Some good things start on social media. One is a violin concerto that Francesca Barritt commissioned from the  composer and environmentalist David Holyoake. Premiere this weekend. Read about it here.

Lawrence Leighton Smith, emeritus music director in Colorado Springs, has died, ten days after entering hospice care. His last performance, before the onset of a dementia-related condition, was Beethoven’s ninth symphony. Not a bad way to go out. Here’s a local obituary.