The Classical Girl

The dazzling Dvořák you’ve yet to hear

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So you’re acquainted with Antonin Dvořák’s buoyant, instantly accessible “New World Symphony,” are you? And you loved it? Yay, you are part of an enormous fan club that has a spectacularly broad base of listeners. So, what other compositions of Dvořák’s do you like? {{Silence}} Ah. I get it. I was there too, once. But … Read more

Returning to Big Basin Redwoods State Park

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This week marked a few auspicious events for me and my favorite place on earth, Big Basin Redwoods State Park. First, the park’s recent reopening allowed me to visit and hike (on limited trails) for the first time in two years. Second, this week marks the two-year anniversary of the severe storm that produced mega … Read more

10 ballet flicks you’ll love

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  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the height of summer, and if you’re like me, you’re feeling a vacation-y torpor in the air, alongside the heat (or maybe as a result of the heat). You want to do something indulgent for yourself in the evening when it’s light for so long that you feel … Read more

Honoring Maureen Snead — sister, mother, friend

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  This weekend our extended family is gathering to honor the life of our sister, Maureen Snead, who passed away on April 8th of this year. Today at her Celebration of Life, I read a little (okay, it’s long for “little”) thank-you note I penned. It’s not a eulogy or an obituary — it’s a … Read more

Cinematic Bliss: the Korngold Violin Concerto

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I was driving when I heard Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto the first time. It was a library CD I’d just borrowed, back in the days when most cars had a CD or cassette player and you could borrow handfuls of new music from the library. I was trundling down our hill in the Santa … Read more