Performance!

I just found out that one of the pieces I sent out to a call for scores is being performed. The New York Miniaturist Ensemble will play my piano piece "Caverns" on their concert Thursday, May 1st, 10pm at The Stone in Lower Manhattan.

Spanish Renaissance Music

Last Saturday, epilimnion and I went to the Blue Heron Ensemble's concert of late 16th century Spanish vocal and instrumental music. The performance was put on in conjunction with the MFA's current special exhibit "El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Phillip III", so it was nearly sold out. Blue Heron, whcihc consists of a vocal group and a string ensemble were joined by the Boston Shawm & Sackbut Ensemble. Yay for original instruments!
It was a superb concert. The vocal ensemble was incredible - gorgeous sound, tight handling of the counterpoint. I also very much enjoyed the mix of instrumental and vocal music - especially when they were combined in a single piece as with the "Magnificat a quarti toni" by Vivanco which was done with instrumental interpolations by Phillipe Rogier.
I'm going to to have to try to get to some of Blue Heron's concerts next season, because I was really impressed with them. And I love early music but don't get enough opportunities to hear it live.

Book Review

The Other Wind
by Ursula K. LeGuin

This is the final Earthsea book (to date), and I am sad to leave that world and those characters. This book had more plot threads than any of its predecessors, which gave it a rather different feel. The Other Wind also deals with the mysteries of the nature of Earthsea and its two kinds of intelligent inhabitants, dragons and humans, instead of the mysteries of the individual self. This widening out of the themes nicely mirrors the widening out of the plot scope.

Take me out to the ballgame...

Last night I got to see my first Red Sox game in Fenway Park, courtesy of zfarcher, who kindly gave me his extra ticket. It was wicked awesome. We had pretty good seats - about halfway up the bleachers, to the right of the scoreboard. My only complaint, and it's a very minor one, is that it was colder than I would have liked. Since this was a somewhat spur-of-the-moment outing for me, I wasn't perfectly prepared. But I was only mildly uncomfortable, not physically miserable.
Watching a game from within the park is a completely different experience than watching it on TV. There's things you just don't see or even know about from a broadcast. Like the guys who run out to rake the brick dust. And the songs played for every player. Singing along to "Sweet Caroline". Jumping to your feet with the crowd when something exciting happens. Watching the ball fly over the field. It's so much fun.
I got lucky, too, and the game provided a complete Fenway experience. The game went scoreless for several innings, then quickly became a tie, which gave it delicious suspense. David Ortiz hit a home run. There were some dramatic catches made. Jonathan Papelbon was the closer. And then the Sox won. So cool.