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