Monthly Archives: April 2018

April 21 —  April 27

 

Joyce DiDonato’s Master Classes 

Ms. DiDonato described her three master classes (April 21, April 22, April 23), given before the public, as a playground and as a three day arc. For two hours on three afternoons a packed house in Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing watched and listened as the maestra took four singers through their paces. In addition, they had worked with Ms. Donato each morning. Francesca Chiejina, soprano, Ané Pretorius,

Joyce DiDonato and Germán Enrique Alcántara
Joyce DiDonato and  Ané Pretorius
Francesca Chiejina
Francesca Chiejina and Germán Enrique Alcántara
Joyce DiDonato and  Ané Pretorius
Jose Simerilla Romero and Joyce DiDonato blowing through straws
Joyce DiDonato

mezzo-soprano, Jose Simerilla Romero, tenor and  Germán Enrique Alcántara, baritone were accompanied by two accomplished pianists, Justina Lee and Shannon McGinnis.  It was glorious. Ms. Donato’s knowledge of music and people coupled with her teaching genius made the sessions a delicious respite from our contentious world. She had a singer blowing through a straw, two other singers dancing, and another singer sitting on a stack of three chairs. Why not? The master classes were streamed live online.

 

 

 

 

Generation Women shared secrets on April 25. It was  story telling by women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. Each participant had seven minutes  to tell her secret and the fun began at 7 pm. It was at the Caveat Theatre, a  New York speakeasy, on 21 A Clinton Street. The April 25 event was sold out but please come to the May event. 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a stabbed partner? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?  It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

April 16 —  April 21

 

I hadn’t been in Town Hall in years. On the second floor I stared at photos of Billie Holiday and Andrea Segovia. Both had appeared in Town Hall way back in the fifties. The crowd buzzed. We were there to hear The New Yorker Radio Hour (and a half) moderated by David Remnick who was interviewing James Comey.  Comey has been jumping all over the media for the past few weeks to publicize  A Higher Loyalty, his tell (almost) all book about his philosophy as it played out in his exciting career. It was a pleasure to listen to two well educated, well spoken men. The hottest words flooded the packed theater: rule of law, transparency, Loretta Lynn, Rudolph Giuliani, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton,  Russian involvement in the American election.  I think Mr Comey will be speaking at Amazon. Remember the saying, Revenge is a dish best served cold?  Mr. Comey + Mr. Jeff Bezos is almost as titillating as Trump + prostitutes in Moscow. 

  

James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty

 

 

Stuyvesant Town has been described as a place “to live in a park – to live in the country in the heart of New York.” One of its traditions is the Stuyvesant Town Flea Market. It was an annual event until 9/11 closed it down. Don’t ask me to explain that logic. It was brought back last year. It’s on this weekend. I’m not participating because I’m going to a Joyce DiDonato masterclass and because, last year, it took me five hours to make about twenty seven dollars.  It was still fun. Neighbors and I shared a booth. Friends dropped by. Meanwhile, the woman next to me made out like a bandit selling little toys to lots of little children.  

 

@Generation Women is sharing secrets on April 25. It’s  story telling by women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. Each participant has seven minutes -7- seven minutes to tell her secret and the fun begins at 7 pm. It’s at the Caveat Theatre, a  New York speakeasy, on 21 A Clinton Street. The April 25 event is sold out but please come to the May event. 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?  It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

April 8 – April 14

 

Attention! @Generation Women is sharing secrets on April 25. Come, please come, to story telling by women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. Each participant has seven minutes -7- seven minutes to tell her secret and the fun begins at 7 pm. It’s at the Caveat Theatre, a  new New York speakeasy, on 21 A Clinton Street. 

 

I went to a book launch. Laura Catherine Brown and Sweta Vikram introduced a Blue Stockings packed audience to their latest books.  Laura’s Made By Mary will be out in May and Sweta’s louisiana catch was available that evening.  Surrounded by friends, fans and family, Laura and Sweta read and discussed their works of fiction. Mary, In Made by Mary, bears a child for her daughter who was born without a uterus. In louisiana catch, Ahana, an abuse survivor, flees New Delphi for New Orleans.    

 

 

Book Launch: Laura Brown and Sweta Vikram
Made by Mary pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweta Vikram’s louisiana catch

 

 

The Frick Collection’s April 8th concert was given by the Mozart Piano Quartet. However, they didn’t play Mozart and there were not four pianos. Instead, there was one piano, one violin, one viola and a cello. And lovely selections by Dvorak and Brahms.

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?  It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

April 1 – April 7

 When attending Studio 5, my friend and I have a ritual: early supper in a Thai restaurant on 58th Street, jaywalking across the street into one of the City Center buildings and taking the ornate elevator to the fifth floor to a well lit rehearsal room surrounded on three sides of folding chairs. The early birds grab the center section. We sit on the stage right side. Studio 5 was invented by Damian Woetzel who is now the seventh president of Juilliard. The president has left the premises but he’s been succeeded by other ballet luminaries. This evening Kate Lydon, the Artistic Director of ABT Studio Company, moderated American Ballet Theatre: From Trainee to Luminary.  The average age of the dancers was nineteen. They discussed where they came from, what it was like training and living in ABT housing but the focus of the evening was when they danced. We were treated to excerpts from Giselle, William Tell and Le Jeune. So backstage, so NYC. 

 

 

Studio 5 ABT Dancers
Studio 5 ABT Dancer
Studio 5 ABT Dancers
Studio 5 ABT Dancers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next evening we went to Juilliard Jazz. Wynton Marsalis introduced A Tribute to Blue Note Records. In the playbill, there was a short interview with Conductor Marsalis in which he stressed the importance of jazz’s history for musicians and named some of the Blue Note musicians with whom he’d played: . Juilliard Jazz played nine pieces including Woody Shaw’s The Moontrane and Dexter Gordon’s Ernie’s Tune. The evening ended with Wayne Shorter’s Free for All with a tremendous drum solo.  

Juilliard Jazz
Juilliard Jazz
Juilliard Jazz
Juilliard Jazz
Juilliard Jazz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?  It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.