What a week.
For all of you reading this that were affected by the storm, I hope that you, your families and your homes are all OK. It finally seems like the city is creeping back towards normalcy after being essentially shut down for several days.
So, first: the bad news. Last weekend, the wonderful Lauren Rausch and I were supposed to play my friend and colleague Judah Adashi’s Eight Haiku by Richard Wright for violin and marimba at a faculty recital at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. I was also supposed to play one of Judah’s newer compositions, Art and the Rain for solo marimba. Sadly, because of the ongoing problems with the transit systems both around and outside of NYC, I had to cancel. Those of you down in Baltimore, stay tuned: we will reschedule this performance!
Next, Le Train Bleu was supposed to play a show tonight, at DROM, a brand new venue for us. Due to the storm, we will be rescheduling our originally planned program and replacing it with a benefit for the victims of Sandy. I’ll be joining an all-star cast of new music performers to raise money for AmeriCares, a wonderful group that has set up emergency medical shelters in Staten Island and Queens. You’ll hear performances by Jeffrey Gavett, Melissa Hughes,Konstantin Soukhovetski, James Moore, Kathy Supové and myself: my contribution will be Frederic Rzewski’s hymn for flowerpots and text, To the Earth. The piece represents a dialogue between mother nature and mankind, something I thought was particularly apt this week. I hope you’ll join us – you’ll be helping people get back up on their feet and the show itself will be fantastic. Again – that show is tonight and there’s more info here.
OK, on to some Sandy-less news. A couple of weeks ago, I had my first show with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. I played an outstanding (and fiendishly difficult) duo for piano and marimba by Georges Aperghis with Gilles Vonsattel. It was an incredible evening all around, and you can read what the New York Times had to say about it here. If you missed that one, don’t worry: there’s another coming up just around the corner. On Tuesday November 13th, I’ll join Ayano Kataoka and Efe Baltacigil for a performance of Bruce Adolphe’s Self Comes to Mind for cello and two percussionists. Originally premiered by Yo-Yo Ma, Self Comes to Mind is the result of Bruce’s collaboration with the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Damasio composed a poetic and beautiful text specifically for the piece and Bruce has written some exquisitely beautiful music in response to it. This concert is in Alice Tully Hall, and you can get tickets and more info here.
The following weekend, Le Train Bleu joins forces with Opera Moderne for a run of Viktor Ullman’s rarely performed opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Ullman wrote the work while he and librettist Peter Kien were prisoners in Theresienstadt, but it was banned by the Nazi’s after one rehearsal and was not performed during the composer’s life. Opera Moderne has been on a tear lately, and we can’t wait for our first collaboration with them! There are shows November 16-18 at the Czech Center on East 73rd Street. More info and tickets here.
In other news, Barack Obama was re-elected as the President of the United States. Forward.