Sunnyvale School of Music Student Recital

Me & Mike Bastien (May 29, 2009)
Originally uploaded by michele_sharik

I've been taking snare drum lessons for a couple of months now. A couple of weeks ago, my teacher asked me if I'd like to play on the music school's student recital. I said, "Sure!"

The recital was tonight & I played Morris Goldenberg's "No Roll Etude".

I had my regular lesson today at 3:00 & Mike advised me to "Count and breathe and don't go too fast!" When I got up on stage, I took a deep breath, reminded myself to count and hunkered down to play as best as I could.

I'm pretty proud of myself - I played it nearly flawlessly! I got about 3/4 of the way through and thought to myself, "Wow! I'm doing it!" and that made me hesitate slightly on one rhythm, but I caught myself and kept going until the end.

My husband told me "I've never seen you *work* so hard for the music."

He explained that when I play bells, I look relaxed and comfortable, but when I played the drum, I looked like I was concentrating and very determined. He even said I stuck my tongue out between my lips a couple of times, but I don't remember doing that!! LOL!

Anyway, here's a pic of me with my percussion teacher, Mike Bastien. YAY! :-)


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Sonos video shoot

Sonos is making a new DVD. We recorded the audio at a concert in Berkeley back in June 2008; we've been doing on-location shooting since then.

Today, we gathered at the Baylands Structural Collapse Training Site, owned by the Menlo Park Fire Department.

Of course, I posted pics to Flickr. Here's a sample:



or two:



or three:




After the shoot, we all came over to my place to film interviews with Patti, Gretchen, Cheryl, Jason, & me. (Lois, Missy, Jukka, & Kathie have already been interviewed.)

This video is going to be SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME!! I just cannot wait for it to be ready!

Yeah, I still play flute

I started playing flute when I joined the 5th grade band. My elementary school had a pretty good music program, so even before that, we learned how to play recorder and even acoustic guitar in our weekly General Music classes.

When I first went to University, I majored in flute performance. I dropped out (and switched to Theory/Comp) because of intense stage fright, but I never stopped playing flute.

Several months ago, I got a text message from William Kyle, the director of Bay Bells, asking me if I would play Native American flute on their May concerts. I told him that I would love to, but I don't own an Native American flute, nor do I know how to play one. He said, "If we got one for you, would you play it?" I said, "Sure."

Weeks later - in fact, so much later that I had forgotten all about it! - Kevin Holsinger, the harp half of Bronzewood Paedeia, brought a Native American flute to my house. He apparently borrowed it from another harpist - to be honest, I don't even know who it belongs to.

I googled for, downloaded, and printed a fingering chart, then about 2 weeks ago settled down to learn how to play the thing. I connected it to my tuner to make sure I was playing the correct pitches - I did have to modify some of the fingerings on the chart.

It's a very nice flute, to be sure. I was even able to play the parts of the piece that say "Omit for Native American Flute" (the part can of course also be played on regular concert flute)!

I showed up for dress rehearsal last Friday night & on Saturday played 2 concerts with Bay Bells at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts. Wil Mandac took pics of the concert & here's one of me!

Kiriku Handbell Ensemble East Coast Tour

Kiriku Handbell Ensemble recently completed a tour of the East Coast - from Florida to Massachusetts. Charlotte McPherson has posted a slideshow of their Raleigh, NC, concert & has posted Griff Gall's review of the Massachusetts concert on her blog. (Griff is the director of the Back Bay Ringers in Boston.)

Kiriku's leader, Taiko Otsubo, sometimes rings with Sonos - commuting all the way from Tokyo to ring with us. She's an incredible musician and an amazing ringer - she breathes the music. When I play, I try to "channel" Taiko. My mantra is "How would Taiko ring this?"

Recently, I taught and rang a solo at the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference in Ashland, OR. After my rehearsal with the pianist, one of the conference attendees asked me if I had ever run with Kiriku because, she said, "You ring just like them."

I consider this to be high praise, indeed. :-)