August 5 - Washington D.C. - Jack Kent Cooke Foundation "Talent Show"

Phew! What a work out!

You know a performance will go well when you walk on stage and the audience is cheering *before* you begin to play! I cheated on my regular piano duo partner and performed with Qing Jiang instead, an excellent pianist studying at Juilliard. Together we played:

- a movement from my Star Wars Fantasy on one grand piano and an upright. It was an unprepared mess. Thankfully I composed the work ... "I meant for it to sound that way!" ;) We had little time to rehearse and little sleep the night before. Regardless, we took a lickety-split tempo and had a fantastic time.

- a four-hand/one-piano work by Schumann. It was beautiful. Before we began, Qing stated, "For me, it's like two, beloved people just being together. They aren't saying anything... just being together." And that's what happened.

- a premiere of my four-hand transcription of Khatchaturian's "Sabre Dance." This was one of those performances in which the audience made all the difference. They laughed, cheered, applauded, and hollered with tremendous enthusiasm throughout the work, and Qing and I responded accordingly. Not only was it fun, but it was like riding a meteorite: exciting, dangerous, and memorable.

Thank you to my audience for making this performance so wonderful!