B Flat

This is Nadja von der Vogelwalde (don't bother asking: yes, she is a direct descendant of Walther). The New York Recorder called her brilliant, most imaginative, and the brightest composer of her generation. Her creativity is heliofrenospastic which means that she works non-stop in her mind. At home, washing dishes, walking, running, biking, at the gym, at the store, everywhere and every moment Nadja composes music, she's deep in her current project. So when she sits down at her piano or laptop, the music just comes out complete, ready, and perfect. (Mozart was a heliofrenospast as am I) we don't write-review-re-write-re-review and leave it for weeks or months, no, we have it all. From early on Nadja was first in everything: winning deals, awards and competitions everywhere she went. She also has a sense of scale: no smallish sonatas or three-minute commissions for the local symphony, but symphonies and concertos, large works (like her idols Berlioz and Mahler), she is fierce and fearless, that's how Nadja is. Her favorite scale is B Flat Major (like Schubert's Impromptu Nr. 3 and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Nr. 6), this and being tall, slim and dark earned her the nickname Clarinet (musician joke, I don't expect y'all to get it). Her favorite meal is seared foie gras on toast with a glass of well-chilled Sauternes. One night when we walked through the city and her stilettos became uncomfortable she took them off ... she B Flat ... 

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* graphite and watercolor on bond paper, private collection Toronto 

Helena G.

This is Helena, she's clever with a devastatingly quick wit. A while ago we stood outside a downtown bar sharing a joint and started talking about languages. Turned out we were even: three "fluent", two "very good", other two "getting by" and then two more "some". According to the International Polyglot Assoc. (Unit 2B, 512 S Sage Ave, Mobile, AL 36606, US), we are "Speaks Several Languages", far from the lofty "Cert. Polyglot". I told Helena of my first day of learning German (I was eleven and it ended in a fistfight) and she told me her first day of learning French (she was six). Mademoiselle Ferrand asked if someone can say something in French and Helena went like "me, me, me, me, me, me, me!" and getting the nod she said "Laisse mes mains sur tes hanches". 

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Mademoiselle Ferrand immediately demanded to know who said that and when Helena said that it was Adamo, Mademoiselle Ferrand told her that he is a pervert and she should stay away from him. Funny things happen when you learn  languages from your parent's record collection. Helena works now for The United Fruitgumm Co. where she writes copy and does translations in Portuguese, Turkish and Spanish, sometimes her colleagues hear her in her cubicle singing softly "Tombe la Neige" or "Viens, viens ma Brune". Helena finds herself strangely attracted to sardines, she has  currently no pets as she cannot decide if cat or dog, but whatever she's gonna get will be called Iphigenia. 

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* graphite and watercolor on paper, private collection, Toronto