New day ... new year!
Preparing for upcoming performances and revisiting old musical friends (Liszt Second Concerto, Schumann Symphonic Etudes, other solo works by Liszt). Thrilling!
Performances with The Florida Orchestra Wednesday and Thursday, preparing JSO/Opera production of Donizetti's "Elixir of Love" in late January with performance early February.
Have thoroughly enjoyed college football bowl games this season - but now time to get back to "reality."
Hoping your life and work in 2011 is productive and good.
All the best!
SW
Jeez ... don't we all feel as if we're jumping through endless hoops to achieve what somebody else prescribes?
Enough!
... if only it was that easy. hahaaha... NOTHING is ever as easy as it should be.
Shell games are easy when compared to the hoops one jumps through just to maintain the "status quo."
My Mom, who has, admittedly, had a very hard life, and is understandaby bitter and disillusioned and cynical likes to say: "shit in one hand and wish in the other - then look to see which hand is full." Bitter reality. Her message? easy: You can't count on a wish. Thanks, Mom.
You also can't count on hard work to get you anywhere - or anything. "No good deed goes unpunished." That's not just a cynical saying - it's actually true - and I've experienced it.
It's just the way things are.
Jacksonville University hosted the Florida State Music Teachers' Association Concerto, Young Collegiate, and Ensemble competition today. It was a long, challenging day with unexpected rewards.
First, the level of playing by the young artists was astounding. Enviable fearlessness of youth!
... and then I met Maria Gomez. Oh, if you live in the Miami area you might recognize the name. It's a name I will never forget. I had to struggle to fight back tears as I told her how profoundly impressed I was with her student's performance of the first movement of Chopin's E minor Piano Concerto. ... her FOURTEEN YEAR OLD STUDENT'S performance. This young artist, a kid!, played with a sensitivity, a maturity, a command that most people who profess to have these qualities in spades can only dream of.
And best of all, Ms. Gomez is an unassuming, soft-spoken, kind and gentle teacher. I enjoyed watching her listen to her student - flying with each phrase, shaking her head at those powerful [...]
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... a dear friend who was grabbed by her devotion and sincerity and humanity and thumped around like a straw broom. Shameful.
High ground is reserved for but a few.
Perhaps James D. Miles said it best: "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
Some really great piano playing today from my class of students. Kudos (profound Kudos, actually) to Prof. Hubert's class, too. What a thrill!!!