After heavy traveling in the summer things settled down in NYC. The focus this fall is education, taking care of the students at the New School where I teach Improve 3, Rhythmic Analysis plus a roster of private students. Teaching and performing go hand in hand, they feed off another, a spiral of inspiration. Liebman once mentioned to me that to become a true master in your craft and art you share both on and off stage. This has always been in inspiration, plus the fact that I come from a lineage of teachers/performers, from the classical realm. Music is just incredible, can not get enough of it, in any form, and feel inspired, ready to take on what has been on the shelf for a while.
HJW is also in action and we are getting ready for a fundraiser to support the summer program which will have its 19th annual program. One more year and we will be silver, or is it bronze, or gold? I don’t know hahaha, maybe just ice cream.
And then of course there is NYJW, which has become an institution in NYC, founded in 2008 by me and Marco Chelo, and strenghtened by our incredible team. A new site design is in the works, the summer program for 2025 is finalized and there are three international projects, in Italy, Brazil and Japan. Meanwhile the weekly workshops are going strong and the students are getting ready for their December recital. More travels in the horizon.
My music. I am getting back into the suites that I wrote in the past which never got recorded. The plans changed a bit over time, and original it was to include a string trio. Budget is always tricky, and time moves one with new ideas knocking on the door, so, it probably will be a quintet. This will be for 2025, a good year to push the creativity to the next level as a reaction against the absurd and troubling developments in the political and social environment of the Unites States. That will also be the year for Volume 2 with Kenny Wessell and Jay Anderson, and, if the planning falls in place, a long awaited project with Gary Versace. Then there is the highly anticipated duo concert at the Moderns Arts Museum in Alkmaar with Nikolaj Hess, going back to NL visiting my roots. Hope to also make it to Limburg to connect with Billy Test, former student, beast on the piano and currently the pianist in the WDR BB.
Always more to come, music, music, music:)