Besides the first month or so, this has been one of my laziest summers, ever.
The last time I didn’t spend the summer practicing my butt off at an orchestra festival was in 2008. I am relishing the amount of time I have had to:
Laze around at the pool. 
Bake scrumptious things.
Fifth House Ensemble came to give a workshop. At this point I was realizing that I didn’t want to be an orchestral musician, and I was trying to figure out what I did want to do. Along came this group that I had never heard of before, and as they described what it is they do, something clicked. This group did everything that I was interested in - they gave all kinds of creative performances, they were active in community outreach, and they taught kids about music. After the workshop I read up about them on their website and began following them via their blog and just about every social media outlet I could find them on.
I’m a little creepy, I know.
So fast forward about a year and a half, and I was researching music festivals that I could apply to for my harp duo, Lilac 94, and I wasn’t having any luck. Most of the festivals that preformed groups can apply to are really only looking for string quartets. Then I realized - Fifth House has a chamber music festival! We sent in an application to the Fresh Inc Festival, and to my (almost complete) surprise, we were accepted.
So in June, Christina and I packed up our cars and headed off to Kenosha, Wisconsin for what was probably one of the busiest and most inspiring two weeks of my life. While at Fresh Inc, we:
Met lots of cool people,
(photo courtesy of SnoStudios Photography)
And played in some really awesome venues.
(SnoStudios)
Me and Christina with our fabulous flutist Melissa Snoza and composer Wei Dai
“Alchemy” for two harps and flute, by Wei Dai
and
“The Juniper Tree” for two harps, by Rebecca Larkin
We - Christina and I - are working with three cool people from Fresh Inc on a new project. I will post more about it when it becomes official, but I will say this: Awesome things will be happening, and it is all because of Fresh Inc.
Special thanks to the Fifth House Ensemble, we had such a great time!!
(Yes, you guessed it - SnoStudios Photography. Thanks, Eric!)