37. Full Circle

So back we went to the beautiful coast of Maine where although winter is no picnic, we could afford to rent a nice place not too far from the Atlantic Ocean. It took a few weeks for everything to arrive and for us to settle down, but once it did I needed to find something to do with my time while I looked for a paying job.

My solution, as it frequently is, was to write something new. Fortunately I had recently come across an idea which started my creative juices flowing. I had learned that the location of Cleopatra's tomb was unknown. This excited me because I felt it was extremely mysterious and intriguing that the tomb of one of the most famous women in history was lying out there somewhere undiscovered. And as intriguing to me, was the idea of what would happen if it were discovered today. So I did some research, created a premise and outline and went to work on the script, music and lyrics which took about a year to write and record. More details about Cleopatra's Tomb are available on the Plays page of this website.

After my six years in California followed by six months back in Maine, I was rehired by the Portland Conservatory of Music and once again began the task of building up a teaching practice. At the end of my first semester of teaching, I took advantage of an opportunity to play some movements from my latest piano piece, A Distant Shore at the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival. This was my third performance at the festival, with the first two occurring before I had gone to California. I had traveled from one distant shore to the other and back again. I had truly come full circle.