This past weekend was piled high with fun, thanks to the synod assembly for which I did music, the final performance of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, for which I was music director and accompanist, and the final Sunday for Pastor Steve Samuelson, our interim pastor at Holy Communion. But on top of all that was the
It was my wife who first noticed it - the For Sale sign in the empty lot across the street from our house. It just appeared one day, like a toadstool springing up in the middle of the yard after a rainy night - and I think Kathy had to take a second look to
It’s interesting how life can be long on fun even if it’s short on free time. The first part of my summer has not been exactly leisurely, thanks to a double dose of rehearsals. As usual, I am busy rehearsing the summer musical at the Racine Theater Guild, which this year is the delightful two-
One of the best things about my recent trip to NYC is that it afforded me the chance to rendezvous with my brother Steve, his partner Scott, and their son Henry - who are living and thriving in the great city of Philadelphia... a neat place for them to be but nearly as faraway from
Before I start this story, I want to say that Kathy’s dad is just fine - he’s home - and at this rate is likely to outlive all of us. But Thursday evening, we had to take him to the ER at All Saints when he suffered a spell involving his esophagus. It’s something that
Back to NYC. . . One fun aspect of visiting the greatest city in the world is that it gives us a chance to meet up with a friend formerly of Racine who is now a busy and much-admired orchestral musician in New York City. Justin Smith grew up at Holy Communion, the son of
At the risk of whiplash, I have to interrupt my Tales from the Big Apple to talk about the extraordinary concert which happened at Carthage tonight- when one of the finest music groups in the world performed in Siebert Chapel. And it was free. Free. The story actually begins back on May 31st, just as
Sunday morning, May 29th, about 9:00, I should have been sitting in a church pew someplace in NYC, reveling in the rare opportunity to be a regular worshipper rather than a musician “on duty.” (Not that Manhattan is exactly dotted with churches to choose from, but St. Patrick’s Cathedral would have sufficed very nicely.) But
Carnegie Hall was the high point of our long weekend in New York City, but there were other amazing high points. One of them was the incredible play which Kathy and I saw Friday night titled . . . get this . . . The M**********r with the Hat. I’m using more asterisks than they
Tomorrow marks the two-week anniversary of the first time I walked out on to the stage of Carnegie Hall, one of the most beautiful and important concert halls in the entire world. Before that, I had actually only been inside the building on one previous occasion, several years earlier, when Kathy and I (along with
