We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:
Printer-friendly version
NEW YEAR'S REFLECTIONS
January 1, 2011 at 10:42 PM
On New Year’s, the last off-duty day before work takes over life again with a vengeance, I’m musing on summer. It used to be defined by long, delicious chunks of time to immerse yourself in something you care about. As a working parent, I secretly envied my two sons, Adam and Noah, who spent many summers studying at one of the InterHarmony Music Festivals in Europe. They were exposed to fabled teachers alongside hyper-overachieving students (not sure which is more inspiring!) while I punched the time clock. The pain of lost youth! Then one day, a surprising call came. Misha Quint, Noah’s cello teacher and the festivals’ founder, invited me to as a last-minute substitute for an injured violist. Here was someone I idolized as much for his magnificent playing as for the transformation he’d effected in my son Noah, converting him from a lazy, haphazard student into a driven player with highly polished technique. I was at Sears when he called, waiting for brakes to be replaced.
“Can you handle 2nd viola in the faculty performance of Tschaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence?” Misha asked. Mmm. Good question. It certainly represented a major challenge. I knew my violin chops were in fine shape, but I hadn’t picked up the viola for years. Could I pull off high-speed reading in C clef? If I said yes and couldn’t cut it, I’d put him and me in an untenable position. Resisting the urge to scream “yes!,” I asked Misha to fax me the part to assess. Suffice it to say that within 10 days, I was in Europe with my sons. From Sears and a desk job to two weeks of non-stop, high-pressure, day and night practice, master classes and performances! I not only got to perform the Tschaikovsky with the spectacular faculty (including Nikolaj Znaider on first violin and his teacher on 2nd!), but also joined highly accomplished students in Shostakovich, Schumann and Brahms chamber groups. I was playing 12 hours a day, on the line at every moment, subject to the most extreme highs and lows, and profoundly alive. This was the kind of challenge that drew me to music as a young person, and what’s made it so tough to be satisfied with less ever since.
So as I gird for work again tomorrow, the gifts of summer continue to inspire. I am most grateful.
