I wanted to share some good news. My friend and colleague Chuck Holdeman has just released our recording of his composition for bassoon and harp, Lyric Seasons.

The recording is available for download on CD Baby, where you can preview all four of the movements.

Lyric Seasons was written in 2000, and Chuck and I premiered it the same year. The four movements are not seasons in the...

Holiday parties are fun if you’re a guest. But when you’re the band, they can be tiring, monotonous, and if you’re not careful, a minefield of career-sabotaging traps. But by remembering a few simple things, you can ensure that you will survive all your gigs and still have work next year. Even better, you might enjoy playing them!

I remember well the hardest year I had playing...

Just a quick note to let you know about my specially priced CD bundles. You can mix and match Break Forth, my Christmas CD, and Romantische, romantic music for harp, and get quantity discounts perfect for holiday giving! This makes it easy to have some thoughtful gifts on hand for hostess gifts (Romantische and a bottle of wine, perhaps?) or a gift for that lady with the hectic life (Break...

Here is this week’s holiday video. The photos were taken on our visit to Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida. This amazing carillon tower and 50-acre garden was given to the American people by Edward Bok. Edward Bok (1863-1930)was an author and editor, most notably of The Ladies Home Journal which was published by Philadelphia publisher Cyrus Curtis.

And therein lies the music...

For musicians. the holidays can be extra stressful. Not only is there the pressure of the social aspects of the holidays, but this is when we work. Our holiday gig income tides us over what can be a very lean January. I learned the hard way what can happen if you aren’t careful.

The only time I ever had a back spasm was on a Christmas Eve. I was still in college, but I had been practicing...

Today, I am especially thankful…

For my students who inspire and motivate me.
For my teachers who believed in me, nurtured me and taught by example as much as they did in lessons.

_{My first harp gig. I was 12.}
For harp strings that are more durable than they used to be.
For the Ravel “Introduction and Allegro”.
For talented colleagues who are also caring people.
For audiences to...

Each year at this time I am surprised by the sudden arrival of the holidays. No matter that the calendar progresses smoothly from day to week to month. I still experience the arrival of Thanksgiving as unexpected and a little unsettling. Nevertheless, this remains my favorite time of year, and I have some musical traditions that I use to help mark the season.

One is my annual Christmas carol...

Being competitive is a good thing. Competitiveness helps us try harder and bring our best effort to a performance. Competition is how we test ourselves and find our place in our particular arena.

But competitiveness has a dark side. Remember Tonya Harding? That’s an extreme example, certainly, but it shows how the desire to win can completely cloud a person’s perspective. Even...

On Sunday, November 11, flutist Joan Sparks and I will be performing a new work, Sonata Scintillante by Chuck Holdeman. We commissioned this work and premiered it at the University of Delaware on February 21, 2012.  This post is about this exciting new piece, and includes notes about the work from the composer as well as some video links. If you would like to attend the...

The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity.” – Peter Bregman, author of  18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done

I imagine something like this has happened to you, as it has to me: You have heard a great concert, a performance that moved you and inspired you. You rush to greet the players afterward to...