Labor Day, music and the Sembrich Museum

This Labor Day weekend I performed a recital at the Marcella Sembrich Museum in Bolton Landing, NY. This is a wonderful little gem of a museum - the famed Met singer's summer studio - with the salon overlooking Lake George. The space was small, but intimate and comfortable. Pictures of famed musicians, artists and politicians decorate all the walls, and several personal articles (manuscripts, trophies, jewelry, etc.) are displayed in cases. The recently refurbished Steinway has a deep, melancholic tone, which worked so well with the cello. The sound in that room was so full of beauty, it was inspiring to make music. The pianist was my friend Hiroko Yamazaki, she really played exquisitely, and the final passage in the Shostakovich sonata was perfectly intense.

We stayed at the house across the street. Our hosts were wonderful, Anita and Charlie Richards; they are retired schoolteachers and now manage the museum and the summer events. Mrs. Richard's father worked for Mme Sembrich, initially he was her bookbinder, but later she hired him to take care of her property. Mme. Sembrich left in her will that he should live in her house until his passing. When that happened, the estate put the house up for sale, and his daughter, Mrs. Richards, and her husband, bought the house and live there now. They have a small Bed and Breakfast, and they are very gracious hosts. We did a lot of story telling and laughing, and we enjoyed some wonderful German pancakes. One of the concertgoers lives on a little island on the lake, they came to the concert by boat... how cool is that? The museum curator is Richard Wargo, a wonderful opera composer. We enjoyed watching selections of his Ballymore, an opera premiered in Milwaukee by the Skylight Opera, with which I played as a sub in 1992. I hope to be back at the Sembrich Museum soon.