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Salamat Jalan Stand Partner

July 15, 2011 at 2:14 AM

Violists by nature are a very welcoming and friendly group of folks.  When there is a litany of jokes about your beloved instrument that could take hours if not days to tell, violists across the world tend to band together and form relationships that only the bass section can really compete with.

When I first moved to Houston and walked into my first orchestra rehearsal a little over two years ago, a young man with long red curly hair came up to me and welcomed me to the viola section.  Since then, we have become very close friends, stand-partners and roommates. He integrated me into the local amateur music scene quicker than I could blink and eye and soon found myself overwhelmed with the performance opportunities.  All of those opportunities helped me get over my stage fright like nothing else probably could. 

In a few weeks, my friend and stand partner will be moving out of state to complete his masters degree. He is one of the few violists I've found game to experiment with modern works such as Daughtery's Viola Zombies, Bowen's quartet for violas, and Bridge's Lament. But before we part, we have one last musical event  to do together - Interlochen.  When camp is over, on the way back he will stay in Atlanta while I continue to travel back to Houston.

I am going to miss him dearly and wish him Salamat Jalan, which is "good journey" in Malay.  

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What a wonderful blog!  You are so lucky.   I hope both of you do well in the future and find more stand partners of similar worth.

 Tom,

Very good stand partners and best friends are like rare gems.  I have been blessed to have had both in one package for two years.  Luckily, he is moving close to where my family lives, so it is more of a "see you later" than a goodbye though it is quite a distance away.