Happy New Year!

Happy 2015 to one and all! 

I can't say I'm terribly sorry to see 2014 go.  I got very sick during the last month and a half of the year, and that compounded with dealing with Ludwig's illness, a death in the family, and the various trials and tribulations of busy small-business ownership was hard to manage. 

I have high hopes for 2015.  Ludwig is doing well with steady kidney numbers and his normal, spunky attitude, and I am finally on all sorts of meds for my own issues (look up hyperactive upper airway disorder if you're interested in what I'm talking about, but basically if I get a cold, it immediately mushrooms into a really serious cold with this extremely violent and uncontrollable cough that takes forever to go away; it's unpleasant).  Business is good; I have a fantastic slate of students, and I'm slowly but surely getting better at keeping myself organized.  I have room for a couple more appointments a week, but I'm pretty full up in general, which is a great problem to have.

At midnight on December 31st, the second Kickstarter I ran in 2014 closed, raising $3425 out of a goal of $2500.   This Kickstarter will allow Westford Chorus, a wonderful community chorus with some of the nicest people I have ever met, to perform Faure's Requiem with the orchestra called for by the composer.  It may seem like a small order, but for small, underfunded groups, hiring an orchestra is a massive expense and can hinder more adventurous programming and musical progress.  I am really excited about the prospect of using crowdfunding to keep community arts vibrant and viable. Gone are the days of the Medicis keeping artists in business; now artists are dependent upon small donations from many in the aether.  Capital campaigns work for groups that have the name recognition, but Kickstarter is really showing itself to be a wonderful option for groups to reach out to friends and family worldwide and get a little help. 

With this in mind, I've added a consulting tab to this website and am officially marketing myself as a Kickstarter/social media consultant.  I am willing to come on for small groups and perform an advisory role, teaching how crowdfunding/social media works and share the tips and tricks I have accumulated rather successfully thus far.  I think this is a good merging of my two backgrounds of education and music, and I look forward to helping other groups meet their goals in 2015.

I rang in the new year in my car last night.  The local classic rock radio station, 100.7 WZLX, did its annual "1000 top classic rock songs of 2014' countdown, ending as the ball dropped in Times Square.  I needed gas in my car, so I took the long way to hear the last few songs.  As the clock turned over, I got to drive down a hill on the Fellsway East, blaring Led Zeppelin's Kashmir and watching the fireworks from Somerville coming over the tree line.  It was a peaceful and elating at the same time.

Let's hope that the same adjectives carry through the entire year for all of us.  I have a good feeling they will (and that I will actually maintain this blog regularly!).  :)