KCYO ’08- the first rehearsal

I began my third visit to the Kent County Youth Orchestra very aware of how much had changed since I last saw them. I still remember driving in for my first rehearsal at the now-defunct Bedgebury School- a huge, idyllic campus catering to the likes of Peaches Geldof....

Return to KCYO….

My late summer staycation (a word I had never heard before this year which is now everywhere, and will no doubt hopelessly date a forgetable blog post) comes to an end this week. Tomorrow morning, we are heady to Kent, where I will be spending my next week conducting...

Back in Bloch

I was so glad to discover this post on Ernest Bloch today at On An Overgrown Path. Although, especially with the Schubert C Major Quintet (right up there with the Matthew Passion of Bach for greatest achievement of any kind  by any human being in history in my book),...

The problem with the piano trio

I spent a chunk of my afternoon today looking at the cello part for the Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D minor,  a piece I last played in 1997 (yikes!). Back in the day, I played in two different piano trios that lasted long enough to feel like groups and not one-offs....