A warm hello to everyone who signed up for this newsletter in the past week! I’m happy to have you here, no matter what Twitter’s fate may be.
Super quick explainer for new friends (skip ahead if you don’t need this)
To head off any confusion about how the free/paid posting thing works here: every week I write one of these little posts and they go out to paid subscribers. At the end of each month all free subscribers get a newsletter that features a summary of updates and little morsels from the weekly posts.
Paid subscribers also get access to semi-weekly practice videos that I post, and those who subscribe at $20/month or higher also get handwritten mail that I send to your actual physical mailbox.
I’m happy to comp subscriptions for music students or musicians on a budget; you can email me at substack [at] sharonsu [dot] com to arrange this.
More info on how everything works can be found here.
Today’s post is a paid one, so free subscribers will see a paywall cut-off below; I’m planning to have the free monthly post go out next week.
I haven’t left Twitter and plan on sticking around as long as the platform is 1) still up and 2) relatively tolerable for me to be on, but I have set up camp on Mastodon just in case. If you’re interested in following me there, my handle is @doodlyroses@space-pirates.org.
In other news, I saw Tár last weekend, and may be low-key obsessed. I’ve spent the week debriefing and analyzing it with the friend I saw it with (also a conservatory alum; we were cracking up and gasping in the theater) and when another friend asked me for my thoughts on the ending, I may have sent them 10+ minutes of my rapid-fire thoughts over multiple voice memos.
Some non-spoilery thoughts about Tár
My immediate reaction to any movie/TV show about classical music is deep, deep mistrust, because Hollywood almost always gets it way wrong.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to At the Other Keyboard HAS MOVED to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.