Still the absolute BEST season of #StrangerThings IMHO.

Time for my 2025 #MourningCoffee™ ...

Really grateful to play 6-part consorts by Gibbons, Ferrabosco & Lawes with all my favorite #Viol players because of a surprise visit of my 'Gamba-Mama,' Mary Springfels - the finest #NorthwesternUniversity faculty I studied with while in grad school! #ViolaDaGamba #EarlyMusic #Grateful

from the latest print edition of ‘The Onion’

You can't claim we live in a meritocracy when they're all mediocrities...

#Truth...

Amen.

Tristan and Thisolde House

Amen.

Please, no...

Fallout from the ongoing war on academia...

Some photos from our September 20th #ChicagoWindSymphony program at DePaul University's Mary Patricia Gannon Concert Hall featuring music by Rossano #Galante, Percy #Grainger, Robert #Jager & David #Maslanka! #DoubleBass #StringBass #Bass #WindEnsemble #WindSymphony #SymphonicBand

To all who wryte storyes & poemes, to everyone who doth wryte scriptes & screenplayes, to those who make art of all kyndes, and to those who designe and performe yn daunse, and theatre -- thanke yow. Whethir you make for a few friendes or an audience of millions, thanke yow. You helpe us all.

Growing up in the 80s & 90s, among my goto #Resistance anthems was Fight's War of Words from @judaspriestof.bsky.social's #RobHalford. With the erosion of #FreedomOfSpeech, it's time to #RiseUp & #StandUp for #FreeSpeech! youtu.be/gTLsDq8zZSo #1A #Resist #Persist #FreedomIsNotFree #NeverSurrender

I think my favorite people are artists and librarians.

youtu.be/MHh0U9Ngcuc Celebrate #DmitriShostakovich (born O.T.D. in 1906) with his Adagio from the Ballet “Unforgettable” (1919) from a 2015 performance by Phillip Serna & Emily Katayama at the Department of Music at #ValparaisoUniversity. #Shostakovich #DoubleBass #StringBass #Bass

Department of War... Bombing Venezualan boats... Re-invading Afganistan... Nobel "Peace" Prize, right?

L'Shana Tova to all my friends, colleagues & students who celebrate.

Autism doesn’t need to be cured.

For true innovacioun, we neede poetrye, philosophy, ethics, & the studye of the diversitye of historyes & literatures & languages. We neede to fynde newe wayes of wearinge our heartes, new dreames of the future. Technologye alone will create nothing but wayes of makinge old injustices happen faster.

Another #DoubleBassDay #Monday at @wisconsinlutheran.bsky.social! I am grateful & humbled by how many of our #WLC students came down to hear the #ChicagoWindSymphony over the weekend! #DoubleBass #StringBass #Bass

Ear Taxi Festival Anchor Performances Announced Source: EAR TAXI FESTIVAL. October 3 Bella Voce presents “Lost Objects” by the visionary founders of Bang on a Can. October 11 William Ferris Chorale and DePaul Ensemble 20+ present the Midwest premiere of “The Lost Birds” by Grammy award-winning…

ffm.to/gaillardefar... #NowAvailable - Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's Midweſt415 recording of Gaillarde Faraboscho (1646) by #AlfonsoFerrabosco (ca.1578-1628) in #DolbyATMOS @ Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/gail... #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #ViolaDaGamba #Viol #Lute

ffm.to/leonoraduarte #NowAvailable - Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's Midweſt415 recording of the Complete Sinfonias à5 by #LeonoraDuarte (1610-1678), in #DolbyATMOS @ Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/duar... #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #ViolaDaGamba #ViolConsort #Viol

Don't miss the #ChicagoWindSymphony at the Gannon Concert Hall, Holtschneider Performance Center at #DePaulUniversity! Featured music by Galante, Grainger, Jager & Maslanka! 📅 Saturday, 9/20/2025 ⏰ 7:00 PM 🎟️ Admission is FREE! Reserve your tickets now at events.depaul.edu/event/chicag...

What’s. It. Going. To take?

In Chicago, we are no strangers to the biting chill of winter. Yet, the events of this week should strike a deeper, more unsettling cold in each & every one of us.

"rejection of objective reality..."

ouch vorbis...

Current political discourse reflects the cognitive dissonance of George Orwell's motto from 1984... "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." 2025 America... Evil is Good. Lies are Truth. Ignorance is knowledge. Treason is patriotism. Crime is justice. Hate speech is free speech.

Our Fall 2025 Low Strings Methods Class at @wisconsinlutheran.bsky.social! #DoubleBass #StringBass #Bass

#QuoteOfTheDay: How you die does not redeem how you lived. - Pastor Howard-John Wesley

Don't miss the #ChicagoWindSymphony at the Gannon Concert Hall, Holtschneider Performance Center at #DePaulUniversity! Featured music by Galante, Grainger, Jager & Maslanka! 📅 Saturday, 9/20/2025 ⏰ 7:00 PM 🎟️ Admission is FREE! Reserve your tickets now at events.depaul.edu/event/chicag...

ffm.to/leonoraduarte #NowAvailable - Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's Midweſt415 recording of the Complete Sinfonias à5 by #LeonoraDuarte (1610-1678), in #DolbyATMOS @ Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/duar... #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #ViolaDaGamba #ViolConsort #Viol

ffm.to/thomastomkin... Turning my thoughts to our own perilous times, here's Midweſt415's #Remastered release of A Sad Paven à5 for These Distracted Tymes (1649) by #ThomasTomkins (1572-1656). #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractice #ViolaDaGamba #ViolConsort #Viol

ffm.to/claudiafranc... #NowAvailable - Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's Midweſt415 recording of the Canzoni Francesi à4 by #ClaudiaRusca (1583-1676), in #DolbyATMOS @ Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/rusc... #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #ViolaDaGamba #ViolConsort #Viol

#Truth...

Godaert Kamper, “Portrait of a Seated Musician with his Viola da Gamba”, 1646

Amen.

ffm.to/dolmetschcap... #NowAvailable: Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's Midweſt415 release of the Caprice for Solo #ViolaDaGamba by #RudolphDolmetsch (1906-1942), available exclusively in #DolbyATMOS @ Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/capr... #Viol #ViolConsort #PremiereRecording

Our OPUS #ChamberMusic camp #DoubleBass ensemble (8 #Basses & ​#BassGuitar) performed my arrangement of #BlackSabbath's IRON MAN honoring the late #OzzyOsbourne! 🤘🤘🤘🤘 Rest in power​ #Ozzy, PRINCE OF DARKNESS! #StringBass #Bass #RIPOzzy #RIPOzzyOsbourne #Metal Follow me @ ffm.bio/phillipwserna

That’s a wrap on Secret Byrd! We’ve been touring this immersive vigil by candlelight across the states for the past week. Over the past week, we’ve given ten magical performances in LA, San Francisco, and, most recently, in Chicago with the Second City Musick & ViolMedium 🎻

ffm.to/johnjenkinsp... #NowAvailable - Be surrounded by Phillip Serna's recording of John Jenkins's 6-part Pavan, VdGS No.2, available exclusively in #DolbyATMOS at Immersive Audio Album: immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/pava... #EarlyMusic #HistoricalPerformance #ViolaDaGamba #ViolConsort #Viol