Randy Stein

This was recently sent to me by a close friend who is decluttering. I believe it's from one of my early classical recitals. I shared the program with my very talented accompanist, Sarah Renberg. The Webster Apartments were a swanky established westside building with a large room for parties, concerts, recitals etc held for the tenants and their guests. I remember it had a beautiful Steinway Grand piano in the room. It's been years since I've performed classical concerts and recitals. But I enjoyed working on and playing this repertoire. first recital program.pdf

Please understand that these recordings are rehearsals. This is not studio quality.

Jim and I have been playing together for more than ten years. It took some stops and starts to find a good meld and repertoire. I am also lucky that Jim is a master Anglo player and can adapt to my style of playing easier than I can to his. Still hoping he can play in Eb one day.

2Many Buttons consists of Jim Besser on Anglo Concertina and Randy Stein on English Concertina. This is from a virus compliant distance rehearsal today in my condo complex.

Contact Jim Besser. He is on Cnet so you can reach him through here

Absolutely wonderful Matt. Thank you

Inspired by Gegor Maekic's solo performance of this tune I decided to post a live performance of the same. From the the 1959 Musical Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. DC Ambiance: Buco and Bill Parmentier - Acoustic Guitar Alex Nowack - Upright Bass Me - Wheatstone English Concertina

Very nice. Great arrangement. My gypsy jazz group does this tune as well.

Well, I didn't expect the discussion to become as acrimonious as it did, but unfortunately we are all wound pretty tight these days. It is interesting to hear some people's issues, needs and perspective that this disease has created in life's new direction. So to put this to rest, I did not take the gig. Even though it's outdoors and the restaurant is taking more than the necessary precautions, I only need one person to transmit and wham, I'm a goner. BTW, I don't sing but am an instrumentalist. Me singing would cause additional undue suffering. As we all miss our friends, sessions, jams, and performances, I am actually seeing creative ways for people worldwide to share their music. Musicians are collaborating through various online apps and finding ways to play and jam with people continents away. In many ways as we social distance we have become closer as a musical community. So fear not. There's always another gig around the corner. And one day we'll all sally up to the pub for pint with friends and jam. Until then, stay safe and hang by your thumbs. r

Last night I received a call from the owner of a restaurant I'll call Jim (not his real name). They are reopening with service in the patio area only and wanted me to play one or two evenings. He assured me they are taking all the required precautions . While I derive some income from playing and performing, I am retired now and live comfortably off my pension and SS benefits. I do miss performing and playing my music in public. I've recently arranged some new tunes and reworked some others and want to get out there and play. But I am in a susceptible age group and after a recent heart procedure need to be even more vigilant in taking all the precautions to stay healthy and safe for me and my family. So what to do? I know what my decision will be but what would you do?

"Charade" is a sad lonely Parisian waltz with music by Henry Mancini and lyrics by Johnny Mercer performed in the 1963 film of the same name starring by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was nominated that year for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Performed and arranged for Solo English Concertina. https://soundcloud.com/randy-stein-1/charade-by-henry-mancini-m4a

My 10 piece Jewish Folk Band plays some klezmer. I'm in the back on the left behind the singers

As a final note. I live streamed via FB and it went nicely. The feed was set up to be limited to the invited guests. This is one for the book

I just got hired to play music via zoom for a private dinner. 45 minutes and pay isn't too bad. We live in desperate times when someone needs to hire a Concertina player virtually.

Recontact Greg. Has boxes for sale