To say that I am shocked and saddened by the death of comedy legend Robin Williams, is exactly right. I walked in the door from a super fun party last night and was greeted by my wife, who asked me if I knew yet. Had I been on Facebook yet? Ummmm…. Knew what? What was […]
Category Archives: Music
How to Remember the Timeline of Classical Music
Classical Music is basically an annoying catch-all term for any music that was either a) written pre-Bill Haley and the Comets, or b) is currently unplayable on the radio without donations from the listeners at home. How almost all of recorded music in history came to be grouped under one umbrella, in order to differentiate […]
The Latest 25 Mix – July 2014
It’s about time! I finally filled up my “Latest 25” mix on my iPod with all new songs! As you know, when I hear a song that I want to listen to one hundred more times I stick it on this mix, and then bump the oldest one off the list, so I have a constantly […]
A Game To Find Out How Your Children Think
We have discovered a new song in our house. It is called “Why oh why,” and it involves a question being asked, and then being answered in a silly way. Some of the lyrics include: “Why can’t a bird eat an elephant? Why, oh why, oh why?” “Cause an elephant’s got a pretty hard skin! […]
Music I Wish I Had Written
Have you ever loved something so much that you wish you had created it? It sounds, on the surface, like a very strange thing. Are we not lazy Americans?! Is it not better to have someone else do the work, and then to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor? What is is […]
The Homophobic Opera Singer, and Other Living Oxymorons
If you were following the news in the opera world over the past week, chances are you came across the story of Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri, who was happily preparing for a show with Opera Australia when suddenly somebody noticed that she had posted a letter online last year that referred to non-heterosexual persons as, […]
What If My Kids Want to Be Musicians?!
So here’s a funny thought. I am a musician by trade, and my children are way too young to know what they want to be yet. They think they know, but I don’t believe “Iron Man” is an actual job. At least not yet. But someday they will have to make career choices, and there […]
Music is the First to Go
It is school budget voting day today here in Burlington. Again. Voters previously rejected the school budget, so now we have to vote on version 2. And a lot of things have happened since version 1. For one thing, we have many new school board members. We didn’t just reject the budget, but the folks […]
How to Sing When You’re Nervous
I know how to sing when I am sick. Many people tell me. “Oh, I’m not feeling well today. I can’t sing. I have a cold.” But the truth is, professional singers often don’t have that luxury. I would have to be preeeeeety sick to cancel a performance. But the thing is, being sick doesn’t […]
Watchers and Doers, Sitters and Singers
In any arts organization that provides some sort of live production (and probably those that don’t), there is a constant struggle to fill the seats with more butts. For financial reasons, ticket sales are important. For spiritual reasons, audience cultivation gives one a sense of purpose and the hope that perhaps one is not wasting […]