"One thing at a time"

It has been absolutely TOO busy lately and I have neglected my blog. My family enjoyed a bit of holiday season in spite of the fact I worked throughout the Christmas Holiday. New Year brought much cold weather that I have enjoyed even in Louisiana. Typically, by the end of January, I have seen some daffodils appear but this year may be a bit different. Many frozen mornings have allowed us to visualize each breath that comes out of us reminding us we are alive. One morning this thought struck me as I watched our breaths while we hurried out to the car. In the cold city of Sochi, exciting competitions are about to begin. I imagine that many of the olympians probably wish they could freeze the moment and take it home in their pockets of the Designer Jackets. Those distinct jackets and coats proudly represents who they are and where they are from. I hope they embrace this extraordinary moment that is representative of their amazing achievements. As the fresh cold air sweeps across their ...

It is not everyday that a young boy finds a friend in an elderly who is house bound. My son, Erik was blessed to find a friend, who clicked with him in a special way and they became special friends. She passed away at age 80 this week, on Nov, 20th, 2013. Erik met her through his mom's friend, the daughter of the lady 7 and half yrs ago. Erik's feet did not reach the piano pedals quite well at that time. He was a little boy. He enjoyed the attention from this Louisiana Grandmother who appreciated Erik's piano playing deeply and made sure that Erik felt very special whenever he visited her to play for her. I do not know how many times we had the pleasure of visiting her home, but Erik probably played for her,  almost every piece of music that he learned to play…. She did some special things  with him……like,,,,,,She took him to ice-cream place in her cool Mercedes when his mom left him with her for a n hour or two while she had her doctors appt. It was very hard t...

Blessed Parents enjoyed seeing the photo of Erik appearing on the front page this week.  It is true, this small town definitely has very little to report on Tuesdays. but I was still very happy for Erik to receive something special like this. He looks sharp at the piano.  I decided upload the photo of the paper as well as the link to the rest that appears on the page 5.   I asked Erik if anyone commented about the article in the paper. He quietly said, yeh, several people did. (silence). He is not chatty. But he managed to tell me the names of the teachers who commented and expressed excitement.  After this event was over with at last week, he put that piece of music aside. He is back at working on several pieces that he is working toward. It would be a while before he has accomplished piece like the recording on the previous blogpost . The video toward the lower section show a slide show with the background music of Erik's performance from the eve...

I have been terrible at keeping up with our blog entries. One big excuse is that I have been in school while continuing to work. Another big excuse is that Erik keeps us busy with his school events such as  quiz bowl tournament or other events that takes us out of town on the weekend. The school and my paper drove me like a slave driver this spring. Each week, I felt as though something or someone chased me. You can add the deadlines of April 15th for the federal tax filing, re-registering your high schooler for the next fall by march whatever (if we were late the registration fee jumps from 50 to $250)  and other routine things that every family encounters. I must admit, some weeks were stressful and all I could do was to look up and  take a deep breath and then sit back down. So here I am sitting down at the beginning of my summer semester.... . We had a wonderful break this past week. I actually did not have anything due last week. But Erik had a heavy research...

The year Pierre Rampal, the world renowned French Flutist turned the lights off his earthly room, I felt an incredibly deep sense of loss. My memory of seeing and hearing him perform at a recital in Japan somehow created a special sense of closeness to his SOUND and continued to inspire my interest in Flute for 30 yrs. Many other musicians I knew growing up passed on since and new professionals emerged along the way. But, there is something special about the connection you develop with musicians you have the honor of seeing and hearing them perform in person. The power of live inspiration for young students can not be underestimated. On Wednesday this week, another tremendous classical musical figure of this era slipped away leaving us immersed in the memory of the music and his personal history that impacted every generation since 1950's. I mourn the loss but I celebrate the music he adored. I can not imagine the loss the winners would inevitably sense at the award ceremony in...

Earlier in February, Erik and his quiz bowl team had a regional match. It was one of those double elimination match and his school team completed against several other team during the course of the event. They actually lost to one team on their initial round and I was thinking to myself that their day was over, without realizing that double elimination meant that they will have to lose twice before they will be determined to not to advance to the state competition. They won against all others and the last team against which they were completing against to determine the top of the region was the team they lost against on the initial round. After a tough competition they won. But, since they lost to it once and won once, they had to  continue on to another round to see which team wins twice! Erik's team did win earning the first spot. In their quiz bowl team, there are two senior students who are extremely intelligent. Erik is a sophomore who does not come anywhere near them in the...

I just completed uploading the second piece he played at the MTNA competition. Soar,, is the Japanese title of this piece. Erik worked hard at this piece. Interestingly, I played this piece in high school sometime, boy, mine did not have anywhere near this energy to make it soar. He actually makes quite a few mistakes but this was a good rehearsal and I decided to use it for here....he has developed this music over the course of months into much more "SOARING" piece that it initially was. We will continue to watch him grow, let his music continue to soar,,,,