Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
The Classical GirlAlina Cojocaru, one of my favorite ballet dancers to watch, is a principal with the English National Ballet in London (as of fall 2013). She looks like she’s fifteen, but she’s looked that way for decades now. She’s tiny, but she does so much with her size, you don’t think “petite.” Long limbs go a … Read more
She was an American prima ballerina when the concept hadn’t yet been invented. She was a First Lady of dance, not just for the ambassadorship she provided for American dancers to the rest of the ballet world, but also because she was the wife of one of ballet’s greatest, George Balanchine, for six years. But … Read more
Over at Violinist.com, editor Laurie Niles has recently interviewed acclaimed violinist Elmar Oliveira who, in 1978, won the gold medal at the ultra-prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. (Check out the interview here: http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20134/14574/.) In the years since, Oliveira has continued to thrive, through performing, teaching and recording. His most recent project is a recording of Robert Schumann’s … Read more
Chalk it up to worsening eyesight. Dim light in my practice room. The fact that I change out my violin’s strings maybe, oh, about a quarter as frequently as I’m supposed to. But I put an A string where the D string belongs. My brain kept thinking “A” and my fingers decided “D.” It was … Read more
The arts world, as well as the larger movie-going world, lost a treasure yesterday. At age seventy, film critic and writer Roger Ebert died. It’s not unlike the feeling I got when the world lost Steve Jobs. It’s a loss that clutches at your emotions, your heart, losing this stranger but not. This genius of … Read more