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!

Bring your family and friends and join us for a day of wonderful music by our talented students at the Bradford School of Music. Admission is free; non-perishable food donations are welcome at the door.  There were will food and drinks after each recital.

Best of luck to all my students!!

On another note, the Luna Duo, I mean, TRIO made its debut at the Bradford School of Music Faculty concert.  I’m never big on performing alone on stage, so I thought it would be nice to have a chamber group perform—so why not perform as the Luna Trio, which is basically Leewen, Randy and myself?  It was a great chance for us to play together and also expand our repertoire with Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz written for violin, viola (or cello), and double bass.  The more I play this piece, the more I enjoy the subtleties of harmonic textures and the meditative lyrical melodies that soar above the blanket of open strings.  Here we are making our grand opening gesture:

I also debuted as an 80′s rock band violinist playing “Peg” by Steely Dan.  My band was made up of other Bradford faculty members.  Man, this song is constantly stuck in my head…… Anyways, looking forward to the next hang with my music buddies next time.  Bon voyage, Alex!

The first rehearsal seemed to last forever, in my opinion.  The guest conductor for this concert is JoAnn Falletta, resident conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic, who had very efficient rehearsal technique, but had a unique conducting style that took me a couple rehearsals to get used to.  I noticed instantly that she likes to conduct ahead of the beat in very quick gestures that somehow delineates that shape of phrases, a style that is very appropriate for Beethoven, especially the Ninth.  The pressure of randomly sitting in was lessened when I found my seat in the back of the second violin section, but that also has its disadvantages–the large distance from the conductor increases the risk of lagging behind the rest of the section, waiting for the “passing” game of bowings, directions, etc. from the principal, and others.  Fortunately, it was a good seat to be in to observe the players in front of me and learn the “language of communication” between the members of the orchestra.  Speaking of members, I had a very peculiar stand partner who ended up missing most of the rehearsals (because of her non-musical career).  So the only times I saw her were the first rehearsal and the concert!  It was the weirdest experience to play next to her because I immediately sensed her awful attitude and lack of congeniality.  I mean, she would make small talk but all without eye contact and facial expression.  It was like talking to a plain wall, which is not very fun.  After some discussion with several other members, I learned that she has had an unfortunate past with music and all I can say is, never be bitter and never live with regrets.   She did, however for her sake, apologize to me during intermission for her stinky attitude, but I really hope I never have to deal with this person again.  Did I say “never”?  You betcha.

The next couple of rehearsals went well and I was beginning to soak in the sounds and little quirks of the orchestra.  Prokofiev sounded really good, but Beethoven still lacked the precision and flexibility it needed to be dramatic.  Falletta kept telling us to play lighter and have direction in our phrasing.  Yes, I completely agree.   I just hope my arm doesn’t fall off in the Scherzo.

One could feel the energy and all the hype for this concert because the Blaisdell lanai was covered with people with more an than hour left before the show.  Pretty good turnout so far, I have to say…  While I was warming up backstage, I made some mental comparisons of various pre-concert moments like for example, to Indian Hill or New Bedford Symphony.  Just the enormous amount of free space backstage and the somewhat private warm-up rooms gave Blaisdell a few extra points above the other venues.  I also have to say that the seats for the orchestra members are excellent!  Brand: Wenger.

Right before the concert started, there were great speeches given by various people including Ms. JoAnn Falletta (Buffalo Symphony).  I am truly grateful that she was able to step up and give her time to make this concert happen.  Without her patience and energy, would we really deserve to have 5 standing ovations?  That’s right… the concert went superbly and I’m glad I was a part of this significant event.  Hopefully the donations will trickle in and be put to good use; we shall see within the next year or so.

with Ira Wong (percussionist) for HSO benefit Concert

I was so wired and excited on my solitary ride to my hometown… I was practically speeding down the NJ turnpike!  The four-car caravan soon separated (Zaccai drove his car and met up with us at Gina’s), but we found ourselves together again at various rest stops.  Some people had small bladders, some needed coffee, and some had to stay awake!  Before we knew it, we finally reached our destination in the early afternoon: the Hyatt on Capitol Hill.  We got an awesome deal at the hotel because Randy’s cousin Stephanie is the manager.  THANK YOU!!  We only had a couple hours left before soundcheck at Bossa so we all went our separate ways and got ready.  I had to eat, shower, warm-up, and iron all the uniforms in a short time that I practically went crazy.  A reminder for the next tour: bring a uniform roadie!!

When we were ready to go and managed to get a hold of the valet parking dudes, we set foot into one of the busiest neighborhoods of DC: Georgetown.  Upon entering Bossa, I was at first disappointed due to the size (the stage was tiny!) and lack of seating and tables.  But after everything was set up (sound engineer took HOURS but was pretty nice) and the lights dimmed and people started walking in (my mom and close friends came to support us), the show turned out nicely.

Thank you all who came out to support us and our music!!  This was our first show and it gave us positive momentum to see such a good turn out.  After the show we treated ourselves to some good and cheap Middle Eastern food.  My gyro was yummy!Before we left DC for Philly, we got some shots at the Capitol.  Here is a shot from my car of our W7 caravan…

Next stop: Philadelphia

Our first and only rehearsal on Thursday night was productive.  We all got to meet our new drummer (and “tour saver”) Andrew Atkinson from NYC.  He came to us through Zaccai, who had met him a couple days before.  Get this: the only way Andrew could do the tour was only if Zaccai would help him move out of his apartment (long story…)!  We managed to get through most of the album’s tunes, especially L’ours (or, “lauw-ers”), we all soon realized that Andrew was a spectacular Latin jazz drummer and blended in with the rest of us like smooth butter.  We’re so glad he joined!

The next day, after scrambling to find percussion instruments for the tour (some people can be flaky!), we finally got on the road around noon.  Our first show was to be at OHANA “Luau at the Lake”, a tiki festival held at Lake George, NY.  The drive was a good 4 hours from Boston, but with conversations about art, music, languages, and film production with Jochen, the trip flew by quickly.  Jochen is a longtime Waitiki fan who flew in from Munich.  He wanted to be in touch with the tiki culture in the U.S. and also take this opportunity during our tour to film footage for his upcoming documentary “DVD of Tiki.”  We’re really excited to be a part of that project.  The show went as well as it usually does but we had to deal with the unbearable near-freezing temperatures that night.  Yikes!

Our next stop was to play for a pre-recorded air show for Jersey City’s WFMU radio station (wfmu.org) that was hosted by Gaylord Fields and Glenn Luttman.  Thanks to them for making our live broadcast performance possible.  A BIG challenge occurred right before we got to the studio: Jersey City traffic.  OMG, I will never ever set foot or wheel into that state again.  We sat in our cars for 2 hours for the last 0.3 miles we had left to travel to our destination.  It was ridiculous!

Thanks to our good friend Gina, she let us stay at her house that night and boy, did we need a good night’s rest.  In the morning, we had Tim’s delicious Portuguese coffee and some tasty bagels.  With our full tummies, we soon got on the road towards Washington DC.

(Haha… see that parking ticket there?  Apparently in NJ suburbs, one gets a ticket for parking too close to the crosswalks… Poor Tim and Randy)

CONTINUE TO PART DEUX

Unfortunately, I will be taking a vacation from teaching this summer, so I will miss seeing all my students. I hope some of them take advantage of studying with a sub, but I know summertime is the time for fun and play. Here are some pics of the school since this time I made sure not to forget my camera.  See you all next year!! XOXO

I just played in a Catholic wedding yesterday with some fellow HBCO friends.  It was my first baroque gig!  And I have to say that I really enjoyed it.  Not only do I get to sightread familiar old tunes, I get to play them on GUT STRINGS in a nice modern church.  The pure and calm sounds were elegantly appropriate for works of Bach and Pachelbel :]  I am a fan of baroque music in weddings!

Some bad news, I just recently destroyed my digi camera so there won’t be many pictures coming from me.  What a bummer!  But I am saving up for those nice SLR ones in the future so send me a donation!  Just kiddin’…

I’m performing in a few places that are coming up.  First, Luna Duo will be performing in Long Island on 4/5.  Contact me if you are in the area and want to support us (thanks in advance).  Second, I will be playing a faculty recital at Bradford.  Actually, Randy and I (the Attacca Poke Duo) will be playing a duo so it’ll be interesting but nonetheless, FUN.  Non-perishable food item donations are required.  Can you believe that it’s spring already?  I think it might even snow tonight… booooo.