Well, the insanity of summer is in full swing, as usual. Been running around doing strange things - busking, for example. You know, I realize that just 'cause I'm out there with my case open doesn't mean people have to throw money in, but if you're going to stand there and listen for 15 or 20 minutes and then just walk away, that's rude. The trio concert at Cornell earlier this month was definitely a learning experience; I will never again tackle that many new works on short rehearsal time without a score. We pulled it off fairly well, actually, but let's face it, the repertoire for the flute/violin/viola combo is decidedly on the oddball side. The Grofé was described by a friend of Liisa's husband as "It sounds like a Looney Tunes soundtrack in there." Pretty close.

My latest project is an attempt to convert a few of the local violin students into at least part-time violists. At the Grand Opening party for Johnson Strings's new Falmouth location we discovered that I am basically the only violist in town - and I'm not even here much. With about 100 little violinists and maybe 30-40 cellists, that's a lot of students being deprived of string quartet experience. So off I go with Bach, Stravinsky and Paganini to see if I can beguile any into coming over to "the dark side". As in sound, that is.

Then I have to figure out what to do with myself. Now it looks like I might move to Boston, if I can pick up enough work to pay rent up there, yikes! It's more than a little nuts trying to find a place, but some friends are helping me and hopefully something will work out eventually. You never know... Off to practice; if I'm going to be trying to convince people to try the viola I'd better sound awfully good myself!

The back-files: Uno    Dos    Tres    Cuatro    Cinco