Huzzah! It’s a blog!

And so I join the ranks of the vast millions who think that someone out there might be interested in what they have to say.

I have for a decade or more considered creating a blog, held back by the notion that a blog should have a particular theme or subject matter linking its various articles. But in recent years I have come across many blogs the theme of which may be categorized simply as: “My Life”. I tend to think deeply (i.e., far too much) about experiences and encounters, and have wished for an outlet for these thoughts. Being mildly extroverted but working from home alone has no doubt increased that intrinsic human need to share. Facebook has been one outlet, but sometimes one wants to delve in research about a topic or simply wax philosophical. Based on that proclivity, and on my intuitively flowery use of the English language, it will surprise not a whit that Twitter and I were poor partners. Since my website was in drastic need of re-invention (the old version included a sentence that began “Upcoming in 2009…”), now seemed the perfect opportunity to try a blog.

Maybe it’ll last a month. Maybe a lifetime. I have no specific plans other than, I hope, to entertain and/or enlighten and/or provide an opportunity for my fellow inveterate procrastinators. I hope to post at least weekly, or perhaps more often if a topic worthy of interest reveals itself to the imagination.

Among the topics that I expect might appear forthwith are the following:

• Observations on music, mostly but not exclusively on classical music
• Observations on life as and challenges for a choral conductor
• Descriptions of the process of creating a new professional chamber choir, the Emerald Ensemble (due for launch this fall; website forthcoming)
• Musings on newly published articles, workshops, and conference sessions
• Reviews of recordings, concerts, books, and new music scores
• General observations on society and politics
• Thoughts regarding my ongoing treatment for clinical depression and anxiety, in the hope that they may be helpful to those similarly afflicted and those who know someone who is
• Announcements when I post something new and exciting elsewhere on this site
• Assorted reference information for my choirs

Here I feel compelled to express how proud I am to have figured out how to make a bulleted list. Did I mention that my web knowledge is obsolete? Thank goodness for hiring a professional, Joe Farmer, to design the site and populate it with the original content, which I have since obsessively modified. (Hence any errors herein are mine, not his. Joe is fantastic in every respect.) And I’ll continue to expand it. Right now the site offers a mere taste of the dozens (hundreds?) of program notes I have written. Performing editions and files of my speaking non-English texts here find a home; I hope these will be of some use to my fellow choral conductors. Likewise for the many translations I have made from various languages, which will appear here once I figure out a format that is useful but not too onerous to create and maintain.

Please accept my gratitude for reading this inaugural post. I’m not certain who might actually read these assorted musings — perhaps no one but my mother! But I’ll trudge along at least for a while. What will the next post be? My waxing lovingly about Hamilton? Considerations from the recent Chorus America conference in Cincinnati? A poem I once wrote about depression? Thoughts on Mahler’s Third Symphony, which I am preparing this month? A discussion of some of my favorite Seattle-area composers? An announcement of import for Emerald? I know the answer about as well as you.

And so you join the ranks of the vast millions who think that someone out there might, on occasion, have something interesting to say.