In case anyone wonders what last week’s musical photos were about —

Arlin and I spent the week at the annual chamber music workshop at Humboldt State University (http://www2.humboldt.edu/cmw). For three weeks, amateur musicians get together to play chamber music with professional coaching. Everyone spends 5 hours a day rehearsing and then 5 minutes performing at the end of the day. It’s exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

Arlin was not officially part of the group, but they gave him a name tag (labeled “non-performing spouse”) and welcomed him. We stayed in a dorm and ate in the dining hall, along with everybody else. You can’t beat it for a cheap vacation, since room and board are less than $400 apiece, and it’s a beautiful campus in the redwoods of the north coast of California. (Of course, I had to pay a workshop fee as well.)

This is what I played on each day (we only play 5-minute excerpts, because there are 17 or 18 groups playing each day):

Monday, July 11: Trio (clarinet, cello, and piano) by Nino Rota (yes, he wrote the score for The Godfather)

Tuesday, July 12: Piano quartet no. 3 (violin, viola, cello, and piano) by Beethoven (written when he was 14)

Wednesday, July 13: Paso doble, from 3 Pieces (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano) by Vladimir Dukelsky (also known as Vernon Duke, composer of April in Paris)

Thursday, July 14: Topaz (flute, oboe, and piano), by Hieronymous Z. Bienforte (this is the actual composer’s name on the music; everyone thinks this is a pseudonym but no one knows who it really is)

Friday, July 15: Tarantella, op. 6 (flute, clarinet, and piano), by Saint-Saëns (a fun piece — you will enjoy this professional performance on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirMPxPYzRE )