We're up. Ax is picking us up to take us on a tour of the city and lunch. I'm getting pretty good at 6 hours of sleep!!!

Then I think we'll come back and change and head to the party.

Rach On! is a little nervous. He's only 21 and is worried that everyone will be like his piano teacher -- brutally an eastern European whose best compliment to date is "that was satisfactory" when a pupil played the Rach 2 perfectly in concert. Her famous line is (when someone has allergies and needs a tissue), "I don't have any Kleenex because of all the students who are crying after a lesson."

I've tried to reassure him that piano party people share his tension and that everyone is wonderful about it.

We spent so much time on hymms I forgot music but DID back both a Presbyterian and Episcopal hymmnal so I hope everyone is appropriately reverent!!!

Ax will be a great tour guide! Have fun and tell Rach On to lighten up. I have only harvested a few rotten tomatoes to throw!

Did you guys forget about us?

WHERE'S THE PICS?

As many have come to know and expect, these kind of gatherings are a great time. The WTF'ers in the group are an amazing and diverse bunch.

First I have to thank our host, Rich, for all his efforts to make event special, above and beyond is the only way I can characterize it.

Both Indrek Laul and Hugh Sung spent hours with us, talking informally, presenting, playing and sharing their Memorial Day Weekend. By chance Indrek sat at an adjacent piano to my son as he was playing some blues improv and they jammed together to my son's sheer delight and amazement. Indrek spoke of life in Estonia and oppression and music and art as first steps in liberation. He related to it in a piece by Apart, an Estonian composer, about a bird attempting to fly above and away from Soviet repression. The sustain and overtones produced by the Estonia he was playing on placed us squarely in the setting. Hugh Sung's personality is infectious and he is a piped piper--- one would never guess his CV by the way he mingled amongst us and it is clear he has an amazing passion to increase the musical literacy of our society, sometimes one person at a time!

I was able to hear Ax play a piece built around a shell of 7 bars and RealPlayer share with us a modern composition that was supberbly done and honestly above my level of comprehension. I missed several performances but was able to rejoin the group for a wonderful dinner to cap the evening. Unfortunately there was not enough time to speak with everyone in the detail I would have liked to. Time flew like Indrek's bird and we soared.

I am on matts blackberry reading the wonderful reports. We just crossed into ohio a bit ago at 7. We left philly at about 11 after dejeuning with ax. Well write more when we get back probably aroubd 11 pm. I agree with everything above plus for us ax was an amazing host as well. More about that later. I have never used a blackberry before. Now i see why they are so popularm i need to go and change matts facebook status now lol. I have tons of pix ill try yo upload tonight. Big thanks for abother magical time. Big john

Heh, you all got to meet the FTP Rich and I have come to know and love.

*Great* guy, ain't he?

Sorry to miss....

jf

A couple more pics:



Indrek Laul chats about a piece of music he is about to play.



Artsy shot during a break.



Hugh Sung chats with Real Player and Donna White, a local Hugh (and Cunningham) fan.



The entire group toured the restoration facility.



The music begins!

Wow, Rich, you really put on the dog!

We got in about 12:00 so it took us 13 hours each way no matter whether we took the PA Pike (east) or I-80 (west). Weather was glorious both ways and there was NO TRAFFIC today. It was like Christmas day or something.

Here is the group shot. I'll upload more tomorrow or maybe tonight if this brownie I'm looking at gives me a sugar rush!!!

Big, giant special thanks to Rich for being such an awesome host with a personality every bit as charismatic as his online persona and telephone manner suggests.

Ax took the three of us on a bus/walking tour of downtown(more pics later), but we sure we made the pilgrimage to Curtis to get our faculty portraits. . .

Rach On!:


MattG:


Big John:

Our host's store was particularly enchanting. The former masonic lodge. I got into the lilies across the street to get the whole building to fit into the frame. Great space!!!

Saw this on the side of a coffee shop. I thought: "Every time you Photoshop a cup Joe into a famous composer's likeness, Bach kills a kitten."

My high school girlfriend came up from DC. We haven't seen each other since we graduated from high school long, long ago.

We were a little nervous but our reunion went very well except for Rich's constant paternal warnings of "NO SMOOCHING!!!: