Greencastle Summer Music Festival Begins Wednesday with Rachmaninov/Chambers Shuffle Concert

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival, which I founded and continue to organize (if I was in New York, I’d say “curate”) opens Wednesday night with a “shuffle” concert in which movements of the Rachmaninov cello sonata will be interspersed with “Come Down Heavy”, the wonderful four-movement, folk-song based trio for violin, saxophone and piano by Evan Chambers. I’ll write more soon about the shuffle-concert idea, which is becoming increasingly popular.  Meanwhile, details on the concert are here. I’ll be performing along with my DePauw colleagues Scotty Stepp (saxophone) and Katya Kramer-Lapin (piano), and Katya’s husband, Matvey Lapin (violin).  It’s free, it’s fun–you should come! 

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Life is tough in the big city . . .

. . . as my Peabody friend Donald Collup used to tell me 30 years ago, when I’d complain about something.  Now my more recently-made friend, cellist Peter Sachon (we met in NY last year), explains in a Billfold interview just how hard it is making a living as a freelance cellist in NY.

Peter, a wonderful cellist is a very intelligent, insightful and resourceful man.  Who is passionate about what he does.

Which is great, because if you don’t love it, being a free-lance musician in New York really sucks!

James B. Stewart’s Coming Out Story: A Triumph of Love

Loves (usually) wins out, but sometimes it takes a while. James B. Stewart (DePauw ’73) illustrates this powerfully in the video below of yesterday’s DePauw University commencement address.

(The relevant portion begins at 8:30. I recommend watching the entire speech.)

Jim graduated from DePauw in 1973, and was not out to his parents.  In between then and yesterday’s speech, he became a lawyer, switched to journalism, won a Pulitzer Prize, edited Page One of the Wall Street Journal, wrote eleven best-selling books, was a founding editor of Smart Money magazine, and now writes for the New York Times.

He met a man, fell in love, and finally came out to his dad.

Who then firmly told Jim his partner would never be welcome in the home.  Who didn’t come to the commitment ceremony.

But Jim decided to keep loving his father, unconditionally. On his deathbed, his dad . . . well, watch the speech to find out what can happen when you just keep loving.