When I walked into the choir room at Holy Communion tonight, I nearly fainted dead away, thanks to the quite unexpected sight of a beautiful Baldwin Grand Piano sitting where a banged up old upright piano had been as recently as Sunday. The piano was not entirely a surprise; several month ago my friend Eric
It’s not exactly a secret that I have a thing for bright colors. Take a quick peek at my office at Carthage (I recommend wearing sunglasses when you do) and you’ll know what I mean. And that’s why I got so excited a few weeks ago when I saw a brightly spangled flyer for something
Opera is a little like Eggplant. It is out of the ordinary. It is an acquired taste that some people acquire while others never do. And here’s the most striking parallel of all: a lot of people who dislike it in fact have never actually tried it. (I have to admit to falling into that
One of the weirdest things about being 50 in the year 2010 is that I spent most of my life in the analog world, in which phones had to be connected to the wall with a cord - and the notion of a “picture phone” or “video phone” was an exciting possibility far off in
Yesterday over the noon hour, an perfectly normal-looking young man (dressed in jeans and a simple shirt) strode into Siebert Chapel, sat down at one of our Steinways, and lit the place on fire with some absolutely dazzling piano playing that . . . frankly, I can’t even put into words how exciting his performance
I am grappling for the right words to describe an absolutely astonishing turn of events which overtook me this afternoon. Strangely, the first words that come to mind are “a house fell on me today” - which doesn’t sound all that pleasant - but honestly that’s kind of how it felt. That’s how shocking and
I had a date with Sibelius tonight! No, I don’t mean the famous Finnish composer of “Finlandia” and “Swan of Tuonela.” (That would have been quite a trick, since he died in 1957.) No, the date was actually with a neat computer program called Sibelius which- among other things- is set up to transcribe the
After last weekend’s adventure with my faculty recital, I was only too pleased to spend this weekend as a happy audience member in a series of three performances that I’m calling the Three Home Runs. It all started with a Friday night recital by Trio Levade, featuring the head of Carthage’s keyboard department, Jane Livingston.
If I was flying high this past Sunday, in the wake of my voice recital, I was brought back down to earth Monday morning, thanks to a doctor’s appointment and a pair of numbers that were dropped on my head like two bowling balls: my blood pressure numbers. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure
For 19 years now, Greg and Kathy Berg have been a package deal, and last night we spent a happy if low-key dinner at our neighborhood Olive Garden celebrating that milestone. We had talked about fancier options, but frankly we were both too tired from our big weekend to generate very much enthusiasm for that,
