Transylvanian Clarinetist Makes a New Home for Her Music / WCAI by Dan Richards
Thanks to Dan Richards a fun little podcast aired today (April 10, 2017) on WCAI radio (link at the end of this blog). It was fun to do the interview last Fall, and amazes me how artfully he cut it together.
Those of you who know me, know that when nervous I either say nothing, or I talk a lot. Since this was an interview, I had to chose the later approach.
Dan Richards succeeded not only doing a beautiful collage of the music he recorded on the spot, combined with recordings from my college years, but he found an interesting angle to his story, and compressed hours of talking into 4 minutes.
For me personally, it is so interesting to look back, and reflect on my mood last Fall, when we started to play classical music in front of the local coffee shop with my guitarist friend John Dirac, trying to start a movement by taking classical music to unusual places. We succeeded surprising a few people, but the biggest surprise came to us, when our first tourist dropped some money in our guitar case: it was our well-known local saxophonist, and supporter of our Open Mic Classical, Bruce Abbott, in disguise, on a bike with a helmet peaking out from under his sun glasses.
Thank you to all my fellow musicians, who help me on my journey of the "free spirited classical musician" I seem to be.
Thank you to Bob Marcus, co-founder of Open Mic Classical, for believing in my unusual idea of a mic-less open mic. We are in out 3rd Season and going strong.
Thank you to the local cultural councils (Brewster, Harwich, Orleans) for their partial funding, and support.
Thank you to Brewster Cultural Council for letting me add music to their Literary Events, and Art Exhibit this year, and promoting culture in our town. No, it is not just to avoid baking fudge for our events :-)
Thank you to our Open Mic Classical community who helps us build our vision of a "blue zone" community (term taken from National Geographic's research on the happiest communities on Earth).
Thank you to my collaborative pianist Elizabeth Tipton, who likes to dive deep with me into the world of clarinet piano literature, and every unusual request I show up with from one week to the next. And thank you to her husband for patiently supporting our rehearsals at their house, and delights us with his amazing flower arrangements to inspire us.
Thanks to my family, who believes in me, and my daughter, who changed my life completely, with her being.
Thank you to WCAI radio for choosing the winner shot (made when winning the Soloist Competition with Cape Symphony), still one of my favourite photos, taken by Kate Nelson local artist (learn more about her here).
Who can guess what my daughter was really after in this shot?
Listen to the podcast here:
