Hi there! It's been a while since I've written, but I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some of what I've been up to. In between a bit of freelancing around Boston, I've performed a few times with A Far Cry, am immersed in the Beethoven Op. 18 String Quartets—which I'm performing with my dearest friend (and longtime piano trio colleague), Gwen, and other musical pals from our past (the next one is June 8!), and recently reconnected with some of my dearest teachers and mentors. Totally not surprising to those who know me well that I'd have an hour-long phone conversation about practicing octaves and Paganini caprices with my teacher from undergrad, David Updegraff. I know, I'm a total nerd, but...it's thrilling!
In the midst of all this, I've been fascinated by exploring a few solo pieces by contemporary American composers. It's been intriguing and inspiring to me to get to know them better: For the Boston Beethoven Cycle (the aforementioned Beethoven projectwo new-to-me Lauds by Elliott Carter (a live performance video coming soon!), the Romanza of Donald Martino- romantic, yes, but filled also with mischief, vertiginous swirls, and an incredible, brief material labeled interruzione celestial (for the non-Italophiles out there, celestial interruption! what's more evocative than that?!)- and back in January, Dialogues by Thomas L. McKinley, the compulsory piece for the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition. While I was performing at the competition, I won the prize for the best performance of Dialogues, and if you click here you can watch my performance! (Can you tell I'm trying to get over my sheepishness at sharing my recordings? lol) I felt honored that the jury (and Tom, the composer, who is a totally lovely man) enjoyed my performance; it's built on alternations of two kinds of music- one intense and neurotic (I can relate, haha), the other spacious and imaginative- and comes round with a brief reprise of the opening and a severe climax, leading to an unsettled, uneasy coda and conclusion. In any case, it's a wonderful, short piece, and I hope you enjoy it; I'll be excited to share the Martino and Carter here soon, so please check back!
Thanks for reading all this; I'll look forward to checking in again soon.
:)
Ari