The Baroque concert went well and was well received. Rehearsals, too, are going well. We’re mostly settled on repertoire for the concert, and it includes two American selections - a piece by Kenji Bunch called Supermaximum, and Piotr Szewczyk’s piece, The Rebel, commissioned by me and the students of the Young Musicians Orchestra back in Miami. We also have Death of Ase from Peer Gynt by Grieg and a good string adaptation of the overture to Die Fledermaus by Strauss. Today, we also added Mozart’s D Major Divertimento (K. 136). It’s a great piece for delving into classical style, which I’m enjoying a lot. We got a reminder yesterday, from a handful of students, that concerts in Lebanon tend to be mostly “classical” music, and Mozart fits the bill. Though, as I reminded them today, while “classical music” means it draws on the past (Mozart studied Handel et al, and it informs his style), classical music has always drawn from multiple cultures - I gave the example of Haydn borrowing gypsy folk melodies - important since the Roma have historically been discriminated against. Perhaps it’s scandalous, but we’ll finish the orchestra’s selection with a Tango, an Argentinian genre!
As is normal, students signed up for individual lessons after a couple of reminders. From tomorrow, my morning teaching schedule will be completely full, which will be rewarding. I’ll miss the younger kids, though: with gaps in my schedule, I’d been playing in the younger orchestra - seating myself at the back of the violins, in the firsts, seconds (or thirds!) for Pirates of the Caribbean. These wide-eyed kids have the most engaging smiles, and suddenly I realize they’re only a year or two older than little E.
A run-in with an under-refrigerated ham sandwich has led me to spend this evening at home. (It’s been two days with an unsettled stomach, and at the Baroque concert someone said “you seem to have turned yellow.” I pity one colleague, who I’d asked if I could get their lunch and learned not to trust me to order meals on their behalf, since I got the same “jambon et fromage” sandwich for both of us.).
Catching up on a few emails (not enough!), I also read the harrowing but important article about the recent years in the region, published by the NY Times magazine. It’s just terrible, and has affected so many people. Scott Anderson’s conclusions are sobering, and I hope what little we’re able to do as artists can help - I certainly feel meaningful musical and interpersonal connections with all the students here (in orchestra rehearsals, chamber music coaching, violin lessons, and conducting class). These are the young people who he’s referring to, indirectly, when writing about “the delicate fabric of civilization” and the “slow and painstaking work of mending it after it has been torn.” Selfishly, the most moving part of all this horror was the very end, where the Times says the Pulitzer Center has produced lesson plans as an aid to the article, “for kindergarten to 12th grade and college.” Little E will have kindergarten this year, and why should she be spared learning about some of this?
We must all work to make the world a saner, and safer, place, and I must believe every little bit helps.