Back to Busy-ness

Monday evening we all went to a Chamber Music Recital which featured Maya's Aspen teacher Paul Kantor playing in an interesting ensemble. Their piece was what I now call "Bergtokish", a blend of my two least favorite composers, Berg and Bartok.  I have been told they each have composed some beautiful works so all I can say is let's hear them.  In the third half of the program a young Korean woman sang operatic soprano with a string trio.  Now that was beautiful stuff.  I ran into her the next day (yesterday) and told her how much we all loved her performance.   I know she can sing Italian and German but I'm not certain to what degree she can speak English.

Speaking of running into talent, while I was swimming some laps at the rec center on Monday I met the dude who won the Prokofiev Piano competition this summer.  He is from Greece but is studying at Juilliard presently.  I'm too lazy to look up his name at the moment. There was a Caddy Shack event at the family pool at the rec center so it had to be evacuated and cleaned.  I was able to get in my laps but otherwise our group mostly ice skated or exercised then sat in the hot tub.

So, yesterday was quite busy.  It is a good thing that I keep a calendar of our activities as I don't think I would recall a lot of what we have done.  After the morning started up with some practicing and composing Abe and I walked to the PO.  On the way back I just had to drop in to Explore for a browsing moment.  Cashmere was actually walking around meowing.  I'm still struggling with the camera but did snap off a few photos.

This gazebo is in Paepcke Park, just about one block from the condo.  We usually cut across the grass when we walk to the bakery or bookstore.












Then we all went up to the music campus for lunch.  Ms. Nicolette had a meeting with Mr. Kantor while the rest of us ate at the cafeteria.  We then sat in for a bit of a guitar master class led by Sharon Isbin.  That was interesting.  We left there with enough time to get back to the condo for another run through of Vitali Chaconne, showers, snacks, etc.

Next we drove down to the tent to listen to the ACAA Orchestra play with Luke Hsu, the winner of this year's Tchaikovsky competition.  His performance was so spectacular in every way imaginable one must believe he will be the next international star.

After intermission it was pure chance that had me looking at the bass section when what I believe was a bird dropping landed on the shoulder of one of the bass players.  The guy standing next to him started to chuckle so the victim flicked the material off his shoulder only to splatter the other guy's face. So he dropped his bow and shoved the first guy who fell into the cello section who like dominoes tumbled forward.  The student conductor was startled by this flash of events and began to fall backwards off the conducting stand.  As she was tipping off the edge of the stage the concert master reflexively (I presume) extended his violin toward the young lady who grabbed onto the strings by the bridge.  It seemed like slow motion as one by one the strings broke, E, A, D, and then just as the G string was about to pop a man in an electric wheelchair sitting down front moved over to break her fall.  She landed perfectly in his lap but I suppose her leg was pressing on the joystick such that the chair began to spin rapidly.  Her shoe flew off and, yes it is true, landed in my lap.  It was then that I realized Abe was shaking me awake, stating that I has started to snore.

We rushed back to the condo for a quick snack (very quick) and for Maya to dress up for her studio class performance.  Then we drove up to the music campus where she played third among four performers.  She did a fantastic job which was well received by the small but attentive audience.  Mr. Kantor and the students had many complimentary statements and a few excellent suggestions for improvement.

We actually had to slip out a bit early in order to make it back to Harris Hall for the Alisa Weilerstein cello recital.  The whining along the way was nearly at a record-breaking level - I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm bored....  We nonetheless attended the recital.  The first half was long and mostly Bergtokish music so I was gazing at the emergency exit with extreme longing.  I felt bad about forcing the kids to sit through it.  At intermission we were going to leave but upon seeing the array of instruments being set up for the second half we decided to tough it out.  We were all so glad we did.  We were treated to about 45 minutes of unique music featuring the cello (Alisa again), a hyper-accordion, and two most interesting percussionists.  We finally made it back to the condo after 10 pm to chow down on toasted cheese and cereal.  I think the final light was off around midnight.