Dear Readers,

Greetings from Las Vegas, where fortunes are made and lost and classical music sometimes finds its way into the calendar. I was here this week to work with the orchestra of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The audience was very enthusiastic and the students magnified that energy, giving our performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto their all, and we had a great time.

I enjoy coming to Vegas, although I am not by any stretch of the imagination a clubber or a gambler. The weather is always warm, the people-watching is superb, the accommodations are fittingly campy, and the shows (particularly Cirque du Soleil) are superb. It’s like a zoo with exhibits of free-range people. There are so many good musicians here; I like eavesdropping at the lounges and listening to the bands or the jazz singers or pianists. This is a town of professional entertainers. And shopping. The sales are on this week, but I can only look at so many products before I begin to feel hypnotized.

This week I gave myself a bit of a mental breather, focusing my musical life only on the rehearsals and concert. In my spare hours, I explored, wandered, bought half-price cardigans, and watched movie after movie. It was nice to take those luxuries of time.

Hilary

Dear Readers,

On my flight to Salt Lake City a few days ago, I was seated next to a sweet old woman. She would turn to me every so often with a beatific smile to ask a question in Spanish or to offer a cookie or a cracker or her spare snack napkin. Towards the end, she pulled the biggest pout I have ever seen when her daughter wouldn’t let her undo her seatbelt as we landed. Now, on my flight out of Salt Lake, I am surrounded by people sleeping or reading. I am – unusually – the only one with an electronic device. This is Sunday. Maybe everyone is in relaxation mode.

I was in Salt Lake for concerts with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. I had initially thought of visiting state parks in the days before rehearsals, but the release date for my new album was set for Tuesday the 21st so I put my attention to pre-release activities. (I took a long hike with the grasshoppers yesterday to get my dose of nature.) Composer Jennifer Higdon and I held a release party on Monday at Housing Works Bookstore Café in New York City, and we did interviews around town before I left for Utah. Something new seemed to be happening every day. On Wednesday after this week’s first orchestra rehearsal, I listened to my first segment on NPR’s “All Things Considered” over the hotel clock-radio. The album hit the ground running. Now I’m back to the ’10-’11 season.

This is the start of the concert season, so I get to play in gala kickoff concerts for a few weeks. I love these events. The public is enthusiastic and the musicians are fresh off their summers. This week, Thierry Fischer began his run as music director and conductor of the Utah Symphony, so that brought an added wave of invigoration. He and the orchestra put a lot of effort into the preparation and performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, and we all had a great time.

Hilary

Dear Readers,

Happy August!

I am flying out of Montreal on my way from the Lanaudiere Festival in Quebec. It is an open-air amphitheater-style venue, very much like – for those of you in the Cleveland area (hello Encore students!) – the Blossom festival but smaller. There is a covered audience seating area and a lawn space beyond, stretching up a natural hill. The sound is as good at the very top of the hill as anywhere else in the venue. Remarkable acoustics!

I am sad to be parting ways with the orchestra and their conductor Paavo Jarvi, but I have some souvenirs: interviews for my YouTube channel with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie principal cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, one of their three concertmasters Daniel Sepec, and Paavo. While I had my computer and semi-decent lighting arranged, I filmed my answers to some viewer questions as well: about avoiding neck and chin pain with the proper chinrest and shoulder rest setup, and about my next recording: Higdon and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, to be released in the States on September 21. I then tried to upload Tanja’s interview but YouTube didn’t like my computer and wouldn’t let me upload any video. My grasp of technology is a work in progress.

Off I go, now, to join forces with an industrial designer to create a more ergonomic chinrest. Long-suffering necks, jaws, and chins, rejoice!

Hilary

Dear Readers,

I am currently in a swanky lounge in Heathrow airport. I am leaving London. My face is all sorts of shiny colors because I just spent half an hour painting various products onto it in the Duty Free mall. I was particularly enthusiastic with the bronzers. Even the back of my left hand is sparkling. Beyond my hand, someone is negotiating a deal via cell phone, and another man’s legs stretch shoeless over his suitcase as he naps. I notice that no one has chosen to sit in full view of his bare soles. In the aisle to my right, a little boy is giving a cowboy action figure a high-speed piggyback ride.

Why am I in London? Two nights ago, I played at the famed Proms festival in their traditional all-Beethoven program, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. We had been on the road a week already, performing the Mendelssohn concerto in Hamburg (in sweltering heat) and in Kiel, and the Beethoven concerto in Bremen. I love working with this orchestra and its conductor Paavo Jarvi. Being onstage with them feels like such vibrant chamber music. It was a particularly vivid experience with them in Royal Albert Hall, in front of 6,000 people! We were all excited and energized, and what was really neat was that the orchestra didn’t become more cautious when their adrenaline was pumping; they dove right in to the music and played it for all it was worth.

Yesterday, after a good night’s sleep following a fun post-Proms reception, I donned my concert dress once again, for a photoshoot with no audience. Now I’m off to another continent.

Hilary

Dear Readers,

Konbanwa! I’m on the train on my way from a concert in Nagoya back to Tokyo, where I depart this country tomorrow evening. As you can gather, this was the last concert of a tour. The tour, specifically, was with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and we played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, which was just pre-released in Japan along with the Higdon. (The official worldwide release comes this fall.)

I spent a day at the beginning of my trip doing interviews, and then the orchestra arrived and we had concerts in Hyogo (near Osaka), in three different venues in Tokyo, and in Nagoya. It is wonderful that Tokyo has so many halls and such an interested audience; there are hardly any other cities in the world in which a tour can continue without leaving town. These Japanese audiences were strong, and so many people came to the post-concert signings afterwards – hundreds and hundreds each night! I think my signature got a little sloppy by the end of tonight’s session. As the lights speed by outside the train window, I am both tired and exhilarated. Tired because this is the end of a busy tour; exhilarated because this is the end of a truly satisfying concert season and tomorrow I go somewhere far away, where there are lots of birds and insects and very few people, for my vacation.

Hilary