Thanksgiving princesses

David and I have returned home from a brief and fun visit with my family in Cincinnati. We especially enjoyed our little niece, Jenna, who is totally into the whole princess thing. She has both Cinderella and Snow White dress-up outfits and loves dancing around in them. I was recruited several times to provide live dance piano music for Jenna and David; it was so cute when she needed a dance partner and asked matter-of-factly "would you be my handsome prince?" Priceless! Also priceless was me trying to play the Sleeping Beauty Waltz by ear - it sounded like Sleeping Beauty with sleep apnia knocking things over in her sleep. But it was fun.

Below is an adorable picture of Jenna (in the middle) at her 3rd birthday party this past October, with two of her best friends in full princess regalia:

And again at Halloween in her Cinderella costume:

The dinner was just marvelous. My dad, who I'm convinced is moonlighting somewhere clandestinely as a chef for a 4+ star restaurant, made this stuffing that had the most amazing savory flavor and light texture. I think he makes it differently every year and it's always scrumptious.

My mom again blew my mind with her seasonal decor. She had this absolutely breathtaking table setting, resplendent with a gorgeous autumn-y tablecloth and napkins tied with gossamer wire-ribbon bows. Everything on the table had perfectly coordinated harvest colors. When it comes to decorating, I can only stand in awe of my mother, who gives Martha Stewart a run for her money (without the jail time, no less!) every time the seasons change. Regrettably, I forgot to bring our digital camera on our trip, or I would have taken pictures.

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Its message is simple and easy to understand, and can be fully appreciated and practiced by people of all faiths. I love gathering together with my friends and family and the simplicity of giving thanks - focusing on the things we have and being grateful.

This year, I am particularly thankful for my life. I love where I am now, that I have a profound sense of what I have and how precious and short my time here on earth is. I am looking forward to the new year with excitement and anticipation of many exciting new beginnings!

The Great Piano Search!

My lifelong dream has been to own my own piano, and we'd been saving for a while for it. Finally I decided it was time, and started doing the research which I had time to do because of the Mozart Festival's scant horn requirements.

What I found was that really good, used, full-sized uprights (48" or taller) often sounded better than a lot of the used grands out there. I really enjoyed the process, during which I wrote several emails to friends who were either professional pianists, owned their own pianos, or were experts on instrument acoustics. Their feedback was invaluable - thanks, guys! :)

So, a la diary entry style, here are some excerpts from those missives...if this is way too much information for you, if it doesn't interest you, or if you've already received these emails, scroll down to the end to see pictures of my new piano! :)

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October 23rd: I was surprised at how extremely sensitive to quality I was - being a mere horn player and not a 'real' pianist - and that I could tell, immediately, whether I liked a piano or not.

First, I went to the Yamaha dealer. I figured, I haven't played piano in years and until this point have never considered buying one before - plus I'm a horn player and not a professional pianist - so I might as well start with something affordable that's mass-produced and easy to find, right? Right. Enter the Yamaha Professiona Upright "U" series. The U1 is 48", the U3 is 52". This is the 48" U1:

So I tried the new U1 they had in their showroom. I hated it. It sounded like a hail storm on a tin roof. I couldn't believe how offensive it sounded to me. So I thought, well, maybe the longer strings of the U3 will be better in sound, and tried it. It sounded like somewhat larger hailstones falling on a slightly larger tin roof. I tried the other U1's and U3's, hoping that maybe a different instrument of the same models would be different. They were all abominable.

Depressed at how this was going so far, I asked the guy if I could check out the Yamaha grands, just for comparison. [I loved the Yamaha C2 - the 5'8" concert grand, but at $19,5K, it was definitely out of my price range.]

In fact, there was a sad old 1910 Steinway in their showroom (they were selling it on consignment for a 3rd party) that had been violated with an electric player piano implant. I loved the Yamaha way better, no contest. But I attribute that mostly to the electronic sacrilege that had been committed against that poor Steinway.

However, I thought it was interesting that I had to get that far up in size (and price) before I found a [new Yamaha] piano I liked. Plus, it is still early in my search to fall in love with anything until I've tried a lot of pianos for comparison.

October 25th: I went down to Chicago to see a very nice piano dealer (www.chicagopianos.com) who sells primarily new Estonias, Bohemias, and Bluthners, as well as a lot of other used intruments like Yamahas and Kawais. I loved this guy, and his website (check it out!) was incredible - really informative and educational, almost as if he doesn't WANT to sell you a piano unless you know what you want and what you're getting. His dealership was the one where I found, hands down, more quality pianos I'd want to buy than any other place I'd been to.

The Europeans (Bluthner, Bohemia, Estonia): I could not for the life of me understand why the Bluthners were priced in the 6 figure brackets, because I did not like them. The Bohemian uprights sounded nice, but the sound was a bit too dark and fuzzy - almost as if the sound was coming from far away. The Bohemian grands, on the other hand, were absolutely out of this world. BOTH the Bohemian and Estonia grands were far superior to any Steinway I have ever played. The action was orgasmically facile, and the sound.....ooooh, the sound.....(insert celestial choir chord here). And they were less expensive than the Yamaha C2 that I had liked!

Steinway: Interesting side note about what I've learned from all these piano dealers about Steinways (even a Steinway Guy I visited contributed to this!). They're amazing pianos, to be sure, but their exorbitant prices ($25K for a new UPRIGHT? You've gotta be kidding me!) reflect the prestige and name in addition to the actual quality (which is excellent, but you're paying a lot for the name).

From what I've learned in talking to many different piano dealers at this point, Steinways are like the Rolls Royce of pianos - a fantastic, historic and extremely prestigious name, but I wouldn't necessarily feel the need to take out a 2nd mortgage to own and drive one.

Kawai: The Kawais were definitely the most affordable new pianos I had seen, and I liked them better than almost all the new Yamahas (I still love the C2). The sound was warm, gorgeous, and clear. My only problem with Kawai is that most of the used ones I've played on were bright and tinny - which makes me fear that in time, after they've broken in, they start to show why they're priced lower than other pianos.

Yamaha: I tried out the 1973 Yamaha U3 [the Chicago guy] had. I loved the sound - the sound was grand quality, rich and bell-like like the C2 grand - clear, but not tinny or like the Yamadealer's new ones, which I described to Karin on the phone yesterday as sounding like the Abominable Snowman having violent diarrhea in a metal toilet. :) But the action on this U3 was slow and groggy....The Chicago Guy said, "D'oh! Our technician just hasn't had the chance to work on the action of this one yet." He promised to have his tech guy work on the action. So I'm going back to Chicago on Thursday to see if it's any better. If it is as good as the action on the Steinway Guy's U1, I'm going to buy it because its sound was just beautiful.

October 26th: Today I drove down to Chicago again, first to see a guy in Arlington Heights (NW Chicago suburb) who had a Yamaha G1 baby grand that was shockingly in my price range. It was very nice, but also very old (1968). It had a decent sound, and I was definitely tempted by the allure and aesthetics of having a grand in my home now, without having to wait to buy my ultra grand Bohemia.

So I gave the tone, touch, and overall ratings for it, told the guy I was definitely interested, and went on to the Chicago Guy to compare it to the U3 I had liked on Tuesday. I was mostly curious to see if his piano tech had sufficiently improved the action on the Yamaha 52" U3.

The touch and action was flawless, like butter. And the sound...I was shocked at how amazing it was compared to the baby grand's. There was literally no comparison. The U3 was, hands down, the better sound. I rated the piano again, and it came out on top, no contest.

I was thrilled. This piano was, by FAR, the best piano in my price range, and it sounded almost as good as some of the really nice grands I'd played on, and infinitely better than almost all of the Yamaha grands I'd tried! Incredulous, I asked the Chicago guy why this was. He said that many people want the prestige, aesthetics, and image of owning a grand, and don't necessarily consider the sound that much of a big deal. The Yamaha full sized uprights, however, are made for serious professional pianists who don't have the room (or budget) for a grand. This is why they have superior construction and sound.

Get this - my U3 has the same length strings as a 5'1" baby grand!! So I guess that helps to explain why its sound was so wonderful. Also, it's a 1973, which means it isn't going to suddenly change once it breaks in.

The best thing? Including delivery, the first tuning, and the really nice adjustable height microfiber-padded bench, it was well within our price range, under the price cap we'd set for our first piano.

And because I tried so many pianos [final count was almost 40], I'm absolutely sure I found the perfect piano for me [for what we could afford right now].

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The piano was delivered Nov. 1st, and is settling in nicely! The pitch has changed a bit and now that it's been here a while, I can schedule the first tuning soon. (You have to wait a few weeks after it's delivered for it to settle in first.) It still sounds fabulous, and I'm vastly enjoying practicing on it again! Here are some pictures.

I've been having a ball practicing! I'm working on a Bb Major Mozart Sonata, Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith" variations (they're SO much fun, and E major is such a great key), the Brahms b minor Rhapsody which is probably way over my head but I just love it, and I just had to practice something juicy and big and impressive and romantic. I'm taking it ultra-slow - as in quarter note = 2 or something ridiculous like that - and learning it one measure at a time.

It's extremely humbling to practice the piano again. I've only played the horn for 3+ years since I moved here to Milwaukee, and as difficult as the horn can be, you can really only focus on (and miss) one note at a time. It's certainly cerebrally stimulating to have to take in all that musical information again! It's also refreshing to just sit down and get lost in the process of practicing piano. There's something so incredibly satisfying about it. It's so difficult, technical, and coordination-based in ways the horn is not. And unlike the horn, which is a "social" instrument (there are very few pieces that stand with just horn alone, whereas you can play an entire piece without accompaniment on the piano), the piano is wonderfully independent. I love that.

Anyway, that's all (hell, that's enough!) for now! Thanks, as always, for indulging me! ;)

Catching up on goings-on

Man, there has been so much happening and I haven't blogged about it at all. Ugh! I feel SO blogstipated! :) (Ha ha, the blogger spellcheck doesn't like that word!) I think that's because there's been so much I've wanted to blog about, so I wanted a big block of time to blog. (Would that be a large "blog" of time? har har)

But alas, that blog - er, block - of time somehow never happened.

So I'm going to do my best to give you the Reader's Digest version of what's been going on. (Incidentally, does anyone read Reader's Digest anywhere other than on the toilet? I ask because I don't think I've ever seen them anywhere else. They're always in the bathroom. Aren't they? I think RD knows this, which is why they put all those medication ads in there - because they know that timing is everything. If you spend enough time on the toilet to have a Reader's Digest collection in there, then maybe you need some of those medications.)

Sorry, tangent there. Anyway....what's been going on? Oh yeah. Here are just some random things that I kept forgetting to tell you that I'm finally remembering to now....

First of all, I must share with you one of the highlights of my summer. I was proud to have used an extra, formerly unused portion of my brain to outwit the neighborhood squirrels. That Masters degree finally came in handy. My Classic-era music history professor would be so proud. (Solely of himself and his own ability to spout off unintelligibly in Latin for paragraphs at a time, but that's not the point.)

This consisted of my glue-gunning several metal thumbtacks, business side up, on the roof of the old wooden birdhouse left by the previous owners of our house.

There hasn't been a single squirrel on it since! I sure told them where to take their nuts, didn't I? Didn't I? {**evil cackle**} The birdies are extremely happy and now can dine unmolested by flying rodents. The cats, indirectly, are also thrilled. They have a great view of the many birdies (Kitty HBO) through the big sliding glass doors that lead out to the deck.

We also had some gorgeous flowers come right out of our humble (and very low maintenance) garden. This was probably the most incredibly HUGE rose I think I've ever seen, and it came straight from the rosebush on our front walk which we inherited from the previous owners. I swear to whichever deity you want me to that we do nothing to maintain these roses. We try to remember to water them occasionally but that's it - we didn't even cut them back and winterize them last year (although we had a very mild winter last year so that could be why they didn't die). You can also see Black-Eyed Susans which Mimi (David's mom) gave to us from her garden. They transplanted extremely well and thrived. They were still flowering in late October!

Here's our fall table as its set now. Don't you love that little teapot light? That was a housewarming gift from my mom to us that she brought up in October when she came up to see my concerto solo. Isn't it adorable? Oh, those miniature roses are from our front walk too. They just grow like weeds, again without any maintenance from us! We love our rosebushes so much and find them so easy that we just bought and planted 3 more - two yellow peach-trimmed sweetheart rosebushes, and one fiesta jubilee pink. If they survive the winter, we will have 8 rosebushes in our garden next year! I have always heard awful stories about how much work roses are. We don't do anything to them except water them, and only when it's really hot and dry.

David bought pumpkins, but we never got around to carving them. It looks festive anyway, doesn't it? David likes to use them for pies and muffins and cooking. I was skeptical at first because most of the pumpkin baking I had done used canned pumpkin, but the real stuff is really good too.

And if you look really closely, one of the little orange candles is a cute little candy-corn candle (candle corn?) that my sis-in-law, Pamela, gave us for Halloween. We love it and think it's so festive!

Here's a cute picture of my mom and me when she came up in October...she bought the flowers for me as a soloist gift, and arranged them herself! Beautifully, don't you think?

There's definitely more to tell, but I'll divide the topics into separate posts so as not to be too unwieldy in my entries! Hope you are all having a lovely autumn-into-winter, and that you and yours are happy, healthy, and well. XO

Green Bay Review

Hey all...it appears I can now add to my press quotes if I ever want to have a "press package" - here's the review from my Morceau de Concert performance in Green Bay, the last performance and the one my mom was able to attend! I was so happy she flew out to see us for a weekend and hear the concert.

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Posted October 16, 2006

Milwaukee Symphony shines for Civic Music Association
By Warren Gerds wgerds@greenbaypressgazette.com

A festive encore piece sandwiched between two standing ovations capped the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday night at Ralph Holter Auditorium of Green Bay West High School.

Led by guest conductor Kelly Corcoran, the orchestra brought along a sure-fire popular program.

The combination of juicy music and fine playing propelled Brown County Civic Music Association to a lustrous start for its 80th anniversary season.

The list of favorites: The whirling "Slavonic Dance" No. 8 of Antonin Dvorak; the loving embrace of country of "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius; the scope of "Peer Gynt" from the visions of a sprite in "Morning Mood" to the flashing excitement of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg; and the rich, exotic, majestic tapestry of "Scheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The only non-"hit" piece, "Morceau de Concert, for Horn and Orchestra" by Camille Saint-Saens, provided the fuel for a player from the orchestra to step forward to solo proudly. Darcy Hamlin firmly maneuvered through the piece's demand for speed, softness and zest amid a sometimes-regal aura.

On the podium, Corcoran looked assured with a smooth conducting style that flashed dynamism when need be.

This was an important night for Civic Music in these ways:

The Milwaukee Symphony was the first full orchestra the arts group, made up of volunteers, has brought in since 1990. Civic Music wanted to start its season with a big splash, and did.

The special anniversary was marked on stage by Amy Kocha, president, reading the names of all the group's presidents. Surviving presidents rose in the audience. (One, Don Poh, recalled being present in the 1960s at a national convention at which the Milwaukee Symphony was named the nation's 22nd major symphony when its budget passed $1 million and its first road trip was to Green Bay to play for Civic Music).

The printed program included a four-page history of the organization as a "grassroots phenomenon." Knots of dutiful volunteers engaged such famed performers as Isaac Stern, Ferrante & Teicher, Richard Tucker, Birgit Nilsson, Roberta Peters, Lili Kraus, Dale Warland Singers, Leon Bates, the Tokyo String Quartet and Lilya Zilberstein (returning March 13).

Many of the names appeared again on display boards placed in West's cafeteria, where a reception was held after the concert. Pictures, programs and newspaper clippings filled the boards. The May 27, 1927, Green Bay Press-Gazette is of note. The main headline of the day was of a momentous event: "Lindbergh Wings His Way to Paris." At the top of the page: "Today is your last chance to join Civic Music Ass'n."

Saturday, the Milwaukee Symphony added another glint of glory to what Civic Music has accomplished.

Gem Of The Ocean

On Tuesday night, went to see the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's production of August Wilson's Gem Of The Ocean, which moved me more deeply than any other play I've ever seen. I cried and cried and kept crying as I left the theater. I told David I want to keep subscribing to this incredible group's productions - I felt honored to have been touched and moved so deeply. That's when you know you're in the presence of great art. What a talent August Wilson is as a writer, to know humanity as deeply as he did and to be able to convey it so vividly. And this is the 3rd season David and I have subscribed to the Milwaukee Rep, and we've yet to be to a production they did that we didn't think was spectacular (even if we didn't like the play itself).

I've pasted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's review here. If you live in or near Milwaukee you should really consider going!

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Rep proves 'Gem's' transcendence
Wilson's achievement grows with time
By DAMIEN JAQUES
Journal Sentinel theater critic
Posted: Oct. 21, 2006

The passage of time burnishes a great play, giving us perspective on the dimensions of the accomplishment and placing the piece in the context of its peers.

Lanise Antoine Shelley and Shane Taylor appear in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's production of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean."

Move over "Death of a Salesman," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Room must be made for "Gem of the Ocean," which three years into its life has emerged as a transcendent contribution to serious American culture.

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater on Friday night opened a production worthy of the play and its lofty place on the theatrical landscape.

"Gem of the Ocean" is part of August Wilson's unparalleled 10-play cycle that reflects the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. The playwright died last year, shortly after completing the largest and most important project in American theater history.
Wilson did not follow chronological order in creating his series, and although "Gem" was the ninth piece written, it is set in 1904. The location is Pittsburgh, the dramatist's hometown, and black people nationwide are grappling with a cruel reality.

Slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation 41 years earlier, but legal bondage has been replaced by a malevolent web of trickery, intimidation and manipulation of the law. The goal is to keep African-Americans poor and powerless.

Freedom has included so many hurdles and hardships, a few former slaves have even wondered if Lincoln did them any favors. Simple survival is a challenge for black folks.

History may frame all of Wilson's work, but he created soaring theatricality within the borders. His characters speak with the poetry of the black vernacular and burst with vivid life, dimension and humanity.

They tell phenomenal stories that sometimes wander beyond realism but never fail to engage the audience. At times, the plays seem to be floating on clouds of lyricism.

In the more than 20 years he spent working on his series, Wilson wrote with increasing insight and wisdom into not only the racial conflict that torments this country but the human traits we all share. His plays have become rich tapestries of American history that resonate with black suffering while offering whites a deeper understanding of how we got to where we are.

All of this has been accomplished with considerable humor that is as organic as it is entertaining.
"Gem" possesses a mythic, epic texture with biblical overtones and a spiritual underpinning. The play's title is the name of the model-sized boat a troubled young man, only weeks removed from the South, takes to the City of Bones, a place of death and rebirth.

Citizen Barlow, the young man, is burning with guilt over his indirect culpability in the death of another, and the journey is his quest to wash his soul. The person who sends him is Aunt Ester, an African sage and prophet who has been a previously unseen presence in several of Wilson's other works.

Ester presides over the rooming house that serves as the play's setting. She has had four husbands and lived 285 years but remains physically spry and intellectually quick. The woman is 20th-century African-Americans' link to the accumulated wisdom of their African ancestry, and her calm, confident presence is a beacon of hope and strength for blacks in Pittsburgh and beyond.

Those powers are tested as several people involved in a rising wave of civil unrest in Pittsburgh come through the doors of the rooming house. Black frustration boils over in the streets and threatens the tranquil order inside.

The Rep's closely knit production, under the direction of Timothy Douglas, is a study in effective ensemble acting. Stephanie Berry's portrait of Ester is grounded in a wonderfully authentic earthiness that builds her stature as it establishes her humanity. Shane Taylor possesses a searing intensity in his depiction of the distressed Barlow.

Ray Anthony Thomas' portrayal of an African-American cop obsessed with following the letter of the law is notable for its ferocity and the actor's fearlessness in sculpting a complex, unlikable character.

Doug Brown, Lanise Antoine Shelley and Peter Silbert handle supporting roles with deftness and credibility. Ernest Perry, Jr. delivers ample charm playing Solly Two Kings, a sexagenarian rebel with a colorful and courageous past. But he needs to show us more fire to back up his actions.

"Gem of the Ocean" continues through Nov. 19 in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater at the Baker Theater Complex, 108 E. Wells St. Tickets are on sale at the Rep's box office in the complex's lobby, by phone at (414) 224-9490, and online at www.milwaukeerep.com.