Apologies if any of you were stuck sitting in a cubicle somewhere hoping for a few seconds of escapism courtesy of Classic Ross Amico. Unfortunately, I was up to my eyeballs trying to figure out how to synthesize all the abundant material for a newspaper article about two mega-events coming up in Princeton, beginning this weekend: the Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival, and the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, a workshop for young composers, with JoAnn Falletta and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

The reminders from my editors that they were expecting an article from me began to arrive around 4:00, four hours past deadline. I uploaded the last of the photos around 6. All in a day’s work.

Speaking of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, belated congratulations to Gemma New, associate conductor of the NJSO, who has been named music director of Ontario’s Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. New, 28, is also founder/director of the Baltimore-based new music collective, the LUNAR ensemble.

Apparently, the announcement was made back in May, but you know how it is when you’re working. You’ll find the press release here:

http://hpo.org/gemma-new-music-director/

At least this article was published by the CBC only three days ago:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/gemma-new-of-hamilton-philharmonic-is-1-of-continent-s-few-female-conductors-1.3137925