Ian Orbell

Born and educated in the UK, I emigrated to the Bay Area, California in 1994. With Californian kids and grandkids, I am here to stay!

I have listened to and studied classical music all my life, following my father’s similar interest. It’s been my driving passion. I remember my very first LP, from the World Record Club (Karajan disc of overtures), I loved it. Since then, I have gathered an extensive collection of CDs, and downloaded files, and listen to several hours of music most days when at home (I have a very patient spouse!).

I spend most of my music time listening to late romantic and 20th century orchestral and vocal music, including Ravel, Debussy, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Mahler, Bruckner, Britten, Walton, Stravinsky, Berg, John Adams, and Vaughan Williams. However, I enjoy music of any period, and count some of my most exciting and memorable experiences as listening to Beethoven 3rd and Brahms 1st conducted by Klemperer and seeing Bernstein conduct and play Ravel and Mahler.

I mainly listen to music on bit-perfect server-based, primarily Linux, platforms.  I am a ‘tinkerer’, and have tried many different platforms, and am constantly amazed at the sound quality of even mid-range audio equipment these days.

I like Bernstein’s take on the famous saying ‘Life without music is meaningless, music without life is academic’.