Hiking, Opera, and Upcoming Events

A wild month of music-making culminated this past weekend with the final performance of the new opera Paul's Case. In February there were two fund-raising events (one in Manhattan, one in Texas), and in March I conducted in California, hosted an international conductor workshop in NYC, organized and conducted an amazing Astoria Symphony concert, and music directed Paul's Case. When the final performance of Paul's Case ended on Saturday, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I can rest now, I thought.

I decided to go for a long hike on Sunday. Nothing is more relaxing than a long hike in beautiful country. Taylor, my good friend Heather, and I all piled into Heather's car and drove to Cold Spring, NY, to explore Hudson Highlands State Park. It's beautiful. We planned a nice, medium-difficulty, 5-mile hike. We wanted to relax and take in the beauty. Well...

We got lost. Somewhere three to four miles north of Cold Spring but south of Breakneck Ridge we just got lost. We followed trail markers until there weren't any more, then we relied on the sun and my trail map to figure out where we were, but it just didn't happen. So we wandered. We were never scared because in that area of NY State you just can't walk very far without encountering a road or some man-made structure eventually and that's what happened. We found Lake Surprise Camp (appropriately named "Surprise!"), and a nice guy (from Queens!) was there fixing the place up, preparing for the summer season. He directed us to the main road back to Cold Spring.

The hike back to Cold Spring was 5 miles long, on top of the 5 we had already hiked. I suppose we could've called a taxi at to pick us up at camp, or we could have hitched back to town from the main road, but we were so dead-set on doing it ourselves that we just walked. Our quick hike in the woods turned into an all-day adventure. Our feet hurt. Hips, ankles, knees, backs, too. When we got back to Cold Spring we downed a pizza, a couple beers, and 3 ice cream cones in record time.

OK, so I'm not fully rested now. I went back to work at the Manhattan School of Music on Monday fully exhausted and in need of a break. But I'm ready to take on the world regardless.

Upcoming things I'm producing and/or performing in:

• Friday, March 26, 6:00 pm: APAC Fundraiser, Studio Square, Astoria. For info, click here.
• Saturday, April 10, 8:00 pm: The Forte String Quartet, Church in the Gardens, 50 Ascan Ave. Forest Hills, Queens. For info, click here.
• April 29 & May 1, 8:00 pm: Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, Waltz-Astoria & Tenri Cultural Institute. For info, click here.
• Saturday, May 8, 8:00 pm: Astoria Symphony, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, 35th Avenue & 35th Street, Astoria, Queens. For info, click here.
• Saturday, May 22, 8:00 pm: Round Rock Symphony, C.D. Fulkes Auditorium, 300 West Anderson Ave, Round Rock, TX. For info, click here.