This and That by JL

At my ripe-but-not-old age, I have finally, yet reluctantly, concluded that mothers know best. This message was brought home to me Saturday night by the mother of the famous clarinetist Derek Bermel. She whispered (entre nous) to me “I told him not to play the trumpet.” Thus, she took credit for his world renown as […]

On a Sunday afternoon, in between intermittent rain, I set out for Merestead Estate in Mount Kisco. It was the culminating event for Cultivate, the Copland House residency program for young composers. For the uninitiated, American composer Aaron Copland lived and wrote music here in Westchester, specifically in Cortland Manor where he spent the last thirty […]