Let me see … I left home at 7:30 pm Friday night for a five-hour flight to San Francisco. Then I had a 9 (NINE!) hour layover before taking an 11 hour flight to Paris. Then I waited two hours at Charles de Gaulle airport for the train to Lorraine, and then a bus to… Read More 30 hours to Metz
On my “must do” list before I leave town was seeing the movie, “Florence Foster Jenkins,” the film about the amateur soprano whose singing of opera classics was preserved forever through recordings. I first became acquainted with her voice in the 70s and I remember laughing hysterically with friends at parties when her recordings were played.… Read More Every voice deserves to be heard
For many, August is a month of transitions—the last days of summer, going back to school, starting up a new choir season, and so forth. For me, I always remember August 12th as the day “I got my new brain,” as my husband, Carl, used to tell me. In 2008, I was diagnosed with a… Read More August transitions
When I was in Philadelphia for the Organ Historical Society convention in June, I bought yet another edition of Bach’s Clavierübung III, the music which I’m playing in a concert on October 30. This marks my sixth edition of this music, and you’re probably asking, “Why do you need so many copies of the music?” The… Read More “I am still learning”
You remember that huge box of mail that I returned home to, after being on the road for nearly six weeks? The bills always get my attention first, but what I look forward to is reading all the magazines that have piled up in my absence. It was not until yesterday that I finally opened… Read More Ding, dong bell!
Some time ago, I took a PBS Newshour quiz called, “Do you live in a bubble?” Charles Murray, a political scientist theorizes in his book, Coming Apart, that certain Americans have little exposure to American culture at large. They therefore live in a social and culture bubble. If you’d like to take the test, you can click here.… Read More Musical Olympian
A couple of posts ago, I used the expression, “Back to the salt mines.” Ever wonder where that expression came from? According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer, this means to: “Resume work, usually with some reluctance, as in With my slavedriver of a boss, even on Saturdays it’s back to… Read More Back to the salt mines
What is awe-inspiring and amazing about concert organists is that they can jump from organ to organ, and with seemingly little effort, can register their pieces and play with ease, no matter how different each instrument is, no matter the acoustic, the touch, and the stops. And believe me, all organs are different and not created… Read More Memories of Sparky
“I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it A) extremely comforting that we’re so close, and B) like… Read More Six degrees of separation
Every concert at the Three Choirs Festival begins with an announcement: In the unlikely event of an emergency, please wait for instructions from the verger and the ushers will direct you to evacuate the building. Then there is a prayer from the head clergyman—this week there have been prayers for the terror victims in Nice,… Read More In the unlikely event…