Music Mysteries

With baseball season right around the corner, here’s a project I recently worked on as a writer and co-editor: Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs, an online publication from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Dazzling Debuts celebrates the unforgettable experience of a baseball player walking up to the plate and hitting a home run in his first major-league at-bat. You’ll discover player biographies, game recaps, photographs, videos, and exclusive audio interviews of players reliving their first at-bat homers.

Dazzling Debuts also highlights the global reach of baseball, and we’re honored to include players who hit first at-bat home runs in Japan, Korea, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. In addition, we explore how the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) made on-the-field innovations to encourage home-run hitting and showcase women’s athleticism during its pioneering tenure (1943-1954).

Have fun checking out Dazzling Debuts, an entertaining look at an all-time baseball classic, the first at-bat home run.

Exciting news! My two finalist contest submissions for the San Francisco Writers Conference are published in a new anthology, How We Change: 2024 San Francisco Writers Foundation Writing Contest Anthology.

My biography, Bleak but Marvelous, The Life of Tatiana Troyanos, was recognized as a finalist in the Adult Nonfiction category. Bleak but Marvelous explores the extraordinary life of a woman whose powerful voice and indomitable spirit transcended a childhood of hardship to become a star of the Metropolitan Opera.

My mystery, Spirits of the Grand Palace, earned a finalist spot in Adult Fiction. Spirits of the Grand Palace reveals the stories of a young girl fleeing village raiders in ancient times and a retired couple volunteering at a national park – and how their fates become mysteriously intertwined.

The SFWC 2024 Anthology is available on Amazon in print and on Kindle. Enjoy!

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Guillaume Apollinaire, poet extraordinaire and completely at your service.” 

Guillaume Apollinaire was one of the most influential arts figures in pre-WWI Paris. He wrote poetry in the Cubist style, and he promoted the avant-garde in his arts criticism. He also introduced his long-time friend Pablo Picasso to Georges Braque, who together invented the Cubist movement in painting.

In Finding Sylvie, Sylvie meets Apollinaire at Gertrude Stein’s salon, during an unforgettable night of art, intrigue, and seduction.

Playing in the orchestra for Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé draws violinist Sylvia Lewis deeper into a dangerous plot threatening to upend the musical circles of Paris.

Ravel’s music for the ancient Greek love story is scored for a large orchestra (with quadruple winds) and full chorus. On the Théâtre du Châtelet stage, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (featuring Vaslav Nijinsky) brings to life Mikhail Fokine’s choreography amid Léon Bakst’s dazzling sets and costumes. The assured conducting of Maestro Pierre Monteux guides the ballet’s rehearsals and premier performance.  

Sylvia is there to take part in the debut of this monumental work, and to uncover the intrigue lurking beneath Daphnis et Chloé’s alluring brilliance.

My biography of American mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos, Bleak but Marvelous, was selected as a finalist in the 2024 San Francisco Writers Conference Writing Contest. Thank you to the contest organizers and judges for this honor. I am looking forward to more people learning about Miss Troyanos’ inspiring story of survival, courage, and dedication to her art. Her talent and tireless work ethic led her to become one of the most beloved stars of the Metropolitan Opera, before illness tragically ended her life at the peak of her career.

I’m excited to let you know that my screenplay, Finding Sylvie, was selected as a finalist in the De Anza College 17th Annual Screenplay Competition. I was honored to be included in the Student Film and Video show on June 21, where the winner was announced. Congratulations to Nika Arasteh, who won for her screenplay, Paths Unbound.

This lovely painting depicts an important location in my screenplay, Finding Sylvie. 

Sylvie studies violin at the Paris Conservatory in 1912. She also plays in the Châtelet Theater orchestra for the premier of Maurice Ravel’s ballet, Daphnis et Chloé. 

Le Châtelet hosted other important premiers in pre-WWI Paris. Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune debuted here. Today, Le Châtelet is home to opera, dance, symphony, and musical theater performances. 

Stay tuned for more posts about music, Paris, and Finding Sylvie.

In Finding Sylvie, the author Gertrude Stein is Sylvie Lewis’ neighbor in Paris. Gertrude’s salon on rue de Fleurus is filled with masterworks like Matisse’s Woman with a Hat (Femme au chapeau) (1905), Cézanne’s The Large Bathers (1900–1906), and Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905-06).  

Gertrude immortalizes these artists in her writings: in her poem, “Cézanne,” her short story, “Matisse,” and her book, Picasso. The artists also make appearances in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. In The Autobiography, Gertrude writes of her deep friendship with Picasso. 

“I wish I could convey something of the simple affection and confidence with which he always pronounced her name and with which she always said, Pablo. In all their long friendship with all its sometimes troubled moments and its complications this has never changed.” 

Finding Sylvie transports you back to Paris in 1912. While doing research for the screenplay, I discovered these great podcasts for musical information and inspiration. I’ve shared a few with you here and hope you enjoy them, too.

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Sticky Notes: The Classical Notes Podcast

Conductor Joshua Wellerstein provides thoughtful analysis of orchestral works and the composers who created them, in a conversational style that is engaging to new and long-time classical music fans. The discussion about Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is particularly relevant to Finding Sylvie, as the ballet version of the piece premiered in 1912 in the Châtelet Theater. I look forward to every new podcast episode.

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Classical Nerd: Great Composers 

This YouTube channel features short, entertaining videos on music composition and music history. The talks on Ravel, Debussy, and Lili and Nadia Boulanger helped me to better understand these important musical figures who play leading roles in Finding Sylvie. Check out the playlists for Great Composers and Great Performers for more biographies. Kudos to channel creator, composer and music educator Thomas Little.

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Classical Breakdown

I found this podcast through an episode on Ravel’s “Bolero” with guest Joshua Wellerstein of Sticky Notes fame. John Banther, tubist and host of “Classical Breakdown,” discusses classical music in a fun and accessible way. He also interviews musicians for insights into playing their instruments, like in the episode, “Under Pressure: What is an Oboe with Nick Stovall.” I’m enjoying exploring this podcast.

I could spend hours listening to these podcasts, but I need to get back to writing.

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The premiere of Maurice Ravel’s ballet, Daphnis et Chloe, takes place in Finding Sylvie. But this blog isn’t about Ravel’s sweeping masterpiece. Instead, this post is about Maurice Ravel’s fascination with cats. A family of Siamese cats shared his home outside of Paris. He also gave shelter to street cats who needed a warm place to stay.

The cats roamed freely around the house, even over the composer’s piano and worktable. A friend once said that Ravel “not only understood cats — he could speak their language.”

Ravel wrote about his cats in his letters to friends, and he took inspiration from them for his music. Take a listen to the meow duet, “Duo miaulé”, from Ravel’s opera, L’Enfant et les sortilège (The Child and the Spells). Sounds like he knew his cats.

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Ravel isn’t the only cat aficionado in Finding Sylvie. The painters Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse also appreciated their felines friends. In Finding Sylvie, violinist and detective Sylvie Lewis meets both artists at the home of their mutual friend, Gertrude Stein.

Picasso was often photographed with his cats, and he included them in his drawings and paintings, from early works in the 1900s to his late paintings in the 1960s.

“I want to create a cat like the real cats I see crossing the streets, not like those you see in houses. They have nothing in common. The cat of the streets has bristling fur. It runs like a fiend, and if it looks at you, you think it is going to jump in your face.” – Pablo Picasso

Henri Matisse, Picasso’s long-time friend and artistic rival, had three cats, who were his constant companions when his health began to fail later in life: Minouche (“Wink”), Coussi (“Cushion”), and La Puce (“Half-pint.”) Matisse created the paper cut-out “Le Chat Bleu” (“The Blue Cat”) when he was no longer able to paint.

There’s another cat lover in Finding Sylvie, although we don’t meet him in person. The composer Claude Debussy was known to prefer cats to people, and his “cats were always grey Angora and always were called the same name, which they inherited from each other.”

For dog fans, stay tuned. Finding Sylvie also has famous dogs and dog owners (hint: “Basket.”)