violinist & educator

Over the past weekend, Randy and I had the honor of being part of my friend’s wedding held in Lockport, NY (near Buffalo). HW and J are two of my favorite people from my Stony Brook days. Actually, HW is a dear friend of mine, a Taiwanese “sister”, and a great harpsichordist who has taught me so much about music in the Baroque world. She is so inspiring that she even got her husband J, a classical guitarist, to expand his interest in playing the theorbo. Pretty cool huh? Anyways, I was happy to be joined by Fritz and Stephanie to play the ceremony music for their wedding. Since I didn’t have a period fiddle anymore (I’m taking a break from HBCO this semester), one of my friends was able to lend me one. At first I was alittle stressed out: the music took a week to arrive, and my playing chops were really rusty, plus I had to revisit the physical challenges of playing a period instrument. Luckily, I didn’t forget much and the things that I had learned over the years came together faster than I had expected. And having to play on a good instrument helps too. Sometimes one needs a break from playing, so that all the things learned has time to mature and blossom both mentally and physically. Here’s a picture of us playing the recessional as our SB friends gathered around us for a group picture:

Of course, this post isn’t just about music. Since we were in Buffalo, we knew we had to find the place with the best…. WINGS! We tried Wagner’s Restaurant in Lockport and the much-reviewed Duff’s in Buffalo. Even though we only went to two places, we were full and practically sick of drums and flats in sour, barely-spicy, bright orange sauce. They weren’t anything to write home about.