October 3, 2026

Day spent at AVLGMC “retreat.” It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it– I did– but that I come away with hollowness in my soul. Out of 500 years of repertoire we pick those niggling little tunes. Forgettable. Juvenile, and not in a good way. Only a few are actually awful, but only a few are “right” in any way I recognize either musically or for the season our concert is meant to honor. We were far more sophisticated five years ago. The fact that we are larger now is meant somehow to obscure that. Nothing but surface, no imperative but lack of offense. It is more heartbreaking than I expected it to be.