My trip to Shelter Island

I got to Shelter Island by way of my friend Jesse who was driving through Cleveland on his way to the Perlman Music Program (PMP). We actually went to Boston first because that's where Jesse was moving to and we dumped a U-Haul trailer full of stuff off at his place before going south. We left Cleveland at 8:30pm and ended up in Boston around 9:00am so I think we made it in good time. As we left Boston we picked up Yue Chu at the train station, a pianist who had just arrived back to Boston from a visit home. He is from Tianjin, China where my other Chinese piano playing friends are from. His dad works at the music conservatory there so I think they may know him.

After that we took a couple ferries to get to Shelter Island. This is a picture of Jesse and I on the first ferry that took us from New London, CT to Orient Point on the north fork of Long Island. I think we look a little weird but it's probably due to the fact that the wind is blowing and that we hadn't slept much the previous 24 hrs. I'd never been on a ferry before and it was nice. We'll be taking it on our way back to Boston. I decided to fly from there back to Cleveland because I knew that I could get a ride to Boston and it's cheaper to fly from there, so that worked out nice.


My group here is working on Bela Bartok's 3rd String Quartet. It's only 14 minutes long but it's very difficult. If you've never heard it, go check it out from the library. It's crazy, challenging, and lots of fun. We'll be performing it here on Shelter Island, Saturday, August 26th. This week Paul Katz is our coach and I'm really enjoying his coachings. I'm learning a lot and being stretched. We'll be playing the Bartok in a masterclass for Itzhak Perlman on Thursday this week. I'm looking forward to that. Here's a couple pictures from dinner the other night. The first one is of Itzhak, the other is of his wife Toby talking to Vivian Weilerstein with Jesse and Merry Peckham between them, sitting on the end. If you look in the background right above Toby's hand you can see Paul Katz, our chamber coach.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.