Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
The Classical GirlNews Flash on September 24th — World Ballet Day 2026 is a go! Thursday, October 29, 2026 will mark the return of World Ballet Day, and this year the theme is “How Stories Are Made.” Sounding pretty cool, huh? Details will be announced in due time, but what you can be guaranteed of, right now, … Read more
Rebirth, at the risk of stating the obvious, is an experience that arises over and over in life. New job. New relationship. A decision to join a gym after years of procrastinating. Finding religion. Finding God (except not through organized religion). For example, finding God in the redwood forests. Oh, wow, that’s me. Specifically, in … Read more
Mark your calendars. Something thrilling is going to happen in St. Burchardi’s church in Halberstadt, Germany on August 5, 2026… Since my original essay on John Cage’s famous — and famously long — composition was written in July 2013, when I’d been blogging for less than six months, odds are high only a few … Read more
Violinist Elina Vähälä made international headlines back in April following a performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Finland’s Sinfonia Lahti. The headlines, however, weren’t because of what she was playing and how beautifully she was playing it. Actually, I take that back. Because what she was playing on was a 1780 Giovanni Battista … Read more
It was love at first sight—or hearing—for me with Josef Suk’s Scherzo fantastique, a lively 15-minute composition that bears a stylistic resemblance to my other faves, Khachaturian’s Masquerade waltz and Saint Saëns’ Danse Macabre, not to mention elements from Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which I blogged about HERE. But only when I started delving deeper … Read more