The concert was comprised of the following works:

Five Spanish Dances, Op. 12 by Moszkowski

Five Waltzes from “Waltzer”, Op. 39 by Brahms

Les Songes: Suite for Two Pianos by Milhaud

Variations on a Theme by Beethoven, Op. 35 by Saint-Saens

Concertino for Two Pianos, Op. 94 by Shostakovich

with an encore of Hoedown from “Rodeo” by Copland

We had so much fun doing it-feel free to take a listen! If you want to download the concert, we’ve got two formats, MP3 (68mb) or Flac (238mb).

We’ll hopefully be performing this concert again in Lawrence, KS this summer.

Earlier in the semester I performed a Mozart Piano Trio, K. 564 with some members of the FW Symphony Orchestra on a concert at Tx. Wesleyan and also appeared with them on the Spectrum Chamber Music series held here in Ft. Worth. Hopefully we can get those files up online here soon.

Also earlier in the semester several faculty joined together to collaborate on a vocal concert which included a performance of the Brahms Liebeslieder, Op. 52 which we’ll also try to get up on here.

Last fall I collaborated with the trombone professor Bryan English here on a concert and we took two of the chamber pieces from the concert and put them on his recently released Compact Disc entitled “Collage” which is available on itunes and at Amazon.com so check that CD out when you get a chance!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to for the majority of the school year (other than teaching)! Lots of practicing:) Enjoy

This fall marks my  2nd year of teaching/accompanying at Texas Wesleyan University and my 6th year of teaching at Texas Christian University in the Music Preparatory Division.  I have really enjoyed building up my studio at TCU and currently have 13 wonderful students there (I’m only there very part time due to my Wesleyan schedule).

At Wesleyan I’m doing more teaching this year than I did last year. I’m teaching class piano (yay) as well as 25 piano students.  I’m doing a tiny bit of student accompanying (I play for 6 vocal students each week) and a lot of additional rehearsing for upcoming performances.

Right now I’m working with the trombone professor (Bryan English) at Wesleyan on a concert we’ll be giving on Oct. 18th which will include  a couple of chamber pieces, a piece composed for this recital, a set of pieces called “Skylines” by Uber with trombone, piano, and percussion, a Wilder sonata for piano and trombone, and the subZERO-concerto for Bass Trombone.  In early November, we’ll be recording an album with several of these pieces.

I’ll also be accompanying a vocal student on her senior recital in November.

Next spring will be a busy time!  I’ll be playing one of the duo piano parts on the Brahms Liebeslieder for the vocal professor’s (Julie McCoy) recital in February.  Should be fun…..I need to order the music!

A few weeks after that the other piano professor (John Fisher) and I will present a joint chamber music concert with members of the Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra.  I’ll perform the Mozart G Major piano trio and he will be performing a Faure quintet, I believe.

Each year at Wesleyan, the Barr family sponsors a duo piano concert titled the Barr Invitational and they invite duo pianists in to perform.  This year my duo partner, Lori Dunn and I will be giving the concert.  We’re very excited about it and have recently chosen our music.  I’m trying to remember what we chose……an Arensky suite, Gershwin’s Cuban Rhythms, a Shostakovich concertino, some Muszinksy pieces, a Saint-Saens Variations on a Theme by Beethoven, and I think a couple of other pieces that I’m forgetting at the moment.  In preparation for that concert, Andrew and I are going to be purchasing a second piano to have here at the house to help Lori and I have a consistent place for rehearsals (we gave a concert last year and trying to find a place with two pianos available during the times we needed was a challenge!).

I’m on the board for the Fort Worth Music Teacher’s Association as Vice President of Programs and am also on a the FWMTA Piano Solo Competition committee.  I also help head up the TCU Music Preparatory Division’s Honors Recital (auditions and recital) each fall.

Last spring I affiliated with the Fort Worth Alumnae chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota and have enjoyed getting to know some of those women.  This year I’ll be the liason between the alumni chapter and the Beta Kappa chapter at Wesleyan.

Ok, that sort of sums up what I’m doing this school year! Basically on a daily basis, I’m either teaching, rehearsing, or practicing for a good 10 hours   It’s intense, but I do get a nice summer break!

And then I realized we’d still failed to mention certain events that have happened this year prior to the roadtrip.

What a year. It feels like it’s actually been a year just in the last 7 months!

The year started off well enough-we enjoyed Christmas with Andrew’s family and then came back here to gear up for the new semester. My (Jessica’s) Memaw had a heart attack on Thanksgiving day in 06 and wasn’t doing tremendously well so my parents were in the process of moving her and Pawpaw back up to Springfield (again. Long story) in January. Around that time, Pawpaw was diagnosed with cancer in his brain, hip, lungs, and bones. He chose not to tell Memaw because she wasn’t doing so well (after the heart attack, they performed a quadruple bipass and did some other reconstructive surgery and she was in an unresponsive state for several weeks after that).

Mom and Dad got Memaw and Pawpaw moved up to Springfield in late Jan/early Feb. and Memaw passed away a week later. Two weeks prior, Andrew’s uncle Jerry passed away suddenly from a heart attack. So January and February were hard months with all that. We were able to make it to both funerals (one in St. Louis and one in Arkansas) so that was good.

In March, we had visits from Helen, Dad, and Charles. It was fun to see them! Helen came down to spend part of her spring break with us and she and I had a fabulous time shopping and updating wardrobes (thank you InStyle!)

In April we had some flooding adventures, as we posted earlier. My car died right around finals (yay). But in May we were able to replace it with another good ol’ Civic.

At the beginning of May, Pawpaw passed away. He was able to live at home with Mom and Dad with hospice care, so it was really cool that he was surrounded by family. Most of them were able to say goodbye before he died. Andrew and I were a little sad because we were hoping he would be able to hang on just a couple more weeks until we could make it up there in mid-May, but that wasn’t how it worked out. We had seen him and talked with him several times though, shortly before he passed, which was nice for us. So back to Arkansas for his funeral. Even though it was a hard time, it was really neat to be at the funeral with SO many family members, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, etc. One thing that really struck me as we were sitting in the service was that to a member, all of Memaw and Pawpaw’s children and grandchildren including spouses, were all active Christians. That was special. Memaw and Pawpaw were strong believers and they really did a good job of passing that on.

Then a couple weeks later, we hit the road! We went to Springfield, MO, St. Louis, Indiana, North Carolina (with a little stint at the Honda dealership in Lexington, KY in between to fix some bad wiring), and TN. It was quite a trip! We were able to spend some nice time with Grandma and Grandpa out in Asheville and saw their new digs. It was also neat to spend time in St. Louis with Andrew’s family, see Simon and Audrey, and get to meet our newest nephew, Henry Edmond, whom Andrew spoke to with a british accent most of the time.
We got back to TX just in time to have Andrew’s brother Brian, his wife Molly, and their little boy Simon (and baby on the way:)) come down! It was a lot of fun. Simon is a CUTIE! He really liked Stevie (unfortunately it wasn’t mutual) whom he proceeded to chase around the house calling “tittytat!!” For the record, Simon is 2.

Fourth of July was spent with my cousins over in Dallas, Kerri, Chris, their kids (Amai and Asher), Scott, Meredith, and their kids (Secily, Knox, and Boone). It was tons of fun to see all of them!

A couple weeks later, my sister Rachael and her husband Sam came down (along with soon to be baby Hannah Elizabeth). We had a nice relaxing time together. Andrew and Sam had a blast with the Wii and one of the days that Andrew was at work and Rachael and I were out shopping, Sam became pro in tennis AND bowling!

The day after they left, Andrew’s parents came through on their way to a conference. More Wii and lots of relaxing time:)

The day after THEY left, our washing machine overflowed and flooded the house. It was a disaster. Who would have thought so much damage could be done? There was standing water throughout the house (most of our floors are ceramic tile/hardwood and only the bedrooms and one living room have carpet). Fortunately, the insurance covered it. They got people out right away to soak up the water and set up fans to dry out the carpet and drywall. A special shout out to our friends the Jordans who gave up their whole day to come over and help us frantically move all the furniture into our front room and kitchen! After 5 days of continuous noise and chaos (two things I don’t handle well at all!), the fans were able to be turned off-yay! They came out and got the carpet laid in all the bedrooms on Friday and Andrew and I were up almost all night putting furniture back in and getting things ready for my brother Charles to come the next day!

Things have calmed down somewhat now. We’re still waiting on the construction crew to come out and replace the padding/carpet in the living room and all the baseboards and some door frames in the house. But I can handle that since we’ve gone ahead and gotten the house back in order.

Next week TCU and Wesleyan start back up again. I’m not sure I’m ready mainly since I haven’t had much time to think about it and prepare, but I should have time this week! I need to finish my lesson plans for the class piano and work on more pieces to put together for a small piano concert. Almost there.

Well, that catches all of you guys up on our year. I’m praying the next few months will be nice and calm:)

Right now Jessica is running and I’m blogging at the park we visited in the last Road Trip post. I got a picture of some baby ducks eating breakfast and a warning sign that made me laugh (looks like the drawing was made in 1969, so that explains some things).

If you want a CD or MP3s of the recital, let us know in the comments.
Enjoy.

Aria and Toccata for Two Pianos - Norman Dello Joio

Danza de Jalisco for Two Pianos - Aaron Copland

Valses (after Schubert) - Sergei Prokofiev

I also made friends with the local water foul.

Ok I’m all caught up now. We’re going to a Cardinal’s game tonight so I’ll have more pictures from that.

Charles will be heading to England this fall to attend Capernwray… I’m so jealous!!!

But after that, he didn’t start. We had to use our neighbor’s van to jump start him to get him to the mechanic where he sat for a couple of weeks while they tried valiantly to save him. But there was just way too much damage and we had to let him go. So, even though he died young he died a very noble death:)

So now the question is, what to name the black 01 civic…..? Suggestions?

Lori Dunn and I did a duo piano concert on Sunday at Wesleyan and it went pretty well. It was our first concert together and we threw it together over the course of a couple months. She did an AMAZING job. Perhaps if Andrew is willing, he can post a couple of the pieces we did (the Dello Joio, Copland, and Prokofiev, maybe?). I definitely hope we can do more together soon.

Next week is juries for Wesleyan and then the week after for the TCU kiddos. I’m trying very hard to be encouraging while at the same time trying to instill the fear of God in them…..we’ll see how it turns out:) I have to say again that I truly do love teaching and I love working with the students at both schools very much. They work hard!

Well, I know all I write about is music and work, but that’s truly all I do between the months of August and May (and I still do a bit of teaching for June and July, but not nearly as much as during the school year). I’m very excited about getting a life back in a couple of weeks! I can taste the freedom of my summer schedule and that’s probably not a good thing at this point.

I’m looking forward to seeing Rachael and her baby bump in a few weeks! Also looking forward to spending some time with Helen before she heads off to Morocco (have to learn how to spell that….hmm). Had some nice visits this spring from Dad, Charles, and Helen. Looking forward to Brian and Molly and Simon’s visit this summer!!

Well, I’ve been random enough now. That’s my little update!