Welcome to another installment of RoN! This was a surprising, high acid wine that I would buy again…if my other budget buys weren’t in stock. Making it a little unexpected is the combination of SauvBlanc and Semillon grapes combined with…
Hoping to usher in some summer feelings with this playlist! I’m not normally someone who looks forward to summer, especially on the east coast with the mosquitoes, humidity, and infrastructure that was built for cooler weather. But this year has…
Hey friends! It’s time again— come join me for an unvarnished look at my practice and hang out for a while. 7pm Eastern May 23. Send an email, leave a comment, or text 323 657 9444 and I’ll get you…
In preparation for the course I’m putting together about time and texture, I thought I’d get together with some colleagues and see if we can distill the nuts and bolts of making music down to something—if not simple—at least more…
One of my favorite podcasts is If Books Could Kill, where the two hosts take a critical (good faith) look at the pop-sci books that take the zeitgeist by storm every few years. Examples of this include: What these books…
This one has selections I wish the DJ at the roller rink would play! In hard times, living well is the best revenge. Oh, and promise me you’ll wear wrist guards next time you skate. 😘
Miranda is just the coolest, and was an absolute delight to talk shop with. She is also going to be featured on the upcoming panel discussion I’m hosting about time and texture as tools in our expressive arsenal; the other…
It’s been super uphill the last two weeks: Spotify keeps taking down podcast episodes, the new MemberPress Course setup is more cumbersome than I anticipated (but ooooooweee do I have some killer classes coming), someone keeps trying to steal my…
Hi friends! I’m officially putting together a no-spam email list with the intent of sending a handful of alerts throughout the year when a new class or in-person teaching date is announced. Over the years, I’ve had a few list…
I came across this video where the delightful Ray Chen challenges some Colburn students to do crazy things for a small cash reward or a free student level instrument. Now, what these kids—who are playing on extraordinary violins purchased for…
Persephone! Pollen! Political protests! Welcome to spring, friends
This month’s practice stream will be a little different: the last one had one of the attendees a little mystified as to why I didn’t do anything involving scales. I’m working on some pretty wild repertoire these days, so it’s…
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…
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!…
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.…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
It’s been quiet, but there are several monster posts in progress—the average working time on the larger technique-focused detailed piece is 10 hours from start to finish—and a video that follows the break-in process on a new set of Warchal…
You may have seen this graphic before: Today I’m going to tease these elements apart. mechanics and approach: the foundation What we do is, at its core, a physical enterprise. Yet, sometimes it can feel like this wild mental scramble…
I’d like you to envision the musician you’d like to be. Be bold, ambitious, un-self conscious with this imagining, even (or perhaps especially) if the qualities they embody seem remote. Answer these questions to really hone in: After you’ve spent…
In this edition of RoN, I am pleased to present a total banger of an Alvarinho that I paid $16 for at a local shop. Aveleda Solos de Xisto Alvarinho 2022 is just phenomenal! NOT ROT! I used to avoid…
I just canNOT get enough of Mk.Gee. His music has been in my head since October.
Just a short post on this last evening of 2024 to pass on something that has helped me remain motivated and satisfied with my progress through pandemics, spine surgeries, moving to a small town with no gig scene or in-person…
This list skews heavily Christmas-y, mostly quiet. Wishing you and yours peace and abundance in these wild and uncertain times.
I forget that I have a TeePublic store; or rather, I forget to tell people I have a Teepublic store. I add things throughout the year, and also am happy to take requests for artists and other personalities you’d like…
I’m still recovering from the trip to Los Angeles and working out some plans for a group class that should start in February, but in the meantime, the next episode of the LC podcast series about performance anxiety is up,…
This is the first in what will be a series where I explore performance anxiety through a number of different lenses. In this episode, Carly and I chat about perfectionism as it relates to performance and a novel form of…