Here's the first picture from Cleveland.

There will be many more, which readers can view at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/seminar/index.html eventually. At the moment, they're not up yet, but you can see pictures of us at Vancouver last year.

I won't attempt to describe my week in Cleveland in any detail. It would take hours.

Suffice to say it was one of the busiest, most tiring, but also most interesting and stimulating weeks I've ever spent. I'm still on a bit of a high from it, despite having slept very little while I was there, and despite the jetlag on top. It's great when something is energizing, rather than draining!

There are various elements that come together at these lute seminars. You have students (mostly amateur, but some serious student lutenists). In this case there were about 100! You have teachers/performers � some of the leading lute players in the world come together to give concerts and teach the students. You also have other elements: in this case, there was a wonderful singer, Ellen Hargis, with whom I've worked many times, and there were a pair of dancers doing renaissance dance.

The format is:

0700 breakfast (after waking at 0600 each morning because there was a huge construction site right outside my dorm room window)

0815-1130 teaching � in my case, I taught three private half-hour lute lessons (or, in one or two cases, Alexander Technique lessons) followed by a 75-minute class called �Playing with Poise�, in which I had the opportunity to work with students on how to play the lute with greater ease and efficiency and poise, and with fewer physical aches, pains and twinges. In short, I had the wonderful opportunity to try out Alexander ideas in instrumental teaching. But, because the Alexander Technique treats the psychophysical whole person, and not just the subject of mechanical efficiency, we quickly found ourselves having long and fruitful discussions about issues such as performance anxiety (what used to be called stage fright), ends and means (and being in the moment), and other subtle aspects of performance. I'm immensely grateful to that receptive, open, and tolerant group of students in Cleveland.

1130 midday break � except that half the time these breaks were used for rehearsals and things. I found it essential to lie down for a few minutes during this time, because all the rest of the time it was full-on interaction with people, and I found it necessary for my sanity to get away to my room sometimes.

1315-1430 special lecture every day, many of them on very interesting subjects. I missed them all! because I was usually rehearsing for the concerts or practising on my own.

1500-1615 teaching � in my case, the lute song class co-taught with Ellen. (By the way, during all of these teaching slots there were at least four or five classes to choose from, running concurrently.)

1630-1730 Special Presentations � sometimes a lecture, sometimes a mini-concert. Again, I missed most of these because of performance commitments.

1730-1900 break, then an evening concert. There was one every single night I was there, from Saturday to Friday, and most of them were solo recitals by the world's leading lute players. It was interesting, and inspiring, to hear them all in succession like that. Because there were so many top lute players, most of the concerts were shared between two � one would do the first half, and another would do the second. They were usually quite long halves, so we were really swimming in lute music. I rarely listen to lute CDs at home, so to see and hear all of this live was fascinating. There are as many different approaches as there are players. On the Wednesday night, there was a big gala concert involving almost everybody in short slots, and a very entertaining set for big band of lutes, playing arrangements by Pat O'Brien. My concert was on the Thursday. In the first half, Ronn and I (seen in the photo above rehearsing in the middle of the night) played lute duets from Jane Pickeringe's lute book. That was a triumph. Fantastic reception. In the second half, Ellen and I did a short and extremely intense programme of melancholy songs and lute solos by Dowland, which people were very moved by (including ourselves!). I sold a lot of CDs, I'm pleased to say.

After the evening concerts, at about 2230, Ronn and I would rehearse duets, getting to bed around 1230. So the days were very long, but full of wonderful things. There were certainly moments when I felt seriously overworked and wondered how I'd make it through the week, but, as I said earlier, the overall effect is that I was greatly uplifted by the whole thing.

It's great to be back at home, though Zan and I only overlapped by two days. She's now in York doing concerts in the York Early Music Festival. I have one too on Saturday at lunchtime: it's the wonderful Airs de Cour programme. This is fantastic music. On Saturday night, Zan and Binky and I will travel back home on the train.

Then I commence my final week as an Alexander Technique trainee!!! Graduation is on Saturday the 16th, followed by a trip on the 19th to the Alicante Guitar Festival, on the 22nd to Cirencester with the Rose Consort, and on the 25th to Dartington, again with the Roses, where Zan and I will stay for a week. Zan will be teaching and performing, but, following my concert there on the 25th, I'll basically be on vacation for a few days. Noah (my brother, who is over for a while) will join us there.