We began our trio season last week in Ann Arbor, where Becca rented us the charming Washington House. We caught up on much-needed sleep, got a head start on this season’s trio rehearsals and practiced individually. We also found time to visit with friends and play Beatles Rock Band at Best Buy. We were miserably bad at it and scored bonus points for “playing” together only when we all gave up at the same time!
We performed at U of M Friday night to a nice last minute crowd of students and friends. Our big change for this year is performing standing. Julie is, of course, on a podium and Becca and I stand for more freedom of music and movement. Our first experiment with this setup was quite enjoyable and we received many positive comments.
The week went smoothly until Saturday morning when we attempted our journey to Cleveland. Julie was out scraping the car way before dawn while Becca and I dragged ourselves out of bed. I got a nose bleed as we were walking out the door, then the car got stuck at a stop sign as it tried to climb a hill in the ice. The windshield wipers were working to clear all spots except directly where Julie needed to see and the first two gas pumps we tried were out of order- with no sign. Besides the drive taking us an extra hour, we made it to Cleveland in one piece and had an excellent coaching with our dear friend and mentor Annie Fullard. All three of us have worked with the Cavani String Quartet at different points in our life and we were thrilled that Annie was willing to hear our Mozart Saturday morning. I am excited to take many of Annie’s ideas and experiment with them over the next few weeks on my own. I am inspired to practice and after the week in Ann Arbor, have for myself a clear musical direction.
As a side note, we all went our separate ways Saturday afternoon. Julie was the lucky one who stayed put, I was fortunate to get to NYC on the only flight not cancelled and Becca will hopefully be in the tropics by tonight!
We also have a new mailing list, which can be found on our “contact us” page. Happy Holidays and please look for another posting in January!