Symphony Life
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a writer. As my musical career developed, it felt natural to write about music and the unique perspective that comes from being inside this performing world.
Guest columnist
In March, 2020, the San Francisco Symphony stopped performing and went into sustained hiatus, along with the rest of the country. The professional musician community was not able to meet our audiences in live performances for over a year. I wrote two humorous/serious articles as guest columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle about how this felt from my very personal point of view; the first one a few months after the lock down began, on May 25, 2020 and the second was over a year later, June 9, 2021 when live orchestra concerts were finally allowed to resume. I used the metaphor of my black concert dresses as a way of explaining the loss and anxiety many performing artists were going through, and as a point of access to the collective shared pain and rejuvenation of this challenging time.
Published in The San Francisco Chronicle on May 25, 2020
Published in The San Francisco Chronicle on June 9, 2021
In August, 2020 San Francisco Symphony musicians began playing a series of intimate performances with one musician and one audience member at a time, outdoors on the terrace of Davies Symphony Hall. Listeners were chosen through a lottery for the free half-hour concerts, and musicians volunteered their talents to bring some musical joy to our audience members even within strict Covid protocols.
Published in The San Francisco Chronicle on August 31, 2020
Strings Magazine is a source of information and inspiration for professional, student, and amateur string players from all genres. I’ve written for them frequently about elements of life in a professional orchestra, as well as other musical adventures.
Article from Strings Magazine, published in September, 2016 about my “pet project” at the San Francisco Symphony of conducting survey questionnaires that review all of our guest conductors.
December 10, 2020
Riff Magazine
The relationship of music and hope felt very present during the challenging times of 2020. My article in Riff Magazine looks at connections between performances I played for the “Violins of Hope” project on restored instruments that had been rescued from the Holocaust, to recent collaborations with hip hop musicians in a new SF Symphony digital concert series.
March 9, 2021
SF Classical Voice
As the San Francisco Symphony welcomed our new Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen under the unusual circumstances of the pandemic, I wrote an article about the role of the conductor from my perspective. This article was referenced in the League of American Orchestras journal, “The Hub”.
Strings Magazine
In this column I discuss a particular piece of music in the context of its unique technical and musical challenges, and methods to work it out on the cello.
December 2017
Senza Sordino
International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM)
In the fall of 2017 there were devastating fires in northern California, and the San Francisco Symphony went into action to produce a benefit concert to help the people who were displaced. It was a deeply moving experience for all of us.
Invited guests at the concert included many first responders, local officials, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.