Finally saw an Alligator: Tuesday through Sunday in Florida

What a FANTASTIC tour!!! Jen and I had a wonderful time and accomplished so many of our duo goals! On Tuesday we arrived in Tampa at the University of South Florida, Jen's undergraduate alma mater, where we were greeted by her teacher Scott Klucksdahl. USF recently built a new music building, and it is a great space! The hall is beautiful, and Jen and I loved how it brought out the best in our instruments.

While in Tampa we had wonderful hosts - thank you Oliver and Mikel!! Our Wednesday night concert at USF was a very rewarding experience, and the audience was so receptive. The USF concert staff even recorded it, so those of you who couldn't attend might get a little ear-full of the music anyway!

On Thursday, Jen and I had a relaxing morning of duo planning and did a team building exercise; we both took Myers Brigs personality tests. I am an ENFP and Jen is INFJ... turns out we are pretty compatible, but we already knew that! Later in the afternoon we held a panel discussion between us and the USF cellists. There were great questions like, "How do you find a great chamber music partner?" and "What made you interested in the kind of music you play?" We had a lot of fun answering them!

On Friday we went to Ocean Breeze Elementary school in Satellite Beach and did a program for 200 of their 4th-6th grade students. They were so receptive and had great questions! Then we zipped over to the Satellite High School Fine Arts Academy in Satellite Beach to do a high school version of our program for the 200 students in the fine arts academy. 400 students later, the tour was officially over so Jen FINALLY took me to the beach. I only had time to wade in to the ocean a bit as Jen had to sit with her cello in the air conditioned car because it was SO HOT. But, because Diagenesis is never done, we ran into some of the elementary school students at dinner later that evening! They were so excited to see us and even asked to get their picture taken with us! What a great day.

Jen had a beautiful bridal shower on Saturday, and on Sunday because Jen's Dad works at the Kennedy Space Center, I got to accompany Jen's family to see the space shuttle Endeavor for the last time before it's officially decommissioned. SO COOL. On the way home I FINALLY got to go SWIMMING in the Atlantic Ocean!!!! YAY!

And the moment we've all been waiting for: Sunday I saw an alligator in a retaining pond at Cape Canaveral. I would have been very disappointed if I hadn't seen one.

Thanks for following along on our Florida tour! Don't forget to check back soon to hear all about our next project!

-Heather

Still no alligators: Saturday through Tuesday in Florida

Our concert on Saturday at Satellite United Methodist Church was a lot of fun! This was Jen's "hometown" concert, and it was well attended by family and friends. Mrs. Bewerse hosted a lovely reception after the concert and we had a great time socializing with the audience.

On Sunday we had a very busy practice day then drove up to Gainesville, where we got to see Rebecca Pethes! Rebecca is a wonderful soprano that Jen and I met and worked with when we were at soundSCAPE. She and her husband Mike hosted us at there home and it was so nice to catch up with her!

On Monday we met with composer Adam Scott Neal who was our host at the University of Florida. He is the president of the Society if Composers UF student chapter, a very talented composer, and was the one who organized the masterclass and concert for us. Thank you so much Adam!

The masterclass was a lot of fun. We did readings then worked on three pieces by Michael Smith, Alexander Boostrom, and Adam Scott Neal. What a great group of composers!! We hope we get the opportunity to work with them in the future.

Then we had our concert which included the world premiere of Sarah Hersh's piece in praise of continuous dreams of New York. It is always a great experience to give the world premiere of a piece and this was no exception. We look forward to many more performances of this piece in the future.

After relaxing with our new buds at UF it was time for bed because today we headed to University of South Florida in Tampa where we will perform tomorrow... A busy but exciting schedule!

- Heather

Florida!!!!!! It is soooooooooo hot: there are lizards.

Jen, the cello, and I arrived in Florida on Wednesday, and since then Jen has patiently answered all my questions about alligators and where I might find them. I am happy to report that we have not had an alligator encounter yet.

Our Floridian home base of operations is with Jen's parents on Merritt Island. It is very beautiful here!! Yesterday, we had our first Florida concert at the Orlando Public Library as part of their Music in the Library series. It was a great outreach concert opportunity, and Cynthia and John (who run Music in the Library) were so enthusiastic and friendly!!

Then Jen, the cello, and I went to the Mall of Millenia to sort out my bridesmaid dress situation for her wedding (I am cutting it a little close sincethe wedding's in October). We settled on this dress, which will also work well for performances. Everyone was staring at Jen's cello, and the guy at the pizza place told her,"you look like you are ready to jam."

We got back to Merritt Island and printed our programs for our concert tonight. A shout out to Tee at Staples, it would not have happened without her!

Now we're relaxing and resting up for our concert tonight in Jen's hometown! Wish us luck (and come if you can)!

-Heather

Harrison Birtwistle

While we were in residence at the Banff Centre in June, one of our major projects was learning and ultimately performing 9 Settings of Lorine Niedecker - a beautiful piece by Harrison Birtwistle. We had the opportunity to coach the piece with Joel Krosnick, Gilbert Kalish, and Nan Hughes, then performed it at St. George’s in-the-Pines as part of the Banff Centre’s concert series.

I had never sung anything by Sir Birtwistle before and I fell in love with the piece immediately. It is at times hauntingly beautiful, and at others, playful.



One of the great things about working on music by living composers is being able to "get to know them" through video, recording - you name it! Birtwistle is no exception...



When he suggested that it was through magic that his tomatoes had grown we laughed so much! We had said many times that is was through magic alone that were able to learn 9 Settings of Lorine Neidecker :)

Not only was the composer new to me, but I also did not know the work of American poet Lorine Niedecker. Her poetry is beautiful and evocative and you can learn more about her at www.lorineniedecker.org.

We are really looking forward to performing this piece on tour in Florida and we hope you can hear in concert!

-Heather