Making Music

I’m not sure there’s any torture greater than listening to your child practice the piano.  Well, maybe violin.  I’ll admit that listening to a child practice violin could be worse.  I mean, at least our piano is in tune.  (Mostly.)  My daughter is eight years old and she has been studying the piano for four years.  She’s getting there.  This year she played her first Bach minuet, and she’s learning her scales and cadences.  I don’t have any idea whether or not she will be interested in pursuing music in her adult life, but I’m a big believer in the idea that learning music teaches you how to think.  Given that her dad and I are both professional musicians, we figured it was important to make music a part of our kids’ lives from the very beginning.  (Our younger daughter is four and will start lessons in January.  Oh God.)

My husband and I came to music in very different ways.  READ MORE….

The Sound Of Music

You may be surprised to learn that in addition to writing for the musical theater, I have had a bit of success as a choral music composer, too. For me, ensemble singing (and writing and conducting) taps into the part of me that really does prefer to be making music with other people as opposed to sitting alone in a room with a piano, a notepad, and a computer loaded with Finale.  I love using music to tell stories, as musical theater folks do, but I also really like using music just to make music, and I start to feel atrophy when I get too far away from it.  I was a classical musician before I was a part of the Broadway community, and sometimes I forget how much I depend on the fuel that classical music provides.  Little me was the girl at the piano after school, practicing Bach and Rachmaninoff and Tcherepnin over and over again until her fingers were vibrating with the kind of energy and exhaustion you feel after a hard workout.  The changing of the seasons was marked by marching band, holiday concerts, wind ensemble, Easter music, spring piano recitals and summer music camp.  READ MORE…