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!)
Day 3 of our Yellow Barn residency:
We’ve been experimenting with can phones as a way of expediting communication between pods, and as a diversion from the 10 hours a day of rehearsal. Check out the video, which includes a cameo by our coach and colleague, the awesome Christina Dahl, and features our recording of Ravel’s Habanera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7kO8XjOeKk?fs=1
And, if you’re in the area, come to our concert! Christina is playing too.
Monday, October 11
7pm
United Church of Putney
15 Kimball Road
Putney, VT
$12
As I mentioned yesterday, Yellow Barn strives to create “an environment conducive to undistracted study.” Let’s see how they do in a back-to-back comparison with New York City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNK1EYsh1A0?fs=1
We are here in beautiful Putney, VT, doing a residency at Yellow Barn. We are refining, rehearsing and performing our brand spanking new transcriptions of Bach and Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues.
Holy Smokes it’s gorgeous here:
Paul and I drove up separately, and each realized that we did not bring any sort of recording device with us. Immediately upon our arrival, however, Anna presented us with a Zoom to use! That was the first sign that this is going to be an awesome residency.
The next sign that this was going to be an awesome residency was the Pods–the music practice buildings where we are to rehearse. It’s as if someone said, “Now what would you like in a practice space? Abundant light? A beautiful view? Solar power? Climate control? Check and check.” Here’s a me practicing there the first night:
Here’s the same view, in daylight:
At Yellow Barn, they strive to create an “atmosphere conducive to undistracted study,” and there will be more about that in future posts. Today, we practiced and rehearsed a full 10 and a half hours. That’s more than 10, in case you were wondering.
Have another look at the Pods:
Paul and I each have our own Pod. Here’s what we look like to eachother:
I have only one suggestion for the folks at Yellow Barn: how about a zipline from Pod to Pod?
If you’re in the area, please come to our concert on Monday!