Blown away.

Shockingly good.  Full to overflowing.  Inspiring, provocative, loud, soft, unbelievably cool, amazing.  Some of my knee-jerk adjectives for the Kronos Quartet’s concert on Saturday.  It’s so exciting to hear music you’ve never heard before!  Who knew that rosin would fly off of a bow that was flicked violently into the air?  Who ever thought that flying rosin might be a cool or even moving effect in a piece of music???

But Sunday morning’s workshop was different.  Special, intimate, life changing.  Okay, I missed the performance of Terry Riley’s “In C” because I had to go to the dining hall and request late lunch for our student participants. Plus, two guests wanted to play along, and I had to scare up a cello and a violin for them to use.  Plus bows.  What do I know about bows and violins?  Not much, but I guess the ones I found were okay.   Drew and Co. in the dining hall get big snaps because this kind of thing is just no big deal for them and they get what wondrous things our kids are doing.  Staying open late is no problem.

But I returned for the informal Q and A with Kronos, everyone sitting casually on the IAF stage.  I can say that I’ve been proud of our students before for their remarkable performing and artistic output.  But I was blown away yesterday morning by the remarkable thoughtfulness of our kids.  They listen, they think, they question.  They asked questions I’d never thought of!  They heard things I didn’t hear!  Ellie asked if the recorded music from the concert was looped or if it was recorded in advance.  WHAT?
“Well,” the Quartet said, “it is supposed to be looped but we decided that it was too risky to do that so we prerecorded it.  How observant of you to notice.”  Huh?  I mean that kind of listening and thinking.

I am so proud of our students.  They can share a conversation with the greatest musicians in the world.  They are sharing a conversation with the greatest musicians in the world.