Home to find the Shire bathed in sunlight and still buried in snow. Three days home and yet another winter storm howls and screams at my north windows. It’s mid-march. I don’t feel in any way inclined to take pictures of this weather. But oh my studio is warm warm. Full of echoes left from … More The Sweet Ouch
One month: Corelli to Handel to Brahms and Faure to Jensen to Patootie to sereda to Kurt Cobain via Drew Wright. In between some work re-arranging songs by JTaylor, Norah Jones, Kris Delmhorst and other specials for cello and voice. Or just cello, or just voice. And thumb piano (note to self: revive and nourish … More Lip service
Yesterday was requiem day as I worked in the studio, which seemed fitting, somehow. Every layer of grief and joy is expressed and exposed in them – the Mozart, the Brahms, the Faure, the Rutter. Outside my windows there raged a storm that tore hydro lines and uprooted trees – for a while my phone … More Saturday morning, 4am
My studio is new and beloved. The paintings, the sewings, the drawings and the music have all surged ahead after long weeks and months of stasis. Patient, faithful and still, they have all waited like the good friends they are, for my return. Ahhh. So rich. Bathed in sunlight I stand at one of my … More sunlight, & ee
Even the loud old fridge is drowned out by straight-down-rain. Not sheets and thunder and driving – but a rain that will drench us for days, soaking the soil, swelling the creeks, rising the shoreline of Georgian Bay above the sad sorry rocks that appeared this spring, covering their nakedness once again. It is 12 … More The deep rain
I look forward to this shift to Schedule every year – a good time to set clear intentions. Here goes 2012-2013, Part 1: 1. I will learn the Brahms by March. 2. I will learn the Faure by December, tape a performance and send it down to Guelph, for application as a Suzuki teacher up … More Through the gate, I think.
I’ve seen it time and again, but it never fails to restore my faith in humanity: if you gather smart, hardworking teens together under a conductor every week with their chosen instruments and good music to play, magical things happen. Add 40 degree heat inside the church, a six-week hiatus from playing and a good … More I LOVE our Youth Orchestra.
