Years ago, we went to Austin, Texas, home to SXSW and a concert format we’d never experienced.
A friend who knew a local musician would ask them over to play in their living room, then invite the neighbours, who each put $20 into the jar, and everyone enjoyed an evening of music, along with some basic food and drink provided by the host. That was it.
The musicians sold a few CDs, the audience got an intimate performance, and occasionally, a career got a nudge. In a world where great artists struggle to be seen online, this kind of high-touch, in-person gathering can make all the difference.
And here’s the thing: anyone can do it.
Since that first experience, we’ve seen house concerts everywhere, including in Vail, where the performer was a ski patrol guy, and closer to home at our own apartment building where a resident invites Royal Conservatory graduate students to play a few times a year. It’s bliss.
House concerts are one of humanity’s oldest forms of social connection. And at a moment in history when we seem to be drifting apart—families, generations, even nations—they offer a simple way to reconnect. They’re easy to organize, cost next to nothing, and can quietly transform a room, a building, even a neighbourhood.
I say this now because this past weekend I attended a house concert put on by two friends, Lola Rasminsky and Bob Presner who are music-lovers, inveterate connectors – and bonus…they have a baby grand piano in their living room. They’ve been inviting friends to house concerts for years, and this year they hosted a series called Stars of Tomorrow featuring students of Coral Solomon and Michael Berkovsky. Proceeds from the series support scholarships for young musicians to pursue their musical careers.
Now when you read the words Stars…of…Tomorrow…you likely think of young-ish musicians on the verge of their careers. Early 20s, maybe late teens. I certainly did.
So imagine my surprise when I went to Bob and Lola’s, where 40 others had gathered last Sunday afternoon, and saw that the two performers were Murasaki Matsutani, and Khloe Wu, who had just turned 11 – within days of each other.
This kind of bends the meaning of the word “Tomorrow”, and reminded me that while we’re living longer, an equal and opposite force is producing concert-calibre musicians who are younger and younger.
10-and 11-year-olds used to be called child prodigies, with extraordinary adult skills in the body of a child.
I’m thrilled to tell you that Murasaki and Khloe aren’t prodigies, because another marker for prodigies is that they often lack the social skills of adults. They become artists before they become people.
Not these two. They each introduced the pieces they played. They were funny, spontaneous and completely at ease afterwards, chatting with the guests and enjoying the post-concert groaning board.
Another rap against young performers is that they’re technically brilliant, but can’t draw on the deep wells of emotion that older, more mature musicians can.
Are you kidding me? They gave two of the most expressive and moving performances I’ve seen.
Which is what music at its best does. It collapses assumptions. It brings together people who might otherwise remain strangers. It goes straight to the heart, bypassing whatever tidy categories we’ve built in our heads.
So thank you, Bob and Lola—not just for a lovely Sunday afternoon, but for the reminder that something as simple as opening your living room can create connection, surprise, and a new comfort from normal when so little is.
Meanwhile…
1. Bots and robots. This week at the Beijing Half Marathon, a humanoid runner set a new world record time of 50 minutes, 26 seconds in the 21 km race. Not only did it defeat all the 12,000+ human runners this year, but it whumped the bot-time of last year’s first place robot finisher who ran the 2025 race in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Also this week, an AI-powered robot beat elite table tennis players at their own game.
Speaking of bots reshaping the world, last week Russian troops surrendered to a flight of Ukrainian robots. On the other hand, Ukraine is recruiting soldiers in their 50s to fight. Whoever wins, we’ll all have to get ‘proof of humanity’ badges.
Finally, fake images weren’t created by AI; they’ve been around as long as photographs themselves.
2. Do things you couldn’t. Like tailor your workouts to your body parts. Make prediction a science. Sing with confidence everywhere. Map a web of human influence. Speaking of maps, here’s an old interactive one of happiness. And create the biggest ever 3-D map of the universe.
3. Travel to the ends of the earth…and maybe the end of you. An Afghan travel company is marketing a trip to the north of Afghanistan in June “due to the situation in the Middle East.” It then goes on to say “the situation in Afghanistan is an island of calm…” Roger that.
If you want slightly safer travel, try one of the 10 least visited U.S. National Parks or Canadian National Parks.
4. The secret language of ships…is hiding in plain sight. Also, if you want to track your favourite tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, click here.
5. Big news on deadly disease. First (and thank heavens), stress doesn’t cause cancer. Next, Dr. Peter Attia on the fact that we have the tools to detect prostate cancer early, but don’t use them. Finally, remember all those ‘game-changer’ Alzheimer’s trials? Their effect is ‘trivial’.
Speaking of deadly, F. Scott Fitzgerald died when he was 44. “Benzedrine got him up in the morning; Nembutal tucked him in. A steady intake of cork-filtered cigarettes, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pans of chocolate fudge, rounded out the medications. They weren’t enough.”
6. We interrupt your regularly scheduled dose of existential dread. NPR has an answer to our despair: “What if poetry can bring you back to wonder, to kindness, to care, to sensitivity, to tenderness?” Speaking of NPR, they just got $113 million from two donors last week which will keep their lights on and more.
Also, Thursday was Shakespeare’s 462nd birthday. Here are some things you may not know about the man who wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets…including how he manipulates an audience.
7. If you think travel is risky, try routine…There’s still room to join us at The Canada Summit, the four-day heli-hiking trip from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, where four leading Canadians (Steve Paikin, Dr. Heather Ross, Ron Deibert and Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux) will discuss where we’re headed around politics, healthcare, cyber and AI, and Indigenous relations. If you can walk around your kitchen table, you can heli-hike. Details here.
Join us also on a Turkish gulet along Turkey’s “Turquoise coast”, and at The Kardamyli Festival in Greece this Fall with the entire front page of British public intellectuals.
8. When is rape not rape? Well, here’s what it’s like if victims of other crimes are treated like rape victims. Plus life lessons for people who learned them in prison.
And quick, give me a hug. Plus, take the cuffs off.
9. Two big national events. On Saturday, June 27, The Banff Centre celebrates its annual fundraiser. Then on Wednesday, November 4, in Ottawa, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society presents Geographica, a celebration of Canada’s legacy in space with astronauts, explorers, educators, researchers, journalists, conservationists, leaders from business and government – and hopefully, you. Use code EARLYBIRD26 for a $50 discount on tickets.
10. Time again for the 25th amendment…the one clarifying how to handle a U.S. President’s disability. First, an overview by Heather Cox Richardson. Then this. In fact, there’s an entire Wikipedia entry on that decline.
11. A prize we missed. Earlier this month, the Canadian Hillman Prize for excellence in investigative journalism was awarded to three groups of journalists. One was for the remarkable podcast series Arachnid: Hunting the Web’s Darkest Secrets about the world of child pornography images online. Arachnid was produced by the Investigative Journalism Bureau, TVO Today, Piz Gloria Productions and The Toronto Star
12. What I’m reading. Tim Sullivan is a British screenwriter, director and latterly crime novelist whose mysteries feature an autistic detective with a 97% conviction rate. Who would have thought books like these with a lead character like Detective Sergeant George Cross would be funny? There are 8 in the series and I began with The Patient.