To my amazing colleagues from Opera Roanoke's recent production, this is for you. Riffing off Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, a one-act opera...

After a soulful conversation with one of my closest relatives, whom we refer to as Cousin Boss, we have found just enough chutzpah to go...

Over the Rainbow was my rep. for a recent gig, a "wink-wink" surprise finale for a VIP reception. I fulfilled another life dream by...

An "artist date" can be hard to schedule when you're in the middle of it, hustling it, or back to the drawing board for another go at it....

It's been a minute since I've shared a mental health post. I'm in a good state of mind today, which makes this a good time to share. If...

The theme of this post was inspired by our students, whose final project was to create a collage connecting their experiences abroad in...

2024 marks the 150th birthday of "the enigma of modern music." Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) was a composer who expressed surprise when...

Our 20+ students and their pair of world-winded professors just spent four nights in Prague. Here's an abridged photo journal of a few...

An amazing weekend continued Sunday at the Beethoven Museum in Heiligenstadt, one of the small hillside suburbs of Vienna known for its...

6 May 2023. I didn't remember today was Coronation Day until I saw it on a TV outside "Jews' Square" in Vienna. I experienced the "pomp...

(Feb 23) Collective Euphonia, Lenfest Center, WLU, Jan 2023. L-R: Corey Crider, Julia Goudimova, Amy Scurria, Sandra Adans Krueger, SMW,...

Chansonnier (Songbook) of Jean de Montchenu (c.1470) To be honest, the last several months have been rough. For those who've followed my...

(Joan Eardley, Catterline in Winter) Here are my notes for this weekend's performance of Schubert's Winterreise. If you can't make it to...

One of my ongoing creative projects is making new versions of classic poems and myths. It's especially fun to adopt, adapt, update or...

...one in an ongoing series of mental health posts... 2011 was an eventful one. It was the first time I’d been fired after 20 years on...

I've been writing the occasional mental health post here over the past year. Last time I shared a bit about the challenges of Summer for...

As I resume my mental health blog here (see below), I want to share some cultural content, in the form of a short tribute to Anne...

a mental health post... Sharing a Samuel Beckett quote on fb yesterday reminded me to express myself here. It has been a minute since...

Here are a few drafts of poems I've been working on, along with some favorite images... (Bermudas, for Alice and co.; acrylic and coffee...

"Always, sad, always Dowland." Feb 20 is John Dowland's Yahrzeit (1563-1626). His melancholy Elizabethan-era lute songs are the OG...