NOV 7, 6-8pm, DR plays for Gallery at 48 Natoma Artists' Reception: An exhibition of prints/posters by renowned printshop and community space Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer in Woodland, California.
OCT 12, 4pm, DR with Classical Guitar Ensemble, opens solo for Jason Vieaux and Peppino D'Agostino at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 120 East J Street, Benicia
OCT 10-12, DR at Jason Vieaux/Peppino D'Agostino Classical Guitar Retreat
OCT 4, 7pm, DR performs at Sacramento Saturday Club Octoberfest in Carmichael
SEP 11, 5:30-7:30, DR performs for Harris Center Donors' Happy Hour - Spanish Theme
SEP 9, 7-9pm, DR at SBGS Open Mic
AUG 3, 1pm, DR at Nan Shaw Memorial Celebration, Auburn, CA
JULY - going on temporary hiatus to heal left hand injury.
JUN 27, 6-8pm, DR plays for Gallery at 48 Natoma Artists' Reception
JUN 22, 6-8pm, DR plays outdoor wine dinner for David Girard Vineyards
MAY 18, 3pm, DR attends SGS Spring Concert - Orchestra and Doug Pauley
APR 26, 10am, DR plays for Crocker Museum Directors Circle Brunch
APR 19, 3pm, DR plays Memorial Service in Copperopolis, Governor's Mansion at Copper Square.
APR 18, 4-7pm, DR plays for Twin Rocks Estate Winery, Granite Bay
APR 13, 3-5pm, DR plays for AMERICAN RIVER CONSERVANCY BENEFIT
at The Villa Agave Placerville, CA
APR 6, 3pm, DR at Muriel Anderson's Auburn State Theatre Acoustic Guitar Series Concert at Odd Fellows Hall
APR 5, 3pm, DR at Muriel Anderson's SGS Concert at Tim's Music, Sacramento
APR 4, 6-8pm, DR plays for Gallery at 48 Natoma Artists' Reception: Moments of Connection: People, Places, and Presence, a solo exhibition by Yen-Ching Chang, Folsom, California
APR 3, 2pm, DR at Muriel Anderson's House Concert at Trabucco Ranch, Nevada City
MAR 29, Noon-2pm, DR plays for Napa Valley Memorial Service @ St Apollinaris
MAR 8, 3:30-4:30pm, DR plays for Atria Rocklin
MAR 7, 5-8pm, DR plays for Twin Rocks Estate Winery, Granite Bay
FEB 2, 3pm, DR at Marc Teicholz' concert for Auburn State Theatre at the Odd Fellows Hall, Auburn
JANUARY - still recovering from the car crash December 10th. Walking with cane, no fun, lots of pain. Settled case January 2026.
Tuesday, December 10th, 2024, was going fine as I left coffee and conversation with friends and headed off to lunch across town with another friend. The light had been green for a while as I sailed through it at 45mph - Folsom Blvd is six lanes, and it was wide open ahead. The other driver, uninsured, had come to a stop after scaring several other drivers. He waited half a minute as seen on traffic camera footage, and then - without even looking left to see if it was possible - entered the intersection as I was coming through on his left. I didn't see him coming, thank God, because I hit with such force and benefitted from being "relaxed." Had I seen him coming out, I would have stiffened, holding the wheel and bracing for impact. It was extremely violent, my lower body slamming into the dash as my torso was stopped by the steering wheel airbag and shoulder belt. My hips were wrenched and my sacrum cracked. My car was destroyed. My friend Jim came and took me to the ER, and I was pretty crippled for a period. There was a lot of pain early on. The effects linger now despite PT, and I am resigned to my situation. The good news is that I carried Uninsured/Underinsured coverage, and my company had to pay out the limit, though it took over a year. Thankfully, since I didn't grip the wheel hard in the crash, my hands were fine, and I was able to continue teaching uninterrupted. My students were all quite understanding.
What my Infiniti i30t sedan looked like after the crash...
All air bags deployed, and the shoulder belt and built-in crumple zones saved my life at 45mph. I didn't see it coming. It was so surreal, a "what?!?" moment - it made no sense! Had the other car jumped out into the intersection a half second earlier and I'd seen it, I would have braced for the collision and torn up my hands and shoulders.
The accident shut down a main traffic artery in my town of Folsom. Full-on response of fire trucks, ambulance, tow-truck and clean-up crew. My friend I was to have lunch with took me to the ER. I actually was in shock and didn't realize how busted up I was. After the adrenaline subsided, walking required two canes. My son helped me get in and out of one last December gig, then no work till February.
The seven friends I have coffee with Tuesday mornings (whom I had just left before the crash very close to the café.)
Our 'Tuesmuse' group includes, left to right
(standing) Jackie, Varee, Marge, Joyce, Vince and me. Kneeling -
Donna, Diane.
Over a decade of
weekly meetups!
The highlight of the fall was the California Classical Guitar Retreat in Benicia, three days October 10-12 and hosted by Peppino DÁgostino, Jason Vieaux and Donna Wapner. Well done! Group and private instruction, guitar ensemble rehearsals, fun trips to lovely restaurants, open mics, touring the charming downtown, and a public concert on Sunday afternoon. This photo of class participants after the concerts was taken following the show.
It was fun to play solo, duo with Jason, and in the ensemble at the wonderful St. Paul's Episcopal Church downtown, built in the mid-1800s by Norwegian shipwrights to mirror the bottom of a ship as you look up at the open beamed ceiling. Fun act -
I had presented Jason in San Jose when he was just 19 and had won the GFA International Solo Guitar Competition.
The 26 year-old uninsured driver looking at what he had done. He was ultimately arrested on charges of felony reckless driving with serious bodily injury. I was more or less in shock as I took pictures and was processing what had just happened. He admitted his 100% fault to the police. Several witnesses provided damning testimony about his driving and wanton disregard for public safety. If there's one good thing from this terrible accident, it's that I stopped him from hurting or even killing someone else.
Diploma Ceremony at conclusion of California Classical Guitar Retreat in Benicia, Oct 10-12.
Jason Vieaux and I play a duet in the Retreat's public concert. He was a good sport sight-reading his part, and I had the accompaniment memorized.
I took off most of the summer from gigs and concerts to get left hand thumb surgery, recover and heal up. The surgeon said I was on the high end of hand health and recovery speed at our follow-up appointment.
The first important job afterward was in September playing for the high-end donors at the Harris Center. It was a Spanish themed event, so Spanish and Latin repertoire it was. They wanted a recital for 15 minutes toward the end, and so they got the hits - Leyenda, Recuerdos, Soleares-Malagueña.
Alison and Craig posing next to a spectacular spread of flowers on the azalea shrub - in the original photo and in real life, it had a much brighter shade of red.
Below - every December many of my students get CDs of their recordings made during the year, complete with printing and jewel case. This example photo was taken of Gabe Fischer at his last lesson of 2025.
This hand anatomy illustration helped me understand what was going to happen. In July, I underwent an operation to fix a stuck thumb knuckle — I could not bend the tip portion to pinch, which you need to button buttons, pick up something small, etc. It turned out a big success, though I was worried. I had to keep it dry for two weeks.
A rare visit in August from my South Bay Area pal Ben Zussman seen here practicing Bach in my studio and outside.
In April there were four concerts with Muriel Anderson I helped set up — Nevada City, Chico, Sacramento and Auburn.
Here the waiter takes a shot following the very successful Sacramento Guitar Society show at Tim's Music Recital Hall. I suggested one of my favorite places to eat,
Zest, with Lebanese- Mediterranean cuisine. Note the Baklava desserts and take home!
A full house at Auburn State Theatre's alternate venue of the Odd Fellows Hall and Muriel's audio-video presentation — live harp-guitar playing and singing with slides and video behind her. It was on my birthday, and the latest in some acoustic guitar concerts I promoted there.
Good-bye, 2025 - you threw a lot of punches!
My bad luck story, and why I look forward to a happier year ahead.
In December and January, I was walking like a cripple, had to rent cars, buy a replacement (a 2010 Lexus RX450h hybrid), only to have it totaled in a nighttime animal accident (huge buck with antlers walks out in the night, classic deer-in-the-headlights) which required more rentals and another search for a car. I then leased a new 2025 Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid EV, which I quite like.
In April my left side in the hip area "went out" and I was limping as much as back in December - awful and discouraging. Meanwhile in April, my left-hand thumb started having a issue where the tip segment locked up.
In July I finally got the surgery to get my fretting hand thumb back in order. That went well enough, but the EKG in prep for anesthesia found an irregular heartbeat. Unexpected, so we're figuring that out.
The 2023 right shoulder rotator cuff injury as never fully healed. "Full thickness tear with retraction" is what imaging revealed. So here, over two years on, I suffer pain and weakness. Pain sleeping on my side, weakness at the gym and yoga. I'm doing yoga and/or a 30-minute circuit at the gym every weekday and expect that to continue and even expand. Pain has been my constant companion throughout this year.
So all with this "bad luck" - where's the balance?
One of my escapes to peace of mind this year has been my yoga teacher Donna Rixmann's separate Mindfulness class. Being here now, breathing in and breathing out, filling myself up with the spirit of loving kindness for myself and all others, feeling gratitude, all these are healthy habits Donna has assisted us with. Highly recommended! And I get a monthly massage as I have for years from Sonja Sekigahama.
I've also been attending a remarkable and refreshing Sunday Adult Class at Foothills United Methodist Church. A progressive and welcoming church to begin with, the class was founded 20 years ago by Ron Sachs and is led by my former student Merwin Brown. The format is perfect - watch a chapter of a DVD lecture series and then discuss. Check this out - when I was persuaded by Merwin to try the class, they were studying "A Quartet of Sages," concluding a deep dive into Confucius, and were headed into the real lives of the Buddha, then Jesus, and finally Muhammed - each lecture followed by lively intelligent and sincere discussion. After the "A Quartet of Sages" series of lectures concluded, the next course was with the brilliant religious historian Molly Worthen. Her set of 36 lectures fully covered "The History of Christianity II - From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch."
Even though I'm not a church goer whom you would see in the pews, I appreciate the opportunity to explore history in this class with these good people.
I've never been a gym rat, but there's no option to ignore the need to restore my ability to go on long walks and reduce pain in my side, and work on my shoulder injury from August 2023. So now every weekday I'm at Planet Fitness or on the yoga mat - or both.
If you've made it this far, thank you! And especially if you're getting this around Christmas, I wish you peace and inspiration, now and always.
And as always, I remain at your service in guitar instruction and very special live performance.
Fun make-believe photo by Vince Migliore, December 2025
