This photograph captures my wife in a restful moment on Thanksgiving Day (that’s her dad she’s leaning on) - but I’m afraid she’s not going to have too many moments like this in the next few weeks. Not with Carnegie Hall in her future! Yes, Kathy is going to be singing a solo recital at
We are on the brink of yet another Carthage Christmas Festival, which means that all of us involved in the program (I refuse to call it a “show,” although quite a few people involved with it gravitate to that term) are working up quite a sweat. . . both from expending of considerable effort plus
A few weeks ago, Indian Trails High School in Kenosha dedicated their spectacular new auditorium (complete with Fazioli grand piano) with a concert that finished up with a piece I composed for the occasion, “Most Alive.” A couple of people who were there asked me if I could somehow share my words of introduction on
Has the world seemed just a little bit dimmer over the last few days? It might be because of the recent death of an incredibly joyous, vibrant and loving young woman named Michele Smetana, whose funeral was today. You can perhaps tell from the photo that she had Down’s Syndrome. I almost typed that she
Back in the mid 90’s, the Carthage music department hosted a gifted and charismatic composer and arranger named Alice Parker, who was probably most famous as the composer and arranger-in-residence of the Robert Shaw Chorale for many years. The music faculty took turns taking her out for dinner, and Kathy and I took her to
Just call me Mr. November. I have just made my calendar debut, although I hasten to add (as if such clarification were necessary) that it’s certainly not one of those beefcake calendars with a succession of shirtless New York City firefighters or anything of the sort. (A Greg Berg beefcake calendar would prompt some spectacular
The appointed Gospel lesson for most Lutheran churches for today is a well-known passage from the 25th chapter of Matthew which says that someday Jesus will return to earth and will separate people into two groups like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. And the dividing line is between those who gave
I shared a teary moment earlier this week with one of my dearest voice students, Andrew Johnson - whose time at Carthage is finally drawing to a close after almost a decade. (He started out as an instrumental major but at some point decided / discovered that he would be happier as a singer... and
There was a fire last night at Carthage. Sort of. What I really mean to say is that some young musicians were ON FIRE last night in the second performance of our fall opera workshop, devoted to composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The first performance, Saturday afternoon, was impressive but in a rather tense, “whew, we
Last weekend was the annual Wisconsin NATS competition, when talented collegiate singers from nearly all of the colleges and universities across the state (plus a few gifted high school singers as well) come together in a spirited competition. And this year, for the first time in several years, I was not busy playing piano for
