east coast

One of the nice things about having 3 months off every year is that, for the past 2 years, I've been able to accompany family members on college adventures on the different coasts of the United States. Last year I drove to Bellingham, Washington to pick up my little sister, Caitlin, from Western Washington University and, this year, I'm in the Boston area to help the other sister, Emma, look for colleges.

I was actually going to attend the Berklee College of Music at one point (i.e. I've been out here before) but one of the nice things about this place nowadays is that some good friends of mine from my days at Luther College have settled in the Boston area. We met up to have dinner and some great microbrews at the Publick House the other night. Beth Willer and Abby Frost!















They are unfailingly brilliant musicians and it was great to see them again. Abby and I actually designed and implemented our own choral/orchestral survey course while we were at Luther and learned a lot. Speaking of that class, one thing I didn't know was that Beth (who is a crazy-awesome singer/conductor/pianist/trumpet player) hates Mendelssohn's Elijah. Sacrilege!

Anyway, here are some random pictures I've taken over the last few days. The first one I took while haunting the music hall at Brandeis University. May I present Leonard Bernstein's childhood piano!















I have no idea how I blindly stumbled across this. Apparently (and unbeknownst to this huge Bernstein fan), he was on the faculty here in the 50s and, in his honor, they bought this thing. It's just sitting out in the common area of the building with an informational sign that ends with, "When you're as good as Lenny, maybe we'll let you play it too."