“So, Miss Amy, what about Scale Olympics?”

Around mid-July, in a good year, the monsoons begin here in the high desert.

Last Tuesday was ten-year-old Noah’s first lesson of the school year.

Dear Grace:

Just got the pictures yesterday that were taken at the lake the Sunday you were here…With best wishes. Your friend, Kenneth Schenck

Recently I listened to an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert on the podcast On Being. Gilbert, you may recall, was the author of the book Eat, Pray, Love.

Last week my best friend Lora and I were talking on the phone. “I have decided,” Lora said, “that I need a total of 15 outfits, with options for mix and match.”

It is officially too hot to do anything.

I’m afraid, like many people, I have a rather binary, all or nothing mentality.

Some of my students have discovered a whole new meaning to the concept of efficient practicing.

In March, I played a piece for one of Matt’s choirs called Songstream by Alice Parker.

No matter what happens, I’ve always known I was inheriting the amaryllis.

Composer Alice Parker tells this story about the years when she was working under the late Robert Shaw.

In retrospect, I believe it started with the purse.

“So, do you know what today is?” I asked the unsuspecting student who was preparing to play scales.

It is the time of year when I am facing an entire garden in need of pruning.

I should start with a disclaimer:

I love the French.

One day last summer, during one of those hour-long yoga flow classes, I realized that we had come to the end of the class and I had no real idea what I had done for the last hour.

January seemed like a long month, and a month that lacked any kind of rhythm or recognizable meter.

Using the excuse that we are still in the beginning of a new year (a great time to rethink our habits and routines)…

Matt and I spent Christmas week in New York City freezing.