Looking back at the last month, although my “plate overfloweth” in so many ways, there were such unforgettable and momentous events that it seemed to fly by, like watching a most beautiful bird…
At our final stop on our Knights “L’histoire” tour, we joined the brilliant John Heginbotham and a few of his Dartmouth dancers in a flash mob at the Baker-Berry Library in a choreographed (yep, us musicians too!) performance of Stockhausen/Shaw’s “Leo.” From wearing music on our backs to crouching down on hands and knees, it was an interruptive moment for the ages!
I closed out October with some of my new favorite violinists and fiddlers; director Rick Manning put together the inaugural Ithaca Fiddle & Improv Workshop, which brought together violinists from all walks of the musical world. Sara Caswell, a jazz genius, Duncan Wickel, a bluegrass, old time, and rock shredder, Joe d’Esposito, a chopping wizard, Susan Waterbury, my fabulous “sister from the other hill” and professor of violin at Ithaca College, and I made up the faculty for the workshop that ushered students through sessions in classical ornamentation, bluegrass tune-learnin’, bebop riffs, old time bowing techniques, practice techniques, and perfecting the chop. We closed out the weekend with a down-home fly-by-the-seat show at the Carriage House that featured folk music from Bartok to Bill Monroe…
There aren’t many words I could find to express the sheer beauty of autumn in Ithaca; grateful for the Indian summer we just had and taking in the glory of the walk to my office along the Cornell Arts Quad…
And the album is DONE! After nearly a year, I am a bit delirious and rather excited to announce that my first solo album, Routes of Evanescence: Music for Solo Violin & Violin + 1 is ready to drop! My brilliant engineer and producer, Leszek Wojcik and I worked on the final edits as I completed the album artwork and liner notes — and here we go! Pre-release begins 11/22 in Ithaca, and the album release tour continues to the Twin Cities and NYC on 12/6 and 12/17, respectively…
