Tag: Choteau

Swimming

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Yesterday, my fellow early morning  lap swimmers  and I had our end of the summer breakfast which marks the end of another summer season of outdoor swimming. We’ll head indoors for the fall and the winter.  I swim three days a week at 6:00 am, it’s a great energetic start to the day.

Swimming, like music, has been a constant companion ever since I can remember. I spent many happy summers swimming on the Choteau Swim Team.  (I’m first row on the right in the picture above, I think I’m about 8 or 9.)  In college, I was a lifeguard and swim instructor and after college, I  became a certified diver when I was working on cruise ships in the Caribbean.  That seems a lifetime ago! Now, I’m an early morning lap swimmer and swim mom.

My daughter, entering high school, just made the Roosevelt High School varsity swim team.  Way to go, Ruby!   She’s much faster than I ever was!  She’s also a water polo player, because these swimmers just can’t get enough time in the water.

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We should all find something we  love and keep doing it, like swimming, like music! Today’s post, an arrangement of REM’s Night Swimming.

Here’s the original, a gorgeous song by REM from Automatic for the people:

 

More swimming love! Here’s the ever inspirational, awesome  Michael Phelps in an Under Armour Commercial.

You Won’t Be The Same After Watching Michael Phelps’ New Under Armour Ad

 

Mount st. Helens

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Boom!  Summer is here and the living is busy! My recording blog is on a temporary  hiatus  as I’ve been very busy with the Seattle Opera in Schools (teaching in summer school), my private students, and preparing for my Cuba concert in the fall.  I participated in an amazing piano master class in Portland over the weekend with the inspiring  Dr. Jill Timmons, my mentor. What a thrill and humbling experience to play a concert hall sized  Bosendorfer, valued at $300,000.00 (that’s a whole other story).  Joe and I made a weekend of it and spent the next day  at Mount st. Helens.

 After an overnight at a Super 8 along I5, we headed toward Mount St. Helens. In all, we spent about 4 hours at Johnston’s Ridge, the highest visitor’s center. We took  in the exhibits, lectures, and movies  and also took a short hike on a very pleasant trail with great views. There were two really interesting films about the eruption and the geology of the mountain which is still, by the way, active!   The rangers also do a great job with their talks. It wasn’t an entirely clear day, but it was still spectacular. What a bonus, that the area was alive with wild flowers at their peak bloom!  You can see  by the pictures, the side  of the mountain blown out with the landslide still looks quite barren.
The eruption was in May of 1980, 57 people died, you can see the memorial below. The explosion could be heard as far away as Missoula, Montana. I still remember waking up to an ash covered Choteau, Montana when I was about 10 years old, everything was covered with the grey dust including cars, steps, sidewalks, etc.
On our way down from the mountain, we stopped at an adorable road side cafe overlooking the Toutle River- picture of Joe drinking coffee.
Here’s an article looking back at the eruption  from the Helena’s KRTV: http://www.krtv.com/story/29095907/helena-remembers-mount-st-helens-eruption-35-years-later

Romances Sans Paroles, Yellow House Salon #16

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Silly Laura and her mom, Gail Dean at Rancho la Puerta

Romances Sans Paroles translates to Songs Without Words.  Below I play #3 by Gabriel Fauré (played on my digital keyboard and mixed on my Macbook as a harp/guitar duo). What a perfect piece for Mother’s Day. No words can describe how grateful I am for my mother, Gail Dean. She’s a woman of steel  who raised two kids on her own with courage and grace after losing  my dad in a highway accident when we were all very young.

Thanks, Mom, for all of the hours of music lessons, for driving across the state of Montana for camps and concerts, for sewing all of those costumes and dresses, for giving me a great education, and for giving me the courage, independence, and grit to pursue a life in music. I owe it all to you!

To all of the Mamas our there!  You know who you are and I know how hard you work to make it all look easy! Here’s to our Moms and here’s to us, the Mamas!

 

Raspberry Beret, Yellow House Salon #14

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Raspberry Beret music and lyrics by Prince, piano solo by Laura

Growing up in beautiful Choteau, Montana (population 1800), we had one movie theatre, the Roxy, open only on the weekends. To my delight, in 1984, the Roxy showed Purple Rain, starring Prince.  As a young high school desperate to explore places and faces outside of my hometown, I was mesmerized by the music, the story, and of course, the romantic vision of Prince cruising  down the open road  on his motor bike! Vroom!

Today, and homage to Prince, an amazing talent and unique artist!    Oh how I long to be as cool as the  elusive girl in Raspberry Beret.

That’s when I saw her,

Ow I saw her, she walked in through the out door. 

She wore a raspberry beret, 

of the kind you find in a second hand store.

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and if it was warm, she wouldn’t wear much more.  

by Prince

 

 

Yellow House Salon #1

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Thanks for stopping by my weekly blog to read and listen to what’s going on in my studio.

I’m currently working on new programs to add to my concert and residency offerings. Inspired by the engaging little book, Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon. I’m experimenting with a weekly post that does just that: shows my work.

Campfire to Concert Hall, a program  in progress,  celebrates piano music inspired by the American West. I’m a Montana girl from Choteau,  a  magical small town on the edge of the Rocky Mountain front.  I’ve always been interested in wide open spaces, cowboys, pioneers, frontier towns, saloons, old time music, and folk songs. I love the simple, lyric, and sometimes heartbreaking melodies found in cowboy songs from the old West.

I’m learning  a collection of pieces by American composer, Roy Harris (1898-1979),  American Ballads. This wonderful collection contains five pieces, each inspired by an American folk songs, the first is Streets of Laredo. 

Here is my take on the piece in its early stages, and here is where I recorded it.

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Streets of Laredo by Roy Harris

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