End of Summer Link Extravaganza Part 1

I've amassed quite a lot of bookmarks over the last while, musical or otherwise. Here is the first installment in a series with links to some sites that I've found interesting.

• Marina Pinto's submission to the Stand on Guard for CBC mailing list was featured on the group's blog: Classical Music Elitist? My Foot! Marina makes an excellent point that quality single-game tickets to the Toronto Raptors cost about the same price as a full subscription to the Toronto Symphony.
• Here are two interesting classical music portals to check out: Classical Music Homepage and Classical Music Toolbar.
• Wondering about the value of blogging and whether or not you should start one ? Education 2.0 site Instructify has several articles on the subject, including A Few Good Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging and 5 (More) Good Reasons to Start Blogging. Here is one reason:
  

  The web is a big, big place, and just because you teach in Greasy Corner, AR doesn’t mean you can’t be a rockstar on the web. With social networking sites in your niche, it is easy to become a teaching authority by accessing information from all over the world and helping to aggregate it.



• If you're ever been interested in learning those dastardly Hanon exercises, Piano Guy recently wrote a fascinating article on how they can be used.
• Two great links via Natalie Wickham's essential Music Matters Blog: Carnegie Hall Listening Adventures and an introduction to the instruments of the orchestra.
• Intimacy, commitment, spontaneity. Listen for those qualities in this rare piano-vocal arrangement of Sarah McLachlan's Hold On. This arrangement (released on the Freedom Sessions EP) is radically different than what was eventually released on her Fumbling Towards Ecstasy album, but I think is a much more moving version, and may have been recorded in one take: