It's been too long since I last wrote a post in my blog, so instead of letting this slip quietly away forever, a happy reminder to me of things that were important to me in my past, I'd like to reactivate this.  A search of blogs after mine in the line-up indicate that abandoned blogs are very common.  But I like to write, and I love photography, and I still love piano -- in fact, after attending that 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competitition, I've attended every one since.  The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is the one where I met the delightfully shy and endearing Tomoki Sakata -- at the time, the spitting image of my son, Ross.  (Of course, now, five years later, neither looks like the other).  But I can' tell you how enchanting it is to see "your son" on stage at Bass Hall! I was smitten with Tomoki, and in love with his playing.  My Mom joined me for the 2013 cycle, and we had a terrific time exploring Fort Worth and meeting pianists and getting their autographs (my Mom is so much bolder than me) (I remember how we both loved the Australian pianist -- his name is on the tip of my tongue and will come to me any minute now) and how delighted we were to learn we were sitting next to his modest grandmother, who only let us know at the last minute of conversation, before the lights dimmed, that her grandson was performing next!)

 More recently, I attended the 2017 Van Cliburn.  I was sad when my Mom could not attend with me.  Perhaps because I went alone, I made the most friends there -- many piano teachers from Texas -- who I expect will see in 2021.  I was very happy to meet Brian, Mary, and Jennifer -- we went out for meals every day and happily shared our opinions about what we saw and heard, and covered for the others when we needed a break.  I once missed one recital so I could enjoy the Texas sunshine after four straight days inside Bass Hall--going to the Fort Worth Arboretum--and missed one of the finalists!  Just when you think you've heard the best, and the performances can't get any better....they do.

With each Van Cliburn, I like to mark my progress as to where I am, pianistically.  Four years is a good amount of time that you really can see progress.  For my first Van Cliburn (2009) I had been taking piano for eight years as an adult student, then a mother of two young sons in elementary school.  I remember going out for ice cream with some attendees, discussing piano studies of our own, and one was learning Debussy -- and how that was a dream for me, that seemed unattainable.

For the next Van Cliburn cycle, in 2013, I had continued lessons for four more years (amazing what a motivational jolt attending these amazing performances can be), had performed a Debussy piece in a recital (Dr. Gradus and Parnussum), and had just begun teaching piano students for a year or two.  By the 2017 cycle, I had a thriving piano studio of 8 students and had learned Beethoven's first piano sonata on my own, as by this point I had stopped taking lessons with my beloved teacher, Maribeth Gowen.

Above picture is of my beautiful, radiant mom, following coffee and reading the newspaper eager for profiles of contestants -- on a beautiful morning in Fort Worth, Texas.  Below is me, taken after a student piano recital.