The Pipes of Christmas: New York CIty Christmas shows

December is officially starting and it's my favorite holiday season.

Every year I choose a special holiday concert to attend.
I've been to "A Tuba Christmas", where hundreds of tuba players descend on the ice rink at Radio City Music Hall....
I went to "An Irish Christmas" (Irishartscenter.org) last year which was a nice showcase of music
and I even did the "Radio City Christmas Show", which was truly spectacular....
radiocity.musichall-ny.com/

This year on 12/14 I'm checking out the "Pipes of Christmas"  (www.pipesofchristmas.com).
Celtic music in a beautiful New York City church.

If you know me, you know I love the pipes. I'm also doing some research because someday I'd like to have a Holiday show of my own....

The music brings the holiday spirit to me, and I hope to you too.

A Fiddle Around Town shows on BCAT 10/22 10 pm

Cady's TV special, "A Fiddle Around Town" is now showing
TUESDAY OCTOBER 22nd at 10 pm on BCAT
(In New York City, Timewarner 34/Cablevision 67/Verizon 42) and ONLINE STREAMING WORLDWIDE AT
bricartsmedia.org/community-media/watch-brooklyn-public-network

(It missed it's former air date due to a computer/person error)

Show covers: Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School, Thompson Island, McPherson Kansas Scottish Festival, author Christine Finlayson's new mystery (Tip of a Bone), special guest Irish dancer Siobhan Butler and guitarist Vita Tanga. (Plus fiddling by Cady Finlayson)
low-resolution is also available on youtube anytime....
http://youtu.be/OvqEEGReS-E

"A Fiddle Around Town" Airs on BCAT TV network 10/18 7 pm

We did it! My first tv special, A Fiddle Around Town, airs Friday October 18th 7 pm EASTERN STANDARD TIME on BCAT TV network.  Watch worldwide online at
http://www.bricartsmedia.org/community-media/watch-brooklyn-public-network channel one
or on tv in New York City Time Warner 34/Cablevision 67/RCN 82/Verizon 42
OR you can check out the low-res version on my youtube channel available anytime.
http://youtu.be/OvqEEGReS-E

BRIC Community Media Center was in my neighborhood this summer, and I took classes there to learn tv production. It's a lot to learn and this is my first one, so it's a work in progress...but I'm very excited to have completed one special. 

Our first special features Irish dancer Siobhan Butler doing a traditional style of Irish dance called sean-nos. We have clips from Boston Harbor fiddle school, McPherson Kansas Scottish Festival (sheep!),












We have the Brooklyn Bookshelf featuring my sister Christine Finlayson's latest mystery, Tip of a Bone.... and of course fiddle music.  Also featured in this segment is guitarist Vita Tanga.

It takes a lot of people to work on a tv show, and I'm very grateful to those who were a part of the process, most especially my classmates and colleagues at BRIC that filmed the TV studio part of the show. 
That would be: 
PJ Landers (director, robotic camera), Andrew Thomas (Technical director), Scott Hampton (camera)
Rafael Diaz (camera) Jarmil Clyne (floor manager), Gwendolyn Etienne (Teleprompter), Clifford Acquaye (sound engineer). 
Brian Lynch did a years worth of editing, and I take the blame for all the issues (sound synch!) that came up, because now I know what NOT to do with the film....

My favorite part of the show is the sheep herding in McPherson Kansas.  But there is something there for everyone, from athletic games to music and books.

Enjoy the show!
Remember it's on youtube now too, if you want to watch it at your leisure. 
http://youtu.be/OvqEEGReS-E  (low-res version)
-cady

BRIC ARTS MEDIA: a neighborhood treasure

This summer I found out about BRIC arts media. What a treasure! I planned to take a class on "short-form media" to get some ideas/tips for my youtube channel. (www.youtube.com/cadyfinlayson)

BRIC ORIENTATION
In order to take the class, you must attend an orientation so I did.
They had snacks, the room was packed, and we watched a somewhat outdated film about the history of tv.
The orientation leader spoke about BRIC and talked about how to have a tv show, or material aired on their channel (BCAT).  I didn't go there to do a tv show but as I was sitting there, I thought, why not? Why not THINK BIG! (I often disagree with Donald Trump, but I love his quote,...."If you're going to think, THINK BIG!".
So I signed up for classes (Field Production, Digital Stories and the big one, TV studio production).  Their classes are well-taught and affordable. You do have to give them some footage for BCAT in exchange, but that was the point after all.

I'm working out some ideas now for a "Special" that like the other shows, will be 28 minutes and 30 seconds. I'm filming our Kansas trip  (Scottish festival) and hope to include some Sean-Nos dancing which I'm totally in love with (old-style Irish dancing that is sort of like tap dancing).  I'll do segments on favorite places,  cool people, must-reads (my sister's new book, Tip of a Bone www.christinefinlayson.com). I might even do a segment on my journey into physical fitness...

The photo shows one of our teachers, Matt, in the tv studio class.  And here's the takeaway....I knew I would enjoy the creating part of tv, and meeting other creative people. What completely surprised me was how much fun it was to work with the various machines in the control room.  I'm usually the first to run away from technology, so this was an extra surprise. I guess we get so used to what we do that we don't realize the world of possibilities out there.
BRIC does a wonderful job of creating options....
I hope to have some show news soon.....

Motivation and Change

Lots of people that write about motivation and change. It's a complex topic because we all seem to be motivated by different things and have different comfort levels.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to be more brave. I took one of those online "comfort zone" quizzes to see where you are in relation to other people your age (they say we're less likely to try new things as we get older).  The whole first part was about adrenalin - skydiving, bunjy jumping etc. I joked at my concert that I failed the first section, and my idea of being brave and pushing the limits was parallel parking in Brooklyn. Everyone laughed, but it's true!

So being brave for me means trying new things that don't involve jumping out of an airplane.
So far in 2013 I've:
1. Signed up for personal training at the YMCA
(new strategies for working out, physical changes and .....more motivation to try other new things. I was really surprised to find I actually enjoy running around the track. Not that I can go that far yet, but still.

2. Enrolled in media classes at BRIC arts (in training to do a cable tv special).  Technology is not my strength, but  the classes are small and they offer lots of support.
(Learning a lot, enjoying it and looking forward to having my own youtube series as well as cable tv specials when I'm ready).

As an artist, musician and entertainer, you can always do more- that's the challenge and that's the beauty of it too because there's always something new to create and learn.  I'm finding that getting things together in one area often inspires the other.

So here's to growing and finding what inspires YOU!
It's worth it!

Asta String Conference

This past week I attended my first American String Teachers Association conference, otherwise known as ASTA.  (astaweb.com).  I've wanted to check out this conference for years.  This year, for the first time, it did not fall in March, which was wonderful (if you play Irish music in NY as I do, you are pretty much booked for St. Patrick's gigs all through March).

I WENT WITH NO EXPECTATIONS
 I wasn't selling anything, trying to make connections, or even planning to go to particular sessions.  My main requirement for myself was that I find good strong coffee and workout a couple times. The Omni Providence had a nice gym, and as a bonus,  the gym also had the best strong coffee in the entire hotel.

MY INTEREST WAS AS A VIOLINIST
I do teach (at the United Nations International School) and I"m always interested in ways to help students, but I confess my real interest was as a violinist. So I started with the Eclectic string workshops that were held a day before the conference. Lots of cool ideas about improv and chances to experiment with it all. Christian Howes did a session that was especially fun http://www.christianhowes.com
I also really enjoyed the groove workshop by Tracy Silverman http://www.traceysilverman.com

There were numerous teaching workshops, and I went to several on tuning large groups, sightreading, working with special needs students, and creative ways to work with students, both musically and in areas such as motivation. Sometimes a little tip could make a big difference (i.e. for special needs kids that have trouble processing info, use short directions with no filler. i.e. "Get a pencil" or  "Sit down" instead of "Please take a pencil and then sit down".

TEACHERS THAT SURPRISED ME
For the most part the workshops were outstanding. There were a few teachers that said they were uncomfortable doing even basic improv in teaching, and that surprised me.  There were also some teachers that seemed totally dedicated to their teaching, without much of a musical life outside it. That didn't surprise me as much, but it made me a little sad.  Overall though, I was impressed with the quality of the workshops and came home with some new ideas.

HIGHPOINTS OF THE CONFERENCE
1. Rachel Barton Pine played a version of Brahms lullaby that was exquisitely beautiful.
2. I had way too much fun buying things in the exhibit hall and ended up with music, a blingy violin key chain, glittery rosin, and a new wireless system that I got at the Electric violin shop booth.
3. The variety of musicians there in the violin world - Mark O'Connor, Mark Wood, Christian Howe, Juilie Lyonn Lieberman, Martha Mooke, Tracy Silverman....just a lot of people who do their own thing.