Tag: choteau Montana

Heart and Place

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I’m delighted  to announce the launch of a new program, Heart and Place: Stories of the Westward Expansion told through music and narrative.  This project feels like coming home, as I grew up in rural Montana.  Choteau, Montana, to be precise, population 1800.
My early music experiences in that small town and have fueled my career as a music educator/ musician.  Some of those experiences include  singing in choirs, playing in band, studying piano, playing for church, acting in musicals, and to driving to the next small town for voice lessons. This program brings it all home.
I’ll be launching the program in Seattle on Oct. 14 and will be taking it to Montana to perform at the CM Russell Museum Oct. 26, 7:00, as well as several Great Falls area schools.
 The story of the West is epic, and while I cannot focus on everything,  I’ve chosen certain aspects to highlight including the music of the Overland Trail, the early frontier settlements, and the  Northern Cheyenne Courting Flute as taught to me by Jay Old Mouse of Busby, Montana. The performance includes solo piano music, singing, guitar, and demonstrations on the fiddle and the Northern Cheyenne Courting Flute.

“COURAGE IS BEING SCARED TO DEATH, BUT SADDLING UP ANYWAY.”   ― JOHN WAYNE

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For the Love of Music- A February Wrap Up

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Ready to go out!
Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley at Wintergrass
Great hand position from one of my students.

That it’s an honor and a privilege to exchange smiles, soul, and heart directly with the people in front of you. ……. and apply your trade humbly (or not so!) as a piece of a long spirited chain you’re thankful to be a small link in.  From Bruce Springsteen’s Autobiography, Born to Run

I just caught my breath today and reflected on the past month. For the love of music!  Music, a celebration of humanity,  links us to the past and gives hope for the future.  I’m grateful to my students, teachers, and  family for a life in music. In reviewing music events of February, I’m reminded that from Brahms to bluegrass, from opera to  classical sonatas, music explores the spectrum of human emotions including love, loss, joy, yearning, hope, despair, frustration, and excitement. It’s all there,  no matter what the genre.

This is what February looked like:

  • taught 120 private lessons in my studio
  • taught 6 preschool music classes
  • taught a group class in my studio for students playing for Washington State Music Teacher’s Adjudications
  • spent a day in Shorecrest High School as a guest artist teaching students to dance the Salsa and sing Cuban songs
  • participated in a voice adjudication with one of my students
  • saw my daughter, Ruby,  make her  Benaroya Hall debut with the Roosevelt Orchestra
  • attended Angelo Rondello’s inspiring concert of contemporary piano music at the Benaroya Recital Hall as part of the Seattle Music Exchange Project
  • traveled to Mount Vernon to attend a concert of Leider of Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms
  • attended  Seattle Opera’s production  of Katya Kabanova By Leoš Janáček
  • attended Wintergrass in Bellevue-  a premier Bluegrass Festival where I saw  Flatt Lonesome, The Turtle Island String Quartet and so much more!  (They played an arrangement of Bob Dylan’s Along the Watchtower, it floored me)
  • read Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography,  Born to Run

The highlight of the month, of course, was seeing the Bynum, Montana  School featured in a CBS news story.  I grew up  in Choteau which is down the road a few miles .  In 2010, I spent a day at this school  as a visiting musician.

Indeed, we all should start the day with a little singing and a little dancing. If you need some inspiration, here’s Bruce!