Back again, after what I've just realised is another protracted absence. Life will do that to you...

After finishing my Project of Doom last month, I think I got a little too smug - I'm nowhere near finished with the other projects I'm working on, and the research season is about to begin all over again. There's so much to plan, because there's a lot of extra stuff I want to bring in this year. But I'm stumped if I know when I'll get it all done! And then outside work I've been busy doing lots of musical things, including last week's Carmina concert. This? was truly awesome: rather than the traditional orchestration (with a full orchestra), we did the reduced version with two pianos and tons of (other) percussion. The soloists hammed it up like champions, and the audience really got into it. My dad, who - bless him - comes to these concerts I do very dutifully, but wouldn't if he didn't feel a parental obligation - well, he clearly enjoyed it because he admitted he "didn't fall asleep once in that one"! :D

Carmina was actually the second half of the concert; for the first part, there were a couple of piano bits, some choir/drum stuff and some choir pieces - including Shenandoah (Erb), which was lovely - even if the solo tenor, who took the second verse, did kind of make up his own words to it.

And I'm excited about our next orchestral concert, which has an American theme, with Copland (for the brass, anyway), Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Gershwin's American in Paris, and a Korngold violin concerto. Yum.

I've even finished the first book I've read in ages - about an American library cat. Now I can brave my towering "to read" pile, slightly fortified *nods*.

More later, am off to reacquaint myself with the concept of practicing my viola :D