And the livin' is easy . . .

Dateline: June 26, 2008, Boston Massachusetts, The Athens of America

Summer is here (more or less). The long days . . . the warm nights . . . the blast of hot air entering the subway (or, if you prefer, the blast of cold air from your air conditioner as you idle in Cape traffic). Our many venues are empty and now that we aren't (for the moment) careening from one brilliant concert presentation to the next, things are theoretically moving a little slower here at Celebrity Series Towers. The list of possibilities as to how to spend all this idle time is seemingly endless . . .

One might meditate on the past season of memories and championships: Kiri Te Kanawa's Boston Farewell performance in October, Ben Heppner and Thomas Quasthoff's "Das Lied" Best-of-Six series with the Berlin Philharmonic, Sarah Vowell and David Rackoff's National Spoken Word finals triumph, Sir Neville Marriner's gutsy contributions off the bench for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, or Mark Morris' (Boston) conducting debut less than month ago . . .of course, some of us have been meditating all along.

In any case it's time to clean up our rooms, have a nice glass of lemonade in a lawn chair on the roof, have a nice glass of iced tea in a lawn chair on the roof, start that office whiffle ball tournament, spin straw into gold, take a little vacation time while we still can. I know you're wondering what you will do while I'm away,, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten you. Here are a few video appetizers in advance of our 2008-2009 season (Leon Fleisher Celebrates his 80th birthday with us in just 99 days!). Each link is followed by the artist's Celebrity Series performance date:

David Sedaris on Letterman (October 12, 2008, Symphony Hall)

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian in Armenia (October 19, 2008, NEC's Jordan Hall)

Violinist Chee Yun plays Scherzo from Fritz Kreisler's Recitativo and Scherzo (Rob Kapilow's What Makes It Great? November 15, 2008, NEC's Jordan Hall)

Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder at the Festiwal Ludwiga van Beethovena in Warsaw (Dresden Staatskapelle, November 19, 2008, Symphony Hall)

Soweto Gospel Choir (November 30, 2008, Symphony Hall)

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company (December 12 & 13, 2008, Tsai Performance Center)

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (February 6-8, 2009, Cutler Majestic Theatre)

Golden Dragon Acrobats (February 8, 2009, Symphony Hall)

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau plays "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (with Anne Sofie von Otter, February 13, 2009, Sanders Theatre)

The Chieftains (March 13, 2009, Symphony Hall)

Blind Boys of Alabama (with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, March 27, 2009, Symphony Hall)

Tenor Ian Bostridge sings Schubert (April 3, 2009, NEC's Jordan Hall)

Bernadette Peters sings "Not a Day Goes By" (April 4, 2009, Symphony Hall)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, excerpt from "Blues Suite" (April 28-May 3, 2009, Opera House)

There are many more performers appearing in 2008-2009, you can read about all of them (and lots of other swell stuff) here:

http://www.celebrityseries.org

Bye for now . . .