bis-ing the japanese

Hello all

It's been a while. Apologies. As I have settled into Lausanne and my studies here, my activities have gotten both more interesting and more numerous. The things I am excited about right now are: playing in a string quartet that actually has the goal of sounding good and working hard together, playing baroque viola, and experiencing the life (in a superficial way) of the freelancer in Switzerland by playing in the second-tier Lausanne orchestra (http://www.sinfonietta.ch/web/index.aspx).

It's all great.

A few short stories from the past week. Last Monday and Tuesday I did a run of concerts in Lausanne elementary and middle schools. I would not say that they were very successful--we played a mostly classical program (cimarosa, mozart, handel, and barber adagio) and the conductor tried to kind of force feed the kids reasons that they should care about classical music as they sat in squirmy silence (they were very well behaved).

("You know, the pop music you listen to actually came from classical music, it didn't just fall from the sky," or "A soloist in a concerto is a bit like an alpine skier like in the Olympics: they have to do a lot of hard stuff while the crowd (or orchestra) cheers them on.") It wasn't that what he said was bad necessarily, but that he tried to say too many things. Once after finishing his monologue he turned back to the orchestra, then changed his mind, re-facing the kids, and saying, by the way...this music does NOT tell a story like Pierre et le Loup (peter and the wolf). So enjoy.

I dont' think there is the same sense of urgency here about bringing classical music into children's lives. Orchestras do not rely so much on public support to survive, as the state funds many of them generously. It is not sooo hard to get grant money here, of to find concerts, even for an upstart group, or a small orchestra like Sinfonietta. There is this combination of heightened state support and also a more integral place in Swiss culture. A few nights ago we played a concert in a countryside village 30 minutes outside of Lausanne. It was completely packed (a small chalet-style wooden hall, but still) and we played a decent concert and an encore. Afterwards many from the audience and much of orchestra stayed and ate a light meal of cheese, paté (it's a kind of pastry with meat inside), more cheese, bread, wine, etc. It felt very I don't know, convivial? Not too pretentious?

Last night I went to a lovely dinner at a Japanese friend's house, the occasion being of some of her friends and family from Japan. It was quite a trip trying to communicate, although it wasn't too hard considering there were 2 japanese speakers, 3 japanese-french speakers, and 3 french speakers. Not bad at all. Many choice phrases were acquired by the french speaking guests, "oishii" or "arigato." (yummy and thank you). But my favorite part of the evening was saying good bye. Normally, the japanese bow to each other and say very courteous things, the french-speaking swiss kiss each other three times. I found myself kissing the Japanese visitors goodbye and saying "gochisosama" at the same time. It was strange indeed because I feel like the two cultures are in some ways so different, but to see this readiness on their part to adapt, to fit into a different culture was somehow...weird and touching at the same time?