Shakespeare once wrote that the past is prologue. Is that true? Perhaps. I personally think it is. When I picked up an electric bass toward the end of my junior year of high school I had no idea the places the instrument would take me. I started taking some lessons from a local teacher, mainly a jazzer. One day I walked into his studio for a lesson. His upright bass was out of its case, standing against two corners of the wall. Right away I was hooked. I loved the way it looked, loved the way it felt and loved the way it sounded. My first stop after high school was Washington, DC where I had the opportunity to study on scholarship with a great player and teacher in one of the world's great cities. Next I made my way to Baltimore for graduate studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. This next stop, however, will perhaps be the most exciting one yet. Chile. The motherland.
My mother was born in Valparaiso. After a brief sojourn in Paris she made her way to the U.S. and never left. We visited family there as often as we could and from an early age I realized that there was something different, something more than my home, my school and my friends. My experiences there, including that of learning a different language, very much shaped my identity as I grew up.
When I began my musical studies I never thought the bass would bring me here. It's weird how things work out sometimes. I know that as the plane begins its descent on Santiago and I look out the window and see for the first time the peaceful, inviting landscape of emerald pastures, cool blue rivers, and smoothly-sloped, lazy-looking mountains I will feel in strange way that I am coming home.
What am I most excited about? Playing Brahms Symphony no. 4! After that I will have performed them all, in order. Also, I can't wait to work with Carlos Miguel Prieto. I hear that guy is awesome. What am I not looking forward to? Roughly 13 hours of flying over 2 days. Oof.
EAL
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