Monday, January 7, 2013

Pressing the Reset Button (Harp)

Although my Christmas Day was lovely, playing music on Christmas Eve was not.  It wasn't the way that I played; I felt that I did well.  Rather it was the horrible attitude and behavior of our choir director (of whom I was so pleased with prior to this).  In the weeks leading up to Christmas, that is when things started to go south.  I can no longer work with him.

Although I am sad to leave my friends in choir, and feel rather depressed about the whole situation, this has freed me to begin playing and working on the pieces I want to work on.  You see, prior to this it seemed that every fall I was working on Christmas music  and every winter and spring I was working on Easter music.  Summers are very busy with the garden and with Grandson, so my practice time is limited then.  So I never really got to work on the pieces that I wanted to work on.    

I have been hearing various harp pieces in my head that I have been wanting to work on, but had set aside for so long  (ghosts of harp music past!).  I realized that all of this was a reset, so to speak.  A shift in focus, a change in pieces.  So I gathered together all of those pieces I was hearing (and a couple other ones I discovered in my quest, "Oh, that one.  I want to play that too!").  It is a nice, but challenging, assortment:


And here is my poor baby, who served me so well during the trauma of Christmas Eve:  


She is ready to reset too!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Tea at the Drake


Sandra, Pam, and I at our Holiday Tea at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago.  
Our hats got a lot of attention!