LA Phil Plays Paris’ Pleyel

Et maintenant, Paris. For me, the centerpiece of our tour. No city has the heart, the culture, the magic. It is a place where locals say “Bon appetit” to strangers, where a stare turns into a head-turn, where a smile turns into a wink. [read more]

LA Phil Loves Luzern

  And now, we travel to Switzerland! We boarded our chartered jet and made the quick 1 hour hop to Zurich where we bussed to our second stop on tour, Luzern. Pulling in around dusk, the city was shrouded in clouds:     The next morning it was recommended that I take the gondola up the face of Mount Pilatus, a 6,982 foot mountain with easy access from within the city. [read more]

LA Phil Lands in London

    After a 10.5 hour flight from LAX to London Heathrow, the remainder of the Philharmonic contingent arrived and settled in. The Green Umbrella group had flown in a few days before, and the Gospel According to the Other Mary a couple days preceding those of us playing the Zipangu/Firebird/La Mer program. [read more]

Peter Gabriel meets Kinshasa

Today, a group of translators and sixteen members of the Kinshasa Symphony wound their way up the Pacific Coast to rehearse and record “In Your Eyes” with Peter Gabriel, culminating in a benefit to raise funds to bring the entire group (almost 200 musicians strong!) back to the U.S. [read more]

Endeavour Lands at LAX

  Today southern California was treated to a spectacular hour of flybys, passes and buzzes by none other than the space shuttle Endeavour atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) followed by two F/A-18 chase planes.  Arriving in the neighborhood around 11:50AM, the shuttle followed this flight path and reported wheels down at 12:51PM:     There were many people who found the same spot I did, on the top level of an airport parking structure just south of LAX with a great view of the SCA’s assigned runway:     We saw it first as it flew east from the ocean:   At this time, it turned around and made a fantastic and low buzz of LAX:     It’s big! [read more]

Annular Eclipse From Sandia Peak

Today, May 20th of 2012,  our moon passed directly in front of our sun and for a little more than four minutes created an annulus (translated literally into “little ring”) around our own star.  I had read about this event several months ago on SpaceWeather.com and now was ready to capture this rare event with a telescope and a camera. [read more]

Perry Dreiman’s Sabian Portrait Session

I have gleefully watched my friend Perry Dreiman hit things for work and pleasure as a percussionist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic; when he asked me to take his portrait, I happily agreed.  He needed especially to feature some of the Sabian instruments he uses on a regular basis. [read more]

Play Me I’m Yours- Street Pianos LA

Synchronized with the precision of a Swiss watch, the tolling of the noon bell was joined by 30 movements of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, wafting through Southern California’s crystal-clear air.  This choreographed “lunch launch” is part of the Street Pianos initiative, started in Birmingham, UK in 2008. [read more]

Mischa Lefkowitz Portrait Session

Beginning his 36th season, Mischa Lefkowitz is one of the most seasoned members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with a current total of forty-two CDs cut, he’s also one of the most recorded.  Starting the violin at age seven in his hometown of Riga in Latvia, Mischa has studied with the world’s foremost violinists and has won numerous prizes and competitions. [read more]

An Hour with Ocean

    Today Tony Ocean and I met on the street for the first time.  He was pushing melodies through his trumpet into one end of the 2nd Street tunnel while watching the cars, bicycles and people go by.  Inside the tunnel, the music takes on special airs; it reverberates and mixes with the surrounding ambient noise. [read more]