My trip to L.A. was wonderful. I visited with a great friend and had some fun. While I was out there I decided to visit some old professors and mentors, and I really enjoyed my time with them. First, Maestro Joel Lish, music director of the Palisades Symphony, invited me to conduct Dvorak's Eighth Symphony in his rehearsal. It was a great treat to conduct my old "band," the first orchestra I ever conducted. I mostly enjoyed the experience because I realized how much I've developed as a conductor. In 1999, I was simply honored that they allowed me to stand in front of them with a baton, but last week I was able to make music with them, helping them shape their performance. It's amazing what a decade of study and experience arms you with...The next day I went to Santa Barbara to visit my first orchestral conducting teacher, Maestro Richard Rintoul. He is the conductor of the University of California Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and the Colburn School of Music's Orchestra da Camera. It was great to visit with him, speak at his conducting class, and attend his orchestra rehearsal. He lives in a lovely place near a eucalyptus grove by the beach - heaven on earth!
Finally, I was able to steal a day off and go snowboarding with a couple of great buddies. Big Bear Lake was a lot of fun, even more so because I was able to hang out with an extraordinary trombonist friend of mine, Denis, who is an outstanding skier and will kindly forget that bad wipe-out I had at the bottom of the black. It was a "snow snake." It just jumped out of the snow and bit me.Anyways, I was at the beach on Thursday, and I was snowboarding on Friday - that's why I love California.
Now I'm back in NYC, and this weekend I'll be conducting the Astoria Symphony as they play music by Sibelius, Beethoven, and Schumann. On Sunday, I'll conduct an opera showcase featuring Paul's Case, a new opera by the talented young composer Greg Spears. Check it out (for tickets and info, click here)!
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