August 22, 2015: pop music Saturday

William James "Count" Basie was born on August 21, 1904. I remember seeing the Count Basie orchestra at Bethune-Cookman College when I was about fifteen years old. I sat in the front row, and the Count himself was just a few feet from me. Amazing!

Count Basie Orchestra, "Jumpin' at the Woodside"

August 21, 2015: vegan Friday

Last week we found time to can some tomatoes just before school started. We got a large box of tomatoes from the farmer's market in Sylva, and they yielded twelve quarts that we'll enjoy in chili and vegetable soup during the winter.

August 20, 2015: practice Thursday

Today I had a rehearsal on a piece I've been practicing for a while; the piece, Gradient, is for alto sax and piano and was written by Baljinder Sekhon, a composer in Tampa. The piano part involves placing books and sheets of paper inside the piano to create a "buzzy" sound that matches, more or less, the sound of the slap tonguing in the saxophone.

In our rehearsal, we soon found that choreography will be a major issue in this piece! Within a fairly short time, I need to remove three books from the inside of the piano and replace them with two large sheets of corrugated paper. The books must be placed so they cover all the strings in the piano's lower register; I'm still working on finding a way to side the paper in that doesn't make any distracting sounds, since the saxophone is playing. Fortunately, we have a video of the piece to refer to; I've been studying this performance on YouTube to see how this pianist manages the logistics of the piece. The differences in my performance will be that I will have a page turner (I'm not sure how this guy manages to turn his own pages in this particular piece!); the music desk on the piano I'll be playing doesn't lie flat like the one in this video; and since the pianist here seems to be rather tall, it's a bit easier for him to reach into the piano to place the books (I will probably be walking around to the side of the piano). 

We have a few more rehearsals before the performance, and we need to get all the logistics ironed out, in addition to the music, which is quite challenging! It's a great piece, and completely worth the work we're putting into it.

August 19, 2015: women's Wednesday

Ugh. Not too much to say about this article on sexist dress codes in high schools. My hope is that girls heading back to school this year are able to dress comfortably, and that their male classmates are held accountable when it comes to self control.

August 18, 2015: fiber arts Tuesday

One of the things I miss about living in Black Mountain, NC, is the regular visits I would make to see my friend Leslie at Nice Threads Fiber Studio. Leslie, an accomplished artist with an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, creates all kinds of pieces to sell at festivals, and she also teaches classes and lessons on everything from felting to dyeing to hand carding. In Leslie's studio I learned different techniques for dyeing wool, and learned how to comb and card wool. It was a real treat to be able to work with someone who has so much experience!

August 17, 2015: outdoor adventure Monday

Western Carolina University started our fall 2015 semester today. Our campus is in the Smoky Mountains, and is one of the top outdoor adventure campuses in the U.S. Right in our own back yard we have opportunities for kayaking, rock climbing hiking, mountain biking, and just about anything else you can imagine. 

For today, I wanted to share a link to a map of some of the walking trails on campus. It's so nice to slip on a pair of sneakers, step outside my office door, and take a peaceful walk in the middle of a busy day!

August 16, 2015: Sabbath Sunday

Yesterday I had the honor of playing the organ at a friend's funeral. E. was a friend from church, and had died suddenly in an accident a few days before on the way to work. It seemed so strange that we had all just seen him last Sunday, and now, here we were at a funeral service for him. Like many funerals, there was a great deal of sadness, but also humor and joy; E. still seemed to be with us, and his kindness and gentle sense of humor permeated the occasion. 

I've played for several large funerals and memorial services; this one seemed special. Everyone there seemed eager to celebrate E.'s life through a worship service. They sang the hymns with gusto, and nearly everyone took communion; the homily was a lovely tribute to E.'s life. In the coming days and weeks, E.s friends and family will certainly be grieving, but we'll be grieving together in a loving, supportive community.

August 15, 2015: pop music Saturday

Oscar Peterson was born on August 15, 1925. Here is a recording of his rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime."

August 14, 2015: vegan Friday

For no particular reason, I've been in the mood for pancakes lately. Pancakes are perfectly possible on a vegan diet; recipes just need to be tweaked a bit. We've found that our favorite pancake recipe is one for banana pecan pancakes. Here is a similar recipe for banana pancakes.

August 13, 2015: practice Thursday

The fall semester is about to begin at Western Carolina University, and the Pride of the Mountains marching band has already been rehearsing. Along with the beginning of a new semester comes the reminder that we all need to work together and share our rehearsal spaces. Yesterday I had a rehearsal in preparation for an upcoming concert. While we were rehearsing, the sousaphone section from the marching band quietly entered the recital hall, placed their horns on the stage, and sat down to eat lunch. They were so quiet and careful not to disturb us that I hardly noticed them until we finished our rehearsal and I saw their instruments all over the stage!

August 12, 2015: women's Wednesday

I've heard it too many times: "You don't look like a professor!" And yes, I realize these comments may be intended to flatter, but this kind of flattery somehow misses the mark. What does a professor look like? The stereotype wears a tweed jacket with elbow patches, smokes a pipe, has a beard, and, of course, is male. Regardless of my accomplishments, to many people (including many of my students), I will never "look like a professor."

These women engineers are facing the same sorts of stereotypes.

August 9, 2015: sabbath Sunday

School will be starting soon here in Jackson County, NC, and students will be returning to preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school, to Southwestern Community College, and to Western Carolina University for undergraduate and graduate studies. At church today we had a special prayer time to bless children's backpacks and to bless teachers who will be starting a new academic year. The children spent Sunday school time making cards with special prayers on them to keep in their backpacks and read whenever they need reassurance during the school year.  During coffee hour, several of us who teach at the university compared notes on how much work we have left to complete before we see our first classes of the fall semester.

Here is a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer for schools and colleges:

O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities, that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

August 8, 2015: pop music Saturday

Bryan spends as much time as possible watching baseball on tv during the summer, especially when Pirates games are on. We try to get to at least one minor league game every summer (the Asheville Tourists are great!), but we didn't make it this year. For this week's music, here is Carly Simon's rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," complete with the verses, which you don't usually get to hear.

August 7, 2015: vegan Friday

Rosa, my best friend, lived next door to us when I was a little girl, until we moved to another city just before I started kindergarten. Rosa was exactly six months, to the day, younger than I was, and we played together constantly. Her family was from Taiwan, where her mother had taught home economics. I always managed to be at Rosa's house around either lunch or dinner time, and became accustomed to steaming bowls of broth with rice noodles and plates of vegetables with scrambled egg mixed in. Her parents and older brother taught me to eat with chopsticks like the rest of the family, and by the time I was five years old I had even picked up a few words in Chinese.

Lucky for me, Rosa's aunt and mother agreed to come over and teach my mother how to cook a few Chinese dishes. One of my favorites has always been fried rice. I have no idea whether the fried rice Rosa's mother made for us was exactly what she would have made in Taiwan or how much she had adapted her recipes to what was available to her in Chicago; I just knew this was good stuff. Eggs were featured in just about every dish I remember eating at Rosa's house, so when I recreate vegan versions of some of these recipes, I often turn to tofu as a replacement for the eggs. A while back I found this recipe for vegan egg fried rice, and it reminds me of when I was four years old and eating lunch with Rosa in her mother's kitchen.

August 6, 2015: practice Thursday

Yesterday I had a rehearsal with some colleagues on a Beethoven piece we'll be performing next month. The piece was the op. 11 trio for clarinet, cello, and piano; we are substituting a bassoon for the cello, and it works quite nicely. Our rehearsal focused on the third and final movement of the trio; we worked through fined details of tempo, dynamics, and articulation. One of the resources that we relied on was a set of first editions and sketches of the piece from the digital archives at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. Whenever we had a question about any kind of marking in our scores, we consulted the first editions and the sketches before making a decision regarding interpretation.

I once had a discussion with a friend who is a history professor at a liberal arts college; we were talking about how musicians' performances sometimes aren't regarded as highly in academic communities as scholars' books and articles. She thought for a while and said, "Historians make and present deductions based on evidence they've studied. Is that what musicians do?" I explained to her that of course, that's exactly what musicians do. The evidence we study includes sketches, historical editions, recordings, and our own and our colleagues' practicing and performances. We present our research in the form of performances. Other musicians can tell if a pianist's performance is influenced by Art Tatum, Alicia de Larrocha, or Emmanuel Ax. 

August 5, 2015: women's Wednesday

When does safety and confidentiality trump accessibility in a professional organization? Read this article about Binders Full of Women Writers.

August 4, 2015: fiber arts Tuesday

Last year, for the first time, I entered three hand-spun items in the Mountain State Fair. Call it beginners luck: everything I entered won a ribbon! This year I'm determined to win at least one ribbon. Tomorrow I'll be taking my entries for this year's fair to the Jackson County Agricultural Extension office; someone there will take entries from Jackson County to the fairgrounds in time for judging. My entries for this year are a striped shawl, a skein of multi-color hand-spun yarn, and a skein of hand-dyed hand-spun yard that was dyed with natural plant materials. I'll find out how things went when we go to the fair in September.

August 3, 2015:outdoor adventure Monday

Back when we lived in northern New York, every August we would look forward to Dog Day at the Adirondack Museum, which was always the first Saturday of August. The museum would have special exhibits and demonstrations about dogs in the Adirondacks (one year we watched a sheep herding demonstration), and best of all, dogs were welcome at the museum on that day. The photo above shows our canine head of household Cookie exploring an old train at the museum on August 1, 2009. Since the museum is near Blue Mountain, we usually hiked the mountain in the afternoon if the weather was good.

August 2, 2015: sabbath Sunday

Just as we were leaving church this morning, our pastor came down the hallway with two little girls whose parents were chatting in the Sunday school room. "We were playing school," she announced, "and we decided now it's time for recess." Bryan and I have been attending St. John's Episcopal Church in Sylva for a year now, and we feel like once again we have won the lottery in terms of being blessed with an absolutely wonderful priest, The Rev. Pattie Curtis. I can't even count all the different things (in addition to playing school!) Pattie does in the course of a week! She is a wonderful shepherd to our flock at church and is light and salt in our community. We love you, Pattie!

August 1, 2015: pop music Saturday

Jerry Garcia was born on August 1, 2942. For today, here is some of his music: High Time.

July 31, 2015: vegan Friday

We are still enjoying all the blueberries we can possibly eat, so I thought I would post another recipe today (coconut cardamom vegan overnight oat parfait with blueberry chia seed jam!) that makes use of blueberries. I haven't made this recipe yet, but it's definitely on my list. The chia seeds act as a thickening agent; in some recipes, they are almost like tapioca. I keep a bag of chia seeds in the fridge and use them to thicken everything from smoothies to spaghetti sauce. If you are a new vegan or transitioning into a vegan diet, coconut milk is another ingredient that you'll find is a staple. We always have a few cans on hand in the pantry; it's good in curries, soups, smoothies (can you tell we like smoothies at our house?!), and I've even made delicious popsicles with it.

July 30, 2015: practice Thursday

Yesterday Bryan & I made a trip to Winston Salem, where I spent most of the day rehearsing with our friend J.W. We are preparing a recital for this coming October; we'll be performing at Western Carolina University and at High Point University, where J.W. teaches. One of the pieces on the program is a new piece that Bryan wrote for us; it was great fun to read through that piece together for the first time, and to hear Bryan's reactions and suggestions.

We rehearsed for a total of about five hours, a morning rehearsal and an afternoon rehearsal with a lunch break in between. J.W. and I have been working together for about three years now (this is the second full program we'll be doing together), and are becoming accustomed to relying on just a few lengthy, rather intense rehearsals to get all our work done. We were able to get through the entire program, worked out some of the more challenging passages and made plans for our next rehearsal.

Chamber music rehearsals are one of my favorite things about being a pianist. I love trying out different interpretations of phrases, varying the dynamics, tempo, and articulation to see what sounds just right, and drawing from multiple musicians' perspectives and experience to make decisions about how the final performance will sound ... or, how we hope it will sound! 

July 29, 2015: women's Wednesday

One of my colleagues in Society for Music Theory recently posted this article, on talking to little girls, on the society's Committee for the Status of Women website. Definitely worth a read!

July 28, 2015: fiber arts Tuesday

With only a couple of weeks left until the fall semester begins, I've been busy getting entries in order for September's Mountain State Fair. The photo above is one of the many (probably at least a hundred) quilts that hung in the exhibit hall last September. This year I'll be entering several items in the handspinning category: a skein of yarn made with wool I dyed using natural dyes, a skein of yarn yarn I spun (but didn't dye myself), and a knitted item made with my hand-spun yarn that I'm just finishing up. Last year everything I entered won at least one ribbon; I'm hoping to be just as lucky again this year!

July 27, 2015: outdoor adventure Monday

This past weekend several farms in Jackson County, NC, hosted the annual Jackson County Farm Tour. I didn't get to go this year, but the vegetable garden at our church was on the tour, and apparently there were quite a few visitors. 

As I've mentioned before, Bryan & I have made several visits in the past few weeks to a blueberry farm near our house. It's been a very good year for all kinds of berries here; blueberries, in particular, are abundant and especially sweet. We picked a few pounds of berries this afternoon and had a chance to visit with the farmer who manages the farm, Thomas Berry Farm, for the family who owns it. (We learned that he had recently moved to this area from northern Vermont, not far from where we had lived in New York!) The farm is completely u-pick, and they have sold over a ton of blueberries so far this summer! There are still plenty of berries to be picked, and the farm seems to be very popular, though it's never crowded. We've eaten some of the fresh blueberries (how could we resist!), but most of them are in quart-sized bags in the freezer, and will go into oatmeal or muffins this winter. I may get adventurous and make a few pints of jam, too ... we'll see!

Everything at the farm is self-serve; usually there is no one there; everyone is on the honor system to pay for what they pick, and it seems to work. Buckets are provided; a jug of ice water and some paper cups (kept in mason jars to keep them clean!) are on a table where guests sign in and pay for their berries.

July 26, 2015: sabbath Sunday

Today in church, our communion hymn was Rockingham. I love that hymn because it has a really interesting alto line. One of the many things I love about our church, St. John's Episcopal in Sylva, is that we sing five hymns all the way through every Sunday: a processional hymn, a sequence hymn, a presentation hymn, a communion hymn, and a procession at departing (we also chant the psalm each week, and sing the gloria and the sanctus). I can't remember ever omitting a verse or leaving out one of the hymns. The music and words we sing are an important part of the worship service.

July 25, 2015: pop music Saturday

Clouds here in the Smoky Mountains can be so beautiful! I find the sky much more interesting to look at on a cloudy day than on a perfectly clear day. One day last week as we were driving back to Cullowhee from Waynesville it started to rain. This particular stretch of highway travels through several gaps and ridges in the mountains, so it's quite common to encounter changes in the weather every few miles, in the winter as well as in the summer. At some point we realized that it was still raining, but that we were driving through a patch of bright sunshine! It reminded me of this song, and the line, "I'm going where the sun keeps shining / Through the pouring rain."

July 24, 2015:vegan Friday

In the early 1970s, when I was in grade school, grocery prices were very high. I remember accompanying my mother on weekly trips to the supermarket, begging for plums, nectarines, raspberries, and blueberries, all of which were too pricey for our budget. We usually had bananas, apples, and oranges, and melon in the summer; more than what many of my friends' families probably enjoyed at the time. 

This summer is our first year living in the Smoky Mountains in Cullowhee, NC. In early June we found berries growing all over the mountain where our house is; first, black raspberries, then blackberries. And a few weeks ago we discovered a large u-pick blueberry farm just a five-minute drive from our house. We've had berries for breakfast every day for the past two months, a luxury unthinkable back when I was a little girl. There are still plenty of berries that aren't yet ripe, and we've managed to store some in the freezer, so we'll be enjoying these healthy treats for a while.

Berries--blackberries and blueberries--seemed to be at their peak this week here in Cullowhee, so we looked for some recipes to put the surplus to use. These blueberry bounty buns, a recipe from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan!, are so good eaten warm out of the oven with a glass of iced tea! They are good with either blueberries or blackberries, though Bryan expressed a strong preference for the blueberry.

Blueberry Bounty Buns 
(a cross between a scone and a muffin)

1 cup + 1 tbsp ground oats (grind them in the food processer)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vanilla non-dairy milk
1 tbsp flax meal
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine the ground oats and flour, and sift in the baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and mix to combine well. In another bowl, combine the non-dairy milk and flax meal, stir and let sit for 1 minute. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and canola oil, and stir through. Add the blueberries. Immediately add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and stir through until just well combined. Scoop large spoonfuls of the mixture (~1/2 cup each) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until the buns a lightly golden and are set in the center (gently touch to check). Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 6-7 buns.

July 23, 2015:practice Thursday

A few weeks ago I got a new metronome. This metronome is the third one I have owned. The second one was an electronic battery-operated gizmo that finally konked out. My first metronome was purchased around 1970 at Marshall Fields in Chicago, back when it was still Marshall Fields and you could buy anything there. It was exactly like this new one, a red German-made Wittner Super Mini-Taktell, the kind you wind up, set on top of the piano, and follow its ruthless authoritarian tick-tock until every note is perfect and every passage up to tempo. This little hunk of plastic and metal keeps me honest.

July 22, 2015: women's Wednesday

A documentary about entertainer Sophie Tucker was released in 2014; read about Sophie Tucker here.

July 21, 2015: fiber arts Tuesday

At this very moment, there are bowls on our kitchen table with ziploc bags full of wool and natural dyes: juniper, alkanet, and black-eyed susan. I'm letting them soak for now to try to get more intense color, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I've already dyed, carded, and spun some wool with indigo. It came out a beautiful shade of blue!

I plan on continuing the experiments with natural dyes. I want to see which colors I like best, and also what colors I can get from plants that are growing right around our house.

July 20, 2015: outdoor adventure Monday

Thanks to heat and thunderstorms, we've had no new outdoor adventures this week other than our usual daily walks with Cookie. I thought I'd post this photo taken on July 1, 2007, on Jenkins Mountain in the Adirondacks. When we lived in northern NY state, we enjoyed frequent hikes and snowshoeing trips in the mountains. Now that we live in the Smoky Mountains, it's fun to notice the differences in the terrain, as well as some of the similarities. This photo reminds me that Cookie has enjoyed hikes in the mountains since she was a puppy!

July 19, 2015: sabbath Sunday

Grace Episcopal Church in Asheville was our church home for several years while we lived in Black Mountain and I worked in Asheville. Although those years in Black Mountain were a difficult time for us, Bryan and I loved the church and still maintain close ties with many of our friends there.  

This summer I've subbed for Grace's regular organist, Cathy Adkins, on three different Sundays when she's been out of town. It's been such a treat to see all our friends again and be back at our Asheville church home. Sundays at the organ at Grace involve a 9am and 11:15 service, with choir rehearsal between services. While I'm working with the choir, Bryan attends the adult Sunday school class. After the second service we have time to visit with friends and drink some lemonade. Before I left this morning, I took a few photos from my seat at the organ bench.

July 18, 2015: pop music Saturday

We've had quite a bit of rain here in the past few weeks, so for today ... some music about rain.

Purple Rain
Rainy Days and Mondays
Singin' in the Rain

July 17, 2015: vegan Friday

"Comfort food" is not something that I'm ... comfortable with. Something about the idea of turning to food for comfort has always seemed not quite right to me. When I encounter this term in one of my favorite cookbooks, I know that the recipe will probably be something familiar, something that my mother or grandparents might have prepared. Maybe a better term would be "traditional foods," since I do associate many dishes labeled as "comfort food" with the food traditions passed down to me by my family.

When I became a vegetarian and then a vegan, I quickly realized that I would need to figure out how to re-create some traditional recipes without using ingredients I wanted to avoid. I've learned how to make a mushroom and barley stew that somehow satisfies me in exactly the same way as my mother's beef stew, and I've settled on a chocolate-chip cookie recipe that's just right. Macaroni and cheese is another dish that I knew I wouldn't want to do without even after I decided to go vegan a few years ago. Fortunately there are many recipes for vegan mac & cheese that are quite good. Today I'm sharing one of our favorites, from one of Alicia C. Simpson's cookbooks, Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.