Professor Carol
It’s difficult to write an essay when you are constantly on the move, interacting with fellow travelers, giving talks, eating too many delicious meals, and just plain being absorbed in the magic of Christmas Markets along the Rhine River. But what about pulling out a … Read more
I’m sitting at the gate in the Piedmont Triad Airport (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem). It’s a delight to fly out of this airport. It’s got everything necessary, yet is quiet, friendly, and overall the opposite of frantic. My route will replicate one I would have … Read more
Grocery-shopping with grandson Charlie early Wednesday brought us smack-dab into contact with “the bread man.” In fact, Charlie nearly ran into his tower of racks as it lumbered down Aisle 8. Fortunately, the man sensed a child in the way and screeched the whole thing … Read more
“Cooking is for people who can stay in the zone.” My husband Hank told me that recently. Admittedly, it is a clever statement, but it hurt my feelings a bit. I withheld responding that, if I “stayed in the zone,” there would rarely be a … Read more
If The Messiah and The Nutcracker went head-to-head, which one would be accorded the title of most famous masterwork? That’s a hard choice. Indeed, we are about to enter the season when both dominate performance venues across the globe. They are radically different works in … Read more
Would you like to travel in time back to 1964? If so, take up the pages of Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Salads including Appetizers, a cookbook that once stood in my mother’s kitchen. The title evokes a different age—a time when enrollment in … Read more
An unexpected thing happened during the premiere of John Mackey’s Divine Mischief. In my essay last week, I described this premiere, and noted the delicacy that characterized much of this piece—something noteworthy in today’s cranked-up, electronically amplified world. But a brief incident occurred at the … Read more
The chance to experience the birth of a composition is rare. The chance to experience the unveiling of a major work by superstar composer John Mackey, created for one of today’s leading virtuosi, the British clarinetist Julian Bliss, is even rarer. Involvement with Divine Mischief, … Read more
It was cheesy, I admit it. There we were, joyfully circling the same fountain that Julie Andrews and the actor-versions of the von Trapp children skirted as they sang “Do, a deer, a female deer.” We ran through the same arbor, flinging our arms as … Read more
The Alps overwhelm the senses. Their legendary 1599 peaks stretch in a 750 mile-long arc that, if squished together, would fill up Kansas. Even when gazing at their snowcapped tips, the Alps cannot be grasped by the eyes or the mind. The Alps beguiled the … Read more