During my sojourn here in So Cal I’ve had a daily commute to make from my sister’s house in ‘the valley’ over the Santa Monica mountains, down the Coast Hwy, and into Culver City, where sits MGM/Sony studios. I’ve been filling much of the time singing at the top of my lungs – with the […]

Well, it’s Friday and I’m back in the Conservatory ramping up for another day of finger-flinging fun with John Williams. As you know from a few days ago, this ‘Conservatory’ has nothing to do with furthering my musical education, and everything to do with getting a healthy helping of caffeine into my blood stream. I […]

Wow, what a couple of days. Got up early Sunday morning and flew to Washington D.C. where I spent the afternoon giving an ‘intensive’ to a gifted gal who drove down all the way from Hartford Conn.. I don’t think she would disagree with me if I said she emerged transformed by the experience. She […]

Going to continue talking about the weekend’s master class. Specifically, today, about playing from the gut. Many people give lip service to doing this. We actually DID it. And I mean with gusto. As a warm up I had the class on the floor for a good 20-30 minutes Saturday morning. We did ‘dynamic breathing’ […]

Before I get started I’d like to thank all of you for the wonderful notes of last week. Truly heartwarming and inspiring to read. At the recital of last Friday, I believe my playing reached some wonderful heights. In the weeks leading up to it I had a daunting challenge to overcome. The ‘dystonia’ in […]

I don’t often watch football, but I certainly wasn’t good for much else yesterday. Had one of those food-born 24 hours bugs. And boy did it ‘shiver me timbers.’ Literally. Through the fog of body aches, chills, and intestinal ‘activity’, however, I did manage to retain a couple images from the two games. Number one, […]

As a performer, I think you ‘matter’ to a listener when what you are doing is felt to be equal or greater than the value of that person’s time. Yesterday I spent a few minutes with this month’s issue of ‘Strings’ magazine and enjoyed an interview with Yo-Yo Ma. If you have it I’d recommend […]

Just returned from the casa de mi pianist where I got an excellent violin workout courtesy of Kreisler, Dvorak, Kroll, and Geminiani. Great stuff. And I did some quality breathing to boot, which is what I’m a goin’ to talk to you about now. As promised, I have the link to where you can get […]

It’s a curious thing about rushing. We tend to do it in the most difficult of music. The past few days I’ve been in LA working on the film version of the children’s fantasy stories called, ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles.’ As you might imagine, the music is at times quite fast and furious as the children […]

If you’ve just recently signed on to my newsletters you’ve probably been wondering, ‘where is this guy, does he really exist?’ Well, I do, and I’m sorry I’ve been preoccupied with other pressing matters of late. But all is well, and I’m rearing to give you the best of the best where it comes to […]

There hasn’t been a rule devised by man that didn’t require breaking in some special situation or another. And violin playing is no exception. For instance, I was told, as a young student, that I shouldn’t make ‘scratch’ when I played. Turns out that a little scratch now and then can add a little spice […]

A couple years ago my wife was giving composition lessons to fellow from Texas who flew to LA every so often for that specific purpose. There he was, a successful jingle and TV composer who nonetheless saw the need for further growth as an artist. Now that’s dedication. Anyway, one day the three of us […]

When I was a young lad of 8 I had a reputation on the playground. Seems I got into ‘scrapes’ with greater frequency than most of the other kids and the teachers had me pegged as something of a bully. Naturally this was undeserved from my perspective. You see, I just had a strong sense […]

For each of us the study of the violin means something slightly, or dramatically, different. Some find it ‘neat’. Others, like myself, have expanded the activity in our minds and made of it a grand metaphor – a kind of search for an aural ‘Holy Grail.’ ‘So, what makes for the more successful violinist,’ you […]

Yes, it’s finally ready to go. As you know, to date my courses have been directed toward the intermediate and advanced players. Now I’m going back and picking it up right from the get-go – from where the violin comes out of the case for the first time. And though it is primarily geared for […]