Good evening, Nostr! 💜 I hope you’re all doing well. I just wanted to post a little update, since I haven’t been posting my regular music content recently. The last couple weeks have been very busy irl! I had to finish my violin concerto, which was a ton of work. The premiere performance for that piece, entitled “lost child”, is taking place on November 29th in the evening. Phew! Between that and my regular concert and teaching schedules sort of ramping up at this time of year, it has just been a very busy stretch! I hope to start posting my regular videos to Nostr again soon. Hopefully next week! Thanks for your understanding and thank you to @Grace and Truth for the little nudge. Happy holidays to all 🦃🎄

Good morning, Nostr 🌅 Still on viola today in preparation before my recording gig tomorrow. This morning I was listening to Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2, one of my favorite orchestral works. In the opening, “Lever du Jour” (“Daybreak”), Ravel paints the sunrise so beautifully, with everything slowly waking up, light spreading. I couldn’t resist improvising a viola line over it, just for fun. Hope you enjoy this little morning sunrise duet with Ravel 😊 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr ☀️ Hope you’re having a great day. This week I’m on viola duty, getting my chops back in shape for a recording session on Saturday. This morning I started with a little Bach, the Prelude from the C major Cello Suite, just as a warm-up. Then I drifted into some improvising in C minor, but still carrying that Bach energy with me. I recorded a little bit of that improv session and you’ll hear those Bach inspired descending scales and flowing lines, but filtered through my own semi-fiddly, semi-jazzy style on viola. It’s funny…. when I listened back, I realized it sounds nothing like Bach, and yet I can feel his influence everywhere in it! Somehow it’s all connected on a subconscious level. Hope you enjoy, and have a great day. #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr ☀️🎻 Just a fun little pizzicato improv on the viola today! I was running out the door but wanted to share something quick before the day got away. Inspired by the sunshine and my lovely green houseplant. 🌿 Hope you enjoy! #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr ⚾️🎻 Hope you’re having a good day. I last posted on the day of Game 7 of the World Series… and I was personally rooting for those who lost. It was a heartbreaking night. So today’s little improv is an ode to the Blue Jays… and what might have been 😭💙 It’s always fun to improvise a melody like this. I feel like the internal logic kind of works itself out as I play. By the end, some ideas start to feel more set, if I were to write this down for a composition, I would be finding ways for it to continue “making sense” like it’s starting to at the end of this improv. But for now, it’s just a little musical reflection of heartbreak. Hope you enjoy, and have a great day, and a great November so far! #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr 🎻 This week I am deeeeep in crunch time, orchestrating like mad to finish my new piece. So I’ve decided: it’s St. Anne’s Reel week! Here’s another progress update. Today I’m playing it noticeably faster, trying to get into that boppy, up-tempo feel… and it’s allllmost there. The tricky part is the start of each new section. My bow’s just not totally organized yet, and I keep flubbing those first gestures a little. The A and B sections begin so similarly, but they’re rhythmically just different enough to throw me off. Still, that’s the process… play through, keep the rhythm, don’t stop, and it gets tighter over time. Here we go: St. Anne’s Reel, progress update #3! #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr 🎻 I hope you’re all doing well. Today I thought I’d get back to my fiddly roots here on Nostr. I’ve been hearing this tune pop up in a few corners of the internet lately: St. Anne’s Reel. It’s a really popular one with French-Canadian origins, but I’ve also heard people like American mandolinist Chris Thile play it. It’s just been stuck in my head the past few days, so I decided to finally learn it. Here I’m reading it from the sheet music (the fast way to learn!) and adding some of my own ornamentations while trying to keep the rhythm steady. There are a few little stumbles, but I just try to get right back on track. It’s such a great tune. Hope you enjoy St. Anne’s Reel! #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr ☀️ I hope you’re having a great morning so far. I think I’m on a bit of a Bach kick lately! Today I was thinking about another one of his most famous pieces… the Air in G, which is actually the second movement (an “Air”) from his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major. You’ve probably heard it before… at weddings, in churches… it’s everywhere, and for good reason. It’s one of the most serene, reverent, and heartfelt pieces of music I know. There’s something so deeply human about it, like Bach somehow captured pure love and beauty in sound. Here I’m just playing the first phrase, which then repeats. In the repeat, I add a few little ornaments on the melody, which was a common practice at the time. I hope you enjoy this little bit of Bach’s Air, and that it brings some joy and peace into your morning. 🎻 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr ☀️ I hope you’re doing well. Today I’m sharing a short phrase from one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I know, the Piano Trio in A minor by Maurice Ravel, written in 1914 (111 years old!) This is from the third movement, the Passacaille (Passacaglia), which is a form built on a repeating bass line that comes back again and again, with the music slowly evolving above it. Here I’m playing the first moment where the violin enters, after the piano and cello have already begun. It’s such a beautiful, solemn, and deeply reverent passage, and one of my favorites in all of chamber music. If you haven’t heard the whole piece before, I highly recommend giving it a listen, just search “Ravel Piano Trio A minor” on YouTube. The Beaux Arts Trio recording is a classic. Hope you enjoy this little phrase from one of my favorite works of chamber music. 🎻 #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr 🌞 Coming at you a little later today… had a busy morning, but I managed to record a little viola improvisation that I’m excited to share. I realized it’s been a while since I’ve featured the viola here, so it felt good to pick it up again. It’s really starting to feel like fall here! The trees out my back window are just blazing with fall colors, and that cozy autumn feeling found its way into this improv. It’s built around a simple chord progression that I kept cycling through. It’s of kind of a happy, boppy, slightly fiddly vibe, in the tenor voice of my viola! Hope you’re all having a great day and that you can bop along to this little fall tune with me 🍁🎻 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr 🎻🎹 I hope you’re having a great day. Today I’m sharing a little improvisation where I’m playing both violin and piano. You’ve seen me do this before… I’ll play something on the piano with my left hand, then jump back and forth to the violin. But near the end of this one, I got inspired to try playing both instruments at the same time! That means my left hand is playing the piano, while my right hand bows open strings on the violin. So no left-hand notes on the violin, just resonance and rhythm. This one feels full of a kind of pomp and nobility, upright energy and passion. I love thinking of music as a way to express different characters or emotional colors, and that’s a big part of how I compose too. It’s amazing how sound can take on such precise shades of mood and meaning… often I don’t even know where it comes from. Anyway, here’s what came out today. Hope you enjoy! #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr 🌞 Hope you’re having a great day wherever you are! Today I’m playing something a little fiddly. Sometimes I like to try to improvise a tune, rather than improvise totally freely. It’s a fun exercise… to try to come up with a melody that feels memorable, something to repeat, something that could become a real tune. It’s really more like composing in real time. I’m thinking about melody, shape, structure, variation, and groove, all in the moment. I really liked the melody that came out at the beginning here and tried to circle back to it at the end (not sure I totally nailed it, but that’s part of the fun!). I also really like the groove in this one. I think it has definite potential to grow into a real tune someday. 🎻✨ Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful day! #musicstr

🎻 8 Weeks on Nostr! Hard to believe another 4 weeks have gone by… now we’re at 8! In that time, I’ve shared over 50 daily tunes, improvisations, and musical moments… from spontaneous solos to orchestral releases (link in bio!). 💜 The support from this community continues to amaze me. I really feel that in the daily interactions and the periodic “viral” moments when there’s a frenzy of engagement. Every comment, repost, zap ⚡️, and kind word encourages me to keep going. You’ve made Nostr feel like a real home for me and for musicians and artists in general! A huge thank you to everyone who’s been along for the ride — whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just joined recently. Special shoutouts again to some of you who have been my biggest supporters! @npub1mxrt...kyq5, @npub1l2gv...r0gm, @Grace and Truth, @npub1paqp...ezs0, @corndalorian, @Paul Allen, @npub1huqw...6uau, @npub1zqre...x6yw, @npub196au...5zf5, @MAKE SONGS LONGER, @𝚁𝚢𝚊𝚗 🏴‍☠️🎶, @OpenMike — and many more new friends who’ve jumped in over the last few weeks! Keeping the Coltrane train going… here’s a joyful little improv to his rendition of the Sound of Music tune “My Favourite Things”… because Nostr is quickly becoming one of mine!! Here’s to the next 8 weeks of music, connection, and experimentation! 🚀🎶 #musicstr #grownostr