thirteen ways

I remember Henry Meyer coming to coach us in our condemned, black box studio space in Cincinnati. I remember wondering what he would think about all the contemporary music we were about to play for him. I remember that he told me to breathe more in my phrasing of Tom Albert’s Thirteen Ways (mvt. IV). “Play it more like Brahms,” he said. It sounded so much more beautiful and he said so. Since then, I’ve always thought of Henry at that moment in the piece, and it always makes me smile.

We’ll miss you Henry.