Let’s see: terrific orchestra, great weather, beautiful ocean views, fantastic food and wine, lovely people, and scenic mountains. As the refrain goes, “Who could ask for anything more?”

Such was the first part of April, with two weeks spent in my new role as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria. If you had asked me as recently as twenty years ago if I would be spending much time conducting orchestras in Spain, the answer would have been no, but the post-Franco years have seen an explosion of culture in this part of the world.

Adventures new and old marked a busy March calendar. Overall, it was a most pleasant time on the road.

I had never visited, much less conducted in, Vancouver for reasons unclear. Perhaps it was not on my agent’s radar until recently, but the VSO is certainly a prominent orchestra on the Canadian landscape. Fortunately, the stars finally aligned for my debut in British Columbia.

February was education month for me, in a couple different ways. In recent years, I have devoted some time to teaching at university music schools and conservatories. More than likely, most people think this is a one-way street, with the professor passing down knowledge accumulated over many years.

In fact, I probably learn more from the experience than the students do. Assessing the health of music education in our society by finding out what it is really like in the artistic/academic world has become something of a pet project for me. I am gleaning that there is considerable talent out there, perhaps too much for the marketplace.

Although many people think of St. Louis as being in the southern part of the country, we can have some winter weather close to that of Buffalo, New York. Such was the case in the middle of January, when the temperatures dipped below zero; thankfully, the snow was minimal.

All bundled up, I began a two-week stay with my old band, the SLSO. Many things are different this year, not the least of which is that Powell Hall is under renovation and the orchestra has had to relocate. They play in two venues, one of them being the Stifel Theatre, the orchestra’s former home until 1968, when the R.K.O. St. Louis Theatre was converted from a movie palace into one of the finest concert halls in the country.

And a joyous New Year to all of you! Hopefully 2023 ended on a high note.

While most people head home for the holidays, Cindy and I usually go on an extended vacation. For the most part, we travel to places that are somewhat remote. Past trips have taken us to Morocco, the Galapagos, and the Amazon. This time we explored Tanzania.

To say that November was a jam-packed month would be an understatement. With the middle portion of a six-week concert tour in full swing, I realized that no two works would be repeated during this trip. Only one of them was new to me, however, and as I explained in last month’s journal entry, The Fountains of Rome became an old friend during the first stop back in October.

Continuing in Spain, I moved on from Valencia to Madrid. In times’ past, the country, in general, was not a pleasant place to make music. Its resident orchestras were undisciplined and did not possess the musical values I was used to in other parts of the world. That has changed drastically over the past fifteen years or so, with exciting and vibrant music-making now taking place throughout Spain, even in smaller cities.