As the saying goes, "the promised land's in a Londoner's hand." Here in London, ON, music is in the air and things are off to a ‘brilliant' start. My first impressions are definitely not subtle. To put it one way, it's like being in musical Never-Never land for 6 weeks. It's joyful, exuberant, passionate, and intense. It's luvvly-jubbly. It's the National Youth Orchestra, what!

I've decided to kick off my first-ever blog with a list of reasons I have the best job in the orchestra and why every pianist needs to do exactly this. Yeah, I said it. Orchestral keyboards, NYO style.

All solos, all the time. This is better than being the concertmaster!

All the lessons you can handle. They don't even do that at Banff! If you're lucky, your coach here will even teach you some "rock" harpsichord.

Play nice with others/Escape your stereotype. Like an alternate universe, your own practice time here becomes the stunningly less important in relation to your sectionals and full rehearsals. (Although there's still plenty of time to practice.) You'll have to fit into a score bigger than you, make eye contact with others, and groove in a way that traditional piano upbringings can't touch.

Play anything. Read the entire solo viola accompaniments in 1 day and then dig deep into rep with a cohort of winds that like to toss off the Rite of Spring in their rooms before breakfast.

A conductor? Oh man. To put it one way, you want to make sure your first concerto appearance is smooth-sailing, so why not get some experience following a moving baton, not to mention doing some extreme counting.

Play some immaculately conceived instruments. When was the last time someone handed you the reins to the piano at the National Arts Centre or Roy Thomson Hall?

Did I mention this is free?

The power of music. I like to think that there are too many great pianists in the world but not enough great musicians. Surprising as it may sound, we pianists have a lot to learn from other players that hit, bow, and blow to speak our universal language. At the risk of seriously expanding your horizons, you may realize that symphonies are just big piano sonatas, and that alone can change the way you think about music. Have you ever sat in on a string quartet coaching or a brass sectional? You will be utterly amazed at what "other" musicians are doing, and I hope that you'll get a chance to live it here one day.

Cheers mates!