I recently spent a week in Russell, a small town smack in the middle of Kansas, and almost in the very center of America. This is my second visit to this community which hosts an annual three-week music festival called Ad Astra. The festival, with the participation of the whole community, is commissioning a full-length chamber opera from me and my writer sister Maria Reva, which will premiere at Prairiesta 2021, a giant town fair that happens once every ten years. It’s been an incredible experience getting to know this fascinating, art-filled community while researching the story of local art teacher Trudy Furney. While last year Maria and I conducted a bunch of interviews who knew this remarkable lady, this year we introduced the community to some of my music and Maria’s writing. Can’t wait to get going on this project!

Also, I got to see an albino donkey. How cool is that? He’s hiding in the little donkey house. You can see him peaking out shyly…

I was lucky enough to spend four weeks of June at the I-Park artists’ residency in East Haddam, Connecticut along with six other incredible artists: Sarah E. Brook, Gina Kamentsky, Sharon Koelblinger, Brenna K. Murphy, Clarisse Baleja Saidi and Hui-Ying Tsa. The place is like adult summer camp and we were a fun crew enjoying happy hours on the Floating Living Room on the pond, swimming at various local beaches, sweating in the sauna and improvising an endless stream of songs ranging from the heartfelt to the comedic (or both). In between the merriment, we also got a little work done. I made many recordings of the local soundscape (the frog choruses here are incredible!) and worked on a commission for the Wild Shore Festival in Homer, Alaska. This set of lullabies explores my maternal feelings and draws poetic imagery from my visit to Homer in March during a residency at the Bunnell Street Arts Centre.