Great View!

Here's a picture I took on a recent hike to "The Pinnacle" on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. Just posting it as a reminder to relax and enjoy the view!

summer/time management

Well, all of my school-year students have wrapped up their lessons, and I only have a couple of students coming here and there over the summer... so I have tons of unstructured time ahead of me! This is definitely the first in a long time this has been the case for me (I was working as a part-time reference librarian the past couple of summers). I think though, that it's a lot harder for me to accomplish things when I don't have specific deadlines and goals. I'm trying to avoid the trap of wondering where all the time went... spending my time walking, gardening, and cooking with all the yummy fresh veggies of the summer. I have a few trips planned to visit family. I also have a handful of big piano projects I want to work on, but for the past couple of weeks at least I've been tending to garden and walk rather than go into the studio. My life-long pursuit, it seems is to find the ever-better way of organizing my time and tasks. Yes, this is the girl who turned in her Cornell application at 10 minutes to midnight the date it had to be postmarked... and friends who know me know that this has been a pervasive trait in my life... okay okay, I admit it, I finished a major grant application at the end of May, and drove it to the airport post office at 10 pm on a Saturday night so that it could be received on the deadline on Monday. The cool thing is that I wasn't taking the train into the city on Monday to hand-deliver it... I'm making progress! :-) Actually, I've made tremendous progress in the past I don't know how many years. Right now my office is completely clean, all my paper has places to go and I'm actually putting it in those places, and this past week I revamped my "Remember the Milk" task lists in a way that I think will really really work for me... I've been working towards this over the past year or so, getting better and better with each revamp... (check out the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen) ...did I mention my e-mail inbox is empty right now!!?? AND I have a method all set up for very easily recording follow-ups in my e-mail and transferring them over to my task list as needed? My goal is to keep this this way over the whole summer, so that I get into the piano studio more. Well, if it works, I'll write another blog post in 10 days, as it will show up on my task list then...

have a great week! go find a farmer's market!!

cm

Visit from David Nevue

David Nevue came to visit me last weekend! Several years ago David was brainstorming ways to promote his piano music, and decided to start an online radio station that played nothing but solo piano music-including a lot of his, of course. I was one of the very early artists that he contacted to include on the "Whisperings" broadcast, back in the days when it was funded almost entirely by David, supplemented by monthly contributions from "partner" artists. Well today that broadcast has over a million listeners (you can find it on iTunes and at www.solopianoradio.com) and the days of artists funding bandwidth are gone. But David didn't want to stop there, as part of his vision was to create a community of pianists collaborating online, learning from each others' experiences, and performing together--all of which has come to fruition in a great way!

In any case, David has been on the East Coast touring for Whisperings and his own shows, and he stayed at my house for a couple of nights last weekend. I and my friend hosted a house concert for him, and then later in the weekend he came to mine and Jody's monthly gig at Beans (the pic is from there). It was great to spend some time with David, and as a result of our visit I might start working on my own version of a couple of his pieces.

Overall, though, the weekend was really exhausting for me because on wednesday and thursday last week I was putting together all new Ikea furniture for my newly designed office (and changing my flat tire in the Ikea parking lot).

Then the weekend brought three concerts for myself. Saturday night last week Jody and played at PSALM in Philadelphia... and NO ONE came except our two spouses and my mother-in-law. At least that's all who were there when we started... another couple did come a bit later, and it was very nice to have them in our audience. Well, since it was a very casual audience, we decided to turn it into a recording session! Several of the songs turned out really great, and just in the nick of time, as I have a grant app due in a week and a half that I was really wanting some strong material of the duo for.

I've been working in the garden a lot this week.. transferred all my seedlings from the basement to the outdoors, and been planting meadow flowers and grasses. Today I took a "Digital Garden Photography" class at Longwood Gardens. I had a blast. Here's the pic of mine that the teacher liked the most. He even said if I had a body of work like this, I could get published. Add another goal to my list! :-) More pics will be posted on my website in the Misc Photos section. Check it out!

new herb spiral!

Here is my newly built herb spiral! I got the idea from a workshop at Edible Landscaping nursery in Afton, VA. I had 2.5 tons of rock delivered from a local quarry... I probably only used about 2/3 of that pile. I also used almost 1 cubic yard of mushroom compost (the county where I live calls itself the mushroom capital of the world). I have enough compost left over to put in a couple of large pots for a couple of tomato plants. It's a bit too early to plant herbs yet (we had frost this morning), but I have them growing in my Aerogarden and also under lights in my basement... my strawberry pot will go on the top little platform and maybe you can see my rosemary plant I transplanted already... it's a wee bit scraggly from the winter, but the roots are strong, and I think it will be very happy!

gardening and brand image

My life has been pretty busy the past couple of weeks or so... with really fun stuff... I got to visit my mom in Virginia and she sent me home with 20 some perennials from her garden that had needed dividing... I also bought a couple of cherry trees from Edible Landscaping and have been growing lots of seeds in my basement with my dad's light stand. My mom gave me an Aerogarden for my birthday and I have lots of fresh herbs starting to come up at my desk... I can't wait until they're big enough to harvest! The folks at Edible Landscaping got me interested in an herb spiral... which I had never heard of until I saw it on their website (look up herb spirals on google images for more info). Well, I fell in love with the idea, and a couple of weeks later I had 2.5 tons of rock and a cubic yard of mushroom compost dumped in my yard... and I've been busy building!! It's really coming along, and will probably be finished in the next few days. I will post pics when it's done. So... the herbs from my desk will have a place to go outside and be very happy I hope.

Last week I went to a great workshop in philadelphia with Ann Daly, sponsored by PennPAT (pennsylvania performing arts on tour). The morning was dedicated to brand image for performers, and the afternoon to time management/organizing for touring artists. I got a lot out of the day, and I thought it interesting that she stressed not trying to market to multiple audiences... to drop that idea once and for all... well, I was thinking that really applied to me... trying not to talk about relaxation albums separately from 'european jazz' and other edgier stuff I might play with Jody... but then I see she herself has a couple of different websites, one for her arts consulting and another for her life coaching... with different brand logos ... lol! I'll have to write to her and ask her her thoughts on that.

I also found it interesting that she was talking about trying to define your ideal audience--there was a indian classical musician in the workshop who said his music was for "people of all ages"... and she tried to get him to narrow that down a little... I think as a group we came up with "for seekers of all ages" as an example he might work with. I thought the conversation was interesting, but it didn't really hit home until that night I went to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert... and saw all the fans with tattoos, monster trucks, heavy boots, and casual dress... and I chuckled to myself and thought, well maybe this isn't my target audience for relaxation music... not to say there wouldn't be plenty of people at the concert who would love the music (hey, I was at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in my "artsy-funky" dress and my earplugs--probably not at all the target audience for that band... but I LOVED it!!)... but maybe the indian classical musician and I should focus our efforts on some other target audiences.

I'm playing in Raleigh in less than 2 weeks... and I really haven't kicked into high gear in my practice sessions yet, alas... I've been outside building herb spirals. I'm quite sure that I will get my butt moving, starting today... make that starting right now!

Icy Hiking Trip in PA

Here are some pictures I took from our first wedding anniversary trip to the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania" this past weekend.

feeling creative

So I've had a great weekend... we didn't have anything planned and the time got filled with last minute meetings with lots of different friends whom we hadn't seen in ages... it was so nice! On my free time outside of seeing friends, in the kitchen I made bean-walnut dip that turned out very yummy, a yummy casserole, and even broke out the ice cream maker from my mixer and made raspberry ice cream... way too much sugar, it turns out, for my taste, but it was a fun endeavor anyway, and hey I honestly like getting the sugar rush. I took some time yesterday to finally put together a collage of sorts that I've been meaning to do for ages... of some of my favorite post cards and greeting cards I've gotten over the years and cover a corkboard with them. I've always had these up in my office in some capacity.. at the credit card company they were pinned to my cubicle walls, and then in my various home offices they've been taped to the wall... so in this new house I finally decided to be a little more 'grown up' about it and pin them to a corkboard so as not to damage the walls (here's a pic I took super fast with my cell phone). Today I heard amazing Irish music at Longwood Gardens (for St. Patty's day!) and then had fun planting a bunch of seeds in my basement... I hope they grow! they're mostly herbs and flowers... with one little batch of tomatoes. They're hooked up with fluorescent bulbs and little plastic covers to maintain humidity... will keep you updated. To top it all off, when I get a chance, which has been pretty often more or less, I've been working on memorizing another Chopin nocturne. It's coming along pretty well, so hopefully soon I'll be able to enjoy playing it and be working on performing it...

rock on!

Over the past week or two I've ended up with a lot of classic rock in my surroundings... first of all, my hubby likes to put cds in the cd alarm clock, so lately we've had The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and I can't remember who else off the top of my head to wake up to in the morning.  It's definitely very cool to have "inherited" his cd collection through marriage!  Well, one of my students loves classic rock too, but all of the books he had were either piano/vocal/guitar arrangements where the piano part really was just accompaniment and didn't work very well for someone not singing along, or they were just way too complicated for his level.  So last weekend I spent a long time online searching for classic rock sheet music arranged for solo piano, and I found some good arrangements of 'house of the rising sun', 'magic carpet ride', 'roundabout' and a few others... got me having fun jamming on them on my piano before I passed them along!

Also last week, there was a posting on TAXI for covers of rock songs arranged into lullabies... the posting didn't say, but the way it was worded, I assume it was for the line of Rockabye Baby cds...  I was familiar with them because I had ordered several for our library in my reference librarian role.  It sounded like a lot of fun to try my hand at a couple, so I went out to the library and checked out 7 of the cds to get a feel for their line, and then I spent a solid couple of days with my keyboard hooked up to the computer, trying my hand at garageband and playing with all the cool synthesizer sounds on the keyboard... this was the first time I'd had the chance to really sit down and play with it... I had sooooo much fun!  I did some covers of the Police and Lenny Kravitz for my submission... who knows if it will pass muster for what they're looking for, but once again it was a deadline that got me moving and actually working on a cool project.   And, to top it all off, the next day Jody and I played at the Fuelhouse and because I had had all of these rock songs in my head and had been jamming on them... I'd say at least a third of our performance was dedicated to jamming on a '60s rock guitar' book... with perhaps the highlight being our avant-garde jazz rendition of "Inna-Gada-Davida"... LOL... it was just a little too much fun, so I'm thinking maybe that will show up again this weekend at our show at Beans...

on another note, the bulbs in my yard are about 3-4 inches high!!  spring is in the air!!!  :-)

Valentine's Day Dinner

So I decided to take an afternoon yesterday and make dinner for my sweetie for valentine's day. Here's a pic of dinner... the tofu heart recipe was from Vegetarian Times, and the pistachio yogurt peas recipe I found on the internet... It all turned out very yummy... ending with a low-fat chocolate cake complete with amaretto-apricot glaze I got from Mollie Katzen's Low Fat Moosewood cookbook (one of my most very favorite cookbooks!). The coolest part of all was that I already had almost all the ingredients... I had to run out for fresh peppers, eggplant and basil (which I felt a little guilty about buying the heart of winter...), but I had the tofu, peas, pistachios, yogurt, etc etc...

We have already bought our CSA share for veggies from a local farm throughout the upcoming growing season, and I think I'll be buying a fruit share from a local orchard as well... I can't wait until the fresh veggies start coming in!! I'm also going to try starting some veggies from seed in my basement this year... should be fun.

happy eating!
CM

music for people

This past Saturday I went to a Music for People workshop hosted by David Darling... it's a very wonderful organization that has people getting in touch with their 'inner child' and improvising on musical instruments... getting professionals side by side with people who have never touched musical instruments before... it's very moving to hear what comes out of people when they have their guards down!  I had been to several workshops a few years ago and found them to be extremely inspiring, but I hadn't been in a while... this past week I realized that I had the day free, and that the workshop was more or less in my backyard... so went on a spur of the moment.  It was very interesting to see where I was a few years later in my music creation self... lately I've been practicing so much classical music and I've been feeling a little stymied when it comes to improvising new music... Saturday was very cool though... some of the exercises of MFP feel a little corny for this very private person... but as the day progressed I relaxed into them more and more, and by the end of the evening, I actually performed a singing improv in front of the entire group... one that touched deep inside of me... The evening's "concert" was absolutely incredible... group after group of mystical and magical improvising groups... including several jaw-dropping amazing pianists.  It's not a light thing at all for me to say I did a singing improv... I think that may have been the first time in my life I ever did something of the sort.  David D. teaches that you should "sing what you play and play what you sing"... and the next day at Jody and my brunch gig at Beans, I found my improvs going in all kinds of amazing new directions, when I stopped THINKING... I even found myself singing along with River Dawn at one point... wowzas.   (as an aside, my ego event at the MFP day was a group session where we all spoke gibberish to each other... it just so happens that I've been speaking "Catherinese" my whole life, and gibberish comes extremely naturally to me... and one of the guys in the room proclaimed that I was a virtuoso at it... hee hee)

In any case, things are really looking up these days... I'm busy trying to coordinate a bunch of concerts later this year, and Jody and I are making plans to go back for more recording of our improvs... this time instead of Jody being in an isolation booth in the studio we are going to try a 'live' recording in an auditorium and maybe even make the sessions open to fans to come in and out so we can have an audience while we're playing.  I'm checking out a few options over the next few weeks, so I'll let you know!

Longwood Concert

Yesterday was my Longwood Gardens concert... it went really well... first time in a while that I was completely organized the night before for stuff I wanted to take to the merch table.  That morning I actually had time to make a huge breakfast--- eggs, grits, veggie sausage, toast... I almost made the biscuits too, but I figured maybe that was too ambitious.

So, I got to the Gardens at my appointed time... but I guess since I knew where I was going I jumped the gun a little and went straight to the music room without waiting for my concert attendant to meet up with me.  I ended up entering the building through a dark kitchen behind the ballroom, and feeling my way to the door, hoping it would lead me into the ballroom or music room... which it did!  I met up successfully with my attendant, but there was no tech assigned to my concert... and the piano was facing the wrong direction and the platform I had requested for my foot was waaay too high (the piano tuner had asked if a little kid would be performing!).  ... so we had to wait for a tech to show up and move the piano etc etc.... which I'm glad he was able to come because he also hooked up a microphone to broadcast my performances throughout the conservatory... cool!

My playing went really well, especially in the first program... I remembered to keep repeating my Alexander directions pretty much throughout the entire performance, which definitely kept me relaxed and feeling in complete control... my chopin nocturne went really well, despite the piano starting to roll in the middle of it... I think I may have slowed down a little at that point, but I was able to keep going without much more of a hitch... the first song was funny... I had planned to play The Dreams of Sarah... and had that in the program and even announced it before I started playing... then I put my hands on the keys and started playing and about 10-15 seconds in realized I was playing The Undershore instead!  whoops!  I went ahead and finished that song and then announced afterwards that fans in the audience may have noticed something awry...

The second performance also went quite well, although I think my announcements didn't flow quite as nicely and I had a memory slip in the Chopin near the end... I lost my Alexander directions for a split second and the thought went through my brain "I'm almost done!"  ... that was it... well I had several awkward measures... but thankfully it kept going and I was able to finish the piece beautifully, just the way I had imagined I would (practicing power of pre-concert positive thinking!)  This was the first time I had performed classical music from memory in something like 12 years or so... I'm really glad I am working on this, and am starting to prepare some Debussy to add to the next concert!  Someone asked me afterwards if I had any recordings of my Chopin playing... so that definitely may be a possibility for the future.

Probably the best compliment of all for the day was from my concert attendant... she said that normally in these concerts there is a lot of movement in the audience... people drifting in and out of the concert, listening for a little while and then continuing their strolls through the conservatory... but in both of my concerts, pretty much everyone sat through the entire concert, many with eyes closed.  What a neat feeling that all that hard work I've been pouring in the past few months brought some enjoyment in the afternoon!

Program for Sunday's Concert at Longwood Gardens

My concert at Longwood Gardens is this coming Sunday!  I finally put together the 'official' program.

Promises of Spring!

• The Dreams of Sarah/Bird's Flower:  CMC/CMC
• Reflection (from Winter into Spring)/The Asymptote:  George Winston/CMC
• die Sonne scheint, die Voegel singen...: CMC
• Nocturne, op. 27 no 2 in D flat Major:  Frederic Chopin
• Endless (from Changeless)/Moon Twist:  Keith Jarrett/CMC
• The Lonely Cobbler:  CMC
• Shenandoah:  American Folk Song
• Children's Song #4:  Chick Corea
• River Dawn:  CMC
• Springshine:  CMC

To get me in the mood even more, I get to hear David Lanz in concert tomorrow night.  And then, to top it all off, we get to hang out with Jody Janetta and his wife (2 of my most favorite people in the world) after my concert Sunday. Whooweee what a great weekend coming up.

Alexander Method for Kitties

I was doing an Alexander method "lie-down" this afternoon, and my kitty Basil joined me in front of the fireplace...

New Year New Schedule New...

Happy New Year everyone! I got a nasty cold over the holidays, but am finally starting to feel better (although I was better for a day or two and then relapsed into a brain fog...) Starting the new year out at a really cute coffeeshop, to get myself away from the house and working online a little bit. Speaking of coffee shops, Jody and I will be playing at Beans in Woodstown NJ every second sunday this year... so if you're in the Southern NJ/northern DE area, please stop by one of those days! Their Sunday brunch is simple yet fulfilling, and the atmosphere is really great.

I've been working steadily on my Chopin Nocturne in Db... I'll be playing it from memory at my Longwood Gardens concert on February 3. This is the first time in a very long time that I'll be performing classical music from memory; I've been working with a teacher who is helping me study memorization and performance-anxiety-reduction techniques. hint... a new one for me... never correct mistakes, even in the early learning phases... just keep on playing and train your brain to keep on going no matter what... you can fix the mistakes in the next go-round. but actually, you should be playing so slowly that mistakes are never allowed to happen in the first place.

I've left my part-time job as a reference librarian... I loved the job, but my life and new home is in a place now that I can teach piano more with a much shorter commute than I had going to the library... so this week is the first week I have all this time ahead of me... feels really great. Got the christmas decorations down last night and have plans to go out more like I am right now to get some work done away from all the household chores staring at me every time I want to take a break for a cup of tea or something.

better sign off now and get working on a grant application that's due on monday... whoops! the holidays really made that deadline sneak up on me!

happy new year!
cm

New Orleans wedding

I went to the wedding of my best friend from high school this past weekend. New Orleans was a lot of fun; I had been there for the first time with the same getting-married friend when we were 14 and 15 or so. We thought we were so cultured... when the room service guy came to our hotel room, one of us cooed from the other room "might you have a quarter, darling?" Doesn't quite come across the same way without the lilt in the voice.   The last time I was in the city was several years ago, and I managed to come down with the flu about the time my airplane landed... and then I thanked my hostess by giving her the flu after I left.  So, it had been a long time since I'd seen the city.  We had a lovely time taking a carriage ride in the French Quarter (I look a little too excited about those beignets in that picture), and took a stroll through the Garden district... all very touristy, but it was refreshing to have a touristy weekend... and then the wedding was very beautiful, with a full Catholic mass.  That's her brother that she's dancing with, btw.

George Winston sheet music!

George Winston has new sheet music book out! I got my copy in the mail yesterday, and I can't wait to start playing and improvising some of the music. I'm sure it will end up in some future CMC/JJJ shows. George Winston doesn't write any of his music down; this is all transcriptions of his recordings, and the first book of his music ever released in his 25+ year career. I was a little bummed that my favorite "Rain" wasn't in the book... that is one of the inspirations for my song "The Asymptote" on the Undershore album; in turn, George always says at his concerts that that was inspired by the music of Steve Reich. Lately, I've been working on my own version of Chick Corea's "Children's Song #4", that also uses the inspiration of interlocking melodies between the hands that generate a wash (or a 'rain') effect.

Pianist on Display

So, I had a very bizarre gig this past weekend. Longwood Gardens is rebuilding their pipe organ, and some 180 attendees of the national organ builders conference in Philadelphia took buses down to see the progress of the re-build. (1) The Longwood organ actually has a concert grand piano built in... I don't profess to understand exactly how it works, but it is this amazing Weber grand that's actually never been played by a live human before... the hammers and the sustain etc are all operated mechanically, inside the organ.

Well, they wanted the organ builders to hear and see what a beautiful instrument this piano is, so they asked me to come play it for a little while, while the tour bus folks were coming through. Overall, this was very fun, except I must admit the entire experience was very bizarre. They didn't want them all touching and playing the piano, so they put the piano and me behind velvet rope stanchions... and while I played, every one of the 'tourists' was looking at the piano from all angles... very closely, I might add. It was so disconcerting to have all of these observers on the other side of the velvet rope looking at me and the piano like a museum display! To top it off, the piano was rebuilt to have the machine operate the sustain... and they had to rig up a special sustain pedal just for the display. Well, it happened that the special pedal was further back than a regular pedal, and my legs wouldn't reach it, unless I scrunched up my arms in order to stretch out my toes. LOL... here I was trying my best to play beautifully all scrunched up and with everyone gawking... not to mention my being a just a bit nervous because I knew so many in the crowd were talented pianists/organists.

It all turned out great, and I got a couple of compliments on the Satie Gnossienne that I played. It was really was a very neat honor to be one of the only people to play this amazing piano! It dripped and oozed mellow beauty in every note.

(1) From the Longwood website:
"An extensive restoration is underway to return the 1929 Aeolian Organ to its original condition. Craftsmen will rebuild the wind chests and mechanisms, clean and re-voice the 10,010 pipes, and fit the organ with a new console and computer player."

butterfly on my shoulder

So this summer I finally had a chance to fly down and visit my cousin Jenny. She and I are very close in age and grew up like sisters. We had a few days of utter relaxation... nothing but movies, old episodes of Sex and the City, and board games. We did make it out of the house once or twice... we went to the butterfly house at the local science museum and got to watch them release the newly emerged butterflies into the freedom of the beautiful garden greenhouse. This guy was attracted to my shirt... same coloring! He promptly flew to my shoulder, and stayed there for a VERY long time. We didn't time it, but it was at least 5 or 10 minutes. I finally had to give him a little push to show him he was free to fly around. This kind of thing happened the only other time I went to a butterfly house... I had one stay on me for a long time. I guess they sense that I'm friendly and like butterflies? My friend Beth said that he must have thought I was one big butterfly! In any case, Jenny took this picture of the two of us, and it was the inspiration for the design of my new website...coming soon!

I have to listen to this stuff?

Well, my trio had a rehearsal yesterday. And I did the brave thing and recorded it. I hadn't really played piano since our last rehearsal 2 weeks before. I was feeling introspective, and wanting to play meditative ECM-new agey stuff... but I forced myself to practice some funk stuff. Which I'm not versed in. Yet. Now I'm listening to it... ugh. Yeah, there's some great stuff in there... in snippets and bits and pieces. Elliott and Jody sound great as always (but maybe they'd be critiquing themselves harder than I do if they heard it). Why on earth did I chose to repeat the same bass line over and over? Also doesn't help that the one mike was in the piano... so this repetitive stuff is rather unfortunately in the foreground.

But I guess this is the way to get better... to force yourself to pay attention to what could work... and more importantly, what doesn't. It's like in yoga class last week. My teacher was talking about not hoarding... not just hoarding possessions, but hoarding the idea of being attached to a way you do a yoga pose... or as in the case of ballet the next day, my coming to the realization that one port-de-bra (forgive me, I know no French... I'm not sure how to spell that) that I was doing so easily for so long really needed some major work... I had stopped thinking about it because it came easily... and was never getting better. And now, realizing that an improv that comes so easily, that I was so into in the moment, actually needs some major work... well ...wait... this section is actually pretty cool. I let go of the bass, and I'm adding some happy melodies over the funk drumming... cool stuff... worth working on. worth practicing... worth wanting to be better.