As school starts once again...

I have to be honest. I don't always look forward to the beginning of a new semester. I am rarely prepared in time. I need a few more days to finish building online course materials. I always seem to need a few more weeks to practice before school begins taking up time. I hate seeing all the traffic return to town. The first few weeks of a semester are particularly crowded -- upperclassmen moving back to town, freshmen moving into town, everyone getting used to schedules and parking woes, and the summer residents who are still here. The streets are overcrowded, mostly with people who don't know how or don't care how they drive. But Boone is a bustling place, full of life and cooling weather. And I love my students, and I enjoy visiting with them again as they hang out in the hallway outside my office and begin sharing ideas with each other once again.

This time around, I need school in my life, and I'm looking forward to trying some new things as a teacher and performer. The start of this new semester is about to give me a solidity I have been lacking since this past spring. It has been a year of loss. In four months, I experienced the loss of my mother Judi Bell, my classmate and friend David S. Kirby, my undergraduate organ professor H. Max Smith, and a catastrophic publicity failure for my new recording Music City Mixture (to be narrated in a forthcoming blog post, not yet written). But this year I also gained some things: tenure, a summer full of rich travel experiences, some extra time with my sister Talana, and my father Donald's handsome chocolate brown 1970 Lincoln Mark III. As long as I live, his spirit will live in that car. And I am energized by all that.

So bring on the last-minute lecture planning, the recitals on the road, the lunches with students, the dealing with people who haven't done their homework, and the scheduling snafus in the concert hall. It's a new day, and my new buzzphrase will be, "Be the master of your own mess."

Summer break? Don't make me laugh.

Everything has come due at the same time. After a semester where I missed more than a month at school for recitals and Mother's death, school is now over, and summer break has begun.

Yeah, right.

Commencement was yesterday. Europe starts in two days, which will include touring around Germany and the south of France, culminating in a recital at Sherborne Abbey, England. One day after returning from Europe, I'm off to Charleston, SC, to teach, lecture, and perform for a Pipe Organ Encounter. Then I'm home for a week, then I have service organist and recital duties at Lake Junaluska, then the AGO convention in Nashville, at which I'll release "Music City Mixture," my new recording on mechanical action organs of Nashville. Someday I'll compile a diary of how to promote a new recording. That will be extensive, and it will not include advice to try this at home.

See you on the other side.

One down, many to go

Four recitals in three weeks:

It was a terrific week in Tuscaloosa. Faythe Freese organized another wonderful Sacred Music Conference, during which I heard great masterclass playing and visited with friends old and new. I made fast friends with the Holtkamp at the University of Alabama; it plays well with others. My gracious hosts and friends John & Liz McGuire (plus son Ian and dachshunds Felix and Oscar) were great company. My sister and I enjoyed a long walking tour of the campus. And Faythe’s husband Jerry cooked Texas brisket and BBQ chicken for dinner, over which about 10 guests made fast friends and reveled into the night.

Now for a quick visit to my sister in Dothan, AL, and then it’s off to play the Letourneau at Sarah Hawbecker’s church in Atlanta, Redeemer Lutheran. Then straight off to Greensboro to play the Andover at UNCG. Home for three days, then off to St. Paul’s, Augusta, GA. Then I’ll be home for about a month, during which time I will be losing my mind making up lessons and classes.

Generally, I don’t like playing the same program over and over. But all these and more are at such a rapid-fire sequence this semester that I would have some trouble breaking out of that revolving door. Fortunately, no two recitals are less than 3 hours away from each other, so no concert goers will have to hear the same thing twice (unless they just want to).

And just to remind you: I love doing this! Wouldn’t have it any other way, and I’m grateful for a day job that supports my going out so often.

Christmas 2011

Four choral concerts, one recital, a Messiah Singalong, and one partridge in a pear tree later, my Christmas is ready. I'm now ready to hear some juries, post some grades, visit the family, play at the ol' stompin' grounds in Houston, attend some parties, and put 2800 more miles on my car. And practice like mad.

Advent/Christmas arguments aside, I recommend Sirius/XM channel 75 for nonstop Christmas music. Driving around in the mountains where I live, enjoying people's Christmas lights and decorations, and listening to professional (not pop) Christmas recordings on satellite radio -- it all puts me in the spirit. I'm ready to go shopping and keep Scrooge at bay for another year.

I wish you, dear Reader, a magnificent Christmas and a Happy New Year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

Tonight is the annual Halloween Monster Concert at Appalachian State University, a tradition I started in 2006. That's all the credit I can take, because the rest of it was inspired by the same annual tradition in Houston, started many years earlier by others.

Anyway, tonight at 8:00 Eastern, we will hear the Bach d minor, along with "accompaniment" by the audience reading cue cards with such commands as "scream," "applaud," "ooh, aah,""uh oh," "snort," and the like.

We will sing Pumpkin Carols such as "Deck the patch with poison ivy / Fa la la..." and "We three ghosts of Halloween are / scaring kids who wander too far." Classics, I know.

We will administer a Name-That-(scary)-Tune quiz, where the piano and organ will play tunes from horror movies and monster-themed TV shows. Also included in the "scary" category would be tunes that we hear far too often, such as Chopsticks, those *%&# Phantom chords, and You Light Up My Life.

We will hear the Boëllmann Toccata.

We will have various costume contests: scariest, funniest, cheesiest, best couple, and most original. Applause will be the judge.

This year, we are adding a silent movie, Thomas Edison's Frankensten, 1910.

And candy will be available at the end, as will open console.

If you're in the area, you ought to come up. Those of you outside the area ought to attend a similar event or just pine for this one. It really is a hoot, pun intended.