New Lonely Cello podcast: Thom Limbert
Thom is a friend and colleague who offers some practical tips for anyone who wants to write music but feels like they don’t know how to start!
Emily Wright
A wonderful conversation with Denis Jiron
This is one of my favorite episodes, ever. What a treat.
New podcast: Emily Ann Peterson
Spring Cello Studio Class!
If you’re a late intermediate to early advanced cellist and have wanted to study with a group of other students at a similar level, there are four more spots left in the Tamarack Arts spring studio class. It’s a really…
New podcast: cello turbo nerds, this one’s for you!
Sandra Halleran joins me for a deep dive into teaching and learning. She’s also new Tamarack Arts faculty, so you’ll be seeing her around this summer! Thanks to everyone who’s been listening, sharing, and giving feedback.
progress report
So. We’re in Connecticut. If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be turning new private students down and living in a posh small town in southwestern New England, I’d have said you were crazy. As it turns…
New podcast: David Aks and entry points to improvisation
David was my cello teacher for the last year and a half of my CSUN education, and before that, he coached me in chamber music, conducted the orchestra, led the opera pit ensemble, and taught my first two semesters of…
(mostly) excellent advice on quick passages
Noa Kageyama’s Bulletproof Musician has long been a source of insightful, thought-provoking advice, so I wasn’t at all surprised when one of my students sent me a post last week talking about getting tricky passages up to speed that was…
Now enrolling: winter studio classes at Tamarack Arts!
Just a little cross-pollination between the sides of my life. For the winter semester, we have offerings for violin and cello, for beginners and intermediate students. It’s also a screaming deal at $125 for 9 sessions. Specific dates will be…
tuesday night practice stream
This November, I’m going to be streaming an hour of my practice on Zoom one night a week! This will be my real, actual practice, with no commentary (with the exception of my own mutterings) and no interaction with viewers,…
New podcast episode up NOW!
After a million years and so much change around here, allow me to present the next episode of Lonely Cello, featuring my best friend in the whole world, Cari Ann Souter. In between bouts of laughter and a few wild…
Announcing Tamarack Arts!
April and May have been absolutely wild. It’s funny how you can spend so much time wanting something to happen, and working for it to happen, and when it happens as a sort of avalanche of sudden progress, the first…
Next Book: The First Hour by Amit Peled
What a wild couple months it’s been around here! Tamarack Arts launched, a semester culminated, new students onboarding, some students moving on…but the year of professional development continues! For July, I’m going to be writing about (and doing a podcast…
absolutely killer cello-friendly clothes for women
COVID certainly normalized my utter devotion to the Leggings Lifestyle™️, but even before a vaccine was on the horizon, there were days where I woke up, looked past the volumes of stretchy stuff and searched out something more zesty. Even…
March Jumble!
Been a little quiet here, but not because there’s been nothing going on. Late in February, I gave a talk to EMSO, a fabulous group of focused and hardworking amateur musicians in Minnesota. Preparing for seminars like these forces you…
new podcast episode: what’s a professional musician, anyway? With Jeremy Boersma
Part of an ongoing series! Next one will feature two ladies who went to music school and fit the bill of “professional musician” but make most of their money doing other things. Why is the label important? Why is this…
vibrato thoughts
I have had exactly one (1) student who just took to vibrato naturally, right off the bat. For everyone else, myself included, the process leans towards a months-long series of conceptual introductions, tweaks, and assessments. I teach the rotation method,…
next up: The Inner Game of Tennis
While every text on the list will be available for open-ended discussion, the podcast and Instagram live stuff will be contemporaneous with my reading/finishing them. Next up is the classic The Inner Game of Tennis (buy it here or find…
much better merch!
I’m adding more stuff to the new TeePublic shop all the time. Don’t be fooled by the name: it’s not just tees (although I chose them specifically because their shirts are soft and excellent quality- I was a customer before…
Lonely Cello Podcast!
Now streaming, wherever you get your podcasts! In case you’re not a huge listener, you can also listen to it below! Huge thanks for Dr. Whitcomb for spending some time talking shop.
first time in a long time
I started the Prokofiev sonata last week. It’s the first brand new solo work I’ve started in several years, and it’s been fun to try and apply best practices and really enrich the experience. Here is my process, thus far:…
first book of the year: effortless mastery
As part of this year of recommitment and reflection, I thought I’d pick up a book that was introduced to me as an undergraduate. Kenny Werner is a towering colossus in the jazz world, and a favorite of many music…
2021 project
2020 was a year of extremes. While my finances have rarely been so dire, I have also rarely felt so supported. With virtually everything at a standstill, a vision for what I want the middle third of my career to…
Lonely Cello
While purists snipe and decry their very existence as folly, the fact remains that there are legions of solitary cellists out there. Perhaps you, gentle reader, are one yourself. Some folks choose to live far from populations centers where music…
ICS answers: what’s the best scale book?
Elegie triplets: help for a tricky passage
send me your problems!
Everyone has reacted to the changes brought about by covid-19 differently. Many of my musical colleagues have become prolifically creative; the sudden confinement and lack of performance outlets funneling their energies into new compositions and inventive self-accompanied recordings. I, on…
next stop: Geneva
Geneva, New York is situated at the top of one of the famous Finger Lakes, so named because, well, look at the picture below. Zooming in a little further, Geneva (named for its resemblance to the one in Switzerland) is…
Oregon
To get to my accommodations in the unincorporated town of Temmile, I took two flights: DC to MSP, MSP to PDX. I landed around 8pm, went to the wrong rental car place (twice), and was routed, terrified, around the shipping…
help for a sore thumb
Originally published 7 January 2008. The main takeaway I have, now that an additional 12 years have elapsed, is that while the larger aspects of this post hold true, bow hold is wildly variable. The video I posted about visualization…