Julie wrestles with a microphone stand...and loses!

During each of our concerts we like to speak with the audience about the music that we play, how we chose to play it, our experience as musicians etc.... Speaking in front of a large group of people used to make me really nervous - much more so than playing the cello ever did! But as I do it more and more often, gradually the fear element is diminishing as I realize that no audience yet has ever boo-ed or thrown any rotten fruit ;-)

But recently I was speaking to the audience when I noticed that the microphone stand had started to slowly sink (it's adjustable according to the height of the speaker - in my case, quite short!) so that I was forced to lean down a bit to continue speaking into the mic. And near the end of my remarks, it actually gave up completely and fell all the way to the floor (I promise, I didn't talk for that long!) I then put down my cello and tried to restore it to it's original position, but the mechanism apparently eluded me, and I had to leave it in it's broken state, resting on the floor.

Luckily when Emily got up to speak before the next piece, a talented member of the crew (a student at the school where we were performing) was able to get everything back in working order. I suppose I'll stick to music and leave the technical side of things to the experts!