Christopher "Kit" Taylor is an incredible pianist. That's not just my opinion. According to his bio, he is "hailed by critics as 'frighteningly talented' (The New York Times) and 'a great pianist' (The Los Angeles Times), [who] has distinguished himself…
In the fall of 2012, Johannes Wallmann was hired as the first director of the UW-Madison School of Music's new program in Jazz Studies. When I began volunteering in the spring of 2013, the program was just starting to grow…
In 2013, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music was looking for a volunteer to photograph some of their faculty members and classes. Their photo library was out-of-date and, when they needed images for articles or ads, the only available…
The holidays are here! There's music. There are decorations. There are presents! But, as the years pass, the old tradition of sending cards is fading away. But, I have to admit that I'm old fashioned and still like to send…
We would be leaving Sicily on an early flight out of Falcone Borsellino Airport, west of Palermo. Since that's located several hours from Santo Stephano di Camastra, we decided to move closer to the airport the day before. We took…
As I've mentioned before, Santo Stefano di Camastra is a relatively small town. And yet, it is one of three Sicilian towns celebrated for their ceramics, the other two being Caltagirone and Sciacca. According to an article in Italy Magazine,…
We ate a quiet breakfast, packed our bags, and prepared to leave Palermo and the rest of the Road Scholar Treasures of Sicily participants. When we had first met two weeks before, the Group Leader, Enrico Nucci, asked each of…
Saturday morning -- a great time for a walk through one of Palermo's boisterous street markets. We headed over to the Ballarò Market, the oldest, most authentic and largest of the markets in Palermo. This market originated in the 10th century…
It's about 73 miles by road from Palermo to Erice (EH-ree-cheh), but some of it's a hilly winding road so it takes about a couple of hours to drive there. That's long enough to make a rest stop along the…