Well, it IS summer solstice. Since things have been so busy I thought I'd finally get a post up since everything has been quite busy since last Saturday...so busy that I even spaced out and didn't watch game 6 or 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, nor did I tape them! Ironically, I did see the last two minutes of last night's NBA final as the bar cheered for the Miami Heat. Oh well, here goes...
Saturday night I was the emcee for the Next Generation Festival at Dickinson College in Carlisle. It was complete with a little John Clare humor where I came out and greeted everyone in German, acting as if it was on my note...I corrected myself, and flipped over the card, and said I was Awadagin Pratt...then got out the real note for the evening - some got it, and the Cypress Quartet noted my "radio voice," which put us on a good start. The concert was entertaining and I was happy to meet lots of folks - even holding the outside door as folks left and hearing lots of pleased audience members. Of note besides meeting the Cypress Quartet, I met Awadagin's mom.
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Tom Kraines and Awadagin Pratt
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Sunday was a concert at LVC in Annville and a patron reception afterwards. The hall is a converted church that is a performing space and art gallery. I had a chance to interview Abijihit Septgupta - who turns out to be friends and roommate of an old professor of mine from Wichita State at another summer festival - but there were technical problems with the recorder and so it isn't available, doh!
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The dinner afterwards was very nice and it was swell meeting donors and patrons of the festival along with all the musicians. The Trio Lunaire, the apprentices, played Mendelssohn's C minor trio quite well.
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Monday was another concert, this time at HACC in Harrisburg. I also ended up emcee-ing, and my schtick this time was merely mouthing the words and acting like the microphone was on, then figuring out that the mic wasn't on - well you get the idea - and far more laughs this time...also after intermission some laughs at my "Stay for the talkback, it's kinda like Car Talk and Click and Clack - you know, Stump the Chumps!" The hall was nice and again, it was one of the venues that it was my first time visiting there. A great dinner out followed the concert downtown...where it turns out I have something major in common with the Cypress Quartet - they like Panufnik! Yeay! I made sure they left town with some more Panufnik to consider in their rep...they already play Jennifer Higdon and I'm anxious to introduce them to Walter Mays' music.
Unfortunately, the dinner was late and there was mondo confusion on the bill - we all waited a LONG time to get things sorted out.
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Tuesday (last night) was the final concert of this year's festival. I spoke with Awadagin for WITF (you can hear it here at Dr. Dick's blog) and then was able to catch the rest of the concert at Pullo Performing Arts Center. The musicians loved the hall and facilities.
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Afterwards there were many goodbyes and dinner at Cobblestones in downtown York.
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Wednesday I interviewed composer Tina Davidson in her studio (a wonderfully converted church in Marietta, PA) and caught up with her about recent projects. It'll be featured in an upcoming episode of Composing Thoughts this fall.
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