I've continued to travel with the old skrepka since returning from Europe last January, but on a lower-key scale so here's a few highlights of the past year, starting with Spring:
In May, my music-loving mountaineering friend Len and I headed South East to Chicago to see if we could accomplish a weekend of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts and Museums just as easily as we would a weekend of climbing in the Rockies had we headed West. We found we could indeed, even though it was a whirlwind.
 |
| The mirror bean thing in Chicago's Millennium Park. |
We did the Museum of Science and Industry after which I could die happy having seen 1920s actress Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle full of miniature artifacts ranging from Rudolph Valentino's collection of mini suits of armour to a sliver of wood from the supposed true cross.
 |
| Colleen Moore's dollhouse at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. |
Len was all over the Field Museum, being a geologist, and I loved the brilliantly designed Evolution gallery. We could have spent days there but had to also squeeze in the Art Institute of Chicago. Highlights were the photo gallery, the Impressionists' section, and the American Gallery which houses the famous American Gothic painting and Edward Hopper's remarkable Nighthawks, which was the inspiration for a piece for cello and orchestra by Canadian composer Vincent Ho.
 |
| One of several Van Gogh paintings NOT in at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam but at the Chicago Art Institute. |
Speaking of new music, the CSO has a great Music Now concert series that features new projects throughout the year either by or curated by the two composers-in-residence, Mason Bates and Anna Clyne. The weekend we chose had two concerts going on: Music Now's Mercury Soul at the Red Moon Theatre, and a concert from the regular classical series featuring Yo Yo Ma performing Schumann's Cello Concerto. Yes, you read correctly: Yo Yo Ma, one of the world's greatest cellists of our time. Len and I were over the moon. Especially when we found ourselves standing within 10 feet of both Ma and the CSO's conductor Riccardo Muti at the unbelievably fun evening of DJ Mercury Soul - who turned out to be young master Bates himself. This story I must tell:
When Len and I arrived at the Red Moon Theatre, we had no idea what to expect. An open space had some tables for people to put drinks on, the bar was open, and several small stages were set up with music stands waiting on them. A skinny white kid was bobbing his head behind a Mac Book Pro up on the DJ bridge. Another young man in black was hovering around him. Electronica was pumping through the sound system and people were milling around. Eventually, the lights over a small stage with four music stands came on and as a string quartet mounted the stage, the electronica started pumping more intensely. The musicians were watching the man in black who was watching them. Soon he started conducting and brought them in. The beat faded and they took over with what turned out to be a few select movements from John Adams' Book of Alleged Dances (I found everything out later). When they finished, the electronica returned and the audience members started to dance. Every half hour or so the same thing happened in another part of the theatre space. The pieces played included: a duet for clarinet and marimba by Anna Clyne, Concertino for twelve instruments by Igor Stravinski (written in 1921) and finally a piece for percussion by Mason Bates. Just before the Stravinski, Len turned to me and said, "Isn't that Riccardo Muti over there?" Indeed it was. Then my attention was caught by the unassuming gentleman next to him. "Len, isn't that Yo Yo Ma?" Indeed, Len confirmed it was. Our evening was complete.
The next night, we wandered in to a pre-concert talk only to find the skinny DJ from the Red Moon being interviewed by a distinguished older gentleman in front of a crowd of Chicago's discerning cultural elite. "Who are your musical influences?" "What is a typical day of composing like?" they asked. The DJ kid was composer-in-residence Mason Bates. I had to ask a question: "We were at the Red Moon event last night and thoroughly enjoyed it," I began. "Yes!" he fist-punched, "Someone who was there!" and briefly explained the event to the discerning classicists who had not been in attendance. "What motivated your choice in the pieces?" I asked. Their modernity, he explained, made them the best match for electronica, even the Stravinski. Privately I had to disagree, having experienced what electronica maestro Stefan Obermaier can do with Beethoven. But I was pleased to bring up the subject to liven up the discussion.
Hearing Yo Yo Ma perform live was an experience of a lifetime. It was quite comical to see him pop out of his chair, cello and all at the end of particularly emphatic phrases. His passion was evident and his skill incredible. Still...I can't help preferring the flawless tone of Colin Carr when he performed with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra at the International Cello Festival in Winnipeg in June - THAT was amazing!
In June, I took my violin on a short canoe trip, heading out to the Mantario Wilderness Zone in Manitoba's Whiteshell Provincial Park. My trusting friend Toni and I launched my wood and canvass canoe from the shores of Big Whiteshell Lake at 8:00 p.m. and faithfully portaged our stuff on an unknown (to her) 2 km knee-deep-in-muck portage via headlamp in pitch dark. I was wearing a dress. As one must when canoeing in absolute wilderness at midnight. Look, I didn't have time to change after work. And besides, I knew where I was going. When we launched from the shores of the second lake, Ritchie, green aurora borealis flickered in the sky above us. The water was glassy still and we glided peacefully, making a bee-line for the Ritchie Lake Campsite, hoping to find our friend Dan, who I'd promised we'd meet that night. As I scanned the shoreline I called out to him, hoping we'd arrived at the right bit of granite. No answer. Turns out he was sleeping alone in the back country...with earplugs in! Of course, this was to shut out those noisy drunken bears who were partying in the next campsite...
 |
| Have Fiddle will Paddle. |
That weekend we wasted basking in the sun, wandering around to find dragonflies attacking beaver dams, and I got in some practicing in the wilderness, just because I could.
Dan and Toni and I had a repeat experience on the September long weekend only this time we headed out to Winnage Lake in the Experimental Lake Area in Ontario and experienced barren post-forest fire landscape as well as exploring where First Nations people have left pictographs on east-facing walls of granite. Amazing to stand or float by rock where hundreds of years before, people dipped their hands into pots of naturally-made paint and pressed them to the rock.
 |
| First Nations pictographs, several hundred years old. |
Each night I played music for the birds and the stars and my friends. On the last morning, several groups of paddlers sailed by and shouted "thanks for the music! It made our weekend!"
My fiddle and I have stayed relatively close to home since then - there's no way I was going to drag it 63 km on the Mantario Trail at Thanksgiving in October, which was - by the way - my eighth time completing that hike (yes, I'm so vain!) - this time with Dan. Every time it's different and every time it's great fun.
 |
| Above Ritchie Lake, Mantario Trail. |
Musically this fall haLf man haLf eLf performed at a book launch for Dadolescence by Bob Armstrong, published by Turnstone Press. Our covers of New Wave songs by The Cure, Modern English and Depeche Mode plus one original, Never Ending Sun, complimented Bob's tale of a stay-at-home dad trying to find his place in the world, starting with selling off all his New Wave records as a rite of passage to becoming a real grown-up. In November, we were one of the opening acts for Philippine hip hop bands Glock-9 and Parokya ni Edgar. Finally, in December we joined forces with solo Winnipeg artists Cassie Hatcher and Sid Strange for a fundraising concert to support Aqua Books, a centre for songwriters, and authors, dubbed by it's owner Kelly Hughes, Winnipeg's Cultural City Hall.
Finally, aLfie and I are down to our last days of preparing for rehearsals with his former band mates in the Philippines for a reunion concert on Feb. 3 of HLHD.
No comments:
Post a Comment