Despite still feeling sick as a dog, this afternoon I donned my tux and headed off to Merkin Hall to play a benefit concert with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. While I was tempted to beg out, the cause was too good (the concert raised more than $20,000 for music scholarships at the Lucy Moses School), and, in the end, I was glad I had slogged through, as it gave me my first chance to play Merkin, a venue famous as having some of the best acoustics in New York (though perhaps having the worst name).

A few other upsides to attending:

– The conductor, David Bernard, who is now one of my favorites in New York. Not only does he have a clearly articulated (and unique) sense of what he’s looking for musically, he seems to be having much more fun while conducting than nearly anyone I else I play for. He conducted the entire concert from memory (i.e. without using a score), looking thoroughly enrapt the entire time.

– The soloist, an exceedingly talented violinist. Not only did she nail the Mozart Concerto in A, but at the reception following the concert (still begowned in full Cinderella-style regalia), she was absolutely putting the moves on me. And she was cute. Sadly, cute in a high school senior, Lolita-esque, “fifteen will get you twenty” sort of way. But cute none the less. (And, no, I didn’t get her phone number. Come on, people, I have some scruples.)