I mentioned in my last post that I asked John Kamfonas to make some videos in which he discusses the music he’s performing at Wednesday night’s Greencastle Summer Music Festival concert. (Hey, if you’re within driving distance of Greencastle, Indiana, the concert’s at 7:30 PM, at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church, and it’s free. Directions here.)
Inspired by a project in Greg Sandow‘s Juilliard class (which Greg was kind enough to let me sit in on) this spring, I asked John to talk to the camera about what he loves (or is afraid of, or something else personal) in the pieces he’s playing. He did a great job of talking about and demonstrating the pieces, as well as editing the video. We both thought the videos about the music itself–as effective as they are–turned out less personal than we had intended, so he made the first video below as a personal introduction.
The idea we’re trying out is to promote and present concerts in a way that presents an alternative to the classical-music-is-formal-and-boring-and-classical-musicians-are-stiff-and-dull impression many people have. I can’t say how much I appreciate John going for it. So here are his videos, starting with his introduction. Comments welcome!
Thanks and congratulations again to John. The daunting thing is that I’m playing in two weeks, so now I have to practice what I preach!
Eric Edberg 
You are very talented & I pray that I can write as good as you someday.