Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

I’m currently killing time in a Burbank coffee shop before I head back to the airport – an airport I left just a few hours ago. I’ve had quite a few days like this in the last month or so, any guess as to where my meeting was this afternoon?

Between the recording last month for “Little Mermaid Live” and upcoming performances of “Coco Live in Concert” at the Hollywood Bowl I’ve been spending quite a bit of time doing work that seems far away from my classical roots. Hollywood is a very, very different world, with different expectations, different attitudes, different modes of operation.

I’ve always been a big fan of following a path to see where it ends. My husband will tell you that I can be a pain in the ass on hikes because I want to explore every trail to its terminus, or at least to the point it connects with something else. I think it has to do with an endless curiosity – what if I went this way, how will this work, where does this go?

So far, following this particular career path has led to a reputation as an expert in the live to film medium (where a film is projected with the soundtrack played live by an orchestra). It’s an interesting challenge to align live musicians to an immutable (and often unforgiving) source – the movie itself. There is a highly technical element, certainly, but I’ve found there’s an art to finding ways to create music within these constraints – it’s the kind of challenge that delights my brain.

There was no way for me to know that mastering that particular skill would lead to my involvement in a massive production involving 30-foot puppets, Live Nation, multiple camera crews and Benjamin Bratt, but here I am. And the “Little Mermaid” project was an even larger departure for me, recording on a soundstage for a TV broadcast, with an army of producers in the booth calling out rapid-fire feedback after every take.

I’m not sure where this current trajectory will lead me, or indeed if it will lead me any further than I’ve already gone – uncertainty is a given when you start down an unknown path. But for the moment I’m willing to stay this course to see what else might emerge, to keep at it. It’s off to work I go!