One of my greatest joys in music is the ability to sight-read. I don't consider myself a boastful person, but I am an excellent sight-reader at the piano. I can almost read at the level that I can play. This ability opens up for me, among other things, the wonderful world of chamber music reading.

On Wednesday morning, I had Odin Rathnam (concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra) and Daniel Gaisford (world-class solo cellist) over for an ad hoc chamber music party. We read for about two and a half hours, and covered some spectacular repertoire - we played through the Brahms B Major Trio, the Dvorak "Dumky" Trio, and the two Mendelssohn Trios. Whew! It was quite a work-out.

It brought to mind a few observations.

First, playing chamber music is unbelievably rewarding. This tidbit of knowledge is self-evident to musicians, and hard to explain to non-musicians. The repertoire is so rich, but the experience of creating a performance with colleagues makes it all the more rich. It is so important to me to have these experiences, if for no other reason than to remind me of the feeling of interdependency and mutual respect. It guides my approach to conducting as well. I find that the more I foster respect and interdependency in the orchestra the better the musical result. Ideally, orchestral playing is no more than an expanded version of chamber music with a guide.

Second, I am so fortunate to have colleagues like Odin and Daniel. These are musicians of the highest caliber, who not only play fantastically well, but also are a load of fun to be around. They listen and react in their playing (the most important attributes in chamber music), they have boundless energy (I think we could have easily gone another several hours, were it not for other responsibilities), and they revel in the spirit of collegiality. There was never judgement attached to what we did, just fun and love for music.

Third, and I know I say this all the time, I am unbelievably blessed to routinely have experiences like this. I say this not from a place of arrogance, but of gratitude. Playing great music with great musicians who are also great people, whether it's in my living room or at a concert hall, is an extraordinary adventure, and something very few people get to do. I am one lucky son of a gun to get to do it all the time.