To paraphrase John Oliver, “It has been a busy month.”

After the relatively quiet February, March came in like a lion and never let up. When I looked at my calendar, it appeared somewhat normal, but that might have been more in line with a time when I was a younger man. It was a lot to pack in, and I shall try and summarize as succinctly as possible.

Sometimes a month can go by with just a little musical activity but can still be packed full with events of interest. Actually, I need to go back to the final week of January because I did not have time to write about the conclusion of the Asian trip last time. Here is the summary:

An engagement in Hiroshima followed my concerts in Osaka. The Hiroshima Symphony is another fine orchestra with great energy and wonderful discipline. Since we had success working together three years ago on Mahler 6, the orchestra asked for another symphony by the Austrian master. This time, we settled on Mahler’s First Symphony, and it was clear from the first rehearsal that we were going to achieve great things.

I could spend this entire essay writing about an incredible trip to Thailand and Bali—the floating market, the train market, the monkey reserve, a royal wedding, and so much more—but I will let Cindy share a few photos and leave the rest up to your imagination.

January saw me back on the podium in three cities, each in Japan. The programs were varied in content but all dispatched with expertise by the orchestras I led. Since 1983, I have been coming to Tokyo on a regular basis to work with the NHK. On this visit, I led the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, one of the eleven professional ensembles that exist here.

Before all the holidays converged at the same time, the first half of December was relatively quiet for Cindy and me, except for one conducting assignment that turned out to be very interesting.

For the past several years, I have been doing some teaching at the Manhattan School of Music. The conservatory is housed in the same building where my mother, uncle, brother, and I all studied while attending Juilliard. Every time I enter the door at 122nd Street and Claremont Avenue, I am reminded of the rich tradition of music that has emerged from those storied halls.

Reunions and a debut marked this past month, with a few side trips along the way. And of course, we had an election. More about that in a moment.

Nearly two years had passed since my last visit to the Detroit Symphony. As its music director laureate, I have the honor of being regarded as the grand old man with a degree of experience that can make a difference. I picked up right where I left off with the musicians who knew me during the ten years that I led the ensemble. Rehearsals were efficient and filled with musical information that needed to be digested quickly because we only had two days to rehearse instead of three. Absorbing the material is challenging when the schedule is condensed, especially for younger musicians who are unfamiliar with the repertoire.