Amazing INDIA! Syrinx : XXII Tour!

We're almost on our way…to India!! A huge, storied country I've dreamt of visiting for decades! Best of all, I'll be there with my colleagues of Syrinx : XXII, António Carrilho, recorders, and Raj Bhimani, piano, performing in numerous cities and venues in various parts of this enormous country. A life in music occasionally brings these extraordinary rewards, to compensate for the hours of slogging away in a practice room, no?

I've set up a page about the tour on the site, and will be blogging as we go along. So follow us here on this adventure, starting on the 11th of November. For as much as I've heard and read and especially EATEN of Indian culture, I've also heard that it really must be experienced in person, and is one of the most memorable destinations in the world, so bring it on!

Here's the poster for our first performance, in a more casual setting: the Jazz Club (!) of Delhi! Poster and concert presenting by Sardana Creative Consultancy—thank you!!

Syrinx : XXII—photo by Rita Delille

Syrinx : XXII - It's a wrap! (HOT!!)

Global warming has arrived, in case there were any doubt! After ten days of Syrinx : XXII rehearsals in the sweltering heat of Lisbon, we escaped to…more heat in the north! Not all was lost; the rehearsals were fantastic—fun and creative as always, and the north was beautiful beyond our (already very) high expectations!

At the end of the last day of rehearsals, we relaxed for a photo shoot in the elegant Lisbon Opera House. Like the rehearsals, the shoot was entertaining, entirely due to my patient and cheerful colleagues, Raj Bhimani, piano and António Carrilho, recorders. We extend our most grateful appreciation to the Opera House for their support, and to photographer Rita Delille, for her talent and good humor!

Syrinx : XXII, with Raj Bhimani and António Carrilho

Vital Signs

I've had the good fortune this week of meeting and talking with the American pianist Nelson Ojeda Valdès, a fellow native of Los Angeles, California (which I don't come across too often here in Lisbon!) He's a friend of also-originally-from-LA pianist Raj Bhimani, who is also here in Lisbon rehearsing for upcoming concerts of Syrinx: XXII, so it's been a California-on-the-Tejo week for me!

Nelson, who is very active in New York as a performer, teacher and adjudicator, has a succinct way to refer to the two basic impulses of music, pulse and breath, calling them the "vital signs". He means that pulse and breath are just as necessary to music as they are to bodily survival; we performers should always strive to communicate these elements clearly to the listener, just as our bodies clearly need both pulse and breath to maintain life. 

Of course, pulse is fundamental—we all know the magic when music makes us tap our foot or want to dance along—and I always love to hear a non-wind-player talking about breathing in relation to music and phrasing. Of course, we flutists and wind players MUST breathe, but the bottom line is that the MUSIC must breathe (even Wagner, eventually…). Nelson's concept helps put the issue of breath on the right footing, as something good and desirable, rather than a necessary evil—I love it!

Post-rehearsal R&R with pianists Raj Bhimani and Nelson Ojeda Valdès

Rehearsal Break - Vegan Food Project, Lisbon

What's the reward for rehearsing in August, when global warming is doing its thing in Lisbon? GREAT FOOD, of course! Wind players are famous for their gastronomic interests, and Syrinx: XXII consists of two wind players plus a gourmet cook/pianist, so the question is settled! Today, we went to the "Vegan Food Project"restaurant near Chiado in Lisbon, and the food was vegan but mostly just amazing, and the service was tops, too. 

After the photo: back to work, most enjoyable, on a selection of works for upcoming concerts—more on that soon!

Dessert and good cheer—Syrinx: XXII at Vegan Food Project in Lisbon