Mostly Columbus Guitar Society stuff
Well, mostly, but first... Vacation mid to late August. My nephew joined us this year. It's hard to read the mood of teenage boys for whom expressing personal feeling isn't cool (especially after he's endured so much recent tragedy). I believe he had a great time, and that was important to me. Bass fishing was easy, but it always is on Lake Kagawong. Fishing in general (especially perch) was terrible. There was a strong NE, N, or NW wind blowing the whole week. Still, I was where I love being, and I've caught plenty of fish there and elsewhere at other times.
Played the members' concert 15 September (Caroline Hong used a cell phone to snap a picture of me after practicing mandolin in the band room at Capital University, and our webmaster/her hubby stuck it up at columbusguitarsociety.org).
Into Chicago for the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network conference 16-19 September. Jeff, my boss, was at Stone Lab on business, so I had to sit in on the directors' meeting and on the directors' panel. Stone Lab exhibit at Farm Science Review on 20 September. Fished yesterday for an hour or two (two beautiful smallmouth bass). Off to San Diego for the national Sea Grant conference 28 September-3 October. I'll play a bit of mandolin there at the talent show; accompaniment will be provided by Kola from the national office on piano. A stage peopled by directors/program leaders of state Sea Grant programs and NOAA staff is a little surreal. At Stone Lab 6-7 October for the fish-sampling workshop I concocted in collaboration with the EPA and Division of Wildlife. Looks like it will run at capacity, and I'm excited about it.
I'm also excited about what I've managed to do for the Columbus Guitar Society this season. Our tickets will now be listed with CAPA (ticket office: 614-469-0939) and, by extension, via Ticketmaster.com. Tickets in the coming year will be $18 general admission and $12 for students/seniors/members. Anybody wishing to buy the four professional dates packaged as a subscription can do so for $48 by calling the CAPA office.
WOSU interviewed me a week or two ago to preview the guitar society season. The interview should appear on line soon. I've been pretty persistent in trying to get this recognition from the "mainstream" classical media over the last couple years. Enough so that Christopher Purdy, the Program Director at WOSU, introduced me to the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Columbus as a "borderline pain in the ass...but let me tell you, that works!" In addition, I will be recording all the professional dates of the season for submission to the radio program Music in Mid-Ohio. I have no idea if any will actually be aired, but at least I've gotten us into the loop!
Those four professional dates:
20 October 2007: The Castellani-Andriaccio Duo
3 November 2007: Thomas Viloteau, GFA Victory Tour
9 February 2008: Xuefei Yang
5 April 2008: Robert Gruca
In addition, there was a members' concert on 15 September and will be another in March 2008. The University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music guitar ensemble under Clare Callahan will perform on 26 January ($5 admission!). And the very popular and totally marvelous Caroline Hong is generous enough to be playing a fund-raiser concert for us on 7 June. I know, I know: a piano soloist playing for a guitar series!? This concert is scheduled outside the regular season, and Caroline will be playing piano music that is popular (in some cases, more popular) as guitar transcription. That hook makes for great novelty.
I'm looking forward to it all and hope to see some of you there.