If I...were king...of the forEHHHHHHHHHST

Sometimes, it's comforting to realize that even the great masters throughout history had to start somewhere.

As in, some of their early stuff is really really bad.

I am shaking my head in astonishment this week as we do Verdi's "Macbeth". I don't know much opera, and I'm not the world's biggest opera fan. (I'm trying to be, since I'm married to one, but I don't know if I'm cut out for it.)

So I wasn't sure whether it was just me when we were reading the opera in rehearsal earlier this week and I was bored out of my mind.

Thus, I was grateful when someone who plays with the Santa Fe Opera every summer (i.e., he does a lot of opera) said that this was probably the worst opera he's ever played or heard. It just doesn't make sense. Macbeth is a tragedy, right? So why, in a big swordfight and revenge scene, does the music sound like an 19th century Italian version of The Chicken Dance? "I hate-a you! I poot a vendetta on-a you life! Now lets-a dance!"

[The rest of this blog entry has been censored because I was alerted that its original contents could have offended some who remained nameless, even though this blog is not enabled for google searches. Apparently my blog is now sweeping the nation and I have to be Big Brother about who reads it. I should be so flattered...]

Digital trumpet?!

What next, a solar-powered player piano? An eco-friendly electric guitar amp that runs on vegetable oil? Composting your discarded clarinet reeds?

No, this takes the cake, as far as I'm concerned:

http://www.digitaltrumpet.com.au/

It looks like a machine gun, especially in the case, but also when the guy's holding it.

But then again, who am I to judge? I know plenty of trumpet players who would just love these features:

• The MDT lets you play any sound like anything you have ever wanted from acoustic instruments to electric guitars. (yeah, because why would you want to limit yourself to just one sound?)
• The MDT gives you 10 octaves of pitch perfect range. (because 4 is just NOT enough!)
• The MDT lets you control your notes without having to "Buzz" your lips. This gives you hours more endurance. (I don't even begin to understand this concept, so I'm not even going to start commenting on it.)
• The MDT can be used for alternative sounds that a musician cannot produce on their acoustic instruments. For example you can use the MDT to double on clarinet, saxaphone, guitar, or bass. An investment in a MDT wind controller pays for itself by making the musician more marketable and in-demand. (Yeah, I want my horn to sound like a bari sax. That'll make me more marketable!)
• Transposition is a button push away. (And it's the perfect way to torture a person with perfect pitch!)

Freezing February silliness

http://www.weather.com/ says that currently, here in sunny Milwaukee, it has gotten up to a whopping ZERO degrees. It was -11 this morning.
And that's without the wind chill.

I have to go out and run errands today - we are horribly low on produce and I need to be eating lots of it - so I plan to wear yoga pants under my sweats and to keep my entire head wrapped in my extra long knitted scarf.

Ooog. I was supposed to give a music presentation this morning, but the schools are closed today because it's not safe for kids to be waiting at bus stops. Lots of other buildings have closed too since many people have to take public transportation and/or park far away from where they need to go and would be endangered by being out in the bitter cold. The news channels are all spouting information on how to deal with frostbite and hypothermia.

So those of you currently living in tropical climates, if you send me emails telling me how sunny and warm it is where you are, I'll personally hire some hacker to figure out how to blow up your computers. Okay fine, I don't know any hackers who know how to do that, but lay off it until we at least get into the teens, okay?

Warmer news - it's my marvelous mother-in-law Mimi's birthday today! From the moment I met her back on Thanksgiving in 2002, she has always extended her home warmly and with the utmost hospitality. She has adopted me as her own daughter, and I've always felt close to her. I am so glad she was born - for selfish reasons of course, because of David - but also because I love having her in my family. Happy Birthday, Mimi!! :)

In other news, the kitties have been just absolutely silly of late. Emma, quite intelligently, has figured out that sleeping on the heater vents in the floor is the way to go in this weather. Bianca and Gabby like sleeping on the tops of the couch and loveseat cushions (David gets irritated because they leave giant dents in them, since they make a habit of this). Sometimes to keep their noses warm they sleep on their faces. That's hilarious.

Here are some absolutely sidesplitting pictures of Bianca and Gabby, playing in the basement rec room.

These little furballs are just too much fun!!

Sesame Street & Bob McGrath

A few Sundays ago we did the probably best young children's concert - we call them "Kinderconcerts" - that, in my estimation, we've ever done since I've been with the orchestra.

Bob McGrath came to work with us! Remember him, from Sesame Street?! I totally adored him!

He was exactly the same as you remember him - sweet, effervescent, and unbelievably amazing with children. And a huge advocate of arts education - he told everyone in the audience to keep working to keep music in the schools because a child who doesn't have music is receiving an incomplete education. I loved him even more during this concert than I remember as a kid.

What really was amazing to me, listening to all of this music I grew up on with my now highly attuned orchestrally educated ears, is just how phenomenal the music of Sesame Street really is. We did Rubber Duckie; the Rainbow Connection; Sing, Sing A Song, and People In Your Neighborhood - and all of the old memories came flooding back as if I was 4 years old again. I haven't had such a powerful hit of nostalgia from my early childhood in my life! So this was a hard concert for me to play, because it instantly vaulted me back to the joy of my childhood (making me even more cognisant of the passage of time and the inevitable reality of aging); but when I could get past all the emotion, I marveled at what a gift that show and its music was and hopefully still is to the millions of children who watch it.

Rubber Duckie, for instance. That's a great tune!! The chord progressions, the rhythms, the structure - it's not "dumbed down" for younger listeners. It's got all the substance of a great jazz harmonic framework! I wouldn't be surprised if it's ever used as a jazz tune.

A hilarious moment was when we did "Your Face" - a song about the fact that everyone's face is different and no one has your face (unless you have a twin). So Bob says to the audience, "I have a question for you - did you bring your face?" This was the day after a particularly difficult concert the night before; and the term "face" is used slangily by wind and brass musicians to describe their embouchures. I looked at Barnewitz and asked him, "so did you bring your face?" and he laughed, shook his head and said, "No". That was funny.

During The Rainbow Connection (another incredible song with amazing harmony and voicing), there was a slide show of all these amazing photos of your favorite Sesame Street characters. I cried shamelessly during that song!

In completely unrelated news, I found out this week that based on a CD audition I recorded (I wasn't sure about it and was, as usual, too hard on myself for its imperfections), I've won the position of Principal Horn with the Breckenridge Music Festival! Check out their website here: www.breckenridgemusicfestival.com. I've heard that Breckenridge (CO) is stunning, and their festival is about a month long (perfect length for a festival, in my opinion) with chamber music as well as orchestral. I'm very excited about it! I know and adore the conductor, Gerhardt Zimmermann, and am so psyched about getting to work with him again. Woo hoo!!