September 12, 2026
When I sent out my first newsletter earlier this month, I received a few comments on the Instruments Wishlist post I made, one of which was from my wife.
“Hey, don’t you actually have an erhu?”
“I do now!”
Read more →September 1, 2026
I often need music to work. But I don’t need music that will distract me, nor do I need music that bores me. Before 2021, it was an ongoing struggle to find something that struck this balance.
That year, when my need for focus-music was at its height, I came across a micro genre that has since become the soundtrack to my working hours.
Read more →August 5, 2026
One night at Camp FaSoLa this year, a singer from NY sat next to me in the alto section and we got to chatting (as you do).
“I’m going to be in your part of the world next month for my other music cult,” she told me after seeing my home town on my name tag. “The viola da gamba.”
Every year, the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA) hosts a week-long “Conclave” — a gathering of gambists where they play music together, hear lectures, attend workshops, buy and sell instruments and paraphernalia, and just geek out over a love of early modern music.
I had never seen a viola da gamba in the flesh; and seeing the excitement that lit in me, she encouraged me to sign up last minute for Conclave’s beginner class, which was free for locals.
Why not? I love joining music cults.
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