I played one of the best concerts of my career the other night.  It was amazing--a sold-out audience, inspiring conductor, top-notch orchestra, exciting music and thrilling soloists.  It was one of those experiences that come along once in a great while.  It capped off a pretty amazing month.

The end of the concert season brought an abundance of great musical moments.  First, there was Beethoven's Ninth with our Music Director Emeritus, Lawrence Leighton Smith.  The very next week brought our new Music Director, Josep Caballe'-Domenech to conduct Bruckner's 7th Symphony.  A week later I subbed with the Colorado Symphony and played Mahler's Ninth.

The musicians reading this will appreciate what goes into preparing and performing these works.  Orchestral playing requires a very specific tool set.  We must learn our music, read our music, watch the conductor, watch the concertmaster, play with our stand partner, play with our section and listen to the rest of the orchestra in order to blend sound, volume and tuning.  Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is performed more frequently than the other two symphonies but still has to be practiced every time.  All three works are more than an hour long.  They are technically and physically wrought with challenges.  Electrifying, while at the same time exhausting.  All this is done in a concert hall with an audience that is expected to sit quietly until all the movements are complete.  Then they may clap and/or leap to their feet.

Maybe it sounds like I'm complaining.  On the contrary, performing works like these keep me inspired.  They make me look forward to next season.  Masterworks are worth every bit of the effort it takes to play them.  These pieces remind me of the training and practice I invested in myself and are infinitely rewarding to study.

In spite of all that great, inspiring music, there are times when a girl just wants to have fun.  No Beethoven, Bruckner or Mahler were performed on my favorite concert of the season.  In fact, this show couldn't have been further from the Viennese masters.  When I told my friends, neighbors and children that I was playing Mahler some might have nodded with understanding.  It's quite a different reaction when you tell folks you're playing with Earth, Wind and Fire.  Honest to gosh.  The band came into town two weeks ago and hired a 31-piece string section for their concert at Red Rocks.  It was carefree and joyful and just about the most fun I've had with a viola in my hands.  We danced in our seats, we laughed, we cheered, we took pictures.  Never have I seen a bunch of orchestral musicians so happy.  I'm going to remember this one for a long time.  Yep, Shining Stars for one night, we danced our cares away in Boogie Wonderland.

Last Saturday my youth orchestra took the stage for our annual Side by Side Concert.  It's an inspiring concert for me because all of my students, from the 7-year-old beginner to the accomplished high school violinist have the opportunity to perform seated next to professional musicians.   And my colleagues feel privileged to mentor aspiring young musicians in a way that  transcends the traditional teacher/student format.  They perform together as equals joined by a common  objective--making music.  It is magical!

What is it about music that unites us?  A mother's lullaby, a hymn of worship, even a wail of pain--all of us connect to the shared vibrations.  We come into this world cooing and crying.  I wonder if it's better to think of language as an extension, rather than an alternative, to our primal tones?  It's no mystery that music has such soothing vibrations; it's a tonic for our souls.  Even though our differences seem vast we share a deep, wordless connection.  

I was honored to play a memorable concert with the Colorado Springs Symphony on September 11th, 2001. Despite the terrible attack, management decided to go ahead with the previously scheduled season-opening concert.  Our program was changed to offer a moving and reverent memorial to a people in need.  The great cellist, Yo Yo Ma was on hand to perform the Elgar Cello Concerto.  Reflecting on this concert he said, "The most extraordinary thing was having the community gather in the hall. The music never felt more powerful to me than it did then, drawing people together and giving them solace in a time of crisis."*

Yo Yo Ma began the concert as a soloist in front of the orchestra.  After he finished the concerto, the musicians on stage were startled to see the famous artist slip in the back to humbly share a stand with the last-chair cellist.   They performed the rest of the concert together as equals joined by a common objective--offering comfort.  Dissolving barriers;  connecting lives through music.  Side by Side with Yo Yo Ma.

My mission is to teach that life offers us limitless possibilities.  The first step is to eliminate the barriers that separate and confine us.   What better way to start than a youth orchestra side by side concert featuring beginners to well-seasoned pros playing Mozart and Jimi Hendrix?  Together, in concert, the waves of sound dissolve our barriers.