Hand Carved Wooden Lion

Hand Carved Wooden Lion my Dad bought me in the Maasai Mara national Park, Kenya.

My Stuffed Lion Family

Left: Happy the "lion ball" (Merlin's dad)
Front Right: Merlin and Merlin Jr.
Back Right: Brownie (Merlin & Morgan's older son), and Morgan (Merlin's mate),

Vacation Pictures 8/17/18 and 8/18/18

Replica of the USS Niagara at Put-In-Bay, Ohio

Perry's Victory Memorial, Put-In-Bay, Ohio

A picture of part of Crystal Cave, Put-In-Bay, Ohio. The cave is the largest geode in the world. (you can walk into it, it is the size of a basement of a home).

Below are side and front views of Severance Hall

The Great Violinist: John Kowalski

John Kowalski (a virtuoso violinist I made up) was born in town of Town on August 18, 1983. He has become so good he is definitively the best modern virtuoso violinist. Much to the disbelief of many classical music fans, he has surpassed the quality of the legendary Jascha Heifetz who was often referred to as "the king" or "God's fiddler."  Kowalski then proceeded to become the greatest post-Paganini violinist (which many in real life say this is Heifetz). He has somehow figured out how to perform techniques that previously only Paganini had figured how to play. In other words, Kowalski has figured out how to play the hardest pieces devised including Paganini's gruelingly difficult 24th Caprice and Moto Perpetuo on one string, which Paganini himself had performed on one string back in his day. This finally broke Paganini's "unknown" variant of artificial harmonics, and Kowalski started to teach this technique to other instrumentalists. However, unlike Paganini, since Kowalski is not a violinist who is purposely a show off, he performs pieces in this manner just a few times a year to show it truly is possible.

2018 Paganini International Competition

1. 

Kevin Zhu 

• Age 17
• Instrument: violin
• Pieces Performed in round 3: Brahms Violin Concerto (and a Paganini concerto)
• Hometown: Cupertino, CA

2. Daisy Hanford

• Age 16
• Instrument: violin
• Pieces Performed in round one included: Paganini Caprices 5, 10, and 16
• Pieces Performed in round two included: Paganini Caprices 6, 17, and 24, and Carmen Fantasy
• Pieces Performed in round three (the finals): Paganini Violin Concerto #5 in A Minor, and Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (written in 1806)
• Hometown: Town, PA
• Music Teacher: John Kowalski

Islands Music Competition 2017

Date = 4/30/17 in Steven Calabresi Hall (which fits 10,000 people, of which 9,943 seats were sold) in the small music district of the Town of Town on Lax Island. This competition was for musicians aged 15-19, and consisted of the ten finalists from the entire eastern U.S. for 2017 in classical music.


**Steven Calabresi was a child prodigy in music composition. Born in 1975, at age 6, he wrote his first symphony (Op. # 16, which takes about fifteen minutes to perform). Just like many other child prodigies in music composition, he kept on writing so much music, the stress of his career caused his death in 2012 at the tender age of thirty seven. However, he had already written 82 symphonies ]he wrote his "24 Hour Symphony" (which takes pretty much 24 hours on the dot to perform in its entirety), in just thirty six hours (with his only breaks being for meals and bathroom breaks)], 49 Concertos, 4 Operas, 3 Ballets, 12 Overtures, 35 Music Scores for Movies.






Average length of different types of Compositions written by Calabresi

• Symphony:
• Concerto: 37:34
• Opera: 2:02:12
• Ballet: 1:43:29
• Overture: 8:11
• Movie Score: 2:01:01

Finalists in the Islands Music Competition 2017

1. Daisy Hanford
• Age 15
• Instrument: violin
• Piece Performed: 3rd Movement Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major (written in 1878)
• Hometown: Town, MD
• Music Teacher: John Kowalski at Town Music Palace [Kowalski works as a professor at Town Music Palace (when he is not performing anywhere in the world), 2nd best violinist in history, behind the one and only Niccolò Paganini]
2. Kevin Zhu 
• Age 16 
• Instrument: violin
• Piece Performed: Paganini Violin Concerto #4 in D minor (written in 1829)
• Hometown: Cupertino, CA
3. Daniel Hirsch
• Age 18
• Instrument: Cello
• Piece Performed: Steven Calabresi Cello Concerto #3 in C Major
• Hometown: Town, MD
• Music Teacher: Harrison Rollins at Town Music Palace
4. Ivan Zakharov
• Age 17
• Instrument: Violin
• Piece Performed: Steven Calabresi's Symphony 73 (The 24 Hour Symphony) Mvt. 17 (of 88) The Violinist (essentially a concerto written into a symphony) written in 2008
• Hometown: Town, MD
• Music Teacher: Harrison Rollins at Town Music Palace 
5. Maxim Vonorov
• Age 19
• Instrument: Double Bass
• Piece Performed: Tzigane by Maurice Ravel (written for violin) 
• Hometown: Plymouth, MI
6. Misaki Tashi (Japanese female)
• Age 19
• Instrument: Piano
• Piece Performed: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement (full orchestral version)
• Hometown: Springfield, IL
7. Dareios Moraitis (Greek male)
• Age 16
• Instrument: Organ
• Piece Performed: Handel Op. 4 #4 Organ Concerto in F Major
• Hometown: Bowling Green, KY 
8. Michelle Løkkeberg
• Age 19
• Instrument: Classical Guitar
• Piece Performed: Vivaldi's Concerto For Guitar And Strings in D Major          
• Hometown: Dedlaniteton, AL
9. Olivia Sivertsen
• Age 17
• Instrument: Viola
• Piece Performed: Viola Concerto in G major (Telemann)        
• Hometown: Miami, FL
10. d
• Age 19
• Instrument: Cello
• Piece Performed: Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor    
• Hometown: Virbank City, NM

Music played during the judges final desicion making (performed by the next few best instrumentalists)


Monti's Czardas
Saint Saens Cello Concerto
La Ronde Des Lutins

Steven Calabresi Symphony Lengths (of fastest recordings)

Steven Calabresi (May 17 1975 - July 12th 2012)

1. Op. #16 Length: 14:47 written 1981
2. 23
3. 9:16
4. 17
5. 30
6. 23
7. 34
8. 29
9. 38
10. 51
11. 24
12. 43
13. 40
14. 38
15. 33
16. 19
17. 59
18. 45
19. 53
20. 23
21. 34
22. 34
23. 42
24. 28
25. 23
26. 47
27. 32
28. 29
29. 38
30. 42
31. 44
32. 44
33. 27
34. 56
35. 48
36. 23
37. 37
38. 35
39. 31
40. 32
41. 30
42. 31
43. 39
44. 32
45. 28
46. 38
47. 46
48. 41
49. 42
50. 32
51. 49
52. 52
53. 21:17 (53 - 58 written in th span of 2.5 weeks in 2000)
54. 25:42
55. 27:13
56. 22:04
57. 21:56
58. 8:59
59. 42:14 (completed 2/3/2001)
60. 44
61. 54
62. 51
63. 48
64. 38
65. 45
66. 32
67. 36
68. 38
69. 32
70. 35
71. 50
72. Op. # 269 Length = 47:12 (written July 14 - 18 2008)
73. Op. # 272 Length =  24:00:01 (only 3 recordings of the entire symphony had ever been performed because the symphony is so long (two by the Town Symphony Orchestra, and  one by the London Symphony Orchestra) (written November 2 - 3 2008)
74. Op. # 273 Length = 1:01:13 (written January 8 - 23 2009)
75. Op. # 276 Length = 40:05 (written June 2009)
76. Op. # 277 Length = 34:56 (written July 2009)
77. Op. # 279 Length = 37:51 (written October 2009)
78. Op. # 282 Length = 44:03 (written May 2010)
79. Op. # 284 Length = 18:53 (written June 2010)
80. Op. # 287 Length = 24:34 (written December 2010)
81. Op. # 288 Length = 35:51 (written February 2011)
82. Op. # 292 Length = 31:16 (written 2 -  9 March 2012)

(Calabresi's last piece even written was his 49th Concerto (Calabresi Cello Concerto # 12 in F Minor, Op. # 293, written March 14th - June 29th 2012. This piece took much longer than expected because of the stress of his career)