Lately I've become increasingly interested in other instruments in the worldwide dulcimer family so when Dipu Deshmukh (an accomplished Esraj player and father to my son's fiancee) indicated he knew a Santoor player who might be willing to be interviewed, I jumped at the chance. I was not disappointed. Nitin Pandit and his family graciously put up with an evening of...
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Western Red Cedar and I on the Olympic Peninsula
Garret our youngest son has taken a shine to the West of late so we have been doing some traveling out in that direction over the last few years. We love the natural environment, our parks and seem to have a logical attraction to trees of all kinds. In this blog, I'd like to feature some trees that fortunately will...
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I have always been fascinated by the Chinese yangqin. In the world of trapezoidal instruments struck by “hammers”, the contemporary yangqin rivals the cymbalom in its range and complexity. The yangqin is a relative newcomer to Chinese music. The instrument’s name provides a clue that it originated from abroad—yang means “foreign” and qin is the ancient Chinese plucked zither. Although...
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