I know that many concertgoers are noticing that more and more musicians are using iPads to perform, especially those who play a lot of new music. Not having to depend on the light in whatever space you find yourself in -- and outreach activities like Classical Up Close often take us places that are not designed for concerts -- and not worrying about wind blowing music off the stand when playing outdoors have always been appealing factors, but the advent of the 12.9" iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, along with the availability of pedals for turning pages, has put it over the top: it's worth it.

This picture of my music stand shows an example of another reason I love having the iPad option. I'm working on Sabina for solo cello by Andrew Norman -- whose music I've really loved in Oregon Symphony performances -- and as you can see, the notes are very small from the cellist's vantage point. The iPad on its side does the trick. The pedal will "turn" the music to the next 1/2 page. Sweet relief for my eyes! 

As soon as the stay-at-home order cancelled every cultural event in Oregon for the foreseeable future, Artslandia stepped into the breach with new content tailor-made for this moment of crisis. They have created a daily series of live-streamed events, "Virtual Happy Hours,"  featuring the broadest imaginable array of our region's creatives. This has given us, as both performers and audience members, a "place to go" to feel connected, entertained, uplifted, and informed -- but especially, connected. 

My Virtual Tip Jar tonight will be on behalf of All Classical Portland, whose radio broadcast on 89.9 FM (and others around the region), stream at www.allclassical.org, and ICAN Children's Network are more important than ever. I hope you'll join me live tonight on Artslandia's Facebook, their website, or (even more virtually) by catching it archived. I'll post the program I perform here in case you want to know more about the pieces I'll play. 

New website! It is indeed timely to have this improved functionality when the public side of our musical lives are taking place entirely on the internet. I plan on reposting the Bach blog entries soon and resuming that project, but for today, I have something else to share. Please consider following this blog by filling in the Notify Me box above. I'd love to stay in touch! 

I did a really fun interview and photo session back in January for the April "InSymphony," which is the magazine that includes the month's programs for the Oregon Symphony in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall along with other features produced by Artslandia. Programs which could not happen, program books which were not given out to the audience...

​No moping. Here's a link to that feature.