Pas de Deux

A new duo was born this November. Lisa Fenwick and I met when we were both asked, along with some other musicians, to provide ceremony music for Elissa Tompkins’ wedding this summer. When the Johnson Museum asked me about a harpist for their elegant Byrdcliffe evening, Lisa and I formed Pas de Deux. With harp, flute, and dulcimer, we play elegant classical and Celtic music, and we’re looking forward to more events in the future.

CD Release Party

The Hanshaw Trio and a great audience helped me celebrate the release of What Child Is This? on Sunday evening, November 21 at the Moosewood. We started with a set of tunes from the new CD, took a break, then came back with sets from my first album and from our usual mostly Celtic repertoire. Thanks to Jerry and Craig, to Christian Anible who ran sound for us, to the Moosewood for hosting us, to Jim Catalano for the interview in the Ticket, and to everyone who came.

The Johnson Museum’s Annual Holiday Party

I’ve been privileged to be part of this event each year that we’ve lived here. This year’s was the best yet, with the Hanshaw Trio joining me for a set of Christmas and other music in the first hour of the party. We were followed by the Dryden High School Flute Choir and then the Sage Chapel Choir. Santa closed the party with a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Malcolm Dalglish concert

Yesterday (2/27), along with fellow dulcimist Eric Ludewig, I got to see a concert with Malcolm Dalglish, pictured here with soloist Emily Cole. The Bel Canto Children’s Chorus, with Malcolm and world percussionist Glen Velez, performed his Hymnody of Earth in Quakertown PA. Oh my! He’s the hammered dulcimer player who most makes me sit up and say “wow,” and “how is he doing that?” I didn’t really know what to expect from this show, since I hadn’t heard his choral work before. The concert was fabulous, starting with an opening set of dulcimer and percussion duets and solos, then a few individual choir, dulcimer, and percussion pieces, then the Hymnody. The choral music was just the sort of thing I loved most from my choir experiences — close harmonies and even dissonant clusters at times, music that illuminated and illustrated the words, sometimes sung by the whole group and sometimes by smaller subsets with instrumental interludes and a few solos. I was honored to hear it, honored to have him sign my copy of Thunderhead, and — honored to sit next to him at dinner afterwards, thanks to Cliff Cole, who told me about the concert in the first place. Oh my.