After a very full week at a festival in Montana, I am now waiting for my flight at the airport with a unique feeling of exhaustion, exhilaration, and a certain kind of delirium that comes about from a combination of intense music making and jet lag. Performing a wide variety of solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire within 5 days as well as giving a master class is a challenge for any musician, and I have certainly been heavily immersed in music this week. You can see a little of my activities this past week in this video, and some info on the master class I gave. I love this beautiful northwestern region of Montana, and am very much looking forward to returning again in the future.

At the same time, I am now filled with tremendous excitement to be heading to Toronto, a city I love - it has been close to ten years since my last visit, and I’m thrilled to be able to launch my new recording, “Chopin | Schumann: Sonatas”, in this vibrant city. This recording marks the start of a special collaboration between myself and UNICEF Spain, an organization that I very much support and, as many of you know, I consider my outreach and humanitarian work an important part of my artistic life. I feel that this new partnership can help all of us contribute in some way towards the betterment of afflicted children worldwide. I know that I will be meeting some of you at the launch party, and I am so very happy to meet some of my “online” friends in real life! For those of you who will not be there, or are unable to attend, I will be performing and giving an interview on one of Canada’s top classical music stations, 96.3FM, on August 5th between 3:15 -3:45 (EST) and will be performing selections by Schumann, Ravel, and Chopin. If you are not in Canada, you can still listen and watch because it will be live-streamed through the station’s website.

I have always felt extremely fortunate whenever I have met or worked with people who not only impress me with their character and talent, but who also inspire and challenge me to be better, both as a person and as an artist. So far, in all of these aspects, this summer has been a memorable one for me. Not only did I meet fine people in Montana, both musicians and concert administrators who are committed to bringing the arts alive, but I have worked with two extraordinary Canadian females for this CD launch event. Liz Parker (my publicist and all-around samurai rock star goddess) and Rosemarie Umetsu (a fabulous designer who not only is providing the marvelous venue for the event, but is also outfitting me for both my radio/live-streaming interview and launch party) are both the powerhouse individuals that have made all of this happen. Furthermore, this event would not be possible without the generous support of Scott Wilson of Terzetto Wine for providing the wine and Paul Hahn & Co. for providing the beautiful Steinway piano for me to play on.

This is a joyous event for me, and quite simply, I can’t wait!

I’m currently in one of my favorite cities, gorgeous San Francisco, to attend the Blogher Conference, and am having a lovely time. I’ll be sharing a longer post later today detailing where I’ve been over the past month, but for now, if you want quick updates about my experiences at Blogher, you can follow me on my Twitter account. If you’re here at Blogher, please come by and say hello, or drop me a direct message on Twitter!



Opening BlogHer mixer at the top of the Westin St. Francis

I feel as though I’ve been a little disconnected this week because I have been immersed in preparations and recording sessions for my next CD, and have been inhabiting the turbulent, restless, melancholic and highly emotionally charged inner worlds of Schumann and Chopin rather than that of the outside world.

Recording of the Schumann G- minor sonata was completed in the past two days, and due to scheduling conflicts for all the parties involved, recording of the Chopin third sonata will take place next month. If all goes well, it will hopefully be released during the summer. Recording is always a difficult and challenging process for me - it is a gruelingly self-critical and a brutally emotional and mentally exhausting time. Listening to oneself over and over again, reworking and trying new things, and the constant emotional drainage that takes place from repeating takes to a microphone and not to a live audience, is very difficult. Unlike a live performance, which is a communicative and sharing event that takes place in one moment in time, a recording is a permanent archive that preserves an artist’s voice and interpretative statement, and because of this, a different set of challenges present themselves.

As I take a little time to rest and revive myself, click here to view a few photos I snapped at the recording sessions.

General News:

1. My upcoming recital in Madrid on the 26th for Casa Asia and the Madrid Cultural Center will touch on the music of Takemitsu. I’ll be performing both of his Rain Sketches in addition to works by Chopin, Ravel, and Debussy - I wanted to place Takemitsu’s music in context to these other French and French-influenced composers to see the influence their music had on his own compositions. It has been an interesting experience working on this program - I feel as though I have been inhabiting a very atmospheric world of suggestive language these past few weeks. You can find the program and press release for the concert to download from my site here (in Spanish). If you’re in Madrid and have time that evening to go to the beautiful Conde Duque hall, I hope to see you there.

2. Sarah Canice Funke wrote an article about me for Suite 101 this weekend, focusing on my integration of the web with my music life, and wrote a bit about my blogging and photography. I have always been written about in terms of my music and performances, and have to admit that I am blushing a little because I somehow feel as though I’ve been recognized for my small, modest blogging and photography efforts…which is nice.

Other news and links:

I spent some time this weekend exploring the blogosphere, and am once again amazed at all of the “good stuff” out there. Here are some links that I enjoyed:

1.The Collaborative Piano Blog: Chris has a great blog that covers everything from collaborative piano work, pianists, and the state of the classical music field.
Two recent posts brought up interesting questions regarding our field:

http://collaborativepiano.blogspot.com/2008/03/good-times-bad-times.html : links and news about the classical field in the US, including the situation in Columbus.

http://collaborativepiano.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-ebook-manifesto-on-trust-economies.html: References another Chris (Chris Brogan - see below) and his recent ebook manifesto with Julien Smith, and the questions raised by the new media/technology and how it affects classical musicians.

2. The Well-Tempered Blog: Bart’s blog covers all things piano related, with interesting tidbits and links.
Recent interesting and amusing posts include:

http://pianophilia.blogspot.com/2008/03/king-of-bling-liberace.html : “King of Bling” is a very apt title.

http://pianophilia.blogspot.com/2008/03/pyrophones-intonarumori-and-things-that.html: Interesting find.

http://pianophilia.blogspot.com/2008/03/rocket-or-piano.html : About the new Schimmel Pegasus Piano which quite simply, frightens me.

3. Solitude in Music: Jeff, a classical guitartist in Singapore, shares his lovely thoughts about music.
One I enjoyed recently:

http://solitudeinmusic.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-am-amateur.html : Something I have often thought about.

4. Chris Brogan
I’m putting up a general link for Chris’ site because I enjoy his posts and ideas. Enthusiastic, passionate about social media, and an all-around extraordinary engager, Chris consistently provides food for thought, whatever field you may be in.

It’s a cold, cloudy, drizzly, grey day and I feel quite uninspired.



My teacher used to complain on days like this, and with his rough, heavily Russian-accented English, he would proclaim that days like this were not meant for producing “any inspired or beautiful music”, but were meant for being alone, thinking and ruminating. I used to tease him, saying with all the fresh idealism of youth, “Oh Alexander, come on! It doesn’t matter what the weather is like, we can still create something beautiful from the inside! Come on, let’s get to work!” I used to love this kind of weather - especially while I lived in New York, where the grey dreariness was a part of the very character of the city. I felt like it made me tougher, grittier, and it energized me into thinking that my work as a musician was so noble because I was trying to create beauty in the middle of such adversity as rain and dark clouds!

And now? Now I’m sitting here, completely affected by the weather, nursing a cup of hot tea, and feeling melancholic and uninspired. Hmm.

Schmutzie just wrote a charming and amusing post about “getting older”, that got me thinking about all of this. Perhaps this current natural acceptance and intake of what is around me is a sign of age, and my previous determined need to prove myself, despite the surroundings, was a hallmark of my brash youth. A few days ago, a friend of mine and fellow pianist, D, celebrated a birthday, and as I sent him his birthday e-card, I mentioned in it that he should “revel” in his youth. Although he’s a few years younger than me, part of the reason why we have been friends for so long is because of his maturity, and his impressive ability to perceive subtle issues in ways that I never could have at his age. But as I sent the card to him, I felt a strange twinge - like the twinge I felt the first time someone called me “ma’am” instead of “miss”. I suddenly felt that those few years between our ages was an enormous gulf, and I felt an unbelievable urge to protect him from all the challenges and difficulties I knew were lying ahead of him. But most of all, I was worried that he would push himself in all of the wrong ways, in the impulsive driven manner of youth, when perhaps the most important thing was for him to learn to let go, to naturally accept things as they come, to take the time to be enriched in all ways by everything that is around us. In other words, all the things my teacher was probably trying to teach me through his sensitive comments about things as innocuous as the weather.

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In other news, I am doing some score shopping today for an interesting performance I have coming up, which I hope to post about later this week. I am also now on StumbleUpon, and have created a Bloglog community for this blog, and would love it if you would join/friend me there.