Renewal

I have been asked to do a blog post again, almost four years since the last one. 

I am well. I am a commuter between Boston and New Jersey. I am married. I am a teacher, performer, and traveler. We are currently in the Heathrow airport, en route to Rome for the long weekend.

Heathrow has made me really question the pronunciation of my first name. The "Heath" in Heathrow and the "Heath" in Heather are pronounced completely differently. I have been spending the last hour in the British Airways lounge with google, trying to figure out why they are pronounced so differently, other than the typical "English is weird" reasoning. 

And with that, I close this post, four years in the making. Four years can make a huge difference. A lot has changed. Maybe the next post will also be four years in the making. 

Another beautiful trip in Vermont...love being here at the end of December/start of the New Year. This year we're taking care of five beautiful cats while I rehearse for the New Year's Eve concert in Manchester. Enjoying a big screen tv, a cozy fire, and cupcakes. Ready for 2014!

Happy Thanksgiving from Istanbul!

summer

(It's been another extended period of time since my last post....)

Summer 2013 - Recap

June: I lovely long weekend in San Diego, followed by an intense rehearsal week in Vermont, two exhilarating performances at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in the incredible Shalin Liu Center, a quick and terrifying performance of Issac the Blind in Western Mass, and the wedding of two people very much in love.

July Part 1: Family reunion in Phoenix. Hot hot hot desert sun and a cool, refreshing pool in Holly and Tony's backyard, three nephews and a niece to chase after and laugh with, excellent cooking, actually finished a CV (a neglected project for 6 months) and bought earrings at a Payless Shoe Store near Phoenix that receive a lot of compliments.

July Part 2: Four days at Tanglewood, one of my favorite happy places on earth, for Harbison's Great Gatsby with the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music. Quick turn around to Portland and then Ashland, OR, for a beautiful, soul-mending reunion with Kimberly and David. Great music, great drinks, great food, great scenery, great people. Met 9 cats during this trip. I kinda do want a cat again... This trip included the best Thai food I have EVER HAD. It seems it will only get better than this by actually going to Thailand...

July Part 3: San Diego! Perfect weather. Always. Hours and hours of Family Feud. Wonderful relaxing, excellent vacation. Got sleep, got practice, visited this lovely place, and fell into a nice routine. Was really hard to leave.

August: Back to Boston. Practicing for Triple performance increases, house-sat in Brookline, Arneis begins rehearsal again, and the final weekend in Vermont included my first encounter with the great singer/entertainer Audra McDonald and a three mile walk/run that kept me from walking like a normal person on my way to Milwaukee to visit family.

My summer was full and happy, and I start September refreshed and in a better mental state to tackle what is ahead, and the big choices that have to be made soon....

the time has come

I know I'm way overdue to write a post here, but I thought it might be a good idea since I'm going to be done with my DMA this week!

My final recital is this Thursday - it has been a long road to get this far, and I can't wait for it to be done. After 10+ years of higher academia.

Now what?

Relief

This pretty much sums it up:

1. Lecture Recital = DONE!
2. Semester = DONE!

oh dear

Oh boy...

This has taken such a long time for me to post. Life has been crazy, and I've been so busy with quartet, school responsibilities, teaching, and gigs. Arneis has been very active...February/March trips to California and Michigan (and Canada, China and Italy from May-September 2011) have kept us busy.

This weekend is the first Chamber Music Institute Arneis is running at Dana Hall. I coached an amazing piano trio this morning on the Dvorak f minor. I was quite nervous about seeing them - they're very advanced, very musical high school students. I was so worried about knowing what to say to help them - and fortunately - it ended up being ok - the time went by fast, and I found enough to criticize and be picky about to make the time go by very fast. Part of my nervousness was that they had played for Peter (Zazofsky, my teacher at BU) the evening before in a masterclass. After Peter, I thought everything I would have to say would be mundane and worthless, but they seemed to respond really well and I surprised myself a few times with things that they hadn't even realized or thought about. (phew) It went well, and I'm still hoping someday for that college residency job....

I've got my lecture recital coming up, so I'll try to post more regularly, to help me stay on track.