THE YEAR IN REVIEW
2001-2002
FALL WHIRLWIND TOUR

Calico's touring season started with an unexpected flurry of activity. In October we stepped in for the London-based, visa troubled Haffner Wind Quintet, a week before the first scheduled concert of their American tour. Our adventures began as guest speakers for a Western Civilization class at Oklahoma City Community College. The students found the lives of professional musicians unusual and fascinating and we were impressed by their level of interest in the arts in our society as we fielded their intelligent questions . That evening we played a concert at the College amidst tornado warnings. In fact even as we sounded the last notes of our encore we were promptly ushered off stage into the tornado shelter along with the audience where we remained for the next hour and a half. The science professor was there eagerly showing everyone the track of the tornado on his computer radar system. We ended the evening with dinner at the only open restaurant in the area where much to our astonishment and delight we were carded! Early the next morning we flew to Denver, catching a few zzzz's at our motel before holding a master class for the wind students at Metropolitan State College of Denver. What a pleasure it was to perform in the state-of-the-art chamber music hall at the new King Center on the campus. We then headed to Chicago, Kay's home turf, where her in-laws Bob and Peggy Nevin were our gracious hosts. We drove to Milwaukee with a quick stop at the "Mars Cheese Castle", of course. Alice Farley was kind enough to offer her house for freshening up before our concert at another wonderful recital hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College. After a day back in LA we were off to Northern California for a concert in Santa Rosa. At the reception following the concert, our mutual interest in fine wine led to an invitation from audience member Bruce Davis to visit the Kunde Vineyards later that week. Coincidentally we were due back in the area for a concert we had booked well in advance of this recent tour. This resulted in a memorable vineyard tour and wine tasting at Kunde. It was topped off by an impromptu performance in the caves where barrels of wine are aged. Then it was on to the real concert at Oakmont Community Center followed by a lovely meal with Theresa's in-laws Bob and Cherie McGrath and friends. That rounded out Calico's Fall tour...an exhausting yet thoroughly exciting and rewarding trip. We really enjoyed sharing ourselves and our music with new presenters and new audiences.

JANUARY IN NY, NY

Acronyms abounded in January, 2002. Calico was chosen, along with the Amelia Piano Trio, eighth blackbird and guitarist, Antigoni Goni, to participate in YPCA (Young Performers Career Advancement) by APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters). We spent four days in intensive seminars geared toward building the careers of emerging artists, with presentations by many individuals representing different aspects of the performing arts. While there seems to be no limit to how much can be said about the business of music, we did manage to escape the intensity of the conference by fitting in some ice skating, walks in Central Park and of course some lovely dinners. In addition, we took full advantage of our complimentary rooms at the mid-town Hilton by including a few significant others in the fun. The high point of the long weekend was a showcase performance at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. It was a thrill to perform on the historic stage, which has been graced by so many famous artists. With a short two days off, Rachel, Kay and Theresa moved up to the Hastings Hilton (a.k.a. the Berry's). In an effort to clear our heads for the CMA (Chamber Music America) conference, we enjoyed a vigorous Bear Mountain winter hike with ice and snow, a few extra miles were thrown in for missed turns and lost trails. As always the CMA conference gave us our yearly perspective on chamber music trends and activities around the country. And this year it turned into a nice ego boost with presenters and managers who also attended APAP giving us positive feedback about our Carnegie performance.

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