Popping into Palais Garnier

So, I was in the neighborhood of Paris’s Palais Garnier the other day—you know how that goes, just a weekday drop-by on a free afternoon—and I decided to invest in the 10 euro price to tour the opera house and its museum, since odds are low I’ll be attending a performance of the Paris Opera … Read more

Classical Girl’s Violin Debut at DWF Airport

I’m traveling this week, which makes for less blog time, so I thought I’d be lazy and deposit an old, favored blog in here that I wrote five-ish years ago. It’s about travel, so that counts, right? And it’s been a while since I’ve given my adult-beginners-on-the-violin readers a story, so here you go. I … Read more

A Royal Exodus?

Earlier in the month, the first bit of news reached my ears: principal dancers Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg were leaving the Royal Ballet at the end of the season. Noooo! I am such a huge fan of this couple, partners onstage and off, even though living in California, I harbor little chance of seeing … Read more

Dvořák Saves the Plane

Remember the movie Snakes on a Plane? Yeah, me neither. But let’s call this Strings on a Plane. It’s a warm afternoon in Beijing and a plane full of people are buckled in, awaiting departure that the crew can’t seem to get permission for. The plane has been grounded on the tarmac for not one, not two, … Read more

A Perfect Moment via “O Mio Babbino”

Friday night, just before 6:00pm, I was driving my son to the middle school he will be graduating from in a matter of days. Eighth grade dance night. He’s developing that closeness with his classmates, male and female alike, that I remember doing at the end of my own eighth grade year. In some ways, … Read more