Happy Holidays from TFR

Something to get you in the mood for those holiday parties:



Don't miss the gigantic, biscotti-lined gingerbread house, sprinkled with M&M snow, on view at the Wortham Center, and of course the beautiful tree!

Thanks to the Invincible Czars for the video & for playing on TFR recently.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and here's to 2010!

Live on TFR: The Invincible Czars

Photos by KUHF's Emiily Binetti

Live on TFR: George Winston

George Winston -- beloved rural folk-style pianist, Hawaiian slack-key guitarist, harmonica player & legendary New Age artist-composer -- performed live for us this week! Hear his studio session from November 10, as he joined producer Bob Stevenson & audio engineer Todd Hulslander in the Geary Performance Studio. [Bob, Todd & George, L-R; all photos by KUHF's Paul Pendergraft]

Say Cheese ... Campaign Edition

Day 2 of KUHF's Fall Fundraising Campaign ... minutes before TFR:

Cuing CD's & studying the script: Chris Johnson & host St.John Flynn

Let's get happy: Rod Rice & Catherine Lu

Join us for an upclose look at the Houston-area arts scene ... Campaign fun ... and surprise thank-you gifts, October 22 - 30, on The Front Row, Noon - 1pm.

Or contribute at your leisure online.

And thanks for your support!

Say Cheese ...

Grammy-nominated classical guitarist Paul Galbraith was in the house today. That very cool-looking instrument is his 8-string "Brahms" guitar -- it sits on a resonator box -- which he played, live, on the show. Beautiful! Paul performed some Bach, Bartok & Torroba to preview his Guitar Houston concert ... and told the story behind his "Brahms" guitar, which he was instrumental (sorry 'bout the pun) in inventing. Hear the guitar that sounds like no other, in Mr. Galbraith's interview with KUHF's Elaine Kennedy. [Photo by Todd Hulslander]

So, if I look happy and a bit dazed in this pic, it's because I was pretty overwhelmed by Musical Greatness here. Do I gush? It's hard not to, when you're surrounded by artists as accomplished -- and as nice -- as violist James Dunham, cellist Norman Fischer, pianist Jon Kimura Parker & violinist Cho-Liang Lin [L - R; photo by Todd Hulslander]. Definitely some of my personal classical-music heroes. James Dunham had just returned to the country from Spain, and "Jimmy" Lin had just flown back from concerts in Taiwan. They and colleagues, "Jackie" Parker & Norman Fischer, joked with me about their summer vacations, and played selections from their 9/17 Faculty Recital at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Listen closely to their delicate studio performance of the Schumann excerpt (from Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47) ... it is superb! The music just gets better and better, as it gets softer and softer.

We're very lucky to have had our share of distinguished musicians -- as well as writers, dancers, actors & visual artists -- on the show lately. The new season is off to a fantastic start!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Seems like it was just Memorial Day weekend. How've you spent your summer days? Traveling? Conducting business as usual? Saving the world? Maybe taking in concerts and shows, an extra art exhibit or two, that you heard about on The Front Row? We hope so.

Now that my favorite time of year is coming to a close, I'd like to offer a rewind of two wonderful books by Texas authors that I've read over my summer "vacation." Consider this my end-of-summer book report.

Love Stories in this Town is a collection of short fiction by Austin's Amanda Ward. Scattered across settings coast-to-coast, these vignettes place the reader in just the right moment -- the moment when everything is about to change, or has just changed, in the lives of her characters. And Life has a way of changing quickly -- whether it's an unexpected break-up, when a woman's boyfriend leaves her for a beauty queen ("Miss Montana's Wedding"); a young wife finding herself in a new country ("Motherhood and Terrorism"); or the tragedy of 9/11, as viewed through the awkwardly touching courtship of two widows ("The Way the Sky Changed").

Amanda Ward creates variations on love, in its many forms, through related emotions of anxiety, fear, absurdity and wonder.

Here's a snapshot from "On Messalonskee Lake," a story in which the memory of a deceased aunt takes on a mythical quality:

Bill's clearest memory of his aunt was when she'd run after the car as they pulled out of the driveway. It was the end of Bill's family's summer visit, and Aunt Renee made Bill's mother stop and roll down the window. "I have one more kiss for the kids," she'd said. She blew them each a kiss and then stood alone in the road as they drove away, hugging her cardigan around her skinny frame.

That paragraph presents itself so clearly in my mind -- lovely, intimate and simple in its specificity, like a painting by Edward Hopper, whose works are so often filled with images of travel and loneliness (but also tension at what might be around the corner), of people sitting in cafes, of quiet rural roads or couples looking away from one another -- much like many of the scenes in Love Stories in this Town. [For our TFR interview with Amanda Ward, click here.]

More recently, I also spoke with Galveston writer, journalist and poet Marc Phillips, whose debut novel is The Legend of Sander Grant, a story about a family of East Texas cattle ranchers, who happen to be giants -- descendants of the ancient race created by angels and humans. The book had me at its opening:

Sander is a giant. But people around Dixon are used to that. His daddy was a giant, and his daddy's dad, and so on. Back when other whites had just arrived, Sander's people were already there, and nobody knew where in all hell they came from. Those who used to trouble themselves about it, of course, they've grown old and died. Locals now remark on Sander Grant in the same way they do the August heat. Like a mother tells her kids Jesus is love. Sander is a giant.

The pages of my copy are dog-earred with passages I loved, from folksy Texas dialogue (which I could hear in my head) and charming-ly specific explanations about throwing hay and other aspects of ranch life, to philosophical moments of truth (which marinated in my mind). Here's a great line, in my opinion: Hope is "a voluntary selectiveness of sight that allowed for a level of conviction beyond faith."

Marc Phillips' writing has a beautiful clarity that comes through, "straightforward, well-considered, absent varnish," just like the description given to the title character's, Sander Grant's, own style of speaking.

On one level, it is a coming-of-age story of Sander, who must come to terms with who he is, who his people were and what his future will be, amidst a backdrop of theology, art, beef and family.

Poignantly, the giants are somehow the underdogs in this entertaining and profound tale of uncommonness, strength and the symbiotic relationships that make life work.

You can meet and chat with Marc Phillips, plus check out The Legend of Sander Grant, at two book signings coming up: Saturday, August 29, 1 - 7pm at Barnes & Noble (Deerbrook Mall - Humble) and Saturday, September 19, 1 - 5pm at Barnes & Noble (First Colony Mall - Sugarland). [For our TFR interview with Marc Phillips, click here.]

Concerto for chamber orchestra ... and cat

This gives a whole new meaning to "kitten on the keys."

While Nora The Piano Cat won't be joining us on TFR, her World Premiere of the CATcerto by Lithuanian composer-conductor Mindaugas Piecaitis is ... well ... actually, kind of brilliant, in my humble opinion. Maestro Piecaitis composed, edited and directed this 4-minute piece for cat and chamber orchestra, which he was bold enough to premiere on a June 5th concert, alongside Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik!

Listen for the orchestral "meow" around the 3:01 mark in the video.

And who is Mindaugas Piecaitis, you ask?

The 40-year-old conductor has been collaborating with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra since 2006; he teaches, lectures and champions young musicians; and he composes works of all kinds, including children's music.

Not to be outdone, Nora The Piano Cat also has a blog, where you can read about the back-story to this project, which has made her the latest (classical) internet star.