Category Random Musical Encounters
Times Gone By – New Year’s 500
Happy New Year! WordPress informs me that this is my 500th post on Musical Me – a milestone, which, when coupled with the New Year, has me thinking big. As I reminisce about 2016, I can’t help but conclude that it was indeed a pretty big year for me personally. I completed my first […]
A Perlman Pearl
Regular readers know that Itzhak Perlman, the 71-year-old violin virtuoso, is one of my favorites. He has been for a long time; I was privileged to get to see him when I was a teenager in the early 1990s, and I’ve got tickets to see him again in April at the Lyric Opera House. This […]
Christmas 2016
We’re just back from our annual trek to Kansas to visit my family for Christmas – we were fortunate to have had excellent weather for the duration – some years, including last, weather has sidelined us into roadside motels as we make our way to and fro’. The rental Explorer performed great and our hotel […]
Composing While Female
Recently I went to a performance of the Chicago Sinfonietta, an organization that was created in the 1980s to inject some diversity into the classical music scene in Chicago. While I’ve long wished that the world of the music I love best were more representative of the breadth of humanity and applaud intentional efforts to […]
Violin Dreaming
This morning I broke free from one of those odd dream worlds that can appear when crossing over from sleeping to waking. The dream was about the violin – not about playing the violin, but just a strange little scene with the instrument itself. It was unsettling – I generally don’t remember dreams. Upon returning […]
Happy Wreathing
The 25th annual wreathing of the famous Art Institute of Chicago lions, apparently a holiday tradition for some, was a chilly spectacle yesterday morning. At 10 am on Black Friday, hundreds gather on the steps and sidewalks in front of the Art Institute to participate in the annual rite. Until this year, I had never […]
Changes
Last night was our first night in a new condo – a fabulous space we just closed on in a historic downtown building. We spent the night on an airbed that we’ll soon retire for guests; we don’t have much else here except the makings for coffee, as the movers are scheduled to do their […]
Sinfonietta de los Muertos
Teacher subs in with the Chicago Sinfonietta on occasion, last night being one of them. She offered free tickets to the Halloween concert, so I went with a friend down to Symphony Center for my first experience with this orchestra. The group was founded in 1987 to promote diversity in the arts – as anyone […]
Milestones and Legends
Well I’m late to my own birthday party. I launched Musical Me three years ago Friday, on October 14, 2013. As this chronicle – now approaching 500 posts – attests, my musical journey has been fulfilling in all the ways I hoped it might, though it’s true that my posts over the past year have […]
Dissonance
Northalsted’s Market Days is one of the biggest street festivals in Chicago. Now, straightaway, I want to admit to having a complicated relationship with Chicago’s many summer street-fests. On the surface, they are a source of pride and fun for many of the city’s neighborhoods, offering local businesses and artisans a chance to strut their […]
Ryan Libel 