October 8 - St. Paul Conservatory of Music Gala

Eating a full gala dinner, and then walking over to the piano to perform a set of ball-busters isn't always a recipe for success. Considering such circumstances, tonight's concert went surprisingly well!

The soft pedal on the 9-foot Steinway was one of the most dramatic I have ever encountered.

I would have liked to play the Ravel again.

As I often do, I talked before I played. I had been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to dwell in beauty for a living. Fortune could have destined me to a life of journalism, or even scarier, a soldier in combat; I could have spent my life dwelling in darkness. Instead I spend my day immersed in humanity, reminding myself that no matter how much CNN would like me to believe, the good and beautiful grossly outweigh the ugly in this world. So I said all of that. And after I said that, I wasn't nervous anymore.