bluebacon

It's been a very sad last few days. My very good friend Amelia, who has been battling with lymphoma for the past 5 1/2 years passed away on Thursday. I had never been so struck by death as much as her death has hit me. I've been crying for days. I had already felt so helpless and far away ever since she was diagnosed and being in Canada the whole time had made it impossible to visit and spend time with her. She fought long and hard and I was so proud of her for being so strong and willful. I admired her courage and sense of humor so much throughout the whole battle that I named my daughter after her. She had gone through two bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, and all kinds of other experimental research treatments. I remember one FB status she had once put -- "I had failed in many things but never the ability to try again." And that's just like her. To face problems head on and not falter. After the third time that her cancer relapsed,...

Some reflection on Beethoven Symphony No. 9... I never had a good relationship with this symphony. Not from the very first time I worked with it. I remember my very first 3-sheet that I created when I was new with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was Wolfgang Sawallisch's farewell concert as the outgoing music director and he was going to conduct Beethoven 9. It was a big deal concert with a gala and everything and I didn't do a good enough job proofing the 3-sheet. The word 'choral' in the title was spelled with an un-capitalized 'c' and my website had only two W's. If you think about it, it really wasn't that bad. Only music critics and geeks would notice the word choral was not capitalized on the super big giant poster displayed on the side of the Kimmel Centre for the whole world to see. As for the website, the passing cars wouldn't have paid attention. But somehow that mistake stayed with me for a long time. Last year when it was announced tha...