting appropriate New Year’s resolutions is the equivalent activity for the rest of us. How do we push ourselves to do better, but not set ourselves up for failure? After deep pondering, I decided that 2019 will be my Year of Impulse Control, things I resolve not to do. And if I do slip up and succumb to temptation, I am setting backstops that will keep me from going too far. Okay, here goes. Ten things I resolve for 2019: 1. I will not purchase a jet ski. 2. If I fail at #1, I will resist the temptation to drive the jet ski in my koi pond. 3. I will not build a ziggurat (Babylonian step pyramid) anywhere on my property. 4. If I fail at #3, said ziggurat will be no larger than 50% scale. Maybe 75% scale. Definitely not full-scale. 5. I will not tell you...