Another Concert! - 30 October 2021 - Plague Journal Day 597

Micah 6:8
Psalm 150
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Yes, we're headed for another concert by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra tonight. We've been subscribers for nearly forty years now, and have what we consider the best seats in the house - and that's in a house with no bad seats!

We're looking forward to hearing the Dvorak New World Symphony as well as a first - two piano concertos played by the same soloist in the same half of the concert. This should be pretty interesting; the sheer bravery is impressive at the very least.
The program has two premieres tonight - the North American Premiere of the Enesco piano concerto and the World Premiere of a contemporary piece by a Michigan composer.

Can't hardly wait!


Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

I Still Say Forest Fires - 09 October 2021 - Plague Journal Day 576

Micah 6:8
Revelation 8:5-7   2 Kings 2:23-25
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is Fire Prevention Day, something to be wished for every day, don't you think? Here is a picture of Heidi and Kooder by Smokey the Bear. After all, who else could represent fire prevention?

Also - we're finally back to seeing the Detroit Symphony Orchestra live and in person tonight! We're really looking forward to getting back to the friendly confines of Orchestra Hall, Detroit's acoustic marvel, to hear the orchestra under the baton of our new music director, Jader Bignamini. We've seen him a few times in the past, and he is quite an excellent conductor, and Ray Chen will be playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto - all in all, a program we're really looking forward to enjoying.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Music To My Ears - And Soul - 07 July 2021 - Plague Journal Day 482

Micah 6:8
Psalm 150
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


Today is Gustav Mahler's 161st birthday. Thinking back on my musical journey, he was either the first or second of the out-of-the-mainstream composers I discovered. (I think this photo makes him look like he belongs in a Harry Potter flick.)
By that mainstream I mean Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and the like - the composers everyone has heard of (and probably heard something they wrote) .I came across both Mahler and Sibelius browsing for records at the Student Union or maybe Discount Records in Ann Arbor back in my university days.

One thing we miss by having lost most of our record shops is random discovery of music based on what the store was playing. I found a lot of classical and jazz that way in Ann Arbor. I found more of those as well as some off-beat pop and folk and so forth later on at Harmony House and Village Records in the greater Grosse Pointe Metroplex. Mahler, Sibelius, Al DiMeola, Return to Forever, Asleep at the Wheel, Richard Thompson, the New World Renaissance Band, the list goes on and on.

I miss record stores - and I miss live music. Fortunately, that's coming back, and we're already scheduled for a festival in August and our DSO tickets are set for the upcoming season with our new music director, Jader Bignamini!

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

29 July 2020 - Plague Journal Day 139 - RIP Charles Greenwell

Micah 6:8
Romans 12:14-18
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

We have (at least temporarily) lost a really fine man, a wonderful musician, and a good friend. Charles Greenwell has moved on to the other side, having succumbed to the ravages of cancer.

Long before I actually knew him, I was a fan - listening to him every day on WQRS in his midday shift where he educated me so much about classical music. On a station tour (probably back in 1982), we trouped through his studio while music was playing - that was the first time I met him, and my friend commented to me that it was for me what meeting Arthur Penhallow would have been to him, and I think he was right. Charles was the voice of classical musical knowledge to me then - and has remained so to this day.
It wasn't many years later that Charles and I became personally acquainted, as his wife, Patti, became the music director at our church, and Charles was brought along for the ride. Through the years, he went from the occasional narrator for programs at church to a regular member of the choir and the bell choir. He became part of our church family, not just our musical family, and not even just a friend - he was my brother, and I will miss him terribly. (I already do.)

As another friend paraphrased the other day, if there's a classical music Heaven, you know they've got a hell of a conductor. Amen.


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.