Learning to fall: in dance and beyond

My friend Anne Clermont’s debut novel, Learning to Fall, is coming out the first week of August. Set in the equestrian world of competitive show jumping, it chronicles one young woman’s search for healing, hope, and what it means to love. About two weeks ago I went to check on Amazon to see if it was available for … Read more

San Francisco Symphony and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem

On June 12th, forty-nine people were killed in a gay night club in Orlando, with fifty-three more wounded, in a terrorist attack/hate crime that shook the world. Hours later, James Conlon, guest conducting Sunday afternoon at the San Francisco Symphony, took the mic at the start of the performance. He told us they would be dedicating the performance … Read more

OUTSIDE THE LIMELIGHT’s new first line

Well, I am very excited right now about a very small (to you), writerly thing. I came up with a new first line for the opening chapter of my forthcoming ballet novel, Outside the Limelight.   The old first line was sending the story in sorta the wrong direction, and it was using the wrong authorial … Read more

Elgar, Enigma and Easter

While my first choice for classical music on Easter will always be Handel’s Messiah, which I elaborated on HERE last year, there are a few other wondrous, utterly memorable pieces that conjure up the same rush of powerful spirituality, a sense of Easter Sunday grandeur. There’s the Gustav Holst choral piece I’ve sung in choirs, a gorgeous SATB arrangement of … Read more

The Classical Girl Turns Three!

Back in February 2013, I made a decision. If I was going to give this blogging thing a try, I needed to stick with it. I knew the facts: most blogs fail within six months, simply because it’s damned hard work to keep coming up with new, interesting, insightful things to say. It reminds me of that beer-in-a-shotglass game … Read more