August 27 - St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

Often times when I visit my family in Minnesota, I perform during my hometown church services. I've performed there at least once a year for the past 14 years, and I've really come to appreciate the comfortable setting, the hometown crowd, the spectacular 9-foot piano, the beautiful services, and the creative freedom to play most anything I want! Thank you to St. Andrew's Lutheran Church for welcoming me back so enthusiastically every year.

Worshipers at Sunday's 8:45, 10:15, and 11:30 services enjoyed the early-morning pleasure of Ravel's energetic, frenetic, and virtuosic "Toccata" from his 'Le Tombeau de Couperin.' I'm not sure how much I enjoyed whipping that thing out at 8:45 in the morning... my fingers and forearms had become granite about 30 seconds into the performance. Yes, I could have warmed up before, but I didn't want to wake my poor little brother trying to sleep in for a change. Thankfully, I had definitely warmed up by the time the second and third performances came around.

Highlights from the morning:

*"Sheep may Safely Graze" during the 8:45 service - a prime example of how setting, piano, and acoustics can inspire a performance.
*Bach's Choral Prelude "Ich ruft zu dir" during the 10:15 service. I was feeling it man - especially the end.
*Liszt's transcription of Schumann's "Widmung" during the 11:30 service. I think I found a satisfying balance between lingering over every beautiful, little moment and allowing the momentum to carry me from beginning to end. I was swept away while still acknowledging how gorgeous my surroundings were. ....and gorgeous they are in "Widmung!"

Comments anyone??

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!

July 14th - Riverhead - "Phantoms of the Opera" Recital Series

Wow. My first performance blog. What do I say?

It was me versus a beautiful, 9-foot Steinway. The setting: a miniature opera hall out on Long Island. Outdoors, it was peaceful; indoors, I must say, I beat the poor instrument to a pulp, particularly in the virtuosic works by Ligeti and Liszt.

The first half of the program slowly descended into a world of chaos and terror. Inner turmoil became an outward struggle and finally an epic battle between evil and good. It climaxed with a harrowing vision of hell - "The Devil's Staircase" by the late Ligeti. Without pausing for applause, I made a difficult leap into a world of security, peace and forgiveness - heaven, if you will - and performed two transcriptions of music by Bach - "I call on Thee" and "Sheep May Safely Graze." I was afraid the jump would be difficult - both physically and mentally. I had practiced it many times, but the circumstances had never quite made for an effective transition. This time, however, I really think it worked. While playing the choral prelude ("I call on Thee"), I felt huge ... like I had transcended the small concert hall. It was one of the moments musicians thrive on.

There were a couple wrong notes in places, and I barely had enough steam to make it through the "Norma" fantasy. But overall, it was a very satisfying evening!

If you were in attendance, what did you think? Did you have a similar reaction?