WMV Music Web Log

Yes, my life has changed since leaving NIH, a little like wading into a river. It is turbulent and exciting, and there have been some disappointments. Rejection from the Meyer Foundation, no response from NPR, lack of interest from Strathmore Hall, a cancelled concert at the Czech Embassy, the US postal service losing my postcard order (ironically), and somebody outbidding me on ebay for a piano (damn!). And it's only April. My brother reminds me that I've become a freelancer - that is, a musician hungry for any and all paying gigs; and that the iron rule of freelancing (at least for the first few years) is that you can never say no. On the other hand, I ran into Raycurt Johnson playing violin at the Woodley Park metro stop (fabulous acoustics!), and I felt like a member of the club. So things are turning up - a memorial service, two recording gigs, maybe another home concert or two. There are all kinds of new possibilities - I list them in my journal daily. I think about music to write, songs to arrange, solos to polish up, musicians to work with, composers to contact, venues to approach, letters to write, CDs to make, programs of every kind of music performed in every conceivable setting.

Next up, after a house concert with Karyn and Gary and poet Judith McCombs, a Brahms birthday program, on the very day of his 172nd birthday, May 7, 2005. At the studio, our most popular venue, with four wonderful singers, duo pianists (me and Ruth Rose), and the poems of our late friend Polly Craft, read by her daughters Helen and Sarah on the day before Mothers Day. Gary Poster has agreed to sing the Serious Songs, (his is the perfect voice) which will nicely balance out the Liebeslieder Waltzes; and Karyn Friedman and Elizabeth Kluegel will sing some of the lovely duets and some of the exquisitely beautiful lieder. This one feels very very right.