not just for girls
driving through farmington after playing the palace in waterbury i passed miss porter’s. an involuntary memory straight out of proust popped into my head: i had been here before, inside this very building. probably around 2003, a cellist classmate at yale asked me to learn and record the piano reduction to Schoenberg’s cello concerto (!) which i did. we recorded it around midnight, in the parlor or hall or whatever of this building of miss porter’s academy. i also recorded schoenberg’s three pieces op.11, for piano solo. maybe if you can find that recording, it will be worth something. i don’t have it myself. and i have forgotten every note of the cello concerto!
David Garrido Cid was a classmate from the Arcadian yale years and is now master of music at St Thomas the Apostle in west hartford, where he plays piano, organ, directs cantors and choirs, and performs piano concerts in this 5 second long reverb acoustic. you might think that’s hard to deal with, but actually it makes everything easier, you have to play so slow.
watch your grammar
this striking statue of Noah Webster is in west hartford. it has a severity that highlights the strict Calvinism of its subject. but doing a little reading on this statue, i fell down a rabbit hole. the sculptor is a Polish immigrant, Ziolkowski, who also crafted a prize-winning monumental bust of his compatriot, the pianist and statesman Paderewski.
although Ziolkowski is now dead, his legacy continues, as he never finished his truly monumental naturalistic carving of Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of south dakota. this is a huge mountain carving, larger apparently than mount rushmore, begun in the late 1940’s, and still in progress. you can visit their website here.
a reminder to always stop and smell the roses. i had no idea of the sculptor and his vision when i took this imposing picture!