We just got back from Godfrey Daniels on the other side of the river, where Anne participated in an old-time music jam — a bunch of crusty old characters playing fiddle and banjo, mandolin and dulcimer, and Anne on her violin, and me as the only audience. (Jeff F showed up later in the evening with his violin.) I knew pretty much none of the songs, but it was a real pleasure to listen to everyone play.
I myself did not get to play today. I was supposed to be playing duets with Donna, but as I was getting ready I found my cello horribly out of tune, and when I tried to tune it one of the strings broke. (It turns out, Donna couldn’t make it anyway, so it wasn’t that much of a disaster.) I took my cello to Montero Violins, where the woman talked me into a full set of new strings — they were rather old and starting to sound dead — which put me back a good chunk of change, but it had to happen sooner or later. (I also got a lot of good advice on the care and feeding of my cello, so that helped make it worthwhile.)
Saturday night we went out to a concert in Easton with Jeff and Kristen. Two full string quartets — the amazing Emerson Quartet, who are actually disbanding after this year so we were lucky to see them, and the younger but also incredible Escher String Quartet. Tey played a whole bunch of combinations, quintet and sextets, and ended with this amazing Mendelssohn Octet. It was an amazing night, capped off with a quick trip to Porters.
So that was my musical week!
