Ask Augustin 42 - Ask James Ehnes

In late July 2020 I traveled to Seattle to record some chamber music for the Seattle Chamber Music Society virtual festival. While I was there, I sat down with my friend James Ehnes to answer some questions from fans!

James Ehnes is not only one of the best violinists of our time, he is also one of the friendliest, and his chamber music festival in Seattle is one of my favorite places to visit each summer.
I did not bring my own Canon camera equipment on this trip to Seattle, so I borrowed a camera that I wasn't very familiar with, put it on a tripod, put all the settings to "auto" and hoped for the best... That wasn't very smart - it turns out this camera's "autofocus" function is a bit tricky, as it tries to refocus sometimes for no reason, making things blurry. Perhaps this does fit with the theme however, as we talk quite a bit about making recordings at home and all the things that can go wrong!
We also answer questions about the recording equipment that we use (James and I actually use the same microphones for our home recordings!), and even get into some technical talk about double-stop harmonics and our left hand posture.