thirteen ways

Yesterday morning we played a concert at the Whitney Senior Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 9:30 AM concerts are not always our forte, especially after a day of cross-country travel, but for some reason, this one worked. I don’t mean to suggest my fingers were at their most nimble, and my brain was definitely not completely up to par (I forgot to get out the detuned viola for Kati’s piece, so I just played the first movement on regular violin. Just one example. Made for some interesting seat-of-the-pants transpositions). But the audience was engaged: they really wanted to hear us play Reich and Agocs, Donatoni and Rzewski, and they had great questions. I even heard from others in the group that they seemed to be paying attention while I blathered on mis-quoting Rabelais and otherwise offering “insights” into the pieces.

It really makes me think about how important audience is to a performer. In this instance, with 40 people in a well-lit room, it was easy to gauge their reactions as we went, and we definitely fed off of their enthusiasm. So thanks, Whitney Senior Center, for providing that for us.

‘Cause it was really cold outside, and having a good reason to go out in it made for a pretty good day. With schools closed we didn’t get the opportunity to go to the other activities the Chamber Music Society of St. Cloud had arranged for us, so Tim and I high-tailed it to Minneapolis for dinners with friends. Having decided that we spend enough time with one another, we went our separate ways, so Tim had pizza and beer, while I enjoyed short ribs and eager anticipation of the upcoming Battlestar Galactica season premiere at Craftsman with M, M, and S. Good times, even if not warm ones.