After the initial flurry of travelling, rehearsing, meeting up with friends I haven't seen for years, and of course performing, I'm now entering a few days of down-time. I'm currently in Austin, Texas, staying with my sister Ruth, my nephew Joshua and my little niece Madeleina. It's a city I've visited frequently since my sister moved here, so there's a calming sense of familiarity about it.
Backtracking a little before I move on: I need to tell you about the SF and Austin performances! San Francisco had a disappointing turn-out, but was an otherwise awesome gig. Beautiful space, fantastic staff (thanks Adria!), and Tara and I felt like we really nailed all the pieces... especially the Caprices! It was again a very friendly and informal vibe, and I'm really enjoying the experience of developing my spiels and my overall performance (ie not just the playing) from one gig to the next. It's an adrenalin rush, keeps the creative juices flowing, and inspires me to do more of this kind of thing.
On now to Austin, where I performed last night. It was a bit of a rockstar moment, with my name up in big letters on the front of the Arts Center (see photo above). Once again, an exciting and intimate space to perform in, brilliantly colourful artworks, and fantastic staff who were ready, willing and able to do pretty much anything for me to get the performance to happen. Minor technical hitch #1 occurred in the rehearsal, when we just couldn't get the delay pedal to work for the final piece. agh! Finally, about 20 minutes before the performance, Russell (awesome tech/venue manager) got it working! yeah! A quick test and we were ready to roll.
A nice healthy crowd of about 40 came for the show. Excellent. My flutist friend Seetha joined me for the Caprices this time - we'd performed together a few years ago in Austin, and it was fun to work on a new piece with her. I was really impressed with how well the Caprices came together in just one full rehearsal and a second short top-and-tail run. Amazing. Thanks Seetha! Hermes (composer of the Caprices) was there, he's doing his PhD here in Austin at the moment, so it was wonderful to finally meet him. Thanks for writing such cool pieces!
I had a lot of audience members approach me after the concert, saying how much they'd enjoyed the evening. That's always great to hear, and gives me a boost of confidence that maybe I am on the right track after all...
Now I have some downtime before heading to Chicago on Saturday. Today I went for a massage (thanks Emily!!) and she went deeeeeeep into some seriously messed-up bits of my poor ol' body. Those muscles under the shoulder blades - owwieeeeeeee! and my right QL.... eeeeeek! I've since had a soothing bath in epsom salts and feel much better. Currently supplementing that with a heat-pad as I type this, so fingers crossed that tomorrow all shall be well.
Tomorrow is a designated "home day" for me. Not gonna go anywhere. I need to have some ME time, catch up on some work and plan ahead for Chicago and NYC. Ruth and I might go see a movie tomorrow night, as the kids' dad will be here to look after them.
Wednesday I get to go to Joshua's 1st grade class to perform for them and talk about Australia and flutes and whatever else they want to know. Then I do the same at Leina's preschool, fun!! I was thinking of making that one interactive, with tuned bottles for them to blow, and I'll improvise over the top. Hmm, still thinking about that. Anyone have any experience with getting 3 year olds to blow across a bottle top???
Still enjoying the great food, definitely soaking up the beautiful warm Austin weather (just like home!), and excited to continue the tour. Can't believe I'm almost half-way through my time here.
j*
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