Musings of a Composer

On July 3rd I had the amazing experience of playing 4 of my Name Music compositions solo on violin (with one duet with my niece Emily), for two outdoor memorial services for two uncles, and aunt, and a cousin, all of whom passed away during the pandemic. It was a magical day in the Catskills of connections from the past strengthened, new connections forged, a new future envisioned. One service was in the middle of the day, held in a wooded glade above the pond my uncle Guido created, by the side of the house he designed. Three were gone from that family -- Gi's wife Liz, and their son Mike, had passed away as well as Guido. In The compositions "Guido" and "Liz" I was evoking their very different characters, and even the way Guido walked in his later years. Liz was full of a Russian folk passion, and featured the oodles of kindness and gentleness that was her hallmark. For Mike I wrote a funky vocal line and a pizzicato, imitation guitar line for the violin, and ...

Amazingly enough, I found the DVD that contained the video for Water Bear’s Light in Winter performance, and Tim Reppert, my hero, was able to edit it and mix the sound, and now it is up on our YouTube channel. This is the only significant footage that exists of any Water Bear line-up, and it pleases me no end to have it resurrected. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSrdkE0TZt_O_Id2r8wcY5vSt9xD9-Uoo We collaborated with the evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, whose book “Evolution for Everyone: “ I read and absorbed. Then I developed Name Music pieces that could bring to life three concepts from the book: Individual differences, social control, and expanding the circle of cooperation. In between our pieces, David gave two talks on the state of evolution and its application to daily life. David says in the talkback section at the end, that the dress rehearsal where he got to hear what we had prepared was a revelation to him, and led to him adjusting his talk to complement t...