My favorite music was written for occasions that are irrelevant to me; music written for salon conversation and gossip veiled behind intricate fans. Tonight I gazed out the window, and enjoyed the breeze. I wanted perfect and appropriate music to compliment the glow of my lamp and the cityscape.

I knew the perfect piece.

I had pleasure of meeting and interviewing Kenji Bunch years ago, who wrote a work especially for the hours after 12 a.m. in New York. I bought a recording of “Swing Shift” about 5 years ago, but never played it so late at night in the city. It’s a very beautiful work, arranged for a string trio. The soft phrases convey an elusive emptiness about night time in the city that I’m just not beginning to feel.

It’s so perfect I can only sigh and wish you all were here.

My big idea for the moment: why don’t ballet companies, orchestras, galleries, etc., have performance schedules that you can import easily into your iCal, Palm, phone, computer or iPhone calendar and automatically places the performance dates and casts?

Does anyone know of any arts organizations that already do this?

My autograph from violinist Joshua Bell arrived in this week! As I posted previously,  my dear friend Heather Pace was able to get it for me when he was in my hometown performing with the Mobile Symphony!

I love my autograph dearly, especially the exclamation point behind my name! I can’t wait to hang it next to the others in the living room (ABT dancer David Hallberg, choroeographer Frederick Ashton, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma).

So this is the New York “spring.” Today was 70-something degrees, and on the commute from work I carried my coat in my arms.

Spring has a definite soundtrack for me. I recall vividly warm spring sunsets in Mobile, listening to Prokofiev’s “Summer Night” (you could call a “spring” in Mobile “summer” it was just that hot at times). So every spring I listen to “Summer Night” and Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

I’ve added Sibelius to the list for obvious reasons, and after having experienced a New York winter, I can say that I know how he felt when writing his Symphony No. 1.

Ben Harper e-mailed me this week to let me know that he posted pictures from Joshua Bell’s rehearsal and performance with the MSO on the web!

The coolest set of photos are on their Myspace Page  of Joshua’s rehearsal with the MSO before the concert. The first picture in the album is the best–Bell exiting a car on Dauphin Street outside of Larkins Center. It’s so surreal seeing him somewhere I know so well, on a street I’ve driven down millions of times–and very paparazzi-esque!

So I’m probably late, but I just discovered Instant Encore.com,which features a calendar listing of almost every US orchestra, chamber, recital or opera concert! They even occasionally list ballet!

The calendar is huge–click on any date and you’ll find hundreds of events–and they even stream old concerts on their site. So you can listen to the Indianapolis Symphony’s concert from last week all the way from New York. I love it!

The MET Opera is streaming their live performance of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” with Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner, tomorrow night at 7 p.m. from their website! If I’m home, I’m definitely tuning in…though I probably should scout around for the libretto on the net…

You can listen tomorrow by visiting Metopera.org (or by clicking here.)

Something I’ve always wanted to happen will happen on today: Joshua Bell is performing in my hometown. Ironically, I won’t be there to hear what I consider the most wonderful interpretation of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, but I’m so excited for Mobile and for the Mobile Symphony Orchestra!

I was scheduled to interview Joshua for the Mobile Press-Register, but it kept getting postponed. However, I was thrilled to see that Kris Pierceat WHIL did, and you can listen to the whole interview via there website podcast page by clicking here.

Just in case you missed it, opera vocalist Arnold Rawls commented on my post about Hal France.

For the Mobilians: Rawls sung “Calaf” in a stellar 2003 production of Puccini’s “Turandot” with the Mobile Opera. It’s such an honor to have him reading this blog!

For days now, I’ve been preparing a list post titled “Works by living composers that changed my life,” but realized that my list, for lack of a better phrase, stinks.

In high school and my early college years, I prided myself on heavily digesting music by living composers, and even knowing them personally. I felt so in-the-know every time I received a CD in the mail from one, with my address handwritten by the composer with a note: “More of my music!” or “Check this out!” followed by an e-mail after I’d listened.

I received sheet music by e-mail before it was even published, which I sight read with musician friends and a few of them even wanted to perform, though they never did. I waved to composers at concerts from the seats, and bragged shamelessly whenever I played their music and someone would ask “Who is this? I’ve never heard this before?” and I could tell them, “Of course you haven’t, it hasn’t been released.” If they were alive and writing music, I’d do anything just to hear it.

That’s no longer so. After finding a handful of favorites, I’ve begun to listen to their music exclusively, putting myself in a new-music rut. I sentencing myself to a week of new music exploration (thanks to Google). If someone could suggest anyone, I’d be grateful.