One thing I have always enjoyed about summertime is a chance to catch up on my reading. I thought I would share some of the books that I have gone through that might be of interest to you.

You will notice that even though I am a percussionist, none of these books are percussion related. There are so many things that musicians can learn from studying and hearing performers on other instruments that they can then relate back to their own.

The Inner Voice - Renee Fleming (an excellent biography of my favorite singer with some great points about the music business in general)

The Compleat Conductor - Gunther Schuller (still reading it but it makes a lot of interesting and sometomes controversial points about interpretation)

Conducting with Feeling - Frederick Harris (excellent treatise on the art of conducting and interpretation with thoughts from many excellent conductors)

Casals and the Art of Interpretation - David Blum (this one I read every summer)

The Mastery of Music - Barry Green (excellent study of the qualities that make up the best musicians in the world)