Violin Music by Women Composers

After I pined for Stories of Women Composers by Catherine Wolff Kendall in this wishlist, I was excited to come across an entire site devoted to violin music by women on the world wide web today! Cora Cooper is a music professor at Kansas State University and has devoted nine years to her research on female composers of violin music.  She has carefully curated an anthology of works in a variety of styles for all levels of playing, most of which weren’t already available. What a gal! I will definitely be adding these volumes to my lesson library. What are some of your favorite pieces by female composers? I’d love to know!

Daytrip to Arkansas

A childhood friend of mine got married in Arkansas this past weekend. I’ve known Ben since we were babies so when I heard they’d be getting married in Molly’s hometown I knew we had to go! Fayetteville is quite close to Springfield so we made a daytrip out of it. These lovebirds met through their school’s outdoor club – they are from the natural state and the last frontier after all!  I saw so many pictures on their wedding website of them high fiving on mountaintops, it’s basically their version of a Saturday morning coffee date. The wedding was so lovely and filled with greenery, wildflowers, and beautifully mismatched china. We got them swanky pillows. Boring, perhaps, but totally functional, useful, and hypoallergenic. I was quite proud of the presentation, obviously. All in all, a wonderful way to spend the day – filled with the beauty of nature, great food, lots of laughs and a beautiful celebration of love. Every happiness to Molly & Ben!

Gig Salad Talent Spotlight: The Eskimo Girls

Gig Salad is a site where you can find talent for any type of event imaginable. They even have Queen Elsa and Princess Anna on speed dial to make birthday party appearances so they are definitely well-connected.  Since we’re not much of a bar band they have been a big help connecting us with people who are into our music. We have traveled quite a bit to play weddings, garden parties, corporate events, birthdays, and even the awards banquet for an orthopedic surgeon’s convention. That was a classy party, let me tell you!

A couple months ago they did a spotlight on The Eskimo Girls and we were so honored! You can watch it here on their blog. We had a great time spending a few moments with their crew even if I did feel like such a nerd answering all those questions. Also I’m thrilled to be dubbed “professionally trained”, I really don’t know if I deserve such a lofty title but I shall humbly accept.

Danú

I feel like I’m setting a bit of a bad example as a teacher if I want to reschedule a lesson.  I feel even worse about it if it’s for personal reasons.  But not quite as bad if it’s for personal reasons involving going to see live music that has come all the way from Ireland and will probably never be within close proximity to me again in my lifetime.  Oh happy was the day I learned Danú was coming to town!!

photos via danumusic.com

I have one student on that night so I kindly asked if he wanted to move his lesson to another available time – he didn’t. That’s ok. It had something to do with him being a bit lax on the practice this week.  So I got to go to the show and it was ethereal & inspiring & amazing! They bring traditional Irish tunes and mix in many of their own compositions and arrangements. That was one of the things I was most impressed with, that it wasn’t just music they’d heard or been playing forever. At some point they wrote these songs and seamlessly wove them into Celtic repertoire without it being obvious they weren’t ancient and familiar folk tunes. The man who played fiddle was so quick and loose and agile and a joy to watch. I was very curious about one of the drums they were using, it had a kind of more “boingy” sound I hadn’t heard come from a bodhrán before.  I will have to look into that. We had super close seats and it was so fun to see their playful camaraderie on stage.   I didn’t get any pictures; I just took it all in with my eyes and ears. Maybe next time…