A Dream Come True

Last night my new landlord, AC, had a chamber music party. I've always wanted to have a chamber music party, but I've been waiting until I own a house with a piano. Since we all know that's not going to happen for a long time, I've done the next best thing--moved into a house with a piano. With a woman who gives chamber music parties.

For those of you who don't know, a chamber music party is just what it sounds like: food, wine, and people sight-reading chamber music. Amazing.

I got to play horn/bassoon duets, Jan Bach's 4 2-Bit Contraptions for flute and horn, an old friend's arrangement of the three Gershwin Piano Preludes for horn and piano, and some beginner jazz duets with a neighbor who started playing the trumpet two years ago. Cool.

It took a lot of effort to get back for the party. I woke up yesterday morning in Texcoco, the hometown of my bf. To get back to Guanajuato, JCHD drove me to the bus station in Texcoco, where I took a bus to the bus station in Mexico City, where I took a bus to Guanajuato, where I took a bus downtown, where I took a taxi home. I walked in around 9 and I couldn't really feel my lips, but I figured they'd come through eventually. I splashed some water on my face, changed shirts, and ran upstairs to a lovely atmosphere of colleagues and acquaintances singing along to a flutist playing famous arias.

As the evening progressed I heard some Dvorak, some Schumann, some Vivaldi, some Puccini and some jazz songs (Gerswhin, maybe? Not sure, even though I could sing along). But mostly I heard soul. I heard real phrases and risks. Yeah I heard some wrong notes and wrong rhythms but I heard smiles and tears, tenderness and passion, suspense and resolution. I heard and felt community and a shared love of self-expression through art. I heard what music is all about for me.

It was important for me to get back and proved to be well worth all six legs of the journey. And I think it's important to focus on these sorts of things lately, to remind myself to focus on the good stuff. Unfortunately in the profession of music there are a lot of things that just get in the way- some of which we must not avoid (auditions) and some of which we must avoid (gossip) in order to continue in the field. But every musical experience can be about the good stuff, if we buckle down, get focused, and let it be.

So, this is my spring break resolution. In the practice room, in the section, at the brass quintet gig, behind the screen- focus on the good stuff. Because there's enough of it to go around.

And thank you, AC, for your chamber music party, at which there was plenty.