The Biggest Concert In The World
When I was a kid I was a little hyperactive (some could say still am). That meant my mom had to find ways to focus my energy. The easy way was exercise: swimming lessons, soccer team, etc. However, one day she discovered the secret: music. Specifically orchestral music, with loud and clear percussion. An example is Hans Zimmer, one of my favorite music composers today.
I remember telling my grandma when I decided to leave music as my main career that "once you are born a musician, you die a musician". I remember her smile when I said that, I remember my grandfather taking me to and picking me up from music lessons and both going to see me at small concerts in local churches. I remember playing in front of large audiences later in life and always imagining them there in the front row smiling.
Most people who knew me back then ask me a really funny question which I answer in different ways each time: "so, when are you going to go back to music?". The truth is I never left it and never will... I wake up with music, I sleep with music and place a 40 minute timer to stop the music after I fall asleep. I listen to music before and after my podcast, in the car, before important or stressful moments. Music also takes me back to specific moments of my life, to a cartoon I saw, to a movie I love, to a country I miss, to my iPod Nano, my first iPhone, my first girlfriend.
THIS story is my way of explaining to YOU (whoever and wherever you are that is reading this) how I value the power and meaning of music:
An old and wise grandmother was teaching her grandson to play the violin. After the lesson was over he looked at her viola and asked:
"why did you stop performing grandma?"
In a giggle she answered back
"Because I managed to fulfill my dream performance and wanted to teach" - her grandson's imagination went into an endless world of possibilities and with glowing eyes went further with the topic:
"What was that dream performance and how huge was it?"
The grandmother smiled and sat the young curious grandchild to tell him her favorite life story.
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You see, by the time I was 35 years of age I had played many concerts. Some in theaters more famous than others. To 50% of them my father went with my brother and to the others he went to alone. That was because I did not have a mother, so he was both parents to me. He supported me as much as he could and somehow always made time for my concerts.
When I became second viola at a very well known orchestra in England I had to leave the country almost permanently. So, every year he would come all the way over for the last weekend of concerts of the year and sit right where he could see me clearly.
One night after rehearsal, I got a call from my brother.
It was the Monday before the last weekend of end of the year concerts... My father had been in a car accident and died. I felt a hole sink into my stomach... I sat, cried and thought about many MANY things. How far away from home I was and how I would not be able to make it to the funeral. Remembered loads of great moments and missed my dad all night long...
I still miss him, but now with the smile of having had him as my dad and mom for so many years...
The next morning I called the director of the orchestra and first viola. After telling them what had happened, I asked for 2 things:
1. Not to tell anyone else until the last 3 concerts of the year were over.
2. To allow me to play the solo and main viola parts of the last 3 concerts in honor of my deceased father.
They agreed in pitty, and hoped that my emotions would not affect me too much.
I played the best and last 3 concerts of my life that next weekend. I remember well the standing ovations and the empty reserved seat where my dad would have sat... When the last concert was over, I gathered everyone in the orchestra. They were all like a big family to me and as such I apologized for not telling them before.
Then, I proceeded to explain why I was quitting the orchestra:
"I loved my dad, and always will. He made me into who I am. And although I love music and music is my life, some years ago I started to want to teach and not perform. I wanted to settle down, make my own music studio and teach kids the love of music that he once did. That is why today I will leave this orchestra to fulfill that dream; because THIS dream has been accomplished... You see, I had never before told anyone this before... But the reason that my dad came to all my concerts back home and came every year all the way to England and sat in a specific seating was because he was born deaf. And even so he loved music, the vibrations of it, the look of an orchestra, of me... Playing and interpreting it."
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A shocked grandchild interrupted, shocked at the twist in the story he looked at his grandmother and made sure he understood what had happened:
"Wow grandma! So when your dad died, did that mean he could finally hear you play?"
- "exactly" she said. While holding her grandson's hand while they walked home.
