The splendor is entirely alluring, the scenery seemingly impossible. Each time I arrive in these places, cresting over a hill – whether on a mountain hike, training run, or evening drive – to take in the gold, cranberry, and cyprus, it feels hardly real, as though I’m inside a postcard.
This summer brought me to some old favorite corners of the world as well as some new; projects, festivals, tours, and a bit of family time kept me happily on my toes, grateful more each day that I do what I love for a living…
Since we last left off, life has been full, with many notes in the fingers and lactic acid buildup in the legs (training for my first half-marathon!), and too many wonderful moments to count. The late spring brought some special Knights projects, the first spearheaded by Kristi Helberg where we partnered with Rehabilitation Through the Arts to pair off one-on-one with artists recently released from incarceration, exchanging the inspiration behind our craft. A return to Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with brother Dan-Dan with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra and collabs with my favorite pianists Roger Moseley and Ieva Jokubaviciute gave way to a recital in Mexico at the stunning Rancho La Puerta with Pei-Chun Tsai and some bluegrass shows at Triphammer Arts with my fiddlin’ buddies at String Theory.
An Italy-Sweden trip was a perfect work-and-play moment: planning meetings with the festival team in Tuscany, then museums, bookstores, and restaurants while meeting my new niece in Gothenburg. As the half-marathon training ramped up (man, those long runs take so much time!) I headed out on my usual summer journeys at the Crowden Music Center, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra Workshop, Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute, and my beloved festival Paesaggi Musicali Toscani out in the Val d’Orcia. I fell in love with a deeply personal memoir by Shirin Azari, telling the story of fleeing war in Iran to settle in Scandinavia – a recommendation for certain, Once Upon a Time in Uppsala. And a continued love for all things Food Network supported by a discounted yearly subscription kept me company while cooking in the margins…
A freakishly cool project with The Knights and Chris Thile had its inauguration at Tanglewood this summer, where the late summer humidity in Ozawa Hall was like putting sticky tack on our fingerboards, and just a month or two later was cutting a record with the one and only Yo-Yo. Not a bad lineup. Those guys are alright. How are they so wickedly talented, sheer genius on their instruments? A camping/hiking trip to the heart of the Adirondacks with my sweetheart captured the last gorgeous weekend of early autumn, where I attempted to make a full chuseok meal to honor the Korean Harvest Moon in the “middle” country…
An agonizing lost luggage situation in Italy (though a good excuse to have to go shopping in Florence), lots of playing house (co-habitating makes for plenty of furniture building), new fabulous students in my studio at Cornell, and still more running rounded out the early fall, and here we are…
When the world seems to be coming apart at every seam, my heart breaks everyday for those who are living through a nightmare, and I gain even more gratitude for my life, which so often allows me to feel like I get to live in a postcard.
And as always, the pics…
Oh yeah, and this happened =)
