Performing nothing but new music, alone, for more than an hour is quite a workout. I didn’t realize how tough it was before I began my Queering the Pitch recital project. I just completed my fourteenth performance of the recital at the University of Georgia, where I am a doctoral student. As I walked off stage for the last time following Britten’s Third Suite for Cello, I realized that I was literally sweating through my shirt where my cello meets my chest (GROSS!) and my arms were quite tired from such an acrobatic program.
This isn’t to say that performing alone is not exhilarating - it absolutely is! All musical ideas and gestures are produced entirely by me alone without any interferences. This also isn’t to say that I hate performing with others, quite the opposite! As I’m typing this blog, I’m in my office waiting for the Hodgson String Quartet (in which I am the cellist) to begin our Wednesday rehearsal. To paraphrase one of the most fantastic musicians I’ve ever played with, the pianist Judith Gordon, “music is so much more fun when you’re playing with others!”
This Friday I board a plane for Boston where I’ll be presenting yet another Queering the Pitch concert. This performance has been generously sponsored by The Boston Conservatory, my second alma mater, and I’m terribly excited to return to play music in an environment that is ridiculously supportive of both LGBTQ rights/people and new music. Read my previous posting to get more of a sense of the meaning of this project.
I sat down with the intention to write a long blog about music and recent experiences, but I’m finding it difficult to come up with words. So, I’ll end this brief post by again quoting Ned Rorem:
"The hardest of all the arts to speak of is music, because music has no meaning to speak of."
