TWO NEW Rapido Partners!!

I am thrilled to announce that our upcoming 2012 Rapido Composition Contest cycle will include two outstanding new partner ensembles. From Dallas, the Voices of Change is one of our country's most respected new music ensembles and they are about to launch their 37th season. From San Francisco, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble is an acclaimed ensemble of 12 musicians which presents both traditional and new music in their varied programming. With the addition of these two amazing ensembles covering applications from all the Southwestern and Western U.S. states, our Rapido contest will cover all 48 states coast to coast! Boston Musica Viva will coordinate composition applications from the entire Northeast, Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble will coordinate the extensive Midwest, and we in the ACP will coordinate applications from Maryland and Washington D.C. to Louisiana and Florida. We are proud of the artistic umph of these five partner ensembles and look forward to an even more exciting cycle of our Rapido Competition in 2012-2014. Stay tuned for much, much more!

Programming is almost finished!!!!!!!

I'm getting VERY CLOSE to being finished with next season's four public concerts. It's such a puzzle to put together, with the musicians special requests and date restrictions, the availability (and not) of the four venues, plus the special requests and restrictions of the presenters themselves. No wonder I am pooped... Stay tuned. In just another day or two, I'll be announcing the next season! Make sure you've signed up for emails so we can stay in touch with you about details and deals!

Joyful Outreach!

Last Thursday was a most joyful experience for our ACP Outreach Quartet! We are Adelaide Federici, violin and 8 months pregnant, Charae Krueger, cello, Ann Marie McPhail, soprano, and yours truly on piano. We headed to the Benson Senior Center, one of Fulton County's impressive senior multi-purpose facilities, in Sandy Springs. From "O mio babbino caro" and Mozart Divertimento in Bb to "The Swan" and "The Sound of Music," this was a varied celebration of intimate songs, instrumental solos and trios. Our enthusiastic audience of about 75 were so gracious and seemed to really enjoy our gift of music. Big thanks to the Fulton County Arts Commission for helping support this memorable free performance for some very grateful seniors. We certainly enjoyed ourselves, too!

Vacation now, right? NO! NOT YET!!

Well the big 35th season is over, so we're on vacation, right? NO, absolutely not, not at all!!! My colleagues are all incredibly busy with the final artistic flurry in the ASO and I am also incredibly busy - nailing down venues and concert dates for next season's public concerts and also our six soirees in private homes and venues. And programming! We all contribute suggestions and requests for the season's puzzle of programs and then I spread it all over my dining room table and work on it as a puzzle, juggling the balance of styles, instruments, even the work load. (Violin, cello and piano seem to be constantly in demand, no matter who else plays... leading to an exhausted trio. Too much of a good thing is still too much.) Anyway - stay tuned because I'm crunching it all right now and am determined to pull it all or mostly together in the next week! WHEW! I need a bit of luck too...

What is that SCHREKER piece Tuesday?

Have you heard of Franz Schreker? I sure hadn't... but I'm SO ENJOYING studying and learning the remarkably beautiful, evocative Der Wind... It's a real jewel for clarinet, violin, cello, horn, piano. Can't wait to perform it Tuesday evening at the Shakespeare Tavern! You'll be glad you did, I promise!!  AND we're reviving an old ACP favorite by American great - Ned Rorem... his Trio for Flute, Cello, Piano. Back in graduate school at SUNY at Stony Brook on Long Island, I first studied this work with my colleagues in our "Stony Brook Trio," a busy student group coached by Gilbert Kalish and Sam Baron and sometimes Tim Eddy. Many hundreds of concerts later, I still enjoy this big showpiece for all three instruments, featuring a different contemporary compositional style in each of the four movements. AND our big anchor is the magnificent Brahms Gm Piano Quartet, another ACP staple, this time with our great friend Will Ransom (of Emory University) on the piano bench. It'll be a treat to me to enjoy this great landmark romantic powerhouse of a season finisher with you in the audience. See you Tues evening. The Tavern Pub opens at 6:15 pm and our downbeat is 7:30 --- NOT 8:00. SEE YOU TUESDAY, I hope, I hope!

Home! The Tour is a Memory!

The tour was probably the highlight of my 35 years as pianist with the Atlanta Chamber Players. It was also four of the most jam packed and exhausting days of my life. Jordan Hall with its gorgeous wood, its surprisingly raked stage, the beautiful piano... it was simply one of the greatest experiences I've ever had to play there. And music critic emeritus Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, who heard more than 12,000 concerts during his decades as Globe critic, was fascinating during the pre-concert panel with composer Michael Gandolfi and me. It was frustrating to have to leave at 7:35 to change clothes for the 8:00 downbeat! About 20 of us gathered afterwards with dear Atlanta soiree hosts at the Lucca Back Bay restaurant for a memorable dinner. An early train to Boston the next morning went smoothly, taking us through beautiful coastal towns such as Providence RI and New London CT before arriving at Penn Station. I was frankly a bit resigned that the Boston experience might turn out to be the musical highlight of the trip, but then we rehearsed in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall - and once again I was thrilled with the acoustics and beautiful piano. And it was a personal thrill to walk across the street from Carnegie Hall to Steinway Hall and be led upstairs to my private Rachmaninoff room for practicing. I spent 4 memorable hours there last Friday and Saturday, with Sergei staring down at me from two walls. While Boston's concert was an absolutely excellent performance, for me New York topped it. I believe the ensemble of the group in the Foote Piano Quartet and the beautiful colors of the piano made for one of the most rewarding performances I've ever played. There was no time for blogging during the tour. There was not enough time for sleeping! As more time passes, I'm sure I'll be able to process the nuances and highlights of this memorable tour. But I know already that I have just performed in probably the two most gorgeous halls of my career. Such memories. Such a privilege.

Ready Set Go...

We've rehearsed, we've practiced performing the program, we've listened to the performance recordings and debriefed and then rehearsed some more, we've had some tense arguments, we've had some magic on stage... and tomorrow we lift off. 35 seasons. An adult lifetime, a whole career... and this is one memory for the record books. Tomorrow after years and years of hearing about it, I get to actually hear for myself the hallowed music space known as Jordan Hall. And it feels as if so so so many people are responsible for the upcoming experience. I can think of so many musician colleagues through the three and a half decades, the Board leaders who worked to keep the ACP boat afloat, my amazing soul partner who has endured the last 26 years of ACP with me. Thanks everyone, thanks for the chance to meet Jordan Hall in Boston tomorrow afternoon!