Land of the free (time)

When we had our first orientation meeting with the faculty, staff and orchestra, our tour "mom," Margie, started off by saying she is very rich but not because of the size of her bank account. She is rich in life in terms of her experiences, relationships and her desire to always be learning and constantly curious. We all knew we were in for a great experience but we had no idea how rich we would all become because of it. We are certainly not musicians because of the money. It is too difficult to be in it for that. Our main conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto said that it is not an easy life but it is incredibly rewarding. This trip was a huge reminder of why I continue to do what I do and why the daily grind is worth it.

Although my Spanish is still very limited I am able to understand much more than I thought. Even if I don't understand some things, I hear it all differently now. I had a neat full-circle experience on our flight from the south to Santiago before returning to the US. When we first arrived in the country we had a connecting flight from Santiago to La Serena on a beautiful airbus plane. I remember having difficulty and not feeling confident asking for a specific drink in Spanish and realized how comfortable I felt asking for a drink on my last day in the country. It's such a small thing but it was a nice little moment for myself.

It's really difficult returning from a trip like this. It's so hard saying goodbye to your new friends (if you're lucky enough to get the chance before running to catch your connecting flight), saying farewell to a beautiful country and leaving an experience that has impacted your life much more than any other month could. You know that as hard as you try to explain your time there, your friends and family at home won't really understand. After a friend picked me up from the airport in Austin and we got some much needed spicy breakfast tacos, I got home to my empty apartment and didn't know what to do besides have an emotional moment and flip through the pictures on my phone for the twelfth time that day. After doing laundry, shipping my horn out for some work, renewing my apartment lease and paying a few bills I was thankful to be flying to Buffalo to spend some much needed detox time with family and friends. I am so thankful to have shared this experience with Ed, too. It will be a really special time we look back on. My curiosity and drive has been renewed and after some time at home I will be looking forward to more teaching and playing in the fall. I'm so happy to be back in the land of the free and the home of the brave! RKV

Back in the US of A

So it has been quite a while since I contributed to this blog. So long in fact that I am now doing so from on American soil. Now that I am lucid and back on a normal sleep schedule it will be easier to write.

Last time I posted it was from Temuco. Charming place but not much to see. The next stop was Concepcion which is actually north of Temuco. I wish I could say something about it but we were there for less than 24 hours. We showed up, checked into the hotel, changed and walked across the square to the hall for a soundcheck and then a concert. The next morning we were up early (again) for a quick breakfast before hitting the road for a long bus ride. We were off to Puerto Varas which is near Frutillar, our final stop and the site of our last residency. Wow. What a beautiful place! It was like no other part of Chile I had ever seen before. Lush green pastures with grazing cattle, expansive lakes and volcanos, yes volcanos, protruding sporadically from the landscape. It looked more like Switzerland than South America.

And then there was the hall.....Modern with great acoustics and basically just beautiful. One of the nicest halls I've ever seen or played in by far. We played two full orchestra concerts and one chamber concert which was an educational concert for some local youths. We were well received each time and it was generally a lot of fun. Also, a cool little side note: we were invited to the hall to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London on a big projector screen. That was pretty memorable. And, Sarah Chang hung out with us after her last peformance with us. Our cultural day took us to the volcano, some rapids and Lago Todo Los Santos, only a few hours from the border with Argentina. The weather could have been nicer but it was still beautiful. The color was a greenish blue tuquoise that I have never seen before and wont soon forget.

Of course the last concert and after party/dinner was emotional for many of the musicians but it still was a lot of fun. The voyage back to the US was not particularly enjoyable but oh well. Lets just say that despite delays, re-routes and vias issues everyone made it back ok.

I guess this would be as good as any a time to conclude. This is where I tell everyone what I've learned, the profound insights I've gained, how I'll remember this for the rest of my life, etc. etc. That is all true. In one month I've compiled a large amount of memories, experiences, insights and freindships that will last a lifetime. The cliche holds truer than ever. Music is an universal language. We were 85 strangers plucked from twenty or so countries, brought together to play some of the greatest music ever written. Despite language barriers and cultural oddities we were able to do amazing things in one month. Now everyone disappears back into the world returning from whence they came but, like me, forever changed.

I guess I'll end with some favorites. Favorite concert: The first concert in La Serena, and the first concert in Santiago. Favorite audience: La Serena concert. Most memorable performance: Brahms 4 in Valparaiso. Best hotel: Santiago. Best party: Colombian Independence Day. Favorite place: Valparaiso, always but a couple others came close. Thats all for now. Thanks for following and I hope you enjoyed reading. Please check out the YOA Facebook page (there is a link on one of the first posts). There are a lot of pictures there from the tour and more information on the organization. Mucha Ropa. EAL

Last Few Days

Our time in Chile is sadly coming to a close in a few days. Our final residency is in a town in southern Chile that reminds me more of being in Germany or Switzerland than South America. The ski-lodge style architecture and presence of german cakes and pastries makes me forget that I can buy pisco and empanadas anywhere here. Puerto Varas is a tourist town that shares a lake with several other towns and a stunning volcano. Yesterday we took a bus tour around the lake and visited a spot that had a beautiful view of the volcano and several small waterfalls with the bluest water I have ever seen. After a quick boat tour where we were stuffed with 25 people per boat, we were back at the hotel and Ed and I decided to take advantage of the free afternoon by taking a bus 20km to the port city Puerto Montt. Taking the commuter bus is all part of the experience. This bus, including our regular tour coach, had rosary beads hanging from the mirror in addition to other items like palm crosses and pictures of saints--a reminder of the always present Catholic tradition here.

The whole orchestra is thankful for a more relaxed schedule our last few days. It's giving us a chance to wander and explore anything that catches our eye. It's also nice to have some time to relax after our schedule has been so packed for a month. We've also been invited to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics at the same beautiful hall we performed in two nights ago. We will definitely have our flags with us. USA!! USA!! Time to go enjoy our last few moments. RKV

Temuco!

Played a great concert tonight in Temuco, a city about 9 hours south of Santiago. The audience again was great. It was our first presentation of Don Juan, Pictures, and Grieg's Piano Concerto with the fabulous Louis Lorte. During our free day yesterday I made friends with a cab driver who gave me a tour of the city. He was delighted when I showed him pictures of Placido Domingo, whom we met in Santiago. He took me up to Cerro Nielol where I got a nice view of the city and took some photos. He only charged me 5 bucks for the sightseeing tour. Sweet. The one thing I'll never forget about Temuco is the smell. There are lots of forests here and most people heat tier homes with fireplaces. It smells like a campfire ALL the time. That mixed with the crisp air makes for a rather nice atmosphere. Tomorrow we are off to Concepcion. A very tight schedule that includes another 4 hours on the bus. EAL

Valparaiso, Santaigo, Placido Domnigo and 9 hour bus rides

Wow, so much has happened since my last post. Our schedule has been pretty crazy and we spent all day yesterday on a bus so please forgive my tardiness. Last time I wrote I had just gotten to Valparaiso, the city from whence my mother came. It was a whirlwind couple days of cramming in time with family around rehearsals and tour obligations. We played our Valparaiso concert in the theater of the Universidad de Santa Maria which, for those of you who like tidbits, is the most prestigious school of engineering in Chile. During the rehearsal I learned that the hall itself has quite a history. Orchestras such as Berlin and the New York Philharmonic, led by Karajan and Bernstein respectively, have graced the stage and the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz soloed there on multiple occasions. I was fortunate to have almost my entire family there sitting just a few rows from the stage. Benjamin Zander led us in a performance of Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Brahms' Fourth Symphony. The acoustics were excellent and our performance of the Brahms is something I will remember for a long time. The next day we were off to Santiago de Chile, the capital city. The ride was short, only a couple hours or so to the hotel. Once there we were whisked away to a a theater where we were greeted by Placido Domingo.....yes THAT Placido Domingo. He was kind enough to address us for about a half and hour and take some questions from the group. He was so kind and graceful. We got to sit on on a new opera he is rehearsing and hear him sing a bit. A real treat. I have two cousins living in Santiago and had the privilege of meeting one of them for dinner that night. Gonzalo and his wife Evelyn, accompanied by their son Joaquin (two years old) picked us up at the hotel and gave us a tour of the city by night. We rode up the main hill (I can't remember the name right now) which is capped by a statue of the Virgin Mary, a gift from the French to the Chileans in the 19th century. From here Pope John Paul II blessed the city in his visit to the country in 1985. It provides a panoramic view of the city which is very large. About 6 million people, almost half of the Chilean population, live there. We ended the night at their apartment eating Chinese food, drinking wine, and catching up. It was truly a lovely evening. We played two concerts in Santiago: one free one in Teatro Nunoa and another one at Teatro Los Condes where admission prices started at $120. Both were great successes. Under Carlos Miguel Prieto we performed Ginastera's Panambi Suite, Sibelius Violin Concerto with the well known Sarah Chang on violin, and Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. We got incredible receptions at the end of both concerts. The best thing about Santiago? The hotel! Wow, I have never stayed in anything so nice. In addition to the bedrooms there was a balcony, a living room with a couch, recliner, table and chairs, and a full kitchen with a stove, refrigerator, and microwave. The room was basically an apartment. I think it will be a long time until I stay in a hotel that nice. Leaving Santiago was hard, especially considering that it was a 9 hour bus ride to our next stop Temuco where I am now sitting in a hotel writing this post. The city and hotel are NOTHING like Santiago but the place is charming in its own way. We are here for 3 nights and our first concert is tomorrow night in town. It is also the first night of a new program: Grieg Piano Concerto, THE Don Juan- Strauss's famous tone poem, and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Should be a good time. It's been a long post I know but so much has happened since I last posted. I'd like to leave you with something I noticed during our first concert and have continued to observe throughout the tour: the audience. Rarely as symphonic performers do we really feel like we are connecting with out public. It is a real problem in our profession. Here, however, it has been completely different. We are treated as a real spectacle. Most of the people we play for have never heard a symphonic performance of our size and caliber and many may never hear one again. Many times I have looked out into the hall and seen people behaving like my family members who attended the Valparaiso concert-truly enthralled, captured, and eyes closed listening attentively. It is really a beautiful thing to observe the connection and the appreciation that these people have to us and the music. After concerts so many of them have been like my cousin and his family in Santiago- beaming and completely excited by what they had just witnessed. It is a very special thing and reminds me of the power and purpose of music making and gives me hope for the future. I'll leave you with some photos. EAL

On the Road

We finished our residency in La Serena a few days ago and we are now officially on tour which is a nice change of pace. It was nice to be in Vina del Mar and Valaparaiso because of how different both cities are from any other place I've seen and it was really special to meet Ed's family. I was finally able to see the place where he spent his summers and meet people I had only seen in pictures. His cousin and uncle gave us a whirlwind tour around the area through the winding, roller-coaster like streets. We took a cable car up the mountainside to a great view of the port, stopped quickly at La Sebastiana, the house of poet Pablo Neruda, saw the naval academies and former university of Ed's mother and had lunch at a local cafe. Later in the evening we performed a well-received concert in a hall with fantastic acoustics. It was our last performance with Ben Zander but our first performance with Ed's family present. It was very special. It was very sweet to see all of his family sitting practically at his side throughout the concert. I am thankful that many of his family members knew some English but it is a personal goal of mine to be able to communicate in Spanish with them the next time. I am getting much better at understanding what I'm hearing but I'm still far away from saying more than a few words at a time.

We are now in Santiago where about half of the Chilean population lives. It is a very modern city with all of the comforts I am used to. I miss the charm of Vina and Valaparaiso but our business-district hotel is fantastic and there is a beautiful mall just around the corner. The Andes are also a welcome site while walking around and glancing out the window.

We had the rare opportunity to meet yet another wonderful and successful artist on this trip, Placido Domingo. He met with us and gave a short presentation on realizing your goals and how to manage your life and outlook. We were also invited to watch him conduct and sing in a dress rehearsal with the orchestra in Santiago. A theme I am finding with all of the successful people we are meeting on this trip, including the board members, professors, artists, conductors etc., is that they are all very wonderful and gracious people that truly work hard with a clear set of goals and a mind and spirit that is always open to new ideas and possibilities. One thing we have heard time and time again is that it is not rare to be born with talent but it is rare to have the discipline and openness to actually pursue whatever it is you have the potential to do. You must do it in a way that allows you to connect with people from the present and past that will help lead you to possibilities in the future. Enough philosophy for now. Time to get a quick yoga and practice session in before a reception and chamber concert with our board members. RKV

A beautiful cafe/hotel in the hills of Valparaiso!

Valparaiso!

Yesterday we pulled into Valparaiso, late of course. Pretty shortly after we arrived I called my uncle and we were whisked away. First I stopped in to see my grandmother who is now 91. What a great visit. She said she had been waiting for my since 10am that morning. After a brief driving tour of Vina, we met up with almost all of my family there for dinner, including a cousin of mine who I hadn't seen in about 17 years. A real treat. Afterward we went out on the town for a few drinks with my cousin Valentina and her boyfriend. It was nice to catch up and hear about her future plans (she is contemplating a move to Australia) and discover that wherever you go in the world, a bar is a bar. Haha. This morning is was an early rise again. The breakfast was actually delicious (for a change). Then it was off to lunch with my uncle and a driving tour of Valparaiso. It was nice to see the old neighborhood, pass by a house of Pablo Neruda, and also the house of my grandparents which has been sold for some time. The best is yet to come, the concert! It has been a great visit but the pace has been crazy and overwhelming. There is just so much to do and I wish I could stay longer but that's life I suppose. Hopefully all will go well tonight and the audience will enjoy it. Tomorrow it's off to Santiago!