Quite a Concert...

"Toshimitsu Tanaka is one of the most prolific composers today in Japan, with a repertoire of over eighty compositions for all media. Notable among these are the tetralogy of Requiems for orchestra - The Grave, Gunzo, PATHOS, and maze - spanning twenty years, from 1972 to 1992, and his diverse percussion music, from the Sadlo Concerto for marimba and orchestra, commissioned by Peter Sadlo of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, to Personna (a competition for roto-toms and marimba players on one side, and, on the other, percussionists in traditional Japanese demonic masks, all playing one large gojinjo daiko Japanese drum."

I played the Ukrainian premiere of 'Personna' tonight. It's very complex and it usually would have taken a month or more for us to put something like it together... I had less than two weeks to learn it and only few days to put it all together with the other people playing... and the composer (who is for Japan what Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov were for the USSR) was in the audience.

I'm pooped...

But it's over... Ukraine has know heard Personna and I can finally get a good night sleep.

Hold on to your Honey

It's DONE!

If my calculations are correct, it has been about THREE MONTHS since Dasha and I have had a home. Workers kept promising finish dates, but the would pass by with no finish in sight.

Finally... Dasha and spent the night in the house. No workers... no anybody.... just us, and we're home. Light... check. Water... check. Hot water... check. Internet enabled computer... check.

Tonight was the first night we spent the night. Grandma (she lives on the first floor), Dasha, and I (we live on the second floor) 'christened' the house last night with a little bit of scotch whisky. Mmm... mmm. Still a lot of work to do here... but at least we're HOME!

(This is an old picture... I'm too lazy to go outside and take a picture of the completed house)