Travel

   Imagine our surprise while innocently strolling through Leipzig’s shopping district to be confronted with this sign (see photo on left). Now, I was planning to visit the Mendelssohn House, but had no idea that it was only a few blocks from our hotel.   After having conducted several Mendelssohn works with my orchestras the past year (2009 was

Today we drove from Paderborn to Leipzig for the final performance of the tour which will take place on Saturday night (tomorrow). Our concert venue will be none other than the famous church where Johann Sebastian Bach worked for 27 years (1723-1750), the Thomaskirche. After we checked into the hotel, we went over to the

This morning I trudged through the falling snow for over half an hour to attend mass at one of the major landmarks of Paderborn, Germany, the Cathedral (Dom). It was like a pilgrimage of sorts. As you approach the cathedral, you see the bell tower looming in the distance, and when the bells ring on

The last two days have been filled with rehearsals and snow. The orchestra from the Detmold Hochschule für Musik and their conductor, Professor Joachim Harder, are terrific, and it’s a thrill to to play with the great trumpeter Reinhard Ehritt. The rehearsals have been conducted entirely in German which has been a new experience for

The flight to Frankfurt was surprisingly pleasant. Going through airport security at Dulles was inconvenient, as usual, but not anything out of the ordinary. Some of the screeners were uptight, but my fellow travelers were patient and friendly, and that made everything much easier to endure. Frankfurt Airport was about the same. It was the first