Above: Me and my friend Richard outside the Perry Street condo, shortly after I moved to New York City in 1998.
Odd-numbered years are often unpleasant ones for me. Just after Thanksgiving, one of my oldest friends – Richard – was found dead in his apartment in Southington, CT. The news did not shock me, since he had been in declining health for months, and he had seemed unwilling to pursue medical treatment.
Our friendship stretched back to 1976 when we were both working at the old Covenant Insurance Company in Hartford CT. We shared many adventures over the years, and we had a few fallings-out, though never anything that lasted more than a day or two.
Up until the time of his death, we spoke twice a week by phone (he had never shown an interest in owning a computer) and when he failed to call me on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I knew something was wrong. I tried to call him but his voicemail was full. Then Suzanne contacted me with the news of his death.
The fact that he’s no longer with us and that we’ll never again meet in New Haven for lunch or spend a day together here in the City has sunk in slowly. I continue to miss his slightly raspy voice on the phone, and the other day when the phone rang (it seldom does) I momentarily thought: “Ah…Richard’s calling… finally…” and then I remembered.
During 2015, three people I am very close to lost people dear to them, all in sudden and unexpected circumstances. To Dmitry, Brix, and Ta-Wei go my sympathies…life will never be quite the same for us now, even though the deep initial sorrow will fade over the years to come.
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2015 also saw a major change in my blog which – as a retired person – occupies a great deal of my time. During their Winter season, I finally gave up on New York City Ballet. They had become increasingly random with their press tickets and since my calendar is so full and events planned weeks in advance, it became very frustrating to be told on a Monday that they couldn’t accommodate you that week, after you’d set aside the date just for them.
I withdrew from their press list and have only been back once since: for Jennie Somogyi’s farewell. I miss the dancers and the Balanchine rep terribly, but it became clear to me that the powers that be didn’t care if I came and wrote about their Company or not.
My plan now is to go to NYCB from time to time; I don’t mind in the least buying tickets though by the time casting is announced, affordable seats in parts of the house where I like to sit are usually unavailable.
Of course, New York City Ballet was one of the main attractions for me in making the move to New York City. That I will now see them rarely is sad in a way, yet – like the Countess Olenska in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE – I must go where I’m invited.
Curiously, losing NYCB started to make me think about my blog’s dance coverage in general. I realized my interest had been flagging, in part because I simply saw too much dance and in a way a lot of it was starting to look (and sound) the same. Meanwhile I was finding The New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Young Concert Artists, and the American Symphony Orchestra were all offering truly exciting concerts, and were wonderfully welcoming and very appreciative of having their performances written about.
Since these major classical music organizations – along with The Met (yes, I still go…often…but that’s a whole ‘nother story) – announce their programming months in advance, it makes it easy to fill up my calendar for the entire season…but leaves far less time for dance.
So…voilà…my dance blog has become a classical music blog. Dance will certainly not be written off entirely though: a handful of Companies whose work I have enjoyed over the last several seasons will continue to have their rehearsals and performances covered here.
There is so much more I could say about this transition, but in fact I am simply following the natural flow of things and am finding myself deriving enormous pleasure and meaning in the eternal realm of great music.
I cannot wait to flip my calendar to 2016, and I wish everyone a year full of music, hope, and love.
Oberon's Glade 