Cello

Like I mentioned in my previous posting, the cello is one of my favorite instrument. I love cello concertos, I love using the cello in our own music, I love the sound alone and in ensembles..... I wish I could play cello! since I can't, I settle for listening to a lot of cello music, and am very happy we have a cellist as a part of our band.

Daniel Barenboim

My parents introduced me to classical music at an early age, and even though my own music work is firmly in the rock/contemporary realm, I have never lost my love and appreciation for classical music. My favorite instrument: cello; composer: tie between Beethoven and Dvorak; orchestra: Concertgebouworchestra, Amsterdam. I am taking a course on web design at Berklee College of Music online - very challenging for me, since I had no prior experience or skill in the area - and have been researching lots of websites to get an idea of what I like and don't like in web design and sites, and realized there is a plethora of classical music sites and musician sites. A favorite - because it has an extensive blog associated with it: Daniel Barenboim website. Daniel Barenboim is a world-famous conductor whose first wife, Jacqueline Du Pre, was one of the great cellists of the 20th century (she passed away after a long battle with multiple sclerosis in 1987). He is a fascinating conductor, musician, and person.

Community

This is not a specific music-themed post, but more an observation of how much the internet has contributed to creating and maintaining communities over the past few years. Blogs, Podcasts, MySpace, Facebook, the examples are almost endless. This blog is new, but I can see that there are a lot of people from all over that have visited it. If you read this, leave a comment, and keep coming back!

MySpace

I used to think that MySpace was the place where people had a site who could not afford a "real" site...... boy was I ever mistaken! With almost every band having a MySpace presence (take your pick, U2, Collective Soul, Diana Krall to name a few examples/genres), and hundreds of thousands of smaller indie bands joining in the fray, MySpace has become a veritable force in the music industry. Most bands establish a site and then let it run its own course, but there are some artists that make great strides through MySpace. Check out Mandi Perkins for an artist who is using MySpace to its full potential. And hey, this is my blog, so I can mention my own band's MySpace page, right? Here you go: Offering MySpace.

Working musician

Not a lot of time to post these past few days - we have no fewer than 14 shows in October, and we are working on finishing our third full-length recording project (this one with mostly original material), taking music business classes at Berklee. So........ lots of time in the studio, lots of time on the road.... and not a lot of time to write :). But being busy is good for a musician, and this coming week is a little slower, so writing will be more front and center!

Evanescence.....

.....released their new album today. I am a huge fan and had pre-ordered the cd through iTunes. Favorite song so far - "Weight of the World".

Music and TV

A few years ago I was recuperating from surgery and in bed for several weeks - my husband, in an attempt to keep me distracted, bought some TV series on DVD, one of them being the first season of Smallville (the back story of Superman as a teenager and young adult - very much worth watching, by the way). One of the things that struck me in this particular series (for the first time - it had not really entered my radar screen prior to this) was the use of music in each episode. The producers seemed to have a gift for picking just the right songs to set a mood (Lifehouse's "Everything" during a romantic scene, Eva Cassidy's poignant rendition of "Time after time" as backdrop for a funeral scene). I discovered lots of music by watching TV since then, the most recent one being Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" - during the second season finale of Grey's Anatomy. If you have not heard the song, I recommend you hear it as a part of that episode - it brought me close to tears and I do not get emotional easily over TV.