linguitar.com Blog

I haven’t been practing as much as I would like recently but I’m finding that my attention to detail when I am practicing has improved remarkably. Perhaps it’s related tothe perfectionist-nerd inside me when I’m scrutinizing single pixels as I design and lay out publicity materials for Boston GuitarFest 2007. Perhaps it’s the way my ears are changing. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been hearing so much great music-making at New England Conservatory. Or perhaps it’s simply an unwillingness to settle for less in the things I care about.

October 25 is the day. Vince Go of VGo Recordings will be coming out to Boston and I’ll be doing my second CD, featuring some beautiful works of Barrios and Lauro. As it turns out, there are many reasons why I’m recording a repertoire that has already been done many times.

First, Formosa Wonder World, an amusement park in Taipei, Taiwan (my home in many ways) asked me to record a CD with a kick and an upbeat for broadcast (I guess they got tired of Taiwanese pop, which isn’t very good music anyways.) Second, I’ve always loved this repertoire and I’ve been listening to a lot of South American and Latin-inspired music recently (Piazzolla, Raphael Rabello, Marco Pereira, Boris Gaquere & Renato Martins, etc.) Third, and incidentally, Boston GuitarFest 2007 will be about Latin America. Fourth, Allegro Music School, where I teach, will be doing a themed faculty concert this year, based on–you guessed it! And I’m sure there are many other reasons that I haven’t thought of yet.

In 2004 I went for my second time to Italy to study with the great Oscar Ghiglia at L’Accademia Chigiana in Siena. I flew into Milan and went to visit my good friend and fantastic flautist Enrico Sartori who I met at Yale. I would stay with his family for a short while.

The home cooking I had there was beyond words. From the most simply tossed pasta al pomodoro to the carefully prepared stuffed turkey breasts, everything was unforgettable.

One day I was practicing in Enrico’s room when I heard, “pronto!” As I stepped into the kitchen I sensed something was different–it was, after all, Sunday. Enrico and I were seated, bantering about the silly women on RAI when the most beautiful lasagna came out of the oven.

“Questo si chiama lasagna,” Mrs. Sartori said. I nodded and replied, “La lasagna e’ la mia pasta preferita!”

The bechamel sauce was out of this world. As were the layers of tomato sauce, pasta, meat. As I savoured my second serving my mind kept notes.

Since then I have thought about making lasagna many times. I could always visualize building the tomato and bechamel sauces, assembling the various strips, grating the cheese, layering each element carefully. It’s been over two years but tonight I finally made my first lasagna. That Sunday in Torino will always be the best lasagna in my life, but even considering that, mine actually turned out quite well!