Archive for July, 2010

Pacific Music Institute 2010

Only one more day left then I head off to beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii where I coach sectionals for string orchestra and string quartets at the Pacific Music Institute.  This will be my fourth year (!) there, and I have to say it feels like a second home to me.  Unfortunately, many strings players go abroad for summer festivals and what not, so it’s a little disheartening to have so few strings this year.  But we’ll make the best of it and it will be so much fun!  If you are a local reading this and play a stringed instrument, please join us!  PMI, here we come~~

Happy 4th!

It’s wonderful to spend a holiday on the east coast.  There are many places to go, and so much to see.  This Fourth of July, Randy got a gig with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops, so that was a great excuse to hit Providence and see the fireworks.  Milton, my brother, was off-call that weekend, so it was great to hang out too.

Sunday started off with Randy and I playing in two church services where our good friend Greg works as the music director.  Both services were as different as night and day.  The first one featured a country/rock praise ensemble, which was hilarious in itself because the semi-serious congregational was punctuated by rambunctious, lively jamming from these guys.  The alternating contrasts was so absurdly shocking that I had trouble holding in some giggles.   The second service was more conservative; there was more classical music and a feeling of meditation over the congregation.  Both services ended with a national anthem of some sort to get everyone in the holiday spirit.  Chee-hoo!

We arrived in Providence around 1pm.  For lunch we stumbled upon Not Just Snacks, an Indian restaurant that received pretty good ratings on Yelp.   The food was yummy and cheap, though I think it’s a different style of Indian food.  I had my usual Palak Paneer, which was unusually creamy with stringy spinach, but tasty.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur: shopped at Providence Place, took a nap, watched Star Wars III…. Finally, we set foot to India Point Park for the concert and fireworks.  It was really nice out and not too many people on the lawn yet, so it was good soak up the scenery and chat with some friends in the orchestra.  The orchestra did a nice job and the fireworks were better than I expected.  It was a good day indeed!

A bunch of things

So here’s a quick update… The month of June was full of traveling.  I had gone to Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale, and then finally Lake George, NY during three out of the four weekends.  The two latter getaways were tiki festivals—Hukilau and Ohana: Luau at the Lake—where I participated for the first time as a music vendor and attendee along with my husband and Waitiki bandleader, Randy.  Not having to deal with the stress of performing and traveling with instruments, I actually enjoyed the nice change.  We did surprisingly well in our sales of CD albums, vinyls, comic books, and other related merch.  For those who don’t know, Waitiki 7′s new album came out on June 7th and is selling like hotcakes!  Get yours NOW.  Also available for download on iTunes and Amazon.com.

The weekend that I managed to stay in Boston was also eventful with super nice weather.  My brother who had just moved to Providence, made his visit for the weekend, and that coincided with a visit from my cousin’s family, the Davis’s.

Mew, Cathy, and the kiddies

Milton and Bear Davis

My cousin Cathy is a budding professional photographer, and has her own business: Cathy Clicks Photography. She does a lot of her artistic work in Maine capturing young love and families, but is also interested in traveling and working with musicians and working professionals on the side.  We had a great photo shoot in the North End, which had really nice backdrops for shots. Her beautiful pictures can be found throughout this site.  I hope you like her style as much as I do, and if you do, don’t hesitate to contact her based on my referral.

I’ve also been really happy with the student recitals at Bradford.  The quality has definitely gone up not only in terms of student performances, but also the organization and expectations of teacher, student and families.  Congrats to all my students who performed and I look forward to the next one!