The Slow Season

It's interesting how I'll have some months where my performance schedule is absolutely hectic, and some months that are so slow. 

 I remember last January (2007), when within a period of 2 weeks, I went to Pennsylvania for masterclasses/competition, then left partway through to play a solo recital at a concert series in North Carolina, then flew straight back to Pennsylvania to finish the masterclasses and for an orchestra rehearsal of Beethoven's 5th Concerto, then went to Paris to play Henri Dutilleux's Sonata for Dutilleux himself in his Paris studio, then straight to Brussels to have masterclasses with Jerome Lowenthal.....whew!  And a couple weeks later, I went to West Palm Beach, FL for a weeklong piano festival.

Then, there's times like right now, where I guess I'm in a slow season.  The next thing on my calendar is not til September!  It's a Competition, so at least I am spending this summer preparing and learning the 3 required works (more on that later).   But things are so unpredictable.  

It's funny --- during busy times, the challenge is not burning-out.   But during slow times like this, the challenge is getting motivated to work just as hard as if I had a competition tomorrow!