Journey of 100

In May 2012, at Lincoln Center in NYC,  I set out on a journey to share myself as an equal partner with listeners in experiencing the Chaconne: a profound work of solo violin music that is the culminating movement of the Partita in D Minor byJ. S. Bach. Player, Listener and Music coming together as a Trinity.

100 performances provide a long-term focus to refine my capacity to connect all the parts of this Trinity, and develop a violin technique that creates clear musical independence of the three and sometimes four voices that Bach uses in his works for solo violin.

I write today having recently passed the half-way mark of the Journey of 100. I am more certain than ever that this entire Partita is one of his rare, personal expressions, the five movements forming a continuous story of his personal experience of the Soul’s journey and his questions of Life and the Beyond.

Croton-on-Hudson, NY January 18, 2026

Upcoming Journeys

Chaconne #30 – Bennington College August 11, 2016 – 10pm

By Shem | August 11, 2016

From my perspective, this performance touched into something that is hard to put into words…certainly a sense of me being able to “step back” in part, from “doing” (a state familiar to many musicians and others who perform on a regular basis), the music being organized in a new way…it left me feeling a new sort of freedom within a rhythmic structure, one larger than the measures of the harmonic phrase. I finally achieved a balance for the Bass voice that I like – one that envelops, or surrounds the listening space and allows me to place the Soprano and…

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Chaconne #29 – Bennington College August 4, 2016 – 10pm

By Shem | August 4, 2016

  Well this performance was one of the best yet overall. The right attitude and expression in the opening movement (Allemande), unity of flow through the entire work, and assimilation of the fingerings I use to clarify the various voices in fast technical passages (Corrente and Gigue), so that they “disappear” (meaning you can’t hear them you only hear the music) – all these were just “there”. Still some internal confusion in musical organization of the 2nd part of the Gigue, that led to small errors, some three-voice measures in the Chaconne that were screwed up. I can tackle those…

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Chaconne #tba – The Explorers Club 2/13/2017

By Shem | March 1, 2016

Presented jointly with Dr. Dorit Donoviel, Deputy Chief Scientist, National Biomedical Research Lab. 6pm Drinks, 7 pm Presentation/performance at The Explorers Club 46 East 70th Street NY, NY 10021    

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July 29 – August 14, 2016 Bennington Vt

By Shem | February 28, 2016

Artist-Faculty at the Bennington Chamber Music Conference

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February 23-27, 2017 Hamilton College

By Shem | February 28, 2016

multi-day Residency Plyometrics for Bodybuilding qualitat tamoxifen citrate mit versand bodybuilding motivasjon tysk rockemusikk with Sar-Shalom Strong, Piano and Peter Laytin Photograhper.  Music and Images plus several Journey of 100 performances, Master Class and seminars

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June 14, 2016 – Bartok Contrasts, Poulenc Sonata

By Shem | February 28, 2016

and more…Adelman Concerts (private) NY NY

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Chaconne #30 – Private performance NYC April 2016

By Shem | February 28, 2016
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Chaconne #29 – WVOF, Fairfield, CT April 2016

By Shem | February 28, 2016
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Chaconne #28 – August 14, 2015

By Shem | August 14, 2015

Private performance while serving as Artist Faculty at Bennington Chamber Music Conference.  Greenwall, Auditorium, Bennington College, Vermont 10:30pm The work is certainly changing, literally under my own hands.   Allemande, Corrente, Sarabande, Gigue, Chaccone: deep within that one continuous flow of thoughts and feelings some core element is starting to emerge, beginning to come to my awareness. Look to this page for more on this in the next months. Bach’s 3 and 4 independent voices are starting to emerge more clearly and simply through my bow; that’s great, makes me think of being able to more easily apply that bow technique to…

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Chaconne #27 – August 7, 2015 Bennington, Vermont

By Shem | August 7, 2015

Tonite, 10:30 pm in Greenwall Auditorium on the campus of Bennington College.

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