Boulder and San Francisco

I had a wonderful supportive audience at the Public Library, and felt on top of things for
the concert on the very live and responsive Steinway. The real high point was playing at Old
First Church in San Francisco, a beautiful Presbyterian church on the corner of Sacramento
and Van Ness that has been hosting a classical concert series for more than 40 years. I was
treated like a king: valet parking, Green room privledges, all morning rehearsal on their beautiful
9 foot Steinway. I was so inspired, I took off the music stand, played without any music scores, and used
a technique I learned from accompanying the 'Broadway in Boulder' music theatre classes. I visualized
a scene for each Sonata: as an example, the First Sonata I remembered how we always tumbled around the
living room as kids at any kind of get-together, and I remembered the sound of sibling laughter when
one of us would catch just the perfect humorous moment at the table and we'd all literally roar with
hilarity. Fixing that scene in my mind, I'd start the piece. When I got to the rapid scales that announce the final cadence for each half, I'd think of those peals of laughter. I found this loosened my fingers from nervous
tension, and gave my mind something good to fix on. In any case, I had a wonderful experience playing this concert, it really went like I'd dreamed it could go.
The rest of my visit to San Francisco was equally dream like in goodness and in the joy of reunion with so many friends and supporters.
I'm eager to hear the CD recording of this and will report more in detail on how it sounded from the objective standpoint of the microphone stand. I know how it felt----marvelous, great, like coming home after much wandering.

St. Paul's concert, 9-7-08

One down! The church is a beautiful old building in downtown Denver, and has
extraordinary resonant acoustics. I was in bliss, playing up into the soaring
architecture and hearing the sound come back at me in sweet, bell-like waves.
The cantor, Mark Filbert, made a gorgeous and professional-looking program, and
indeed, it feels like the concert version of the Sonatas was officially birthed.
It was a full 2 hours, and received with grace by the small but rapt audience of
friends and music lovers.

Getting Ready

I'm updating my webpage: tobytenenbaum.com and starting this blog to help get the word out about
my music and playing. I'm playing my Sonatas in Denver Sept 7, Boulder on Sept 10 and San Francisco on Sept 12! More specific information will be posted on my webpage.