The recital

was last night. I played at a lovely gem of a small recital hall called Mozart Hall. It seats about 170 people. New York should have more recital halls of this intimate size. The acoustic was lovely. Unlike American ones, Korean addresses do not give you all the information you need to find places, and street signs are not always easy to find, so trying to tell some colleagues how to get to the hall was quite a challenge!!

I played at 7:30, and did a playthru with the pianist earlier at 5pm. A friend from Philly Orch was able to attend the playthru and listen for balance and whether the piano lid should be full or half stick. Very, very helpful. Playthru felt super comfortable and relaxed. Recital, as you imagine, was more stressful, although everyone tells me how calm I looked. The place was actually sold out, full of Korean flute-playing youngsters. They were very quiet and attentive. In the contemporary piece I played, when the first very high, very loud note came, everyone kind of jumped. I spoke about one of the pieces, and had my former student join me onstage for translation. She might have been more nervous for translating than for playing with me on the last piece!!

After the concert, there was lots of milling around in the lobby area. People gave me flowers, many wanted their picture taken with me, I signed lots of posters. I felt just a tiny bit like a rock star. It was pretty fun.

Then about 8-10 of us headed for a chic restaurant and had red wine, gourment pizzas, and talked. I got home at 11:45, and was more tired than I thought possible.

Today I teach starting in an hour, pretty much all day, and then see friends from Orpheus Chamer Orch, who also happen to be here right now, for Korean barbeque.

I will write again soon.