It’s genetic. I have a large capacity for doing and enjoying many things. You want to play tennis? I’m ready. Or ping pong? I attend poetry workshops, cross country ski, and play cribbage. Much more challenging for me to stay focused on my own art work or manuscripts. Focus is always my first New Year’s resolution – along with losing 10 pounds, and learning to make the best margharita close behind.
Music is also part of my busy life. I took classical piano lessons as a young girl, played in recitals, four-hand piano pieces with my twin sister. As an adult, I studied with concert pianist Alys Terrien Queen, and, most recently jazz lessons with the rockin’ Mary Anne Driscoll www.maryannedriscoll.com that have become the basis for some ensemble work.
Which brings me to my newest pursuit, a rock band ensemble through the wonderfully enthusiastic Midcoast Music Academy www.midcoastmusicacademcy.com – named Better Late. I’m the newest keyboard player.
I really want you all to know that Better Late, along with many other soloists and ensemble members are playing at the Strand Theater www.rocklandstrand.com in Rockland on the afternoon of Sunday, February 2, 2020. I hope you can come and hear all of the musicians young and late, and support the Music Academy, too.
You guitarists out there seem to know how to easily move through the 1-4-5 progressions of many songs, or the 1-4-1-5-4-1 blues tradition, moving around the voicings and slipping into a riff of solo work. This is quite hard for me. But I do believe that all focused learning and doing is exhilarating: hitting the tennis ball deep into the corner to a left-handed return is one of the joys of life. So is a C# minor 7th chord with a flatted 5th. Twist your brain around that. Finally, making an art work that resonates deep down, challenges assumptions, and pulls me into the next one that is the prize. It’s the focused attention, the practiced skills, and the desire to achieve and expand that binds these pursuits together.
Please come hear Better Late at the Midcoast Music Academy’s annual recital on February 2, from 1 – 4:30 pm. Soloists will play first, and then an intermission to get the stage ready for the ensembles. Better Late will play after the intermission.