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En route to the home base. 4/5 of WindSync on the plane back to Houston from New York City (Ben flew back yesterday). I'm drinking Bloody Mary mix (wish there was more tabasco, but that's okay), Kerry's on his laptop, and the other two are passed out in the seats ahead of me. Good for them. If there's one thing I've learned from traveling recently it's to sleep and nap whenever you can. And if there's a second thing it's eat lots of oranges - keeps you healthy.
Chamber Music America = huge success. The conference was held at the Westin in Times Square and took place over the course of four days (01.12 – 01.15). I wasn't able to attend the first two days of the conference, but during this time the other four attended seminars on a variety of chamber music/music world performing, marketing, and business strategies. They each went equipped with personal bags of press kits, brochures, smiling faces, and definitely business cards; and they all made a number of important contacts. We're very optimistic about future touring in NYC and the northeast.
Post China: Narrative in NYC. Dropped like a fly on Wednesday night with bronchitis and pink eye upon returning from a three week orchestra tour in the far east and finally made it to Times Square on Friday night for our dress rehearsal and momentously, my first time to New York City. I took a train from Summit to Penn Station in the late afternoon and emerged onto 7th Ave. when the sun was low in sky, peaking through the thick texture of skyscrapers. Looking up, my eyes watered and my cheeks burned in the cold as I entered the race on the crowded sidewalk to catch the last evening rays. My speedy recovery was most certainly made possible by the quick work of Tracy and her mother, Judy. They swept my exhausted and weak body into a doctor's office within twelve hours of my arrival to their beautiful home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey and after around 50 hours of sleep and an intense prescription of antibiotics I was back in business. That's an exaggeration, but at least open part-time. Thank you again, to both of them. Speaking of thanks, I am extraordinarily grateful for the hard work of Tracy, Garrett, Ben, and Kerry (and Judy for the amazing press kits) while I was away. The majority of rehearsing and organizing happened during my absence and I feel very lucky to work with such dedicated, thoughtful, and talented people.
Back to NYC, the city was everything I expected and nothing like it at the same time. There is a palpable depth not necessarily in details, but in layers. Layers of beautiful lights, layers of buildings, layers of cultures and clothing to keep warm. Layers of flavor in cheap food and bizarre people on mysterious missions. I instantly fell in love.
They laughed, they cried, they hurled. On Saturday afternoon, 01.14.12, we performed our showcase “Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Theory of Chamber Music According to Dr. Seuss” to a packed house on the 3rd floor of the Westin. We received a few shocked looks and awkward chuckles during our Hoedown Rundown as we explained the mechanics of double reeds, buzzing, and compared flute playing to blowing over a coke bottle, however, the audience quickly warmed up to our energetic, friendly, and unconventional presentation. By the time we finished a heartfelt and emotional truncated version of the 3rd movement of Maslanka's Quintet for Winds No. 2 they were all along for the ride. With the glare of a red-blooded killer and my face behind the mask of a wolf, I stared into the lense of the photographer in the front row, her camera snapping wildly. Tracy surprised everyone with her gray beard and frumpy hat as she transformed into a wise, somewhat overbearing geriatric in high heels, and Garrett, Ben, and Kerry amused them all as cute forest animals sometime shaking their hips, during Peter and the Wolf. Our final piece and encore-like placement of Umoja (arr. Imani Winds) closed the performance and everyone's face lit up in smiles as we bowed repeatedly and announced the names of everyone in the group to satisfy our enthusiastic crowd. The performance demonstrated a unique vision for chamber music and we were thrilled to share our secrets with the New York crowd of presenters, performers, teachers, and fellow musicians.
