Surrounded By Music Lovers

I am getting old! I am not used to going out for an evening yet I was home by 10:00! It was a fun evening. Natalie and I arrived at the Stanford Faculty Club at 6:00 for a gala/fundraiser for a private choir where she teaches the 3-6 year-olds. She is so good that she has drawn a huge number of children to this level so she now teaches 25% of the organization. The highlight of the evening was the large, touring and award winning choir who performed six pieces and the smaller choir sang three other pieces including Taylor Swift's, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Brought down the house.

Appetizers, wine and silent auction items happened before we sat down for dinner. Our table of parents were nice and pleased to meet Natalie. Their children were all in the older groups.

The City of Palo Alto proclaimed and the choir honored Ge Wang as the 2013 Champion of the Arts. He and I spoke together during the appetizers. What an interesting gentleman. He went to Duke University then onto Princeton for his PhD in Computer Science and is currently the Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He develops interactive software systems for computer music, programming languages, mobile and social music, sound synthesis and analysis, new performance ensembles and so much more. I also knew that he was the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra. When the new performance arts center premiered last month, this ensemble was a featured performer. Computers performing music. My friend Lois was present and told me all about it from a musician's point of view. He and I also talked about the acoustics of the new performance space, the gardens at Duke University, the good and bad of China where his 92-year old grandma still lives and his interest in electronic music in new and interesting forms. Google his name.

I so want to pass his name along to the head of school where I got sick. They just received approval from the city and county to building a new private high school very close to my mom. It is a big deal. If they had this gentleman as part of their music program, it could put them on the map. Even if he just did a semester of overseeing an electronic music course, it could be huge. I liked him. I really liked him. If I were still the head of the music program, I know that I could pull him in and make it all work. But, what do I do?

Natalie and I talked non-stop about her other music teaching jobs and her children and the guilt of working so much while trying to raise your children.

Looking back on the evening, it felt good to be surrounded by people who honor music. I miss that so much.