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18th December 2011

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17th October 2011

USA - "Interiors of a tour"

2003

After almost two years of plannings we were able to spend the last two weeks of September in the Middle West and Southern California, filled with recitals, masterclasses and meeting lots of wonderful friendly music-loving people. The overall friendly atmosphere was in fact the very first thing we noticed. We were very lucky that www and e-mail had been invented in time for the plannings - without them this tour might not have been possible. We had contacted the composer Geoffrey Gordon this way concerning his music. To work with composers on their music is a very usual every day part of our job, but this time all three of us must have been under some lucky star. The result of this fortunate contact and lots of commitment on both sides af the Atlantic Ocean was our first US tour. Right the first recital on the day after our arrival in Chicago was to be live broadcast on WFMT-FM. The place for this event was the breath-takingly beautiful Preston Bradley Hall at the Cultural Center with its gigantic Tiffany glass-dome. Hundreds of listeners in the audience at the hall at noon on a Wednesday - that must be what organizers all over the world are dreaming of. In Chicago it is possible. The same day we went on to Minneapolis/St. Paul. On Thursday we did a reading session with the Minnesota-based composers Richard E. Voorhaar, Jay Huber and Tyler Kaiser, and with Geoffrey on our new piece for the tour. Working on these pieces we had chosen some weeks before with the composers was very informative and fun for everyone, and in the end it was later in the evening than all of us had expected. This reading session also gave us the possibility of getting used to the hall for the upcoming recital on Friday. Sundin Music Hall is said to be one of the best and also most demanding chamber music halls in the US, and we can fully agree to that. Just the sound of that hall and the pleasure of performing there would be reason enough to come back.

Very early on Saturday we returned back to Lake Michigan, to Milwaukee. We had a very nice though short masterclass there, followed by another recital at the Helen Bader Recital Hall, which is part of Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Afterwards we spend some recreational days in Milwaukee. This town definitely has much more to offer than can be experienced in barely a week. And again we didn't have enough time to meet everyone we had planned to. Talking of plans, we had planned to spend the last three days of or tour at La Guitarra California in San Luis Obispo. In the end it turned out to be just two days. Due to a cancelled flight we didn't arrive at 11 a.m. but just at 6.30 p.m.. Which was 30 minutes before our recital during the opening concert of the festival… Luckily enough one of the many volunteer drivers of the festival was already waiting for us at the airport, and brought us to the hall just in time. So, out of the daytime clothing, into the still wrinkled concert clothes ("fresh" from the suitcase) and out on stage. This memorable concert also featured the official premiere of "Interiors of a Courtyard", the new piece which Geoffrey Gordon, who was also present and already had done an introducing lecture about the music, had written especially for our tour.

We spent the last two days enjoying as much of the festival's exhibitions and events and of the idyllic little town of San Luis Obispo as we could. Many thanks to everyone who was involved with the plannings and organization of this great project! Especially to Ann Murray and Bill McGlaughlin for Chicago, David Wolff and Georgia Lauritzen for Minneapolis, Angela Morgan for Milwaukee, our Milwaukee host Alice, Reed Gilchrist for California and Geoffrey Gordon. We will be back!