A Classical Music Weekend.

Talk about an all out classical weekend. That's pretty much what I had this weekend. On Friday, I drove up to Ames to the Joshua Bell concert. In case you're wondering, he's this classical violinist who is not that old but he's been performing (with a $4 million dollar violin!) for quite some time now. I've listened to a number of his cds and have been impressed by his playing style. I figured nothing will beat listening to him live. Needless to say, I was not disappointed at all. Joshua played a Shumann, Beethoven and Meyer piece. Instead of a whole orchestra, he toured with a pianist named Jeremy Denk who can hold his own. What struck me the most about the both of them is that they complement each other extremely well. There was no showboating and it was just gorgeous hearing them play together - the word symbiosis comes to mind. After the intermission, they played a piece composed specifically for them by Edgar Meyer who is a pretty young composer. The music had a more modern tone to it yet it was very pleasing. The only other time I heard Meyer was on a cd. He composed a piece for a young violinist names Hillary Hahn. For the encore, Joshua played two pieces from his most recent album, Voices of the Violin. The drive home to DM was a very pleasing drive to say the least.

On Saturday evening, John and I went to a classical concert by the Borealis Quartet from Canada. There were two violinist, a violist and a cellist. They played pieces from Mozart, Ravel and Beethoven. For some reason or another, people who attend concerts at Levitt Hall in the Des Moines Art Center which is an intimate venue do not like sitting up front. John and I have not problem sitting right up front. We really got to appreciate them up close and personal. The most difficult piece was the Beethoven piece and they did a magnificent job. It'll be interesting to see how far this quartet will go in the coming years since they are rather young. Talk about a great way to end the weekend.

After Mass today, Kristi, Brian and I went to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant for some pho. The weather was frigid to say the least so there's nothing better than a nice bowl of pho to warm one's stomach! It's been some time since I spent time with the both of them. They'll be going on a cruise to Europe in the middle of April, and I've volunteered to drive them to the airport in Kansas City. That way, I'll be able to spend some time with Sarah Skidmore and Darren. Charlene told me that this weekend, they moved Sarah to an apartment and it'll be nice just to spend time with Sarah. Hanging out with Darren will be an added bonus. During lunch, one of the things we talked about was the role of young adults at St. Catherine and we all agreed that we need to step up to the plate and be more active in the church. Since St. Catherine is a unique parish, we do not have a large number of young adults, but we can most certainly start something and see where we go. A number of other area Catholic churches already have a young adult groups and there's no reason why we won't be able to do something with some of these groups once we get started and organized. I'm excited to say the least.

This coming Thursday, I'll be going to "Phantom of the Opera" at the Civic Center. The other time I went to a Phantom performance was in Minneapolis almost eight years ago. I have an amazing seat and am definitely looking forward to the performance. I've always loved the music of Phantom and it'll be fun to see it again since it's been so long. Are you jealous? I bet you are!

That's it from me on a frigid Sunday afternoon.