Welcome!
Thank you for stopping by! The first iteration of this site was Stark Raving Cello: a Blogger site where I took turns opining, explaining, and ranting about whatever came into my 28-year-old brain. The name of the blog was accurate!…
Upcoming Workshop Series!
For the first time since I shuttered Tamarack Arts (RIP, you were a good little org 🥹) I’d like to get a month-long focused class going. Please vote below to indicate interest. If you’d like to suggest a topic, you’re…
New video: using a tuner effectively
I was incredibly lucky with my first cello teacher, Catherine Graff MacLaughlin. You’ve probably heard me refer to her as my cello mom, a riff on Jackie calling William Pleeth her cello daddy. Fun fact: Cathy studied with Pleeth, too!…
What the hell, community orchestra conductors?
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a trend in community orchestras: the repertoire and rehearsal schedules are becoming INSANE. Programs featuring Liszt Les Préludes, Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, that wild Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker arrangement, Strauss tone poems, and the like.…
March 2025 playlist
Join the Working Families Party here. Join Indivisible here. Get independent news here. Get independent news here, too. And here. Join BlueSky here. Get the encrypted Signal messaging app here.
Read it now: thumb position fundamentals in Strings March/April 2025 issue, now with 86 percent more rat!
It’s always fun to write about technique. Perhaps this is a sign of madness, but I really enjoy being assigned a massive task—in this case, creating a primer on thumb technique for beginners through advanced players—with a hard word count…
February practice stream!
The next practice stream/Q&A will take place on Tuesday, February 25 at 6pm eastern. Change of plans! Monday, February 24 at 6pm. You are welcome to join me—to observe, ask questions, do some of your own practicing, or hang out…
Warchal Brilliant Strings, an unbiased trial
I’ve been looking for the right strings for Henri since, well, forever. As soon as the set he came with started to go weird and sound old, I replaced them with an identical set up: 2 Larsens, 2 Spirocores. It…
February 2025 playlist
A little delayed what with the looting of my home country by teenage hackers in service of a lunatic racist on ketamine and a malignant narcissist signing executive orders.