Recently I attended a memorial service, a beautiful service for a man I didn’t know. That was my loss. He was dear to all present, had died suddenly and too young, and I wish I had known him. I knew his widow but a little; we had sung together in a choir. On this day,...
. . . I love all waste And solitary places; where we taste The pleasure of believing what we see Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be. (Shelley, Julian and Maddalo) Before a concert on the campus of what used to be called Northwestern College, in St. Paul,...
How one American embraced, forsook, embraced, forsook, and ultimately EMBRACED… …the tonal processes that drive us all! Sylvester Stallone is cast against type as the mild-mannered Copland. With Harvey Keitel as the inscrutable Roger Sessions, and as Nadia Boulanger…...
Clarinetist Michael Collins and pianist Michael McHale will give the second of two recitals at the Ordway Concert Hall in Saint Paul tonight. It’s the first clarinet recital on the Schubert Club International Artist Series, and it’s a doozy: four sonatas and two...
I entered the party on eagles’ wings. A noted Constitutional originalist had received the ultimate justice that awaits us all. But a disapproving look from my more judicious friend Haley quickly brought me back to earth. After all, who am I to enjoy the demise of...
As I was hauling groceries to my car, I passed a small, over-bent woman pushing a vertical cart—inches at a time—away from the store into the vastness of the lot. She hesitated, poised as if ready to dive from a great height. I turned back, asking if she needed help....
I am a latecomer to the piano and to piano chamber music, but that hasn’t diminished my zeal. After years of playing in brass quintets and singing in choirs, I’m exploring the challenges of anchoring a piano-string chamber ensemble. I’m also a big fan of little...
I come from New York, but Upstate. Only after living in Saint Paul, Minn. did I realize that my hometown of Rochester, N.Y.—which was first nicknamed “The Flour City,” then “The Flower City” when the mills moved west—was essentially a...
We lost Alan Rickman yesterday. The younger generation knows him as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, but he was a subtle and versatile actor, equally adept at playing characters or leads. His deep voice, warm with affection or dripping with malice, was perhaps...
When I heard of Pierre Boulez’s death the other day, I realized that I had already begun to forget him—Boulez the composer, that is; his recordings as a conductor are everywhere. Boulez once figured ever so slightly in my musical geography. I’ve lived in four cities,...
I’m remembering Thelma Hunter today, listening to her CD, Reflections: The Music of my Life. She’s slithering through the sometimes twisted dream-figurations of Chopin’s hypnotic Berceuse, motoring in high gear to Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Rejoice, Beloved...
