A painting of our piano guitar duo live in concert in Connecticut!
What a delight to see us captured in a painting while we were playing on 23rd October 2010 in Connecticut! We documented our travels of Autumn in New England in a five part-blog starting here. In part 5, we remembered our concert at Mark and Beverly’s home. What fond memories we have!! Thank you, Ms Rosebrooks! Hope to meet you in person one day — and see your painting!
Musicians exchange CDs when they meet each other. CDs convey more than business cards. Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo exchanged many CDs on their USA tour.
The practice of exchanging business cards is translated into the exchange of CDs when musicians meet.
A CD says more about your music than your business card.
The first CD we received on our 5-week USA tour in 2010 was the solo guitar compositions played by Frank Wallace, the composer himself. The second was Duo Live Oak, the duo with his wife Nancy Knowles whom we’ve yet to meet. Frank organised our second concert in Boston, in the home of Karen Parsons in Newton, Massachusetts. That CD marked the beginning of our journey in discovering remarkable individuals who took time from their passionate pursuit of music making to help us with ours.
In fact, our first three concerts were organised by musicians: Peter Terry of JP Concerts in Boston, Frank Wallace, and Mark and Beverly Davis of Hampton, Connecticut. We listened to the CDs of Frank Wallace and “Ayres and Dances” CD of the guitar duo of Mark and Beverly during our drive through Massachusetts and Connecticut: autumn in New England.
In Durham, North Carolina, we exchanged CDs with Elaine Funaro, master harpischordist and executive director of the Aliénor Harpsichord Competition. The Aliénor Sampler is a demo CD of live recordings of selected pieces from the competition, recorded in 2008 and 2009. Elaine also gave us “Incantations & Inspirations Duo d’amore” a nicely wrapped CD of new music for baroque oboe and harpsichord.
By the time we ended our mainland USA tour and arrived in Maui, we had exchanged many CDs with our “Summer CD” — our first album. Only then, after we had found a place to live and produce the next 3 albums, did we have time to listen to the CDs that we collected. Only then did we put the music to the names and faces of those musicians we met on tour.
Everything was set up when we arrived. Here was a concert series that produced sold-out concerts and a peace of mind for the performers from out of town. What are the key success factors for a successful house concert for art music? I interviewed the producers of the North Meadow Concert Series the next morning.
North Meadow House Concert in Connecticut
I don’t want this autumn in New England to end, but it has. It’s time to rejuvenate in New York and prepare for our trip to North Carolina.
Yet fond memories remain engraved in my mind along with farewell wishes of “when you come back again.”
Saturday 23 October 2010 Hampton, Connecticut
We rented a mid-size Ford car to drive from Newton, Massachusetts to Hampton, Connecticut.
This was the first concert booked for this tour which was sold out within a week one month before the event. It became the third concert when the previous evenings got booked later. Once again, for the third consecutive time, we did not know the concert producers. What a surprise to find that they loved music and food and company as much as we did.
Everything was set up when we arrived. Here was a concert series that produced sold-out concerts and a peace of mind for the performers from out of town. What are the key success factors for a successful house concert for art music? I interviewed the producers of the North Meadow Concert Series the next morning.
That evening, after all the guests had left except for the local guitar builder whose new guitar Robert Bekkers had “premiered” in the second half of the concert, we witnessed a most extraordinary occasion. “Guitar heaven” is the subject of another blog post.
Secret to a successful house concert: the iced capuchino brownies ran out before the second half commenced.
There is a last of everything in anticipation for the first of everything. Next week, we will give our first public concert on mainland USA.
Robert announced on his Facebook last Thursday: last guitar lesson in 2010.
I gave my last private piano lesson Monday, my last university class Tuesday.
Tomorrow (Friday 15th October) we give our last concert in the Netherlands in 2010.
I had my last rehearsal with French horn this afternoon — the last one in 2010 to prepare for the first concert in 2011.
“Can we meet for a drink before you go?”
“Do you have time for coffee?”
“Can we invite you for dinner?”
“Do we get to say good-bye?”
There is a last of everything in anticipation for the first of everything.
Next week, we will give our first public concert on mainland USA: Thursday 21st October in St John’s Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Boston at 8:30 pm. It will be the second concert in a church in the USA (the first was in Makawao Union Church in Maui in 2007).
We will give our first house concert in New England – on Friday 22nd October in the home of a Suzuki piano teacher in Newton, Massachusetts.
We will meet the organisers of the first three concerts for the first time.
One of the best things that happens before a concert is to get the news that it’s been sold out.
What sweet, sweet music to my ears to get a message that a concert has been sold out. All 32 seats in a house built in 1730 (?) – part of the North Meadow House Concert Series in Hampton, Connecticut — have been sold. The waiting list has started.
Sold out concerts with a waiting list removes the uncertainty of audience development.
It’s the best thing that can happen before a concert.
In this case, it’s a month before the concert even begins.
The story of how this concert got scheduled must be told. I have not met the host. But I feel I already know him
It’s the first concert that was booked for our America tour.
Now that I’ve lived outside the USA for more than a decade, and in particular, on continental Europe for most of the past decade, I daresay that I have absorbed some of that European attitude, especially when compared to the way I was. I’m not sure if going to the USA will bring it all back. I notice the differences when I converse with newly arrived Americans.
My late friend, the London-based architect Ayyub Malik, often critisized me for sounding too American in my attitude towards life. He told me to stop trying to optimise and be a go getter. Just sit back and have some slack. Relax. These were not his exact words, but I concluded that’s what he disapproved of. The fast pace of life, the competitiveness, and the 24 by 7 existence was what he wanted to avoid when he turned down that job in Chicago many years before he met me.
Now that I’ve lived outside the USA for more than a decade, and in particular, on continental Europe for most of the past decade, I daresay that I have absorbed some of that European attitude, especially when compared to the way I was. I’m not sure if going to the USA will bring it all back.
I notice the differences when I converse with newly arrived Americans.
They are surprised that they can’t get from A to B by car. I patiently tell them that they can hop on a bus (which seems very foreign) or cycle (which requires renting a bicycle or buying one). “I’ll walk,” they say. But they forget what distances are when they are not used to walking.
American students complain of a lack of flexibility and attentiveness of Dutch administration. Having studied in the USA, I do admit that American universities do a much better job of ensuring new students are provided for. They certainly don’t need to sweat for accommodation after they arrive. It’s all taken care of BEFORE they arrive. It’s almost as if their needs are anticipated before they are voiced. In the Netherlands, I learned that if you don’t ask, you won’t get it. Those were the exact words of a student administrator at the Dutch conservatory where I studied for four years.
I explain the recycling rules. Americans that have lived in Germany nod in understanding. Those that haven’t think it’s novel to separate your waste into different compartments: paper, plastic, glass, refundable glass or plastic bottles, compost, and real trash. It does require getting used to. It does take up extra space before the weekly collection or trip to the depot.
I warn them to get their grocery shopping done before end of day Saturday. Unless it’s the first Sunday of the month, expect all stores to be closed and not reopen until Monday 11 am. Restaurants are even worse. I have starved myself trying to find outdoor seating on a warm summer’s evening, only to be turned away at 10 pm that the kitchen has closed. In some smaller towns the restaurants close at 9 pm. [This happened in Doorn on a Friday evening in July.]
One Dutch-American observed that the Dutch seem so much more organised than the Americans. “There are rules for everything, and the Dutch abide by the rules,” he said. On the flip side, the Dutch are not as flexible or spontaneous as the Americans. You could say that the way of dealing with uncertainty is different: rules vs flexibility.
As I plan how to travel from our upcoming concert in Newton, Massachusetts on 22nd October 2010 to the next one in Hampton, Connecticut on 23rd October, I’m amazed that no public transportation is adequate. “You’ll have either get someone to give you a lift,” advised an American friend, “or rent a car.”
Thank goodness gasoline prices in America are not $8 per gallon as we pay here in the Netherlands!
Concert Blog 