That was some year

The Thanksgiving holiday seems an appropriate time to be thankful for the year that was, and since Christmas and New Year's will give me plenty to write about I'm going to do the traditional year in review now. I'm too tired to think ahead at the moment anyway!

2019 distinguished itself by the number of unique concert programs I gave--16 by my count, which does not include appearances when I played the same music (I'm guessing total stage appearances to be around two dozen) and by the number of new organs I visited. After teaching a series of lecture recitals about Beethoven in the spring, I was off to Ohio in June for some piano recitals.

If you've been on pianonoise this month you've noticed it atop the home page. It is a church near Cincinnati where I played a concert which consisted mostly of the music of Marteau.

A week later I got to play my first summer series recital near Pittsburgh. This town is rife with large organs and fine organists. Westminster Presbyterian Church is not as picturesque as some of the others, but they have a fine Austin.

There was a collection of gargoyles watching me as I arrived. I would swear there were only two of them before I looked away to open my camera!

Two week later came a concert at St. Paul Cathedral on one of the finest instruments in the country, the last instrument built by Rudolph von Bekerath.

In August I played the piano at an event in Pittsburgh which was most notable for the apparent motorcycle convention that seemed to be in town. Next time I will choose repertoire that is all loud all the time if I am playing outdoors.

In September I got to appear at Heinz Chapel for the third time, this time with my colleague Devin Arrington on the violin.

I was also asked to play a concert at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh as part of that series.

All of this took place while I was preparing a five week lecture recital course for the fall semester of Osher/UPitt, which met on five consecutive weeks in October and November. or as I started to call it, a "one person concert series."

That's a bit more work than I recommend, by the way. By the time I found out all of these concerts were happening it was too late to back out of them, but I'm going to back off a little next year. Besides, I've already been invited to play all of the organ concerts in town so I probably won't have anyplace to play next year--at least locally.

As soon as the fifth class was over I hopped in the car and drove out to Illinois for the festival concert I mentioned last week. 

I also got to play some solo pieces on that concert, most with the help of the excellent little Dobson organ. 

Today I feel justifiably tired, and am looking forward to a relatively un-busy Christmas season with just one concert. In a couple of weeks I'll be joining the choir and ensembles at First Methodist here in town for their annual Candlelight Worship concert. 

That was the year that was (or will be). It has been quite a year. Now bring on Christmas!

After a nap.

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you know the drill: www.pianonoise.com  This may be your last chance to hide out from the Christmas season. Only until next Friday!

Spatula Monday

I call them "spatula mondays" because you have to pry me out of bed in the morning with a spatula.

The reason for that is that I've just had a pretty full weekend. I play four church services a weekend usually, although this weekend we only had three. However, the Central Illinois Children's Chorus had their annual Winter concert on Saturday afternoon, between my impromptu recording session and lesson and the Saturday evening service; then the church choir had their music Sunday the next morning. I enjoyed both events; my energy started to flag toward the end of the choir service and I had to press on with internal motivational speeches, but everything turned out ok. I also had an incident at the Children's Chorus concert that took twenty years off my life that I'll share with you on Wednesday. I got a short nap on Sunday afternoon before the three hour choir rehearsal in the evening.

When you add all of the hours together it probably still doesn't come out to an official 40 hour work week so anyone who doesn't do this for a living might have a hard time wondering how, say after a concert of only an hour and half of activity a person could be so drained. But you need to experience it. To be so "on" the entire time, responsive to the choir and the conductor and the moment and with all of those notes to play and to listen for--it isn't like most activities. It burns up physical energy and nervous energy at a much faster rate. Having two full concerts with different programs within 24 hours and a long rehearsal afterward makes this a rougher weekend than usual, nervous-energy-wise.

So today, while I'm in recovery, we'll have a short blog entry, with a bit of music attached to make it worth your while. Here is something that you can also find on the homepage of pianonoise.com, where I've provided a program of holiday music this week with additional programs to follow the next two weeks. The music was recorded over the last three Christmas seasons.

Liszt: The Shepherds at the Manger

I anticipate another "spatula Monday" next week after the all-church megamusicaldramaproduction, which is not the official name for it, but you get the idea. It's some time of year, ain't it?

See you Wednesday.