Tag Archives: music

A Stage among the Trees

May 11, 2011Blogpostsflute, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, Paul Fadoul, PJ Fadoul, treehouse, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerZara

I have a marimba partner and a life partner. With my marimba partner (Paul), I do projects like putting on concerts. With my life partner (Aine), I do projects like building a treehouse. So it seems only natural to put on a concert in a treehouse.

Yes! A treehouse! It’s in western Massachusetts (near North, in my sister’s back yard. We started work last summer. First we put up the beams.

In November, Aine and I spent Thanksgiving weekend building the platform. We framed the floor:

And covered it all with plywood.

When it was finished, it looked just like a stage among the trees, and the idea for a Treehouse Concert was born.

The concert will be May 21 at 4pm. If you live in the Northampton, MA area and would like to come, the concert is free, but you must RSVP. Please email me at lawler@lawlerandfadoul.com for all the details.

(In case of rain, we will be inside, but you’ll still get a chance to see the treehouse!)

Live Webcast from the Kennedy Center: 2/13/11

February 13, 2011Blogposts, newsBach, flute, Kennedy Center, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, Paul Fadoul, PJ Fadoul, Shostakovich, webcast, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerPaul

We’ll be playing a 15-minute set tomorrow night, including two of our new Bach and Shostakovich transcriptions. The program is part of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloists’ Competition, which Paul won back in the day.
You can watch a live webcast at this link. We’re on around 7:45–hope you can be there.

Shostakovich D minor fugue, LIVE

December 17, 2010BlogpostsDC, flute, fugue, Gronica, Gronica Project, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, Paul Fadoul, PJ Fadoul, recording, Shostakovich, Yellow Barn, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerZara

Paul and I recently received the official CD of our Yellow Barn concert. We were listening to it yesterday, while driving around in the first snow of the year, and it seemed that Shostakovich’s D Minor Fugue was particularly well matched to the wintry surroundings.

Click here to listen to an excerpt from the fugue, featuring alto flute. And here are a couple of snowy pictures to give you the full effect:

(Note that Paul is holding the CD!)

Postcard from Flamarimba Camp

December 3, 2010BlogpostsBach, camp, DC, flamarimba, flute, International Street Cannibals, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, orchestral percussionist, Paul Fadoul, PJ Fadoul, rehearsal, xtranormal, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerZara

Dear Mom and Dad,

I had a nice time at Flamarimba Camp. I stayed up past lights-out one time, but don’t tell the counselors.

Mostly, we practiced for our show this weekend in NYC with the International Street Cannibals:

We will be playing our new versions of two Preludes & Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, with live capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that is sweeping the nation. Seriously!

Also, we did two school shows, and they went pretty well. The kids really liked the music, and asked very good questions. After the second show, a girl raised her hand and said,

I have a comment. You have good fashion.

Not bad, even if it did come from a second-grader in a school uniform.

On our breaks from practicing, we watched Flight of the Conchords and Fawlty Towers, and a sad-but-hilarious video about life as an orchestral percussionist.

Paul had a cold, but that did not stop him from showing off his new concert snare drum. Hopefully he will be feeling better by Sunday. See you at the concert!

Love, z

PS. Please send cookies.
PPS. Preferably chocolate chip.

CMA

November 17, 2010BlogpostsChamber Music America, CMA, flute, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, Paul Fadoul, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerZara

No, not the Country Music Awards. (Last I checked, they don’t have a category for flute & marimba.)

Chamber Music America is the industry organization for small ensembles, and the big news is that Lawler & Fadoul have been selected to do a showcase performance at their annual conference in January!

The Conference takes place in New York City, and is 4 days of showcases, concerts, panel discussions, exhibits and networking.

This will be our first showcase at CMA. We will be playing some of our old favorites (Ravel’s Habanera, Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea, and a tango by Piazzolla) as well as two of our new transcriptions (Bach’s G Major Prelude & Fugue from WTC 1 and Shostakovich’ A Major Prelude & Fugue). You can hear a preview of the action on our audio page.

Keep an eye out here and on our schedule page for practice showcase performances—we’d love to play our pieces for you. (In fact, if you’d be interested in hosting an informal house concert, let us know!)

Welcome to our new site!

November 5, 2010Blogpostsflute, Kissyboots Rising, Lawler and Fadoul, marimba, music, Paul Fadoul, Zadie Lawler, Zara LawlerZara

Hello, everybody.

Welcome to the new internet home of Lawler & Fadoul. Please check out our audio and video clips, the programs we offer, our outreach page, and our schedule of upcoming events by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page.

This is also the new home of our old blog, Kissyboots Rising. All of our old entries are below, and we will adding new ones all the time.

Stay tuned for more about our Yellow Barn Residency, our NSO In-School shows that begin in mid-November, and more, more, more.

This Flamarimba Duo brought to you by Megabus

April 28, 2009Blogposts, UncategorizedDC, education, flute, marimba, music, NSOZara

Here’s a picture of me, writing this entry on the Megabus (I LOVE Megabus), on my way to DC tonight.

PJ and I are meeting with the awesome Gary Race tomorrow, to start working on a program that will eventually become an in-school performance workshop for elementary schools, under the auspices of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO).

We know Gary through Tales & Scales (how we know each other, btw). Gary directed several Tales & Scales shows, including The Arabian Nights, The Odyssey, The Little Dragon, and for those of you old enough to remember it, The Enchanted Horn. He also is a consultant for the NSO, and helps prepare all of their outreach performances. Oh, and he’s also an opera director and vocal coach. He’s amazing at what he does, so we’re very excited to get to work with him again in this new context.

We know the NSO, or rather, they know us, because PJ was one of the stars of the DC youth orchestra scene, and won, in both 1996 and 1998, their Young Artist Concerto Competition (high school and college divisions, baby).

Our program is going to focus on dance in music, including a tango, a waltz, two menuets, and Soulja Boy Tell’em’s Crank That. The idea being that, in their times and places, the menuet, waltz and tango were as popular as Soulja Boy.

Of course, by the time our shows happen (fall semester of 09-10), Soulja Boy will be so 2007 that we might have to come up with another idea.
I thought maybe that first photo was too serious.