You’d be crazy to retire and NOT move to Florida.

After the Christmas tour in Denmark, we all returned home from Dec. 22 – 29. Those 7 days, though packed with family, friends, and great amounts of fun, seemed to fly by. That short break was probably the closest I’ve ever felt to “visiting home,” but I guess when you travel 40 weeks a year, going home truly becomes “visiting,” because as soon as you’re unpacking your bags, you just have to pack them up again.

Since the family was together, I decided to start a Christmas tradition I discovered while just in Denmark: rice pudding, or as the Danes call it, ris ala mande (“rice with almonds”). I had never experienced rice pudding before, and I don’t know if you have or not, but it’s basically incredibly delicious. So, Jorn, the tenor in Stig’s choir, passed on a recipe that my mom and I made on Christmas Eve. (Thanks Jorn!)

Rice pudding is delicious!

On Dec. 29th, I left the mild winter of Arizona to experience the even milder winter of sunny Florida. Over the two weeks in Florida, I think we only had about 7 concerts, many of which were at sprawling retirement centers. Performing for an older audience is not something I’m used to in Barrage, but it certainly contrasts with the high school age crowd frequently in attendance. And on that note, hearing older people say that Barrage was the best performance/concert they have seen in their entire lives is incredibly satisfying.

While many friends lamented the freezing winter weather in their facebook statuses, I had the lucky pleasure of soaking up some tropical sun on the beaches (it was my first time touching the Gulf of Mexico!), boating through the Everglades, wearing shorts and seeing movies (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Benjamin Button,” and yes, I was even dragged to “Bride Wars” by Sarah). While we were in Florida, I also got to meet Jason’s mom/stepdad and Kristina’s parents, the latter of whom flew to Florida to join us on the road for our time there!

Sarah's a little bit frightened of the alligator skull prior to the Everglades tour.

On the Everglades tour, clockwise from top: Jason, me, Annette, Sarah, and Charlie

One of my favorite parts of our time in Florida was when Hidayat, Annette, Jason and I went to go see a performance of the Naples Philharmonic. The night prior, the four of us attended a get-together at Glenn Basham’s house—Glenn is the concertmaster of the Naples Phil, and was also Jason’s violin teacher at the University of Miami. The best part? The party doubled as a jazz/classical jam session in his living room. So after roasting a hot dog in his backyard and getting to meet members of Glenn’s family and the Phil, we all crowded into the living room to make music. Glenn, who is an incredibly accomplished classical musician and an extremely adept jazz violinist, jammed out to some jazz tunes with a little combo consisting of a pianist, a killer sax player, and Hidayat on guitar. Since Hidayat’s specialty is jazz, it was neat getting to see and hear him in his element. But soon after that, the classical musicians busted out their instruments and music stands and took over the space. The funny thing was that we had a really odd collection of instruments—5 violins, Jason’s octave violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, and 1 trombone…but we weren’t about to let that get in our way. So, we pulled out the Mendelssohn Octet (which is scored for 4 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos), rotated violinists through the various violin parts, put Jason and his octave violin on the second viola part, and stuck the trombone player on the second cello part. Having a trombone player play runs written to fit a cello is absolutely hilarious, especially because the trombonist was so great that the part actually sounded good amidst our whining strings!

For me, this opportunity to sight read classical was both intellectually stimulating and musically rewarding. Why?, you ask. Let me digress!

As a violinist, I’ve always felt this weird pull between classical music and alternative styles. Having formally studied both classical and fiddling (I took private fiddling lessons for quite a few years during junior high and early high school), it’s in my nature to need to play both styles. When I was at ASU studying classical, I would crave fiddling; I would obsessively listen to Mark O’Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Jeremy Kittel, Nickel Creek, Barrage (haha!), Leahy and anything alternative; I would frequently put off practicing scales, excerpts, and concertos to have fun with fiddling. Now that I’m performing basically every style except classical with Barrage, I find myself craving classical; when I have my iPod, nothing can quite satiate my musical hunger better than Janine Jansen, Gil Shaham, Hilary Hahn, chamber music or downright virtuosic displays of technique and musicality; when I get the time to practice (which is rare), I find myself needing to practice scales, technique, concertos, and especially solo Bach (for all the non-musicians out there, having a desire to practice solo Bach would probably be described as sadistic by many of my classical friends…essentially the cornerstone of modern violin repertoire, it’s kind of similar to broccoli or spinach: everyone knows it’s really good for you but nobody really wants to digest it).

I guess we always want what we don’t have, right?

And I guess that’s why people who have lived in the Northeast for years move to Florida for retirement.