i love joshua bell

For one of our August brides, I was searching for new inspiritation with Puccini's O MIO BABBINO CARO .  I stumbled across this version performed by Joshua Bell. 

In the words of Rachel Zoe.....

I die.

i love Jungle Design

During the summer in my neighborhood of Williamsburg, they block off Bedford Avenue and have all kinds of street vendors set up.  One of the local garden deigners JUNGLE set up patches of sod featuring & sharing their beautiful potted plants for the weekend along with vintage chaise loungers. We had a lovely picnic on the grass right in the middle of Bedford Avenue! 

Thank you JUNGLE!! 

You must visit their beautiful design shop at 61 Kent Avenue (N. 10th & N. 11th Streets)  http://www.jungledesignnyc.com/.  They have amazing artistry with their greenery & remarkable prices.  If you are a DIY bride or simply want help with your garden, you must pay them a visit.

i love gerald finzi

While we were in New Orleans, I got to visit with a very good friend of mine, an enormously talented flutist, Kent Jordan.  We hadn't seen each other post Katrina, so we had alot to catch up on.  My first evening there, we spent a good part of the evening listening to new music together and he introduced me to a composer that I cannot believe I was not familiar with, nor is he on the must study list of 20th century composers.  Gerard Finzi. 

We are very excited to perform his Eclogue for Piano & Strings this summer.  Please check it out below.  His music is cinematic and breathtakingly poignant. 

i love poetry by john korduba

There was a Ukranian street fair in my neighborhood this weekend, with local writer John Korduba signing/selling his collection of poems entitled "Everybody gets lost in Brooklyn."
The book is a glorious, easy, inspirational read that you can just pick up and leaf through or get lost in the entire collection cover to cover.  An excerpt:

HUNTER

In my pursuit of love

I wildly fling arrows

for which later

I will comb the ground

hoping

to come up

one short

Grab a copy of the book as a gift for a loved one or for love of oneself.  www.johnkorduba.com

i love castles

  

This past weekend we performed at Oheka Castle and it's always a slice of a fairytale come true.  The weather was completely perfect for a garden wedding, romance was in the air and we kept the processional equally as romantic and sweet.  The bride is a writer, so even though the repertoire was instrumental, the lyric content was very important to her.  She chose:

Bridal Party - Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flats

The Bride - From This Moment by Shania Twain

Recessional - I Can't Help Falling in Love

i love new orleans

Our event in New Orleans this past weekend was completely magical. I'm not even sure where to begin. The people, the food, the weather, everything was picture perfect. The church, St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian, was acoustically a dream with the soaring ceiling, stone walls & floors and a concert grand Steinway. La Sorelle quartet (Ariana, Hannah, Kate & Lauren) sounded fantastic with elegant arrangements of Amazing Grace for arrivals, Moonlight Sonata & That Next Place for the bride. I also sang "Down to the river to pray" from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" for the service which was very fitting for this southern setting.

There were mounted police that escorted the guests to the bride's family home, right down the street for the remainder of the evening which was drop dead drippingly beautiful. Jung had a sleek & sophisticated Steinway grand set up for me to play & sing cocktails with La Sorelle in the front garden. The groom's only request were a few Grateful Dead songs, which we arranged and performed with our own "stamp". "Fire on the Mountain" is now one of my personal favorites as it is deceptively simple & lyrically a profound work. Rather haunting. I now understand the whole Grateful Dead phenomenon, which I must admit, I never "got" before this event. The songs are so well written and just really fun to play. They are a wonderful addition to our repertoire.

At any rate, we were totally charmed by this graceful southern city that has endured so much. New Orleans is an amazingly spirited town and if you haven't visited, you must go.

We heart New Orleans.

i love palestrina

I have a couple of clients that are having ceremonies in beautiful cathedrales but want something a little different than the standard repertoire and we have to keep in mind that the music still needs to meet the guidelines of the church.

I absolutely adore music in latin and it has sent me on a search in quest of angelic holiness.

I've renewed my love for Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. (1525 - 1594) An Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music. His Sicut Cervus is literally devine.