Kathy and I were in Madison this past Thursday for the state teacher’s convention.... and although I enjoyed having lunch with my dad and Nathan, and Kathy attended a couple of fairly interesting presentations, there was no question that what made the trip worth it were the two magnificent performances that we attended. The first
This past Sunday was the day I attended the Milwaukee Florentine Opera for the world premiere of “Rio de Sangre,” composed by Don Davis (most famous for scoring “The Matrix” and its sequels) . . . but I wasn’t attending it just for my own sake, but so I could write a review of it
I’m not sure who placed a gigantic bull’s eye on the south side of Racine, but for the second time in less than six months, we have been visited by a tornado. This one wasn’t quite as close to our house as this summer’s (which damaged homes eight blocks away from us) but it touched
I spent most of this past weekend up in the Twin Cities, at the request/invitation of Weston Noble, who was leading a special church choir workshop and wanted me on hand so they could sing my arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” Such an opportunity to make music with the great Weston Noble is not to be
Several years ago, someone at Carthage got the interesting idea of putting together a CD recording that would feature members of our music faculty performing an array of Lullabies. After some tentative first steps the project stalled, but this summer an email came from the head of the depart- ment, announcing that things would be
This is literally my 10th attempt at writing a few words about this morning’s church services at Holy Communion; the previous 9 attempts all fell woefully flat. Maybe this is one of those classic cases of “you had to be there” - but nevertheless, let me try one more time to describe it to those
The evening had gone swimmingly well. I spent a couple of hours at WGTD, registering nine of my voice students for NATS. (My mac at Carthage wouldn’t interact with the on-line application form properly, so I had to use my PC at the station) and that went better than I can ever remember. (A colleague
Dame Joan Sutherland, one of the world’s most famous and beloved opera singers - and my favorite opera singer - died yesterday at the age of 83. A friend of mine from church, Steve Smith, texted me at the radio station the instant he heard the news (which I deeply appreciated) and I in turn
For the last few days, I have been reading an absolutely amazing book called “Baby, We Were Meant For Each Other: In Praise of Adoption” by long-time NPR anchor Scott Simon. In it, he recounts the moving story of how he and his wife Caroline adopted two beautiful baby girls from China. Beyond that, he
Here are a few highlights from this weekend, which by my quick calculations had about two weeks worth of excitement packed into it. Friday, October 8th. . . I spent two happy hours on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, teaching my opera class to A.L.L. - Adventures in Lifelong Learning. The task at
