My dawgs and I was watching the Air and Simple Gifts composition at the inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday. John Williams composed this song explicitly for the inauguration performed by Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on bass, Anthony Mcgill on clarinet, Gabriela Montero on piano. My 13-year old grandson, who is living with us now, mentioned that much of the school day was devoted to watching the inauguration too.

The Leblanc company was so proud that Anthony played using the new Leblanc Bliss clarinet with the Backun barrel and bell that they posted this picture on Facebook. Yo-Yo used a special fiberglass bass because the cold weather would have probably hurt his regular bass.

Here is the video of this new song on YouTube:

For me this was but one of the highlights of the ceremony. Combo are all about working together, listening to each of the performers so that the mesh results in beautiful music. Sounds like a metaphor for life, does it not? :o)