My student John brought this very interesting Wall Street Journal article to my attention: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303425504577353743803849150.html?mod=hp_opinion

Our need to journey through this broken world in order to emerge into the light of God is something I tried to portray in this photograph of mine, which is currently on display and for sale at JPs in downtown Holland through the end of this month:

If you are looking for something to do this Sunday, you are certainly invited to come to my all-Ravel concert at Hope.  It will be a short recital (short as far as typical recitals go, but I'm a big fan of shorter, sans-intermission concerts -- I think it encourages more people to go, especially people who are wary of recitals or of classical concerts in general) consisting of Pavane pour une infante défunte, La Valse, and the Piano Trio (with special guests, violinist Jennifer Walvoord [my wife!] and cellist Alicia Eppinga [principal cello, the Grand Rapids Symphony]).  I've been obsessively working on La Valse over the last month, trying to figure out how to include all the "extra notes" that the preface in my edition (Dover) recommends leaving out due to "impracticality and unplayability."  Ha!  How fun.  With all the notes that the Trio has me playing, this concert will be quite a workout.  For more information about this free concert, please click on this link: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/feature/x1783277092/Fab-Five?img=5 (we're about halfway down the page).