Japan

I am now back from Japan, it was a great tour and had a great time hanging with the greatest friends Kiyoko, Mariko and Chieko. Made a lot of noise in several different places, teaching, playing, conducting, etc.

Also met a cool guy and top notch marimbist: Kunihiko Komori and we had the fastest meeting ever (I had just arrived from a meeting with some old chums of Takemitsu, very enlightening: and was late for a rehearsal already!) and managed to squeeze 3 hours of conversation into 30 minutes, whilst eating miso ra-men. Marimba talk and delicious food hey? – heaven for me. Here’s a pic from our meeting.

Meanwhile I am back from Porto, where my concert with the national orchestra was cancelled due to the unexpected death of a musician of the orchestra – very sad news indeed. Concert is postponed for late November this year, same concerto and indeed the mother of all marimba concerti: Alejandro Viñao‘s ferocious Marimba Concerto, from 1993.

I am off in a few days, to Australia and New Zealand for a couple of weeks (concerti, recitals, chamber, teaching), so I hope to come back and drop a line or two soon…