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The weather, which had been superb, turned a bit gloomy today. Given the extreme heat in many parts of the world, it would be churlish to complain about how cold it was—and I am not complaining, just noting that there was a chill in the air and it felt peculiar for...
Rehearsal today was a bifurcated experience for me. Of course my focus is on the cast—their vocalism, their musical accuracy, their sense of style, and (I never share this explicitly) their memorization. I’m there to guide them, and since we don’t have a stage...
Tuesday is a day of infinite possibility. The concert is five whole days away—a lifetime!—and no one is freaking out about memorization yet. Not that these three have anything to worry about in that department: they arrived with most of their material well under...
I reluctantly tore myself away from the lunch table today to begin rehearsals for my annual concert out here on the North Fork. This year we’re doing a program called 100 Years of Broadway Love. I chose the theme because I thought that it would have a user-friendly,...
The thing I most desired after our two concerts was a day to lie in bed, eat bonbons, and watch movies. Unfortunately, my schedule did not offer me such indolence. Wednesday, in fact, turned out to be a high-stress day. I’ll spare you the details, but by the time it...
Note: Due to illness, this program's song list has changed since the notes were written. It will be annotated from the stage at tonight's performance. When I hear the word “Mediterranean,” I immediately think of the Cannes Film Festival, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia,...