The whole family will be amazed by Bronkar Lee, the world’s only rhythmic juggling beatboxer, who will bring his blend of music, comedy, skill and rhythmic energy to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25.
As part of WICA’s Family Series, Lee will present a school matinee to the 6th and 7th grade classes of South Whidbey School District on the morning of April 25.
Lee describes himself as “a hyperactive kid with ADHD” who through “practice, persistence and patience” channeled his high energy into a unique act combining music, juggling, beat boxing and a positive message for kids.
Deana Duncan, WICA’s Programming/Education Director said, “The Family Series is one of the longest running Arts in Education programs in the South Whidbey School District and we’re excited to continue the tradition with Bronkar on April 25. We met Bronkar at the 2012 Northwest Booking Conference and found his work highly interactive and absolutely mesmerizing. As a mom of two students I knew that this performer was sharing more than entertainment; he was giving us a glimpse into his process and life.”
For tickets to the evening performance, call WICA at 800-638-7631 or 360-221-8268 or go to tickets.wicaonline.com.
Tickets are $10 for youth and $15 for adults.
Place an exquisite C. Bechstein grand piano onstage, add a diverse array of talented piano players, including a native son turned New York City jazz star, and the recipe for PianoFest Northwest is ready to cook.
Now in its second year, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts presents four days of piano concerts from Wednesday, April 16 through Saturday, April 19 in Langley. The shows feature a variety of musical styles and talent that welcomes such formidable artists as Brazilian native and three-time Latin Grammy Award winner Jovino Santos Neto, as well as the quirky, classical act of “Thirty Fingers,” with Natalya Ageyeva, Lisa Bergman and Deborah Dewey, combining their talents to play elegant classical music written for six hands all playing at once.
Aaron Parks will incorporate some of his renowned Jazz improvisation into his PianoFest program. (photo by Bill Douthart / ECM Records)
The festival also includes an array of local jazz and classical artists including jazz pianists Nancy Nolan and Maureen Girard; Fade Ensemble’s Grant Neubauer, Keegan Harshman and Alex Dugdale; classical artists Kathy Fox and Gloria Ferry-Brennan and Mark Findlay and George Henny adding their talents to Locals Night, which opens the festival with headliner Nolan.
But the biggest news for the South Whidbey community is the return of native son, Aaron Parks, the jazz piano virtuoso, who will come back to perform on the island for the first time in years. Because part of the thrust of PianoFest strives to embrace the developing talent of music students in the community, it’s fitting that Parks, who began his musical journey here, was asked to headline the final Saturday Jazz Night.
“I grew up near Useless Bay and whenever I put my feet on the island I feel centered,” said Parks recently on a phone call from his home in Brooklyn. “All the beach stones I collected over the years are all around my apartment. Knowing the island is there—its natural beauty—keeps me sane,” he said.
He started playing the piano at age 10 because, even though he played the bassoon too, he didn’t want to have to make reeds.
“You had to spend too much time woodworking,” Parks said, “With the piano, you just walk in and everything is right there.”
And sit down to play is what he did—a lot.
A generous group of donors compiled the funds to purchase the 12’ Concert Grand Bechstein Piano which will debut at this year’s PianoFest. (photo by Kathryn Lynn Morgen / WICA)
By age 15, Parks was already attending the University of Washington with a triple major in math, computer science and music; three years later, he was the champion Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association. In December 2013, Parks performed in a tribute to Herbie Hancock at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.
Parks is now a sought-after sideman in international jazz circles and appeared on three Blue Note albums by trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard before making his own album for the label as a leader with the quartet set “Invisible Cinema.” BBC Online declared it “one of the great albums of 2008,” describing the pianist as “a master of melody and a composer and arranger of protean skill and dexterity.”
His most recent album for ECM records, “Arborescence,” is a session of solo studio improvisation in which little was predetermined and where everything is contemplative and beautiful—instrumental improvisation that “often felt less like conscious intention and more like something half-dreamed, half-remembered,” Parks said of the session.
Part of what’s remembered is having grown up on Whidbey Island.
“I connect to my childhood on the island in a lot of what I do; there’s something of that essence that’s always connected for me,” he said.
Parks talked about some of his very first performances, which were at the Island County Fair.
“My sister and I had a band at the time and the drummer was this old-time, big band drummer; he was like a mentor. We were the Jazz Bandits, or something like that, and we wore little masks,” Parks remembered.
“The drummer had told us that it was important to always throw the drummer a bone in every set, let the drummer have his solo, you know, give him his moment. So when we were onstage at the fair we threw this big, plastic bone at him onstage. I’ll never forget it. But that was one of those things that was the island—that guy mentoring us. I felt very much embraced from the beginning and that was hugely encouraging,” Parks said.
Although Parks no longer has family here, he still loves coming back to Whidbey and looks forward to his stay during PianoFest.
“I love going to Langley to make a few pit stops, visit some friends and my favorite places. I’ll go to Useless Bay Coffee Company and the one in the woods—Mukilteo Coffee Company. See which one is winning.”
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts is located at 565 Camano Avenue in Langley. The box office is open from 1 to 6 p.m. daily or two hours before a show. Call (360) 221-8268 for more information.
Schedule for PianoFest Northwest:
Locals Night Headliner Nancy Nolan with Mark Findlay and George Henny
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16; tickets cost $15
Classical Night Headliner Thirty Fingers with Kathy Fox and special guest violinist Gloria Ferry-Brennan
7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17; tickets cost $25
World Music Night Headliner Jovino Santos Neto with Maureen Girard
7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18; tickets cost $25
Jazz Night Headliner Aaron Parks with Fade Ensemble’s Grant Neubauer, Keegan Harshman and Alex Dugdale
7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19; tickets cost $25
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Would you like to play a part in the cultural and musical experience of DjangoFest NW?
We are looking for community members who would be willing to open their homes to our world-class gypsy-jazz musicians such as Stochelo and Mozes Rosenberg and the Robin Nolan Trio from Holland, the Tcha Limberger Trio from Brussels, Opus 4 and Florin Niculescu from France, Gonzalo Bergara and Cuarteto Argentino from Argentina and—from Canada and the United States—Pearl Django, Richard Smith, Trio Dinicu, Greg Ruby’s Rhythym Runners, Quinn Bachand, Leah Zeger Quartet, 3 Cent Stamp and Ivan Pena Quintet.
Home-stay accommodations for our artist are imperative to keeping the premier showcase of Gypsy Jazz in North America on South Whidbey.
One to five nights lodging is desired during DjangoFest NW 2014, which takes place from Wednesday, September 17 through Monday, September 21.
As the festival is in Langley, it would be great if the accommodation is proximate to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.
This is a wonderful opportunity to be involved in the community and experience a new culture through music and entertainment. We are grateful to the community members of South Whidbey, who open their hearts and doors to these world-class musicians.
Hosts will be invited to the opening night party and will be provided complimentary tickets to Locals Night.
For details, please call Fawn Swanson at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts at 360-221-8262
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley welcomes students, ages 5 to 8, for the WICA Conservatory Spring Break Fairy Tale Theatre Camp from Monday, April 7 to Friday, April 11. Fairytale Theatre Camp will be led by local theatre educator Connie Sponheim.
Students will explore the magic of the classic fairy tale through the nurturing experience of theatre games, pantomime and improvisation. Creating their own original tales, the kids will experience the magic of theater and how it can enlighten, embolden and encourage them as they perform their own creation for an audience. They will explore every kind of fairy tale, from “fractured” to “enchanted,” and must be prepared to laugh and have loads of fun telling stories with movement, voice and their active imaginations.
The class will culminate in a presentation for parents and families at WICA. Each student will also receive a free ticket to the matinee performance and a backstage tour of Whidbey Island Dance Theatre’s production of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Snow Queen.”
Instructor Sponheim is a local theatre educator with an extensive background in performance, directing, dialect work and academic teaching. Sponheim brings more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, director and actor to her workshops, along with her high energy and enthusiasm.
WICA Conservatory’s Spring Break Fairytale Camp runs from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, April 7 to 11.
*Special Dates for Waldorf: April 21 – 25
The fee for Fairytale Camp is $60. Pay with a credit card by phone when registering, or bring cash or check to the WICA Box Office from 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
To register, call WICA Administration at 360-221-8262
Whidbey Island Dance Theatre’s “The Snow Queen” returns to Langley in a co-production with Whidbey Island Center for the Arts; the two entities originally staged the ballet 18 years ago to sold-out houses. Created by WIDT in 1996 and 1998, “The Snow Queen” was the first full-length production designed for and presented on the new WICA stage.
Creator and choreographer Asharaine Machala has been hard at work to re-stage her 1998 production, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s coming-of-age fantasy—a story that celebrates the strength of love.
Opening on Friday, April 4, “The Snow Queen” plays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays through April 13.
As the story goes, the Snow Queen is queen of the snowflakes or “snow bees,”and she maintains her palace and gardens in the Scandinavian lands of permafrost. “There are strong archetypes at play here,” Machala said.
The enigmatic Snow Queen (played by Amy Lehman) is a complex character. “She is not a villain, but an elemental force,” Machala said, “And the reindeer (played by Madyson Hunter) is the beat; the reindeer controls the heartbeat of the Earth,” she added.
The Snow Queen is successful in using her cold beauty to abduct a boy named Kai (played by Zane Vanderwood) after he falls victim to the troll-mirror, a magical mirror that splinters glass fragments of ugliness and evil on all those who come under its spell. The Snow Queen promises to free Kai if he can spell “eternity” with the pieces of ice in her palace.
When Kai’s disappearance is discovered, the people of the city believe that Kai drowned in the nearby river. But Kai’s best friend Gerda (played by Faith O’Brochta) is heartbroken and goes out to look for him. This is her quest. Gerda and the reindeer embark on a perilous journey to the north to the Snow Queen’s palace. A woman tells the reindeer that the secret of Gerda’s unique power to save Kai is in her sweet and innocent child’s heart.
Much of the production design for this Whidbey Island production is inspired by the story’s Scandinavian setting; it is transformed into an epic quest with the use of that region’s classical composers, including Dag Wirén, Jean Sibelius, Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen. Scandinavian folk art inspired the production’s visually stunning costumes and its painted backdrops. Setting the mood with beautiful music and sets, Machala makes magical use of WIDT’s best dancers and Whidbey Island community actors to create a heart-warming theatrical journey the whole family can enjoy.
The cast also includes Brittany Falso, Chelsea Matthews-Jensen, Kiana Henny, Kelsey Lampe, Holley Johnson, Skylynn Lippo, Bronte Patty-Caldwell, Emma Patty-Caldwell, Tessa Sherman, Alexa Varga, Caity Zarifis, Ari Abrahams, Christine Monaghan, Tessa Sherman, Marta Mulholland, Susan Vanderwood, Kathryn Lynn and other community members who make up the ensemble.
Tickets are $24 for adults, $20 for seniors and $17 for youth. They are available at tickets.wicaonline.com or by calling the box office at 360-221-8268. Visit www.wicaonline.com for more about Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. Visit http://www.widtonline.org/ for more about Whidbey Island Dance Theatre.
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts is located at 565 Camano Ave. in Langley.
BY RUSSELL CLEPPER Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
March 19, 2014
The last concert in the 2014 Local Artist Series at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts begins at 7:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 22. The Weatherside Whiskey Band has the honor of closing out this year’s series of shows and features Whidbey-grown guitarist and singer Tanner McInerney.
“Performing in a theater like WICA is a great opportunity for us to play some of our softer, more vocally driven tunes,” said McInerney.
The group is known for belting out a rocking, roadhouse repertoire of alt-country and bluegrass, buoyed by three-part harmonies and the hot lead picking of Jakob Singer and driving bass lines of Jacob Yackshaw. Amy Meyer rounds out the group’s sound with her fine vocals and sweet, country-styled harmonies. A bonus for the audience at WICA will be the addition to the line-up of ace fiddler Josh Rabies, formerly of the Portland group Water Tower.
McInerney said the WICA performance will also showcase the band’s new direction toward a more string-based sound. The group has dropped the drums and is gradually phasing in some mandolin picking by Meyers.
Not long after forming the band in 2011, the group released a seven-song EP titled “Pickin’ the Pines” which includes a rousing, outlaw-country balled penned by McInerney called “Oklahoma.”
“We came together with the idea of creating some kind of fusion country in an alternative style,” McInerney said
The band’s roadhouse sound and their alt-country style have given them a reputation as “a whiskey swilling roadhouse outfit.” They have built a following in the Seattle area based on their high-energy shows and boot stomping rhythms. Though their show may be somewhat more subdued Saturday, there’s bound to be plenty of high-energy moments as well.
The WICA show and two other upcoming shows in Fremont and Ballard will help fund the band’s new recording project, which they plan to begin later this spring. McInerney said they are meeting with a producer this week and have already been working on new material.
McInerney grew up hearing his father, Mike McInerney, playing countless old country, roots and bluegrass tunes, with some Beatles and James Taylor thrown in for good measure. “I come from a background of playing around a campfire and picking old country and bluegrass tunes,” he said. “We never miss a chance to sit down and play music together.”
Photo at top: Left to right: Amy Meyer, Jacob Yackshaw, Tanner McInerney and Jakob Singer of the Weatherside Whiskey Band
Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He also is a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.
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The 7th 100-Word Short Story Smash is coming to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.
Writers interested in having their literary masterpieces dramatically read aloud to an admiring public by well-dressed rhetoricians in a stunning setting must follow these submission guidelines:
• All stories must be 100 words exactly; not 99 or less, or 101 plus. The title does not count in the 100-word total.
• Submissions must be submitted NO LATER THAN APRIL 23 to cspencer@whidbey.com so they can be printed and rehearsed by actors prior to the show. Edit your work or, better yet, have someone else edit it.
• Cash prizes will be awarded. You may submit up to two stories. Do not resubmit any story already read aloud in previous shows. In-house deities retain the right to accept or reject entries.
• If you’re unfamiliar with the 100-word genre/format, request guidelines from cspencer@whidbey.com.
Siri Bardarson plays her “beautiful French acoustic cello.”
BY RUSSELL CLEPPER Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor March 10, 2014
When Siri Bardarson decided to leave the security of her teaching career to pursue her muse and her dreams of artistic fulfillment, she didn’t know much about Steve Trembley.
Now, not quite two years later, the two of them will headline as Siri and Steve for the second show of the 2014 “Local Artists Series” on Friday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.
When Bardarson decided not to return to her job at the end of her sabbatical year in 2013, she knew she wanted to play a lot of music, to write a lot and perhaps to paint. While traveling abroad that spring, she’d learned how to use a computer application that generates visual creations resembling watercolor paintings. This new capability not only satisfied her desire to produce visual creations; the reaction to the works she created and posted online during her trip convinced her that she could reach people through her creativity.
A contract to do some ghost writing for a children’s book and a gig as a blogger for Whidbey Life Magazine set her squarely on the path to blossoming as a writer, too. Soon, she was experimenting with a new electric cello and a loop machine and exploring the possibility of developing an act as a solo cellist.
In the meantime, Steve Trembley was looking for a way to base his own musical endeavors more on-island because he was tired of commuting to the mainland. Eventually, the two got together for a couple of gigs and found they connected surprisingly well.
Guitarist Steve Trembley
“I think ‘Siri and Steve’ has come as a surprise to both of us!” Siri said. “We are both long-time island residents; we knew of each other and I’d even done some recording at his studio, Seventh Fret Music, many years ago. I always thought of Steve as ‘the’ guitar player who was a working musician, off-island mostly.”
They first played together when another guitarist invited Trembley to sit in with them during a gig at Blooms’ Taste for Wine & Art at Bayview Corner. They had so much fun that they were soon practicing together, rehearsing Bardarson’s set list. After continuing, at first with her electric cello, and Trembley with his nylon string Godin guitar, they soon abandoned those, along with a lot of the songs on the set list.
“One day at his house,” she said, “I brought my beautiful French acoustic cello and he got out his Gibson Johnny A. electric guitar and played it through his favorite toys—his tape delay and his Jim Kelley amp and he said, ‘Well, that’s your real instrument.’ And I said to him, ‘Well, that’s your real instrument.’ And that has been the basis of our sound.”
It wasn’t long before the duo began filling up local venues with fans who watched them progress rapidly. Both musicians have long resumes as professional gigging musicians over the years. Trembley developed his Motown-influenced style from his rock and roll days in his hometown of Flint, Michigan and later worked as a musician in Los Angeles before ending up on Whidbey. He currently plays with the group Locomotion here on the island and with Type A, a Tower of Power-style big band in Seattle. His Steve Trembley Band will headline at the Penn Cove Musselfest this year on Saturday, March 8 at 5:30 p.m. (in the big beer tent.)
Bardarson performed folk music with her twin sister, Karin, in the 70’s. Later she was lead singer for a seven-piece swing band billed as The Rhythm Boys featuring Siri Blaine. They played KPLU jazz stages, Bumbershoot and many local clubs. She wore vintage gowns and fox furs and threw rubber chickens around while ‘warbling’ Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan and Manhattan Transfer tunes.
“Trembley jokes that playing music is the most fun you can have with your clothes on,” said Bardarson. “I think that’s corny, but true. We have a really good time when we play. Steve agrees when I say we’re lucky with our creative partnership. We each have strengths that we bring to the endeavor and we really appreciate our differences.”
To prepare for their performance at WICA, the two are practicing three times weekly, up from their original once-a-week rehearsals. “And guess what?” said Bardarson, “We have really improved. Hah! Our fans even comment, and it has been really rewarding to get feedback from our listeners who have been with us while we build this thing.”
After their performance, they plan to begin work on a Christmas CD project. They also have begun developing more of their own original tunes.
Audience members at their WICA show will get to see and hear a couple of long-time area musicians hitting their stride as a duo at a privileged point in their collaboration. That is precisely the moment when mojo works its best magic.
Tickets for their performance on March 14 cost $15 and are available online at www.wicaonline.com or by calling the box office at 360-221-8268 or 1-800-638-7631.
(Photos courtesy of the artists)
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BY RUSSELL CLEPPER Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor February 26, 2014
The Troy Chapman Group will officially release its new CD, “Time and the Hours,” at a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 7 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. The CD consists of nine of Chapman’s original compositions and is represents the passing of one full day—sunrise to sunrise. The concert is the first in the 2014 edition of WICA’s “Local Artists Series.”
The new release “hearkens back to the way we grew up listening to music,” Chapman said, speaking of how people once listened to CDs as whole works. “It’s a suite of music that’s made to be listened to [from] beginning to end.”
Drummer Scott Small lays down some beats at a recent rehearsal at his Lakeside Percussion Studio.
Drawing on multiple genres and sources that Chapman has loved and studied throughout his life, the music on this CD uses a jazz foundation to fashion a vessel, expertly crafted to explore the subject at hand. From the opening notes of the CD’s first song, “Tango de la Vie,” Chapman takes listeners on a musical chronicle of a single day in time.
Drummer Scott Small and bassist Jonathan Small will join Chapman to complete the trio that forms the vessel’s crew. Both musicians bring deep wells of experience and skill to support Chapman’s master-level guitar work and fine compositional talent. Chapman will further expand the trio’s sonic impact using an array of electronic mediums. The resulting layers of background beats and loops serve to enhance the expressive acoustic performances of the trio, which features generous doses of bass and drum solos.
All the diverse components create a gestalt that places the listener at the center of an ever-evolving sonic panorama of mythic shape and sometimes exotic proportion—a musical story unfolding and expanding through the day’s journey to the final strains of “Turkish Morning,” the second sunrise. The listener rides along, sometimes floating, sometimes shooting through musical passages that evoke a wide range of emotional shades from ominous mystery to light-hearted joie de vivre.
Although the overall musical bent of the music is towards jazz, Chapman said, “I want everyone to know that this is not Django jazz.”
That clarification may be necessary since he’s one of the Puget Sound area’s foremost interpreters of that particular genre of music. He is a member of the widely acclaimed Seattle band “Pearl Django.” Plus, he founded the Whidbey Island gypsy jazz group “Billet-Deux” and performs regularly at Langley’s DjangoFest.
Troy Chapman, bandleader and songwriter for the Troy Chapman Group.
However, over the 30-year span of his career, he has studied and performed a variety of musical styles since his days as a student at Concordia University in Montreal and the American Academy of Music in Chicago. Though there is a bit of the Django style in some of the songs on “Time and the Hours,” there are also many other influences, including other forms of jazz, pop, rock and traditional styles from other countries.
Scott Small has more experience in more musical styles than the average hep cat could fit into nine lives, with accomplishments that include chairing jazz ensembles at various Puget Sound area universities and doing a stint with Kenny G back in the ’70’s. He currently gigs with the “Eastside Modern Jazz Orchestra,” “Bahia,” “Ruzivo” and the “South Whidbey Jazz Collective.” Small also teaches at Click Music in Oak Harbor, as well as his Lakeside Percussion Studio.
Ace bassist Jon Small smiles as his father, Scott, looks on in the background. (Photo by David Welton)
Jonathan Small is barely four years out of Sammamish High School but he has already toured overseas and has become one of the first-call bassists for a number of jazz ensembles around the Puget Sound. He plays everything from classical to classic rock, from grindcore metal to country, from bebop to fusion jazz, from blues to latin jazz and it doesn’t end there. There is no piece of real estate on an upright or bass guitar that he hasn’t visited countless times as an emissary of myriad musical regimes. Small is currently a senior at Cornish College of the Arts.
Tickets for this event are $17 youth and $20 adult and can be purchased online at tickets.wicaonline.com or through the WICA box office. During the 24 hours prior to the show, tickets may be purchased through the box office only. Please call the WICA Box Office at 800.638.7631 or 360.221.8268.
Photo at the top: Troy Chapman (photo by David Welton)
Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He also is a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.
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I have always had a secret disdain for football – but not anymore. “Go Hawks!” is all I can say. We all love a winner, but coach Pete Carroll is bigger than the win. Wow, talk about leadership! Here is a man who has committed his life to inspiring others to do difficult things and do them well.
Carroll and his Seahawks have captured my imagination and I can use some inspiration right now. How about you? Do you have a new goal for the year? Are you going to learn something new or try to improve what you already do?
And just what helps us humans become really good at something? Dropping my disdain, I did some research and found a video of the coach talking about football practice. Let’s see if there is something for us in his playbook.
To hear Pete Carroll tell it, practice is everything. I learned to practice my cello a long time ago, fifty years ago to be exact. What practice means to me, how it feels when I sit down, the process and format of how I learn something new on the cello is as familiar to me as my own name. But the truth is, I’m not getting good results. I have new goals and I feel stuck.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll
Carroll talks about practice as an energetic, competitive-level activity. His daily planning includes specific goals for every practice session, from warm-ups to drills to group work. The competitive edge he insists on bringing to all aspects of practice is nothing less than his constant refinement of the process vis-à-vis specific goals. The moment practice begins for the players, the focus is on improvement, improvement, improvement. There is constant movement; no one stands around, and the athletes are guided by their coaches.
In the video, Carroll uses the words focus, intensity, discipline, structure, organization, competition and energy in rapid-fire succession. He doesn’t speak directly to reflection, but he must do it constantly to achieve the goals he sets for the team. Reflection, discovery and using the information to inform and refine an idea lie at the heart of critical thinking and all creative endeavor.
By comparison, my practice session starts with a very generalized idea. “Hmm,” I say to myself, “I have a gig in two weeks.” Then I make a cup of tea, gather my music stand and instrument, tune and then warm up with scales and an etude. I do not enter the practice with a specific goal in mind. In fact, I think I enter into a historical trance littered with the way I used to play and not the way I play now. Lastly, I don’t have a teacher and I am guessing that a good teacher and coach is not a DIY proposition.
Just what is my game plan?
I have a terrific concert coming up at WICA. The pop jazz duo, “Siri and Steve,” that I play in will be featured in the 2014 “Local for Locals” Concert Series at WICA in March. This goal has been on our minds for most of the last year but now, as we get down to the last five weeks, it’s all about applying the polish to the set list. I am so happy that I watched the Super Bowl because now I can organize my practice.
Here are some new ideas that I’m going to act on. I want to practice smart, listen well, reduce critical judgment, maintain a positive mood, eliminate time-wasters, have a specific plan that identifies the size of a project and the look of the necessary practice, and inject new practice material. I want to be competitive with clear goals and accountability. I want to be better at what I do.
Football and Art, who knew? I’m looking for more connection and cross-pollination with things far removed from my cello playing. What can energize me and motivate me to acquire the discipline of better performance?
So I’ll see you out there on the creative field. Keep your eye out for me; I’ll be the cellist wearing the blue and green dress.
