Winter Newsletter 2024
“Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow”
Before I lived in America, I had no idea that there were two opposing climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean named El Niño and La Niña, which can affect the weather worldwide. It’s still a bit of a mystery, but apparently this winter there’s a 60% chance that we’ll experience a La Niña winter, when the northern part of the country can expect wetter conditions than normal, and the southern part can expect warmer conditions than normal. Since the arrow in the graphic passes right over Baltimore, it could go either which-way for us. But local meteorologists are predicting above average temperatures for the 2024-2025 winter, so even though we had some early flurries in November, we’ll more than likely see below average snow this season. I’m ambivalent about this. Snow is still a novelty for me after all these years, so this forecast makes me a little bit sad—but digging out my Fiat 500 in order to get to the radio station in time for my air shift does have its drawbacks.
Whatever the weather pattern, I seem to be in a holding pattern of trying to do four jobs at once. My book tour for The Deceived Ones, which feels like a fulltime job in itself, is starting to wind down now, though I’m excited about the upcoming Baker Artists Book Fare and Reading at The Peale—the first building in the Western Hemisphere that was designed and built specifically as a museum.
Unrelated to book events, the lovely Catherine Cochran, who is the Executive Director of the stellar Shriver Hall Concert Series, has invited me to host a pre-concert on-stage interview with the early music ensemble, ACRONYM, which is making its Baltimore Debut on Sunday December 8th. They play all manner of early instruments, and their mission is to give modern premieres of the wild instrumental music—stylus phantasticus—of the 17th century. By way of a preview, it was a pleasure to do a WBJC interview with two of their members, viola da gamba and lirone player Kivie Cahn-Lipman, and harpsichord and organ player Eliott Figg. You can hear our 4-minute interview here.
Just before Christmas, I’ll be back to emcee the last Lit & Art event for 2024 in the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower downtown at noon on December 21st. I’m excited that the lineup will include my beta reader and writing partner, Danielle Ariano, with her memoir, The Requirement of Grief.
In a recent newsletter Danielle wrote:
“If you’ve read my book, “The Requirement of Grief,” thank you. You’re the best! Would you please consider reviewing it on Amazon? You can do this regardless of whether you bought it there or not. (Just search for book on Amazon, and click on the stars, which will bring you to customer reviews. There will be an arrow on the right side of screen. Click there. This brings you to a new page, and there, on the right side of the screen will be a “Write a review” option.)”
So many people have told me that these reviews make a really big difference. If you ever felt inclined to write one for The Deceived Ones, I would be ever so grateful.
But back to the four jobs I’m juggling: Aside from the book tour for The Deceived Ones, there’s the constant battle of trying to squeeze in the time and find the emotional energy for my work-in-progress about the first named female composer in America. Then there’s my bread-and-butter classical music DJ job at WBJC, which almost doesn’t deserve the moniker “job.” Who wouldn’t want to curate and present five hours of classical music a day for people who love to listen to it? It also affords me the opportunity to speak to people like ACRONYM’s musos, amongst many others. Still, it necessarily requires a substantial chunk of each weekday.
I also have a relatively new writing gig with the UK indie label, SOMM Recordings, which was founded by the redoubtable Cypriot-born pianist and producer, Siva Oke. I’m writing the Sales Notes for their wide-ranging and extraordinarily high-volume slate of recordings. Frankly, I can't imagine how Siva keeps all the balls in the air.
A release we’ve been working on recently, due to come out in the early part of next year, is UKRAINE: A Piano Portrait featuring Margaret Fingerhut. This one resonated in a number of ways because I’ve aired Margaret’s CDs on WBJC from time to time; she did a postgrad year at the Peabody Institute here in Baltimore; and her piano portrait reflects composers from Ukraine, the country of her grandfather’s birth. Given that a fair amount of The Deceived Ones is set in and around Peabody and that my twins are refugees from Ukraine, it’s felt a little like six degrees of separation.
You will have noticed that I’ve studiously avoided the U.S. election in this seasonal newsletter. My compatriots will know what I mean when I say, “We somehow survived apartheid… ”
I hope that you will have a restful and happy holiday season—whatever the weather—and, until I’m in touch when the seasons turn again, take care.