We were on a short break last week, and I forgot to blog. But we are all in the city now and despite the heat, we rehearsed yesterday. One more coming before we take a slightly more extended break. Next week, a bit more on our upcoming season, but for today, a few photos. Enjoy.…

Matt and I head to Maine today, so brief trio hiatus. But before we hit the road - dinner! And who is there? 8SW Competition winner #1 Jorge Amado. He's on his way to the National Orchestra Institute in DC, but made a detour to spend a week with Henry the cat. Even though it…

Summer rehearsals — noise versus heat? Today it is hot - going to be 89. Our regular rehearsal space has no AC - but we have fans and windows. Of course the windows face on to a noisy midtown Manhattan avenue, making it hard to hear and the fans distort pitch. But without — really…

I promised myself I was going to write a blog every Friday. Well Friday came and went and no blog! Only week 2 in and I am already off schedule. So today's blog is very short, as I have a big pile of music on my stand. One of the piece in that pile is…

A website is like a house. Houses need upkeep. You can clean them, paint the walls, and change the light bulbs on a regular basis and all looks good. But eventually you will need a new roof. Or perhaps, hidden behind the walls where you cannot see, there’s an issue with the pipes. Or you…

We are very excited to announce the winners of our 2024 8SW Composer Competition. This is our fourth cycle of the 8SW Composer Competition, which started in 2018. Why hold a competition? A fairly simple answer — we believe in the art of chamber music. It is a special genre of music that involves communication…

They are back — the summer PopUP! We are always excited to present these concerts, especially this summer, when we will play at such a great space. What is a PopUP!? Good question.The PopUP!s are a chance for us to present new works (or at least works new to us) to an audience and get…

I gave my now remote college classes a short writing assignment. It was all about what music they are listening to in this time of stress.  I decided I would post a contribute too, and so I wrote this: It’s been about a little over a week since the college closed and moved to remote…

And now, massively overdue, is the next installment of my Fall recap!  I thought I should get it posted before we got to the summer. To Cuba!  On Nov. 1st, we packed our bags and headed to JFK for an early morning flight.  Joining us on this second sojourn to Havana was composer Pamela Sklar…

My first day back teaching college after our trip to Cuba, a student asked me if I had a good vacation.  I was...not pleased, to say the least. But, I took a deep breathe and explained that playing three concerts in six days is not a vacation,  nor would Professors miss a week of class in…

Last night, we kicked off the new season with a fabulous Groupmuse house concert on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Literally steps from Lincoln Center, we performed a program for about 25 people in a lovely, intimate setting.  For those who don’t know, Groupmuse is an organization that helps pair musicians and house concerts…

The Washington Post recently wrote an editorial saying the Summer is over-rated. It’s possible that’s true. What is summer really? - A time when it’s really hot!! For many of us, summer is when we envision getting a lot done. We make lists and once made, they are hard to escape. The “list” is that…

Spring is popping up all over… or in our case, 8SW is popping up, which is definitely better then pooping out. Over the last season and a bit, we have had two Pop Up concerts, and we’re doing it again to celebrate the end of our 2018-19 season. The Pop Up concerts happen in a…

Welcome to our revamped website! Having a website that functions on every conceivable platform is a necessity today.  But as we launch this one, it has give me a chance to think back.  When we came together 20 years ago (or is it 21? 19?) the thought of needing a website didn’t exist.  Our first…

It’s a tough time to be a classical musician. Of course, it always has been.  When I started conservatory, everyone was upset that the opportunities for American string players to work in Europe were drying up.  And then there were funding cuts!  Many were worried (rightfully so) about cuts to the NEA.  Five years later,…

Today is release day for Doug Anderson’s new album, Douglas Anderson: Chamber Symphonies 2,3,4.    Doug’s already garnering great reviews.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you can read it here. We recorded Doug’s Chamber Symphony 3 nearly a decade ago in 2006.  We actually recorded in the instrument closet in the old building at the Borough of Manhattan…

This has been a very busy Fall.  We finally unleashed Albert’s Window on the world, had our Tenri concert, as well as our first appearance on the Arts on the Corner series in Brooklyn.  Additionally, we finished recording music for an upcoming CD of compositions by Scott Brickman and are neck deep in edits for that.  …