Tonight (and now, back to practicing)

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Tonight is my solo concert at the Darmstadt Akademie für Tonkunst. 

I am so grateful for the hospitality I have received by my hosts, Peter and Karola, their children and Karola's parents, Prof. Theo Nüßein, Prof. Mark Lutz, Professor Mr. and Mrs. Volker Blumenthaler, Ms. Monika Teepe, Mr. Cord Meijerling, Ms. Tara Venditti. 

I must also thank the many composers who have made contributions for tonight's programme: Drs. Karola Obermüller, Peter Gilbert, Rick Hermann, José-Luis Hurtado, Cord Meijering, Volker Blumenthaler. An additional (future) debt of gratitutde goes to Drs. Steve Block, Daniel Cummings, and David Bashwinner for future contributions to the "Albuquerque meets Darmstadt" project. 

I have so many wonderful memories from this week - a week I will never forget. 

Tschüß!

The Possibilities of Pizza

“Pizza makes me think that anything is possible.” - Henry Rollins

Yes, I’ve been absent for a while. Since my last post, I’ve flown to Italia, driven to Slovenia and Hungary, flown back to the East Coast, picked up a patient Zheng, Lucia, and Panda … and … 

flew them, plus as much stuff as we could carry … to New Mexico!  

The Yuan family is in Albuquerque now. Still very much getting set up. Still without furniture (and believe you me, that will be aNOTher post …) 

In the meantime, I wanted to post some beautiful, Botticelli-esque photos of Paolo’s Paroni’s Personal Perfect Pizzeria (ppppp), which was my “welcome” to Italy! 

And I must remember that anything is possible … 

Toddler Chinese

Zheng and I spent a wonderful night last night in Nashville, Tennessee. We were hosted by graduate school friends of his. I had heard a lot about these people for a while, so it was nice to finally meet them. They have been married for several years. They now have a son who is about two years old. 

When we arrived at their place, I walked into their apartment and smelled something very unusual:

I had not smelled home-cooked Chinese food for about three weeks. I felt at home immediately. 

I also was surprised to learn that, in being around Chinese speakers, and now into Rosetta Stone study of Mandarin, that I was able to pick up a lot more than I thought. 

(We will not discuss the fact that their two-year-old son has better Chinese than I do.) 

He was a real cutie to meet. 

Thank you, R, L and L for a wonderful time! 

PHOTO: Me and Lucas!

Day 3 of the Road Trip

Greetings from Day 3 on the Road

Zheng and I feel so blessed that so many people have given us so much in the past month. We are so grateful that people have offered us free places to stay, wonderful meals, gatherings with friends, and an army of help in getting out of our old apartment! 

In talking to one of Zheng's and my best friends, we discussed how unusual it is sometimes to be on the receiving end of something. My parents are both very giving people, and have raised us to be "givers" rather than "takers." In this, giving, or being a device of output (playing, product, information) is more comfortable than being on the receiving end. 

This experience of moving and starting a new life in New Mexico has taught me a lot. There is beauty to giving and receiving. And there is a way to both with Grace. 

We received an unexpected wedding gift last night. We had the pleasure of meeting up with one of my old friends and meeting his lovely fiancée! Today we visited an old friend of mine from graduate school, and we will stay with some of Zheng's friends from his first year of graduate study in the US! 

Luke 6:38 states:

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

I'm not sure what exactly we have done do deserve such generosity and hospitality, but we surely are grateful. We will continue to extend hospitality and generosity at every turn imaginable! 

We also have cleared: PA, NY, PA, OH, KY. 

Photo: a cute puppy in a Nashville art gallery, showing me "hospitality"

Beethoven's Last Sonata

May has been a month of many things. The life-equivalent of either a transition, development, but most definitely, a coda. Zheng and I are leaving Rochester for the foreseeable future. And this has also meant some lovely parties and gatherings. There will be more to come, for sure. 

My church choir at Elmgrove United Methodist Church had a final choir ‘picnic’ and also had a rehearsal imbedded in there somewhere. D.N. and B.N. hosted the dinner, and as good Methodists are want to do, we “brought a covered dish to pass.” 

I will share some photos of this party in a later post, but I wanted to take the time now to share this remarkable gift:

It is a vase, with an image superimposed from the beginning of Beethoven’s last sonata, Opus 111. His last three sonatas are a titan trio, epic in scope, emotionalism, and the technique to really play them. Beethoven treats the piano in many instances as an orchestra. 

My “serious and focused solo training” blended into collaborative studies (and, frankly, work and career) about ten years ago. So imagine my surprise, and delight, when I was asked to:

a) sit down to the piano 
b) download the score onto my phone 
c) play some of the opening! 

(Luckily, there is a slow introduction to Opus 111 before it really “gets going.”).

And I was really “playing it,” meaning I could really play the introduction, having never seen it before. Yes, I’m a good reader, but more important, these years of technical regimen combined with all of the orchestral reductions I’ve played are fusing into something surprising — an affinity for these bigger nineteenth-century pieces that ten years ago, I would have studied only - never performed them in public. 

A delightful choir member, S.R. (who found the vase), when there was a small chat going on during this reading, said:

“Quiet!”
“She’s playing the vase.”

American Opera Triptych

I’m home after a good 10-day engagement in Wisconsin. I was invited to University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, to music-direct an opera. I had suggested: 

“A Hand of Bridge” (Samuel Barber)
“The Telephone” (Gian Carlo Menotti)
“The Old Maid and the Thief” (Gian Carlo Menotti)

I had gone there to cast the show in November, and then returned in late March for rehearsals, tech week, dress rehearsals, and performances. I performed all three of these from the keyboard for the performances, along with a gifted student percussionist adding some obbligato and sound effects. 

There were a few things that I felt were incredibly successful about the project:

1). Clear, detailed direction. I am learning that some of the best teaching (which can also transition into performing or “directing” at the professional level) is rooted in this skill. My great friend and colleague of nearly a decade had invited me to music-direct his show, and we both took this approach. M.M. is very detail-oriented, so I was very happy to have my detail-oriented coaching or teaching style complement this. The students did very well with our approach, I felt.

2). Creativity. We had a lot of fun and “play” with this show. We borrowed a porpoise-skull (!) from the Art Department, for Ben to give to Lucy at the top of “The Telephone” (the score indicates that his gift is an abstract sculpture). We also had a great time with three “jingle girls” - a trio of singing sisters who sang commercials, composed by one of the composition faculty at UWSP. These were a hit and almost stole the show from the actually larger works! We had also set the entire production as a radio-broadcast, with audience watching. 

3). Being human, being ourselves. I was out in Wisconsin immediately after taking my doctoral oral exam. And then I had to wait all day in O’Hare airport because of a poorly handled canceled flight and baggage detail. I made it to UWSP, just later than intended. My friend, my host and co-director, had offered his home very hospitably. That also meant late nights chatting, catching up, always with wine. I still don’t think I’ve recovered from this time, and my body certainly doesn’t want to go to bed when it should.

4). Native language of audience and cast. There is nothing like the immediacy of singing or hearing in your own language. I was also a fiend about clear text, and it paid off: M.M.’s parents visited from North Carolina for the performances, and they said they could understand everything. 

I am so grateful for this project, for the opportunity to music-direct, and for the trip and the time spent in a new place. 

Here is a link introducing the production. https://vimeo.com/90440940

PHOTO: Me with the “Jingle Girls.” 

 

One Sentence a Day, Five Years at a Time

Dear ones, 

Happy New Year! I hope you are doing well, and that you had a wonderful New Year celebration. 

Zheng and I did some shopping, and used some of our well-saved gift cards. Some of them will expire in the coming months, and we didn't want to become one of the statistics of "billions of gift certificates and gift cards go unused." He is proving to have a great eye for fashion and bargaining.

We then headed to return some items ... 

and then celebrate with my family for dinner and friends for the "ball-drop." 

The following day was more visiting with more friends! It's been really lovely. Thank you to the Z and S families for hosting us!

One of the last things I purchased in 2013 was this book! 

It was inspired by a good friend's (Dr. MM) recommendation. We're only two days in so far. I'm looking forward to seeing how the days and months develop. 

I'm leaving you with a photo of the Great Wall on New Year's Eve, courtesy of the Huffington Post and Associated Press  photographer Ng Han Guan.

And a note about the five-year plan - a great stage director and very influenctial professor at Oberlin, JF, suggested that we always had to have a five-year plan. If we didn't, "we weren't focused, and if we weren't earning 100% of our salary from the music field by the time we were 30, we should do something else." 

That deadline is well past, and I made it to that goal also amply before that cut-off. Now it is a matter of making my five year plan, for myself as an artist, and for my family. (Though the cats will be fine with whatever happens, I think).

On this auspicious turn of the year, I not only have a five-year journal but also a date-book that goes until the end of 2017! 

What will these next five years bring?

Christmas Present

Dear ones,

Greetings from Pennsylvania! Zheng and I have been here since Christmas Day, and we have been enjoying a lot of rest and relaxation (and family and food).

We are so grateful for the hospitality we have experienced. This is Zheng's first Christmas "up north," to which his response is, "it's cold!"

Today we gathered with my dad's family in Lancaster, and had a lovely but too-short visit with all of them. Now we are tucked in at my brother's with a fire, NFL football, and home-cooked food.

What are your holiday pastimes?

Hospitality, the international language

Elmgrove United Methodist Church welcomed Aying last Sunday with open arms. 

She responded to the congregation by speaking Chinese. They gave her a copy of the New Testament, in Mandarin. 

I am so happy to be worshipping and working with an open, welcoming, and accepting community. 

PHOTOS: This event. 

Central Conservatory "hot pot"!

Today marked our in-person introduction to the Beijing Central Conservatory. This campus, 13 buildings and approximately 2,000 students, is the site of our first master classes and concerts. First, we were taken there to warm-up by three delightful conservatory viola freshmen. Ellen and I rehearsed a little (the music feels great!) and then she gave a terrific class on orchestral excerpts.

Afterwards, the viola professor at the Beijing Conservatory, our "handlers," Bob, Ellen, and I (and the viola) were taken out to eat to "Hot Pot," for a traditional Chinese dinner, from the Szechuan province. "Soup," begins *in* the table: one half spicy, one half mild. Ingredients ranging from expected (mushrooms) to exotic (bamboo) are added to the pot of your choice. Other ingredients included tube-shrimp (shrimp that has been ground up, and that will re-expand upon contact with the hot water), squid (!), lamb, fish, ribbon tofu, noodles, water chestnuts. We also made our own "paste," before starting the soup-creation. My paste, sort of copied from the girl in line in front of me (it looked pretty good!) was: fried beans, sesame jam, coriander, minced garlic, green onion.

(Half of the reason that I'm writing these down and then "blogging" them is to remember how to re-create these once I'm States-side again!)

The hospitality that we have been shown by *everyone* has been absolutely astonishing. I have found our hosts to be delightful, enthusiastic to share their country, their stories, and especially their FOOD. Thank you!

(I could not have imagined the things that I have eaten already!).

Of special note tonight was the "noodle-man" - he did a dance with the noodles before throwing them into the soup!