A couple of days late, but anyway, Happy Lunar New Year! Though my friend Kitty Katz tells me "Gung Hay Fat Choy" is really a generic happy holiday wish and isn't specifically for the new year. But it's what I've always heard said so I'm saying it to youse all.

Went to a fine concert on Sunday, the actual first day of the new year. The Jade String Trio has a project going, commissioning works for string trio based on Chinese folk melodies. One of these commissions came to my friend, composerDavide Zannoni. His piece was premiered on Sunday, on a concert that also included Mozart, Faure, and some additional Chinese pieces, one of them a string trio arrangement of a song called Heart to Heart, from The East Is Red. ("The Red Army is our brother/They were the true heroes of the Long March.") Davide's piece was lovely -- lyrical, exciting, respectful of the Chinese original while western and modern in all respects. I recommend his music highly. (And if you happen to be looking for a composer to commission, Davide's your man.) The Jade String Trio is a highly talented group. When this project is complete and they've commissioned enough works -- they're about half-way there -- they're going to make a CD. I'm looking forward to it.

So there we were, sitting in a warm cozy church on a dark rainy day (rain is lucky at the start of a new enterprise, and I'm taking that to mean the new year, too) surrounded by beautiful music. A great way for a year to begin.