Most of us know the story of the young violinist in New York who asks a passerby how to get to Carnegie Hall. The passerby answers, “Practice my boy, practice.”
This spring, my husband Peter and I are both looking forward to performing at the beautiful Grizzly Peak Winery again. Several of the musicians joining us for these two concerts live in the Bay Area, and in order to get a head start on the programs, he and I recently traveled there for a weekend of intense rehearsals. That trip got me thinking about the roads we travel as musicians, both literally and figuratively.
The truth is, there are many actual roads that must be traveled before one note is played on the stage. If we consider the roads taken from the moment a musician picks up his instrument for the first time, the countless trips to private lessons, youth orchestra sessions, conservatory classes, competitions, rehearsals and performances both close to home and far away, well, we would need an atlas to record them all.
Then there are the unseen roads, part of the internal journey of discovery that every musician must travel to determine just what kind of artist he or she was meant to be. This road takes countless hours spent listening and practicing; sometimes it’s light, sometimes it’s dark, sometimes straight, sometimes crooked, and sometimes, there’s a fork in the road that determines whether a musician will continue on the path or choose a different one. To describe these roads in detail would require considerably more space than afforded by a simple blog.
On April 29th, Peter (trumpet and keyboard) and I (flute) will be joined by our esteemed Greek colleagues George Mylordos (bouzouki and vocals), and Kostas Pappamichael (guitar and vocals), along with local friends and artists Jeff Addicott (bass) and Chris Matthews (percussion) in a musical tour of Greece, preceded by a scrumptious traditional Greek meal prepared by master chef Platon Mantheakis, formerly of the Jacksonville Inn. The roads that brought all of us to Grizzly Peak Winery for this unique and memorable event are many, and we look forward to sharing the culmination of our individual journeys with those of you who love Greek culture.
One week later, on May 7th at 3:00, my wonderful trio partners Natalie Cox (harp) and Dan Reiter (cello, composer, arranger) and I will return to Grizzly Peak Winery for a program of classical works that will take us down many different cultural roads with selections inspired by The British Isles, Spain, Finland, Greece, and India. The program features Dan’s brilliant arrangements and original compositions, all of which have taken him down his own creative path. We hope you’ll join us on this inspiring musical voyage.
What roads have you traveled in your life, and which ones have brought you to love music inspired by various cultures? However we all arrived here, we’re glad our paths have crossed.
(For information about these performances, please visit TICKETS on this website.)
