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Musical Celebration of Life

They say hindsight is 20/20, but what would we say about this according to the sense of listening? Audiovoyance? Audiovoyance is 440/440? Wait, don’t answer that. Yesterday students of my colleague and mine played an informal, lovely non-concert: a Musical Celebration of Life.

We invited students and their families to come, for the learners to have the chance to perform what they are working on, and spend some time together visiting, snacking, playing more music, playing games and relaxing afterward.

I’m really not normally one to schedule something like this at this already over-busy time of year but a parent had asked whether we would be holding a musical party, and it sounded like a great idea–thanks Rebecca Oldmixon! After all, children love parties (and so do I).

I put out some dates back in early November and they chose December 15.

My colleague Cornelia Hierlinger and I also put together some duets to start off the event: Wohlfahrt’s Christmas Fantasy and the Blackwells’ Jazzy Jingle Bells. I’d invited a videographer I’ve worked with this year, Philip Fricker, to film the event and my husband also supported us by taking amazing photos and using his fantastic huge bass to support in a trio for a guitar student.

Like Baby Birds Being Pushed Out of The Nest

The children and one adult student were truly adorable and I feel so blessed that they were able to enjoy their new wings as players before a gentle audience. It really was like a nest, where the baby birds are pushed out of the nest, maybe a bit wobbly with their wings, but all of them flew. It made all of our hearts happy and then some.

Ever since I discovered the Ernst arrangement of Schubert’s Erlkönig for Violin and Viola I’ve wanted to play it. So for this occasion I convinced Cornelia that we should play it. To be honest, it was something of a risk. She got pretty big eyes last week when I said we should play it. Why play something with such a sad ending for an uplifting event like this?

Well, life is not always fun and inspiring, but I have loved this piece ever since I heard it properly performed as a young student at the Longy School. I remember Victor Rosenbaum had invited me to a private concert where it was sung, in preparation for a concert at the school. This was long ago, when Longy was an independent school, both a community school and a degree-granting institution and I was a young undergraduate diploma student. I think that hearing this piece then, and many times since then, has made a lasting impression on me.

Although the piece is somewhat dark, it isn’t dark like some atonal garbage that tries to pass itself off as great. It does stretch your ear a bit but I find it to be in good fun, and thought it would be nice for children and families to hear something a bit dramatic.

Siblings In Attendance

Afterward, a lovely mom mentioned her young child who’d been sleeping on her shoulder popped up a couple of times with the excitement and said “Why does it sound like it’s running?” She told her it was the goblin king, and the child went back to sleep.

Another sibling who is an adult mentioned she was so glad we played that piece, that she loved it so much! She had played violin for a bunch of years, but had to stop due to her heavy academic studies; now that she is back working for her parents’ company, she has a bit more time and it looks like she might get some lessons to get started again! So exciting! She had learned a few bars of this piece, apparently, as a student.

I would say that choosing Der Erlkönig was an intuitive choice but it made sense for us that the reasoning, logical mind would probably have argued against.

Another reason it was the right choice was that on the same day I found out our dear friend had passed away, which we knew was coming, but didn’t know exactly that it would be at this time. I mean we are all headed to the same destination and I believe music comforts us if we let it. That’s the muse, holding our heads and hearts when we need rest and comfort.

And playing with Cornelia is always a joy. We actually met as stand partners for Lobgesang, with Laudamus Te in Stuttgart, after which I found out she was actually living close by in my neighborhood.

And if you’ve ever seen Labyrinth, the film with David Bowie as the goblin king, you know that a goblin king might not be all bad.

Background

You have to understand that I’m working in Germany, as a US citizen, running a private business, having built my teaching practice utterly from scratch here, and did not have a single teacher connection when I arrived over five years ago direct from China. (Yes, you read that right, but it’s the subject of a future post.) And to be quite honest, there is no way I would have been able to build a successful teaching studio without the help of my intuition, journaling a lot, taking risks and asking for support.

I write this because it was listening to a parent, and following my intuition that it was a good idea to have a mini-concert, even at this time of year, instead of brushing it off and not following a good idea, that allowed this lovely experience to unfold.

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