Mondays, does anyone read these freakin posts?

I have no feedback as of yet, but I see the page views going up, so, perhaps someone is out there reading my ramblings.

Alas, today is Monday, and I have to remind myself of this because, as usual, I worked on Saturday and Sunday. And though I had a great evening on Saturday, making music, Sunday is much more interesting for sharing.

Last night, I played at the Colburn School of Music's Zipper Hall, a very nice concert hall in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. I suppose that may have been my first visit to another music school since I enrolled in one myself, and this was no comparison. It was like a fancy spa compared to the one I attended, which more resembles a 70's era middle school cafeteria (all except the concert halls, of course). Anyway, I later learned that I was in the "old" part of the school, the conservatory in the next building was where it was really nice, I can only imagine...

So, I performed on double bass (as it's called in orchestral settings) or "upright bass", which seems to get into people's ears much easier and cause a lot less confusion. Anyway, I performed with the Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra with special guest and awesome singer Dalal Abu-Amneh. We performed mostly Arabic and Egyptian music and some pop selections with singer Anna-Suzette Eblen. We also did a piece called Jasmine composed by our conductor Dr. Nabil Azzam which featured soloist virtuoso kanun player Lilit Khojayan. She is such a rock star, a badass if you will, and if she ever reads this, I hope she gets the fact that I have much respect.

Anyway, I sight read over half of the concert, and anyone who has seen me attempt this, well, let's just say, I am getting much better. It was pretty awesome, and I discovered that I missed performing with large ensembles. I hadn't been onstage with an orchestra in over a year! It's an experience that is so far removed in most ways from other situations in which I perform, but it's still making music, and it's a very different kinda cool. I realize, I can't put it into words right now.

Anyway, the concert was great and there will be YouTube Videos up soon, which I will add links for. In the meantime, enjoy my little photos from the bowels of the music school. There were various visual art collections on the walls, and the two with me in them are actually holograms. there were a bunch of them, some containing as many as four images, so cool.
Peace.
-Occasional Napper