Prokofiev on Prokofiev

Serge Prokofiev, writing about the Fifth Piano Concerto in his Autobiography-   If we discount the Fourth Concerto for left hand, more than ten years had passed since I had written a piano concerto. Since then my conception of the treatment of this form had changed...

A week to remember or forget?

What a week it has been. It’s Friday afternoon here at Vftp Headquarters, the first moment of relative peace and quiet I’ve had in what seems like a long time. This little respite is squeezed between the Ensemble Epomeo concert last night and the HSO concert tomorrow....

On being a musician

You’re not here to become an entertainer, and you don’t have to sell yourself. The truth is you don’t have anything to sell; being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used Chevies. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a...

11 hours at Vftp Headquarters

Well, I made it to my SMP rehearsal yesterday after a long flight from Seattle to Heathrow. What is it with men and their elbows on flights? The guy next to be seemed to have no idea that the space on my side of the arm rest was for my body, not his damn elbows....

Mahler 5- on the way home

No time for a proper blog here at Seattle Airport, and in all honesty, I think it’s too soon to try to sum up such a memorable, exciting and exhausting weekend. I was so glad that Pendleton came out and supported us for this concert- our best crowd in a long time, and...

Mahler 5 pre-concert thoughts

It’s the morning of our Mahler 5 concert, and, predictably, I’ve been too busy to blog for the last few days as we’ve been putting the program together. We had a good dress rehearsal last night, and I think we’re in good shape for the performance. It’s always...

Kenneth Harper

Last weekend Suzanne and I learned of the passing of a wonderful friend and musician, the bassist Kenneth Harper, who had been fighting a heroic battle with cancer for some time. Ken was only 45- the loving father of a beautiful son, Bennett, and husband of one of my...