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A week ago Saturday,  I had the opportunity to experience 'polar opposites' in the world of opera ....  two productions that could not have been more drastically different from each other.   And spoiler alert: I loved them both .... which only underscores one reason why I love opera so much:  because it is an art

The motto of the United States Marine Corps is "The Few, The Proud," and at the moment that seems like a very apt motto for Carthage's Opera Workshop as well.  For a combination of reasons, there are only two students enrolled this semester in  workshop - a situation which nearly led to workshop being cancelled. 

The renowned singer Jessye Norman passed away on September 30th of this year.   In her fascinating memoir Stand Up Straight and Sing she says something about how much she loved the month of September- in part because it was the month in which she was born, and also because September is also a time when

I am thinking today about Ellie, our first golden retriever, who came into our lives back in 2003 - was an irreplaceable part of our home for 15 years - and then left us on August 23, 2018 ... one year ago today. In some ways, it is a sad anniversary - because it's the

As I am sitting down to write this, it is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock.  I've been able to record interviews with four different people who attended Woodstock,  and one theme which came up repeatedly in those conversations was how profoundly important music was to people in those unsettling and even frightening times.  Whether you

His name was Ralph Houghton - and it is impossible to talk about the marvelous music program of the Kenosha public schools without talking about this incredible man.  In that rich history, he looms as a colossus - even though physically he was fairly short and completely ordinary-looking guy.   But in all of the ways

There is no way to count the number of musicals that I have experienced over the course of my life ... between the shows I have directed, the shows for which I have played piano, and the shows I have seen as a plain old audience member.  The thought of trying to calculate the number

The May 12th Chicago Tribune had a wonderful Mother's Day essay by Heidi Stevens that included these perceptive words:     "I know mothering is wonderful and exhausting, gratifying and soul-crushing, electrifying and tedious.  I know it is not for everyone."   As I read those words a second time, it occurred to me that they apply

Highlights from this past Saturday's State Solo & Ensemble competition at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where I had to play (or maybe I should say 'where I had the pleasure of playing') for 28 different events . . .  a busy State for me although far from my busiest.  It was just busy enough to