PASIC

PASIC starts Wednesday!

I'll be performing Wednesday around noon. I'm very excited about premiering In Search of Three Goddesses by Halim El-Dabh. The piece is fantastic and I think that it's a great addition to the timpani repertoire. It requires the performer to create number of interesting sound effects and also has some fast tuning changes. It's not easy, but it is beautifully written and very playable. I'm happy to report that Halim will be at the performance and will say a few words about the piece before I play.

It's been busy here because, in addition to learning the piece, I somehow managed to book myself with three orchestras this past week. I've done Firebird, Night on Bald Mountain, Egmont Overture, Symphonie Fantastique, Peer Gynt, Stokowski's arrangement of Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, etc, etc, etc.... Still, I've been able to put in a lot of time on the piece and the next few days will be full of timpani practice for me.

I'll post more details about the new work after PASIC, but for now, I've got to go practice. I hope to see you on Wednesday.

....OH, I got the Mozart book in (from the previous post). It is SPECTACULAR! More on that later.

The Best Book on Mozart - The New York Review of Books

The New York Review of Books has an excellent review of the new translation of Abert's W.A. Mozart. The review is a lengthy one, but since the book comes in at 1600 pages, not as long as it could have been.

I think I am going to have to order it right away. Despite all the great music out there, if I had to pick a favorite composer I would go with Mozart. He and I go way back. By the time I was in 10th grade I had two complete editions of his piano sonatas, a few piano concertos, a complete score to Don Giovanni, and all of his string quartets.

Those were just the scores of course. I had many more recordings. In fact, I spent a lot of afternoons playing viola along with my records of the Guarneri Quartet (yes, I did indeed play viola, but am now retired).

So, as you can imagine, I was pretty much the coolest guy in school....carrying around my viola case, my Vic Firth percussion case, and a complete score to Don Giovanni. Then, rushing home to work on the Piano Sonata in B-flat Major after telling everyone how excited I was about having tickets for the Atlanta Opera's production of Abduction from the Seraglio.

Yes sir, the coolest!!

Anyway, check out the link for the review.

The Best Book on Mozart - The New York Review of Books

MACKEY!!!

I am proud to announce the arrival of Mackey!


















She's 7 or 8 months old (that's the vet's best guess). She was abandoned and living on the streets until a rescue shelter in Little Rock took her in.

Mackey is super-fantastic and, luckily, gets along very well with the three cats already in residence at the Tyson Estate.