It occurs to me that in the past three years, in terms of the time it takes to play it, I have composed three hours-worth of music, mostly for large orchestra, including two long symphonies, a full-length orchestral ballet, and a choral Mass. That all totals over a thousand 11 X 17 pages of score […]

These past two weeks I have been playing catch-up on my list of soon-to-be-overdue tasks – like income tax preparation, which I just kept putting off and off. Just to get all the documents organized for a tax preparer to work on felt like a trip to the dentist, for me. It appears the human […]

Ballet finished! The conductor’s score has around 360 of those big 11 X 17 pages! It will have to be bound in two books, one for each of the two acts. I wish I knew how many thousands of notes are on those pages without having to count them! (And I wish I had a […]

I have been working hard on my ballet since I last wrote, around nine hours a day! I’m very pleased to report that the entire full-evening ballet score is now completed! Just below this paragraph is that newly written final piece of the puzzle, which is actually piece no. 7 out of 14 numbers. This […]

Happy Valentine’s Day (and Ash Wednesday)! As a romantic Valentine for you, I have the “Finale” from my new ballet music for you to hear, below. But first, here are the two photos (front and back) of our annual Valentine card that we sent out a week ago to around 150 friends. It is always […]

The last two weeks at the Hilltop have been unusual, with what is likely to be our only snowfall of the season here in the Nashville area, and it ended up being several inches, with sub-freezing temperatures that made the snow stay there for a few days. It closed the schools and canceled my show […]

Welcome to the bleak mid-winter at the Hilltop here in middle Tennessee, probably with the lowest temperatures we will have this year. Last night we had our first (and possibly only) few inches of snow of the season. I have known spring to arrive here as early as mid-February, at least in terms of our […]

First, I wish you a happy New Year! Yesterday, New Year’s Eve, we made a classic good-luck meal with leftovers for today (Jan. 1). I made traditional Southern cornbread with buttermilk, collard greens, and black-eyed peas (the last two both cooked with a smoked ham hock). The main course was regular ham, and Crystal made […]

Due to my travels, this entry is a few days behind my normal posting schedule (two weeks apart), which may be a metaphor for being late about everything Christmas this year. We didn’t have time to do more than a few Christmas cards but are grateful for the ones we have received (you’ll get a […]

Along with Thanksgiving Day and the chill in the air have come our usual fall flights of geese across our Hilltop skies. Of course they are in the shape of the letter V, squawking loudly as they passed over. As the seasons keep turning at Hilltop, so does the wheel of life. Long-anticipated events finally […]