the CD is met a couple of delays in the booklet-proofing process (better safe than sorry) and it will now be released one day late on March 22. We will grab a box from the printing plant on our way to the airport for our 4 concerts in the maritimes. This CD has been over 5 years in the making, starting with the commissions by CBC, then premieres of some of the concerti in Feb, 2008, so it is a triumph to finally hold it in my hands. I will be mailing the advance orders from Halifax!
In other news, Kristin Wolfe-Jensen and I finished our first edit of the new bassoon syllabus for the Royal Conservatory of Music. I have expanded my own library of books and music (and library fines!) from this experience and feel the same way that I do after a challenging concert… I want to keep working on it. Kristin had to pry it (figuratively) from my unwilling fingers, reminding me that I will always want to work on it some more and that we can do it again in another 6 years.
Also very excited by the progress of my students (5 of them entered the Kiwanis competition this year!) and am making plans to start a pilot project at U of T for a summer bassoon performance boot camp. Also glad to be in touch with other passionate teachers, including Jo Ann Simpson who is running a summer camp in Peterborough (Brooke Valley Bassoon Days) and Patrick Bolduc, who has arranged a masterclass for us at the Université de Moncton during our week in the Atlantic provinces and is bringing 6 young bassoon students! And I am traveling for more master classes next year, to Gatineau, Quebec and New York and really looking forward it.
Lots of performances are scheduled for the coming season and I hope to have some time this summer to learn the new concerti and polish the old ones — it feels like there is never enough time to just play! I went to a concert by Valdy earlier this month and was totally charmed and engrossed in his musicianship and direct-energy-channel to the audience and am thrilled that he is willing to spend some time with me this summer, working out a show that we can do together (Folk to Baroque, Vivaldi to Valdy). Anyway, thanks for reading… this is such a great life and I always hope that I can do justice to the possibilities that beckon on all sides.