Program Note

Here is some guidance to this imaginary stage where I stand "in the wings," "musing on music and performance." The majority of entries are my own personal writings culled from experiences of living in the San Francisco Bay Area as a pianist and accompanist. The people I write about are the characters and actors on my stage. Occasionally I offer reviews of concerts or recordings, or shameless self-promotion of upcoming concerts.

Entries with simple Roman Numeral titles are texts from other writers that I find inspiring.

The Soundtrack is a list of music that I've either performed or heard in the span of time between soundtrack entries. Like the literary quotations, I don't critique or annotate these entries (though at some point I might). The selections are pieces that made me stop. And think. Profound thoughts. I offer the spartan list with the hope of encouraging others to go listen to (and wonder and think and comment on) this music.

More often than not, the entries are simply autobiographical clips that I've attempted to make relevant to a forum of thought on contemporary performance, the practice of music, and the living of life as a professional musician.

Enjoy.

And a postscript regarding Comments. In September 2012, I transferred all comments from a now-defunct platform directly into the blog posts. That's why it looks like I posted all of them! Forgiving that minor detail, you'll still find the original essence of our conversations.