Fall Concerts and December Recital

Opening for a Jazz Quintet

I performed at a small, very friendly café in Chico a few weeks ago, called Tender Loving Coffee, where I played nine songs before Joe Mazzaferro and his Sacramento-based jazz band performed right after. My first goal, which I started thinking about weeks before the show, was to get through all nine songs without "stumbling" or letting my nerves get to me. I say this mainly because this was a ticketed event, a sit-down-and-face-the-performer kind of show, and not just background music. I knew this the moment Joshua Hegg booked the gig, so I had already made a mental note of this.

The show seemed to be a hit with the people at the café, both with me as well as the incredibly talented jazz band that played after. Oddly enough, much of my own success at this particular show is owed to a YouTube video I watched the day before the performance, which offered tips on how to avoid being nervous when there's a huddle of on-lookers staring at your hands in plain sight, without the comfort and security of darkness (which you have when you're in a big concert hall). One of the tips included something I hadn't thought of before: you should actually expect mistakes, instead of expecting perfection. You should then over-prepare like crazy, and get the songs into your muscle memory as much as you can. This way, if you do happen to make a mistake, you shrug it off like it's no big deal and you keep playing. When you approach it this way, most people won't even notice (especially when you're playin your own work). This expectation of imperfection helps to keep the performer calm if any mishap does occur, whereas someone who expects perfection can get frazzled or frustrated after even a tiny mistake. So, as it turned out, I made very, very few--if any--mistakes at all. It's all about the little things, I guess (and thank god for YouTube!)

My encouragement to anyone to see Joe Mazzaferro, by the way, is in no way just a "polite gesture" that I'm merely dropping out of some formality that comes with being a musician. It's a genuine recommendation--they were fantastic, and exceeded my expectations by far. The musicians were skilled, confident, versatile and incredibly good. All five of them (a trumpeter, a sax player, a keyboard player, a drummer and an upright bass player) performed solos regularly. Even though I had the option of heading home after my performance, I stayed to the very end because of how

impressed I was with this band.


Chico Interfaith Council's Camp Fire Memorial

The Chico Interfaith Council is run by community members who are adherents to the Baha'i Faith (a religion that, as many know, I used to be a part of). The short version of that story, of course, is that I am no longer religious and haven't been for a long time. The Baha'is already know this, but they regularly borrow me because they know I don't mind performing at their services. There were a lot of win-wins at this one because I got to perform with Caleb Hermle, the cellist who has worked with me on several other occasions. We played Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Pachabel's "Canon in D" at the Chico City Plaza, on the one-year anniversary of the Camp Fire. The Baha'is organized several other performances/activities (a choir, a moment of silence, and a release of birds into the air).

I think this ended up being really therapeutic for the people who came, even though it seemed uncomfortable at times (the sun was right in our faces, and we were sweating, complete with long sleeves in the hot sun--and yes, it was warm, in November). I feel like we pulled through beautifully though--bright sun or not, when you're a professional, you're a professional.


"Oh, I'll be Fine--It's Still a Month Away!"

The above quote is a common saying I hear from some students, and it's just as frightening as it looks... in fact, with some of the really young ones (6-ish years old) they don't even realize that a month is only four weeks. I had to remind quite a few of these procrastinators that a month was not a long time, because they were slacking on their practice and under a dangerous misapprehension that they had "all the time in the world" before the recital, because they had a "whole month" to go. Luckily, I've been able to instill enough urgency in them that they're finally putting in the time to get ready.

In any case, the next student recital will be at Apollo Music & Arts (pictured) on December 6th, 2019, at 6:30pm, and will feature about 15 performers. I'm especially excited about the six intermediate/advanced players, who will be showing off their mad skills with exceptionally difficult pieces (Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp being one of them).


The First 2020 Show (So Far)

Unless I book another performance before February 22nd, the first show of that year will be at Wine Time. I've played there quite a few times and one of the tings I love about that venue is the perfect acoustics. Unless it gets exceptionally chatty in the restaurant (which can happen if the patrons end up having enough wine :P ) I usually don't even need my PA speaker.

If I really wanted to (and had the time) I could approach this from a more philosophical angle, and ask the question, "Why should I do all these live performances in the first place?" But for the sake of being concise, and getting to the point, my aim for now is really just to get used to it. I spend most of my time teaching, which is something that many musicians do because it's a relatively easy way (and a more immediate way) to make a living. The gigs, for me, are designed to help prepare my for a more daring venue, which includes the idea of possibly going on a tour.

The interesting part about this is that I really don't have much of an idea as to whether I would enjoy touring, because -- like any other similar situation -- I've never actually done it. I imagine I would enjoy it because of the experiences of traveling to multiple places, many of which I will never have visited before, but I know there are also certain pitfalls that go with it. So, to sum this up, let's just say that the only way to find out is to actually do it :D

So, the more gigs the merrier. Aside from the heavy lifting, I have to say that I really do enjoy it so far.

Updates on 'The Lost Enemy'

Published and ready to ship!

The creative writing project that I worked on for many years, The Lost Enemy, has come to fruition and it's been a wonderful learning experience. This originally started as a collection of poems, which was supposed to accompany one of my piano CD's, but I added a lot more to it and the project eventually blossomed into a novel-length story. I then converted these poems into prose, which left me with a book that not only contained a 180-page story but also a very unusual and a rather archaic style of writing.

A few people have asked me, just out of curiosity, why I decided to finalize this story now, and why I decided to publish it. The events leading up the time when I finally started "cracking down" on the project are rather amusing, considering I was somewhat careless when it comes to displaying this product on my website...


"Wait! It's not ready!"

A few months ago I finally finished writing most of The Lost Enemy, and I already knew what order the chapters were in and how the events were to be portrayed in the novel. The only "snag" was that the story wasn't quite polished, and there were multiple changes that needed to be made with regard to the content.

As an example (and don't worry, there are no spoilers here!) there is a character in the story who becomes pregnant. In the original draft it didn't take long before this character became aware of her own pregnancy. The problem was that I absolutely had to make the story unfold so that she doesn't discover this news until very much later (this was due to a "hiccup" in the series of events, which was brought to my attention by one of my colleagues).

The point here is that The Lost Enemy was neatly displayed on my website, being advertised as a "completed" novel, a book that was for sale and ready to be purchased. Most people had no idea that I had even written anything, since the primary function of my business is music and not creative writing. So I didn't worry about this too much, and I figured that if anyone purchased the product I could just "fix it up real quick" and ship it off to the person who bought it.

Well, lo and behold, a random woman that I met at a concert one day stumbled on my website and decided to buy the book. I noticed this a few days after she made the purchase, and--as anyone can imagine--my first thought was, Well, I guess I better finish polishing this up.

So that is how I ended up finalizing the story. I guess the "funny" part is that the process of fixing it up took several weeks, with many all-nighters that involved hours of me sitting at the computer and changing/improving the story.

The woman who ordered that first book finally got her copy (along with a free CD, as a "thank you" for patiently waiting while I scrambled to finish the project). And, to my excitement, I've sold fifteen additional copies after that!


Kudos to a wonderful printing company

I feel somewhat fortunate that we live in an age now where people can self-publish pretty much anything. You can now self-publish a book, an album, a film, or just about any other form of media. So I self-published The Lost Enemy using a company called 48 Hour Books (you can check out their website here) and they were fantastic. I was so impressed with how professional the final product was when I received my first shipment. So, as far as I'm concerned, if you want to get a book printed--that's where you need to go! Just a heads-up, if you've never published your own book before: ISBN numbers are not cheap.


The "Second Edition"

There's an interesting phenomenon that takes place during the editing/revision process, when it comes to writing and publishing a book. This was another learning experience. When you spend too much time on a creative project, you stop noticing mistakes. This is a classic case of "you can't see the forest for the trees" concept, if you'll forgive the cliché expression. I spent so much time reading and re-reading this novel that there were several (four, to be exact) glaringly obvious typos that I always failed to notice, regardless of how many times I read it. I would like to have hired an editor to iron out this common problem, but this would mean more money out of my pocket.

This resulted in the first batch of books being printed with four typos that bugged me to no end, along with some formatting issues that I realized needed to be changed. So after selling a bunch of copies with the errors in them, I ordered a second set with the improved version. This "second edition" also has 35 chapters instead of 34. The additional chapter resulted in my decision to split one of the chapters in two, because I felt it was too long.


A second book? This remains to be seen...

I was delighted to sell even a small handful of copies, primarily because this was an experiment and a hobby that didn't involve the stress of pursuing it as a "career", and there was no pressure to meet any kind of deadline. I've been asked a couple of times if there will be a second book, and this all depends on whether there will be more sales, and whether I start hearing demands for one. Either way, one thing I will admit is that The Lost Enemy is a deeply personal book that I've worked on for a long time, and now it's rather surreal to not have a creative writing project to work on (other than these fun blog posts).

Completing this project was definitely one of the most satisfying and therapeutic things I've done, and when I'm asked if it was worth the time and effort, it's an easy yes. There are few things in life that are as euphoric as being immersed in such a colossal project with no restrictions, no rules, no time limit and all while being fully aware of the endless options I had at my disposal. And as for the question of whether I end up writing a second book--well, I wouldn't be surprised ;)

Summer Sounds: Amazing Kids, More Shows, and a Novel

Composition Recital at St. John's

First thing's first, I guess: Wow! (Is that verbose enough to describe something that really amazed me?) I attended, and performed in, a composition recital that featured both kids and adults. The recital was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Chico, which has a very well-maintained piano and pretty awesome acoustics. I knew I was going to enjoy these kinds of performances because I love discovering what kinds of techniques, styles and patterns other piano composers use when they write music. I had the privilege of hearing these students play their original work, which included compositions that featured multiple instruments. Writing for more than one instrument takes an enormous amount of know-how and creativity, and kids as young as twelve were able to pull this off.

Okay, so now that I'm inspired... moving on!

Composition Recital at St. John's Episcopal Church

Got a House?

The idea of doing house concerts originated way before the composition recital, so the performances by the budding composers didn't actually give rise to this idea. It did, however, motivate me to look into this more closely. No dates have been set yet, but I've spoken to one person who may be interested in hosting a house concert over the summer. House concerts are exactly that -- a solo concert (in this case, a piano concert) in someone's home. I'm shooting for June, but the time frame remains to be seen and I'm hoping to have a narrower time frame in the next week or so.

There are really nice things about house concerts, including the fact that it's a more intimate setting -- and the fact that it's easier to hurl tomatoes at me if I don't play well ;) Okay, so I'm kidding about that last part.


The Lost Enemy -- off the shelf and on my desk!

My novel The Lost Enemy has been an on-going project for so many years now that it's difficult to pinpoint exactly how long I've been refining it. It has gone through many revisions, and up until last month it sat on the shelf (so to speak) for quite some time. I decided to get back into it one last time and finalize the entire project. It's hard to say when it will be ready to publish, but I'm definitely hoping by August. I've already looked at companies that are able to bind and print the novel, what their rates are, and what they offer.

As far as the last revisions and the final edit, the events in the story haven't changed since the last major modification in which I added an entire chapter to the book. The format, however, has changed slightly. Originally, each chapter was represented by one of my songs, and instead of calling these "chapters" they are now headings in the text, and each chapter may contain two or three headings. This works out better organizationally (Is that a word? Sure it is!) and it just seems to make more sense with regard to how the events are divided up in the story.

Another idea I have is to eventually provide the CD's of the music in the back cover of the book itself. Either way, one thing is for certain: the revision process can be tedious. Somehow I still find it thrilling and I grow more and more anxious as it gets close to completion.

I have a feeling, for some reason, that this summer is going to be exceptionally productive. Time will definitely tell, as it always does.

Spring Success and a Summer Show

A successful (and busy!) spring concert

The solo piano concert I put on last month (March 9th) ended up being a great success, although it had about the same so-so turnout as the last time I performed at the Chico Women's Club (about 30 people). The fun part of this concert was that I got to sell my sheet music for the first time. This is definitely something I plan to do for my next concert, in addition to selling my CD's, because a few of the sheet music I brought actually sold.

The busy part of the day was not just preparing for the concert, but putting on a student recital the same day. My colleagues and friends didn't really describe this as "busy," because I think their word of choice was "insane".

Despite my insanity, which should be no surprise to anyone, the recital was enjoyable, inspiring, and as much of a success as the solo concert. Nineteen of my students performed, and 50 or so parents and family members showed up. I had already collaborated with other teachers in helping them with recitals over the years, and having my students perform in those recitals, but this was the first show I organized for the students myself.

A number of people usually ask me, after I do any of these concerts, "How do you feel now?" The best way I can answer that question is, always, "I want to do more." And this, of course, brings me to my next exciting excursion. A summer gig... er, gigs?

Time to pose! Our group shot with me and my students, after a successful recital at the Chico Women's Club (3/9/19)

Wine Time in the Mean Time

I have been trying to book a solo piano concert at MONCA, the Museum of Northern California Art. I may wait for a while before actually performing there because I just played a big solo concert last month, which means many of my "regulars" may not necessarily bother coming to see the same kind of show a month later. I was thinking about playing MONCA in June, but either way I was still able to book a live show at Wine Time Restaurant on June 29th. The great thing about playing at Wine Time is that it's perfect for practicing, and the acoustics (and the staff!) are both wonderful.


Recording Woes, and the Ultimate Cure

At my spring concert at the Chico Women's Club I brought two different CD's, my demo album Heart of Storms, and a CD that featured various recordings, including a cover of the theme from Princess Bride, and six songs from the future album called August In Bloom. This worked out well because many people urged me to bring a second CD (The Heart of Storms album is an old one and many fans already have it). The only downside was that there's a glitch on the newer CD, where there's about two to four minutes of silence after each song. It just means that people have to skip to the next track after listening to the first one. It should be an easy fix, but either way I am in the process of recording all of the August in Bloom songs, and I may use this album as a way to send the tracks to a company that packages the CD's for you professionally.

As many people know I own a Yamaha C3X, which is a 7-foot grand piano, and I plan to one day record off of this acoustically if I can. Part of this depends on whether I convert the room to a professional recording studio, or if I wait instead to buy my own home to do this. The fact that I'm renting and unsure of how long I'll continue living there (the housing situation in Chico and the difficulties resulting from last year's terrible wildfire are a part of this) makes the issue slightly more complicated. Either way, the C3X has a silent system, and I'll soon be testing the recording quality on it as well as the acoustic recordings from my hybrid piano. I have a microphone that I haven't yet used, and I may be able to use this along with a high-quality video camera that I bought shortly before I went on my trip to Iceland and Greenland last summer.


More videos are afoot...

Speaking of videos, I plan to make quite a few more of them. My approach to getting more people to subscribe to my music and come to my shows is going to involve a lot of effort on social media and online videos, because 1) that's where most people go initially to find out about artists, and 2) the potential in terms of how many people you can reach on the Internet is pretty enormous. I added a brand new video on YouTube (below) and plan to make a lot more of these. This means, of course, I'll be just as busy as I've been... but not busier, because I don't think that's possible :D

An Arctic Adventure, with Concerts to Follow

A land like no other

In July of last summer I took a trip to Iceland and Greenland, with my brother, and as I'm writing this it's surreal to realize that it was about six months ago when we embarked on that adventure. After I returned, I ended up with kidney stones (again) from eating too much lamb (yes, really), and then I had to return to my normal routine of working at the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools, teaching piano lessons, continuing my recording projects and preparing for several concerts. It was the classic "hit the ground running" scenario.

Kulusuk, Greenland

One of the exciting outcomes is that I composed a song called "The Ice Floes of Kulusuk," which was inspired by the majestic and stunning scenery I came across while visiting Greenland for three days. Kulusuk is the name of the village where we stayed, and I'm happy to announce that I'll be performing this piece in a solo concert coming up in March. I've been practicing it repeatedly, especially today, which is quite apparent as I'm feeling the inklings of pre-carpal tunnel symptoms even as I type. The great news is that I can talk about my experience in Greenland while interacting with the audience during the concert.


Musicians stepping up during times of crisis

Everyone now knows about the horrors and the terrifying stories shared by the Camp Fire victims, especially people like myself, who live just a half an hour away from Paradise (my town of Chico is just a hop-skip-and-jump from the burn area). Musicians all over Chico have been donating their instruments to fire victims who lost their instruments in the blaze, and it's been inspiring for everyone. Two of my students were affected by the fire, and I had several family members that lost their homes. In light of the tragedy and all the inspiring efforts by members in the community, I'll also be performing at the Paradise Performing Arts Center on February 8th, where the Baha'is of Chico and other community members will be having a memorial for the 86 people who lost their lives in the event.

Ariel view of the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA (November 2018)

I'm hoping to donate proceeds from my March concert as well, maybe to some of the Paradise reconstruction efforts. Either way I'm excited for the event, since there are several other musicians performing (and no, not just because I'll have fewer songs to practice :P ).


Why the majority of my colleagues think I'm insane

I performed at the Chico Women's Club for the second time, back in September. The concert seemed to go well, although there were only about 35 people or so, and I was somewhat sleep-deprived by the time I walked onto the stage because I had been going non-stop since 7:30 in the morning. There's a lot of prepping that goes into it, especially when you factor in food, sound checks, set-up time, ticket booths, etc. For my March concert, part of my plan is to have everything ready and set up about two days before the show.

Undoubtedly, this "have-everything-ready-ahead-of-time" approach is a wise way to go, but the "insane" part is that I scheduled a recital for my students on the same day. I mainly did this because it's more efficient economically -- both the recital and the solo concert will be at the Chico Women's Club, with just a few hours in between. I'm not too worried about feeling burned out when evening hits because I plan to actually sleep the night before (what a concept!) and the most strenuous activity required of me during the recital will be standing at a microphone and announcing the next performer.

Chico Women's Club (Chico, CA)

The exciting part of the solo concert is that I plan to feature a local harp player as well as one of my composition students, who each plan to play two pieces. The best part of this is that the performance is still eight weeks away, which still gives me lots of time to practice, and I've already decided on the playlist. Maybe this time I'll be able to walk onto the stage without feeling like I'm going to fall asleep ;)