Greetings, One & All~

My apologies for your missing December 2018 A 440 Newsletter. Technological malfunctions exacerbated by Mercury Retrograde prevented my sending it; and if your in-box was as jammed with holiday spam as mine was, it may have been a blessing in disguise. I’ve included some December highlights in your January 2019 issue, along with new good news and upcoming events. Enjoy!

Fully il-LUMI-nated

Thanks to all the staff and crew at Desert Botanical Garden, and to the hundreds of visitors to Planet of Percussion over the course of the event, for my most enjoyable and successful Las Noches de las Luminarias ever.

photo courtesy of Desert Botanical Garden

Winter Dreams

Nestled in the middle of my December LUMI run were two sold-out Winter Dreams concerts with R. Carlos Nakai and William Eaton at Old Town Center for the Arts, celebrating the winter solstice with our time-honored and timeless interpretations of traditional and original holiday music. Thanks to the entire OTCA staff and crew, and of course to the incomparable Nakai and Eaton, for a wonderful weekend of musical magic.

photo courtesy of Kimberly Kelly

Education Benefit

On Friday February 1st at 7 PM I’ll appear in concert with R. Carlos Nakai at the First United Methodist Church in Tucson to benefit the education programs of the Arizona State Museum.

MIM Theater

On Saturday February 23rd at 7:30 PM I’ll appear in concert with the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet at the world-renowned Musical Instrument Museum Theater in Phoenix, where we’ll premiere our entirely new 2019 acoustic show.

https://mim.org/events/r-carlos-nakai-quartet/

photo courtesy Shery Christopher Photography

Heart Dances

Evening at Angkor Wat, one of the four digital-only singles released by Sherry Finzer & Will Clipman in 2018, is now available on Pandora. Watch for the full CD release in 2019.

https://www.pandora.com/artist/sherry-finzer-and-will-clipman/evening-at-angkor-wat-single/AL7Xqzqd6rb4fZJ

Meanwhile, the song Cote d’Ivoire from the CD Trialogue by Sherry Finzer, Darin Mahoney & Will Clipman will be featured in-flight music throughout January on EgyptAir.

Inner Magick

Early Bird Alert!

Save $75 when you register by January 21st

https://www.dianewing.com/unmask-your-inner-magick/

April 27-28, 2019
The Room at Meadowbrook
4089 Durham Rd., Ottsville, PA 18942

Register now for Unmask Your Inner Magick: a weekend self-realization retreat with award-winning maskmaker, storyteller and musician Will Clipman and visionary author, teacher and personal transformation guide Diane Wing.

Sold-Out Solstice

The 2019 Solstice Flute School & Festival, where I’ll serve as Percussionist-in-Residence June 17-22, sold out in record time. . . see you smart early registrants there.

Poem of the Month

Eternal Question

I assemble my drums each evening
under the Akimel O’odham ramada
in a mesquite bosque along the Rio Salada,
and as the winter sun sets behind the hill
a great horned owl challenges my presence:
Who are you? Who are you?

The eternal question! I must be
this deepening darkness, this desert air
growing colder and moister as night
settles down into the river valley;
I must be these rhythms, these stories
told to illuminated faces emerging

from a tunnel of light who sit
and listen awhile, perhaps
offer praise or ask the way home.
A sliver of waxing crescent moon
points the way: all trails lead back
in time to the center of the garden.

Just before the floodgates open,
right on cue, precisely at the turning
of day to night, the great bird
takes wing and glides directly overhead
as silent as the space between breaths:
a shimmering interlude between deaths.

© Will Clipman 2019

To get done what must be done, in time and on time,
act with impeccable intention and effortless efficiency.

~Guillaume Henri

Will Clipman

poet ~ percussionist ~ maskmaker ~ storyteller ~ performing artist ~ educator

www.willclipman.com
williamclipman@aol.com
www.facebook.com/willclipman
520.591.0776