Why don't they invent a 'breader' where you can put toast in it and it would pop up as bread?

"Heat" and stuff

a special night

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened at my benefit concert for The Missouri Chapter of the Lupus Foundation last night. Whatever it was, it was pretty special.

Thanks to all of you who made it out to St. Francis Xavier Church last night. I had a wonderful time and I hope you did as well.

If you didn't or couldn't make it, fret not! I think you'll enjoy reading about it!

Here's a rundown:

For starters, I was up very late finishing the program and I got an hour of sleep at the most in the morning. Not good.

My good friend, Todd Schaefer, drove me around the whole day, simply b/c that's the kind of guy he is. I performed in the Thursday Afternoon Recital at Webster U. first, and that went well. Then, we went to Xavier so that I could take as much time as possible to become acclimated to both the piano and the setting. We ended up spending a long time in the church that afternoon with me at the piano.

The most difficult part of any concert for me is the period of time in which you wait for things to start happening, like "When is the audience coming? When is so-and-so going to get here with such and such?" This started to happen at around 6:15.

At around that time, I turn around, and standing there, from Nebraska, without telling anyone they were coming, were my cousin, Jane, and my uncle, Rick!!!

There couldn't have been a better thing to have happen at that moment. Thanks again, you two.

I performed at Xavier last year and it was quite an evening as well. However, there were times before the show when I'd be standing around by myself, and I found that to be quite uncomfortable. This time, I had Todd helping me out, Chelsea, a student from Webster, and her friend, Asher, making, by all accounts, a GREAT sound recording, Allison, from the Foundation, my dad...just a lot more support, and I really value and appreciate it.

Showtime was 7:40. Things went very well for the opening, even though I noticed that I was, apparently, bleeding! SOMEhow, I grazed part of my cuticle on my right hand ring finger, and tiny spots of blood were getting on the keys!

I felt really good for the entire performance, in spite of having not slept. However, towards the end, reality started to catch up with me...

You see, I saved my craziest, most vigorous piece for the very end. As I got about halfway through it, I noticed that my left arm was becoming unresponsive.

That's never happened before.

No one seemed to notice, but after a couple of particularly fast and difficult passages, my left arm had sort of locked up and was not really moving out of a locked position.

However, as I moved it around a little bit with my RIGHT hand, it came back to normal. If memory serves me correctly, it happened once more. Somehow, I didn't allow it to disrupt my performance, though.

While this did scare me, I believe it to be the result of simple exhaustion. Fortunately, this is the first time since April 15th of last year that I put myself through that vigorous of a piano performance over that length of time. This time, I'd had virtually no sleep, and I was not backing down at all in terms of what I was demanding out of myself.

However, this does prompt me to consider a very focused weight regimen for my arms, maybe specialized for the kind of playing I do.

Anyway, to my suprise, the audience virtually lept to their feet at the end of the concert. I thanked a lot of people, and I was so happy for every single person who came to see the show. I would've thanked them all personally. I had a lot of pictures taken, and even signed quite a few programs.

It was such a priviledge to have the opportunity to serve The Missouri Chapter of the Lupus Foundation. So much so, I can't exactly explain the experience I had last night.

Guess you had to be there! Thanks for reading!

You can read the Missouri Chapter's account by scrolling down a little at: http://www.lupusmo.org.

-KENNY-

update?

I didn't think it would take this long. A lot has happened, too.

Last Thursday, for example, was quite nearly insane.

I had an interview with the Suburban Journal [the article, which is about me, the Lupus Foundation, and the concert, comes out in the South County journal today] on Thursday morning. I woke up at around 7:30am, after I'd slept fitfully for about 4 hours, after I'd been up for 30!

The interview was at 10am at the paper's offices, so I left early, but was still a little late b/c the place is so hard to get to. It was pretty crazy. I didn't want to be late, of course, for these busy. busy press people.

It was fine, though. I showed her a short video of me performing, and she seemed to really respond to it positively. I figured she'd ask me a few questions and then send me on my merry way. I assumed as much, and actually counted on it b/c I was due at Webster by 11:30 or so to perform in the recital at noon.

Well, she interviewed me for over an hour. We covered almost everything that's ever happened to me in my entire life. OK, I'm kidding. But we covered a lot, which is great, but I just kept getting more and more nervous as time went on b/c I was due back at Webster.

So, at 11:30 we were finished. I figured I was fine in terms of time b/c it wasn't far from campus and I had good directions. Then I hit a detour.

This detour took me through New Orleans before I finally got back on the right track. I really was on streets I'd NEVER been on before. At this point, I really was thinking I was going to miss the performance.

But I got back on the right track, and figured I'd be late but that I'd still get to play, probably. Then I couldn't find a parking spot. Anywhere. I drove all over most of the campus, and I finally found one. It was after 12, and I was running to the music building with my dress clothes in my arms. I got in the building and a lot of people were looking for me. I told them where I was and I got dressed. Fast. Then, I went to the recital hall, and it turns out I was actually on time anyway because I was at the end of the program.

So, I got to stand around for a good 45 seconds, think about what I was going to play for about 4 of those seconds, and then go out in front of the audience, who, much to my suprise, were pretty enthusiastic when I came out.

I performed "The Mystique Factor", at times feeling very close to crashing and burning b/c of the exhaustion, the craziness of the day so far, and an emotionally stressful week just in general. But, I pulled it together, and the audience was actually so responsive to it that it really suprised me. So much so that I don't think I did a very good job with my bows and my curtain call. I'll have to fix that for next time.

That was just Thursday.