Things that move….

I’m in the midst of the busiest schedule of my life in Lake Placid and in Syracuse, with 3 (this week 5) concerts a week till mid August, but that doesn’t mean there is no time to be moved….just not much time to write about it!  Yesterday something struck me and a friend shared with me a clip that reminded me just how we can through music both move and be moved, I also kind of broke an unwritten rule….

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Is CPR Necessary For A Revival?

When last we saw our intrepid Porgy folk we were sneaking up on the Gale, the general dress rehearsal.  Or, truth be told, perhaps the Gale was sneaking up on us.  This is where the old expression “canary in a coal mine” starts to seem prophetic.

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What The Hell Were They Thinking?

It’s Bastille Day.  We have our General Dress rehearsal tonight for Porgy.  Tomorrow I travel to Valence to see the 11th stage of the Tour de France.  With all that going on why, you may ask, is my mind a thousand miles away?

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We are for Profit…aren’t we?…..

I am up here in Lake Placid  for 6 weeks of concerts in the glorious Adirondacks with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta.  Something is really bothering me, even though I am here in paradise.  The words not-for-profit have such a negative connotation.  I know it’s a widely used categorical description but it’s not accurate in the figurative sense and unfortunately on so many occasions when an orchestra’s financial situation is akin to a house on fire often the solution offered is to not to douse the flames, but to destroy the house!….

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The Aix Man Cometh…….

Normally when I’m is hired to do concerts with, say, the Lower Podunk Symphony Orchestra, I start looking on Expedia for cheap tickets to Lower Podunk.  After all, one expects to rehearse said orchestra where said orchestra resides.  Which begs the question – why, then, if I’m doing an opera with the Opera Lyon company am I in Aix-en-Povence?  

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