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Another Effin’ Christmas Post
I generally write a blog post to announce a new song. This one’s gonna be super short, mainly because I have so few functioning brain cells right now but also because the song kinda speaks for itself. Suffice it to say that (1) I’ve been eking this song out slowly for probably 10 years now, and (2) this is the… um… politest?… version I could come up with.
This semester ends on December 20. If anyone’s interested in hiding from Christmas with me during the weeks that follow, you know where to find me.
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When all else fails…
The eagle-eyed reader will already have noticed that at some point since my last blog post (a mere 1,364 days ago), my website has undergone some major changes. It’s not that I haven’t had any thoughts worth sharing during that interim. (And here, the discreet reader will refrain from commenting…
Middle C is our Note of the Month!
I’m thrilled to announce that, starting this month, all of my students will be invited to participate in a new program I call “Note of the Month.” Because we all—whether we’re singers, pianists, songwriters, or actors—use the same spectrum of sound as the medium for our art-making, it’s important…
And the winner is…
I wrote the following as an “open-ish” letter to the cast of a high-school show I music-directed back in 2014, and originally shared it with them as a post to the cast Facebook group, on the day of the “Apollo Awards,” a local fundraiser event that mimics the Tony Awards, but for high-school…
Six Questions (you should always know the answers to)
My good friend, the amazingly and multi-facetedly impressive Sarah Jebian, recently asked some of her colleagues if they’d be willing to write blog posts that Sarah could share with her voice and acting students in her monthly newsletter. Here’s mine:I saw it coming. I knew a solid 8 bars before…
The Why
Every year the day I get the “testimonial” interviews back from the videographers takes me by surprise. It’s been a few weeks, by then, since the frenzy of preparations for DMGS3 reached its zenith and quickly subsided and I crashed into bed with a huge, relieved sigh of “DONE!” and fell deeply…
The Christmas song nobody ever thought I’d write
After last year’s Christmas post, one could be forgiven for responding to this news with a bit of (good-natured, I’d hope) ribbing, but: I’ve just written a new Christmas song. The world, you see, is full of un-beautiful stuff right now. And while I do still firmly believe that the contemporary…
Why I keep coming out
I am not good at holidays. I lack that (honorable, healthy, and near-universal) human characteristic that motivates people to schedule time off, to pause from daily routines, and to take special note of historical events on their anniversaries. So National Coming Out Day takes me by surprise when…
I hate Christmas.*
There are so many things I hate about Christmas, that I struggle to list them in order of hatedness. Granted, I can name three or four things I hate about Christmas at a moment’s notice, any day of the year, but when I really sit down to focus my un-charitability toward the holiday? Hoo boy. …
Real-life heroes
Today at UUCV we’ll be commemorating National Transgender Day of Remembrance. (What’s that? Take a look, but not if you need to put on your happy face any time in the next few hours.) I am pleased about one thing: I’ve used Namoli Brennet’s music in worship enough over the last year that I feel…
This guy…
Sometimes someone crosses your path and you connect for reasons you can’t explain. So… there’s this guy. Gabe. I’ll write more about him someday, I’m sure, but now isn’t the time. (We have a class to prepare for.) For today, on his 16th birthday, here’s our relationship boiled down into one…
Of wrong and right
There must be something in the air. Several times this week I’ve paused in the middle of teaching to interrupt a student’s spiral of self-deprecation and frustration. The spiral is easy to recognize, either by the words that accompany it— “This doesn’t sound right.” … “That note is so high!” ……
The re-closeting of America
I should start by saying, I totally get it. When comfortable white liberals say that Trump voters are not welcome in their homes, or issue self-righteous screeds about how their outrage isn’t about politics—and perhaps especially when dudes who remind me of me in a lot of important ways demand…
What the world needs now
I can’t. I’m sorry. Basta. I’ve tried, but I can’t. I just can’t keep the brave face on all the time. I can’t have the right words at the ready all the time. Sometimes I can’t keep the wrong words from spewing out of my mouth (or, more likely, my fingers) in a moment of anger. I don’t always…
Substantive danger (or, why I took the bumper stickers off my car)
“I think prejudice is the stupidest thing on the planet,” said comedian Lewis Black many years ago. “There are so many perfectly valid reasons to hate people on an individual basis.”* And I’ll be the first to admit that there are some self-absorbed, attention-craving, energy-sapping,…
Silence (and other figments of our imagination)
Once a year or so, Rev. Aija lets me take the reins (and the pulpit) for what we call “Music Sunday”—a worship experience that’s all about music, except when it’s not. Coming up with a theme for Music Sunday is always pretty easy—there’s always a song I’ve wanted to find an excuse for the choir…
(Im)perfection
You’d think, for all the times I’d shouted “STRONG AND WRONG!!!” at my students with clenched fists in the air and mock rage on my face, that I’d be better at it. But every time I get ready to upload a new recording to my Demo Recordings page, the script starts again: “Is this really ready to…
Life, love, and Pippin
My good friend Jeremy Patterson has a new YouTube interview show called the Capital Area Theatre Show. Guess who he invited to be his second-ever interviewee? Tune in below or on the show’s YouTube channel to hear our milkshake-fueled conversation about art and life and idols and dreams and fears…
…and then there were three.
Have you been waiting anxiously for the other—er, third—shoe to drop? Rejoice! The third and final movement of the Mozart 4‑hands piano sonata I’ve been serially sharing is here at last! I’m still mulling over an additional piece to include in the “Piano Covers” section of my Demo Recordings…
Offend me. Please.
I say a lot of things I have no right to say. I’ve been known to comment on race (from a white perspective), nationalism (from a US-native perspective), physical disability (from an able-bodied perspective), gender identity (from a cis male perspective), religion (from a…
Moody Monday Mozart
On Thursday I shared a new recording of the first movement of Mozart’s D Major Sonata for piano 4‑hands, and warned promised that the later movements would be forthcoming. Can you keep a secret? The second movement of that sonata is, I think, one of the most gorgeous piano movements ever written,…
Snow-melt Mozart
It’s bright and sunny here in Central Pennsylvania, and Snowmageddon is clearly losing its grip on the terrain. Something about the sparkle and trickle of melting snow makes Mozart piano music seem “just right” today, so I’m delighted to announce that I’ve uploaded my second demo recording: the…
A little night music
One of the things I love most about my career is that I get to experience a never-ending stream of new repertory—between my work at UUCV, at Open Stage, at CASA, and elsewhere, I never have time to get bored with the material I’m working on! The downside to this excitement is that I seldom have…
Roots & shale
There’s a trail near my house. I’ve known of its existence since we moved in nearly a decade ago—its entrance is marked by a charmingly rustic carved wooden sign—but it was only under the scent-motivated encouragement of Jackie (the retriever mix also known as my parents’ favorite child) that I…
Levator veli palatini
It sounds like a Harry Potter spell, doesn’t it? It’s not, but it can have a magical effect on the demeanor of a beginning singer. So many of the most common challenges for singers are simply matters of acoustics: the physics of how sound bounces around (or doesn’t) on its way out of your face.…
The insecurity of snowflakes
I used to carry a coffee mug around the music building at Dickinson. On it was a lovely photo of several snowflakes, with the caption, “Always remember that you are unique. Just like everybody else.” One of the things I love most about teaching is the way it reminds me (on my best days, of…