Pushing on a Rope
Music
Some notable fun with the community band
The weather held out just long enough yesterday for the Rye Town (NY) Community Band to finish its annual concert in Crawford Park. Every year I marvel that how — 42 years after I first picked up a clarinet — participating in that hour of entertaining others with a bit of music is like coming … Continue reading
The Music Makers
Saturday marked the final concert of the Rye Town Community Band‘s short season and it was great fun. After five straight days of rain, the sun shone for Rye Brook Day at Crawford Park, and we added a brief soundtrack to the festivities. As you can see, the band members span decades in terms of … Continue reading
Encore!
Last night marked Catherine’s final high school choral concert and it was the treat we’ve come to expect. A special hallmark of the spring performance — aside from its program of pops numbers — is the senior sendoff. This year’s 45 senior choristers wore red roses on their lapels and were recognized toward the end … Continue reading
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday — A Little Light ‘Reeding’
Once upon a time I played the first clarinet part of this march — from memory. Perfectly. My fingers flew along the keys with ease and elan. Alas, even without the pressure to memorize, the muscle memory is short-term. My age shows with every note (and depending on which part of the transitional lenses I … Continue reading
In Concert
First choral concert of the new year last night at Greenwich High and the kids are already killing it, practicing hard on their way to February’s trip to Hawaii. I can’t help but think back to the elementary school concerts and — a few of my readers will surely remember — the singing sessions at … Continue reading
The Staff of Life
It’s Band Night in Port Chester. I’m here in Old Greenwich, fresh from a killer body sculpting workout I’m sure to feel tomorrow, but my heart is on that football field. The field where I spent too many frosty early mornings to count practicing with numb fingers and sneakers soaked with the morning dew. Where … Continue reading
Flashback Friday: The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd
Catherine’s concert this week got me thinking: She comes by those vocal chops naturally (click at the end of this post for another song from Wednesday’s concert). By the time I was her age, I had been singing my way through life — church choir, school chorus, school plays, driving my mother crazy around the … Continue reading
Giving voice to a breath of spring
Beautiful finale at the Greenwich High choral concert Wednesday night — all five choirs squeezed onto the risers to sing Irving Berlin’s “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.” It was a wonderful way to end an amazing evening of vocal entertainment — and a fitting welcome to spring. (As with the winter concert, it is … Continue reading
Time to take note … and maybe leave with it
Followers of this blog know I arrived at midlife with a vow to live out loud. This was a big step for me. Up til then, unless I knew you very well, I was generally a mouse, followed the rules, avoided new experiences and tried to be as low maintenance as possible. That changed in … Continue reading
You gotta get up and try, try, try
We enjoyed a belated holiday celebration last night with our former neighbors. Now that we don’t see them over the fence or at the front door each day, it’s a great treat to spend time with them, see how big the kids are getting, hear the crazy things they say, see the youngest one (conceived … Continue reading
