It sounds like an oxymoron, but I played my first live funeral service a few days ago. The church had a congregation of masked and socially distant attendees; I was accompanying a singer and playing prelude and postlude music. It felt incredibly foreign and normal at the same time. But unlike in the many hundreds … Read more
It is a tradition in India to perform music of spiritual depth only if one is a spiritual master. The purpose of music not being for the development of ego of the performer, but rather for the enlightenment and spiritual edification of the listener. In other words, music’s goal is connection with the Divine. In … Read more
In Latin, “corona” refers to a garland worn on the head as a mark of honor or emblem of majesty; it can also refer to a halo around a celestial body.[1] I prefer “coronavirus” to the clinical “COVID-19” because using the word, “corona,” conjures up an image of an encircling light. That encircling light is … Read more
In spite of thirteen hours on an airplane, a time change of nine hours, and sleep deprivation for most of us, some 35 singers, my husband as their choir director, and me as their organist were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We were at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, about to sing for an evening Mass … Read more
It is only once in an artist’s lifetime that the opportunity presents itself to participate in the memorial service of one’s first, and most formative, teacher and mentor. It’s an honor and a responsibility simultaneously, the very last showing of respect, and the official passing on of the baton. In some Asian traditions, it is … Read more
I’m in Lüneburg, Germany – a small, former Hanseatic town that was once one of the wealthiest places in Germany, thanks to the salt mines here which created, by the Middle Ages, the largest industry in all of Europe. For Bach aficionados, it’s also the first place where Sebastian Bach came, setting off on his … Read more
“I will not let you leave me until you have blessed me.” Loosely translated, the patriarch, Jacob, spoke this to the angel with which he wrestled for a night, leaving him with an injured hip. Some five millennia later, I’m standing (for two and a half hours) on the Davies Hall stage, playing Messiah, with … Read more
I can’t recall how many times it happened, but it seems to me that most of my grade school years, through high school, had an English class which started with the assignment to write a short essay on “What I did last summer.” Long before we could even envision a life in which Facebook could … Read more