arrange • compose • conduct
Keep reminding yourself. In the past few months, there’s been more and more of a sense of “back to normal.” Putting aside whether normal exists and whether pre-pandemic behavior is where we should want to return to, there’s this to remember. Most of the “back to normal” events I’ve had […]
As we’ve gotten back into events that we haven’t done in a while, I find myself having to approach them differently. The event the Rockford Aces hosted last night, for example, ran since 2012. In 2019 it had to be canceled unexpectedly, so after seven years of running it, there […]
The way I see it, for the last two years we’ve been at sea with our ensembles. We were out on our voyage when we were becalmed by the pandemic. When the winds picked back up, the students I was leading needed to be led to a harbor. Any harbor. […]
Coming out of the profoundly complex, anxious, confusing, continuity-breaking last two years is going to take time. It’s going to take persistence, imagination, and a commitment to rebuilding the traditions that our students have become decoupled from. I say that because just in the last week, I’ve seen glimmers – […]
One of the hallmarks of an ongoing musical education is that you keep building. What you learned last year helps this year’s music come more easily, and more quickly – enabling you to learn more and do even more next year. It’s a virtuous cycle. And one of the ongoing […]
I have a Snow Day today. (It’s a weird one: there’s no new snow on the ground or in the air, as of 7am…but 4-6″ and 40mph winds are anticipated later.) Snow Days are sudden threats: you can’t prepare and mitigate them in advance, and you can’t stop the weather. […]
A few years ago, Terry Gross got songwriting team Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine to talk about writing their classic “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” and in particular about the various versions of the lyric. They began by sharing the original penultimate lyric, which Judy Garland refused to sing: […]
Yesterday, I wrote about how I keep forgetting about the loss of institutional memory – and how it leads to more difficulty in many situations. There can also be an upside to losing institutional memory. My friend wrote me today, saying, “The loss of institutional knowledge has allowed me to […]
There are a lot of things I’ve adjusted to since we entered the pandemic in March, 2020. I’ve adjusted to wearing masks (no big deal…).I’ve adjusted to Zoom meetings.I’ve adjusted to surprise changes in teaching modality. But there area a few things I keep forgetting, 18 months on. I keep […]
When I look at the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Break, I shudder, then cheerfully tie up my running shoes. I have for years. It’s a mad dash – all the normal things a person does in this time, but, like all musicians, also in one of the busiest months […]