This isn’t the first
time I’ve been in the position of leaving a location not knowing what the
future will bring, but it’s the first time at age 75!
It was the same in
1964 when I decided to leave the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam; I was
lucky, the Los Angeles Philharmonic job opened just at that time. And in 1989
when I left Los Angeles, under the image of a sabbatical, and fortunately got
teaching positions at the Fiesole Scuola di Musica, in Italy, the Conservatoire
de Lausanne in Switzerland and subsequently other institutions in Europe. After
leaving Europe in 2006, I was lucky again ending up for eight years at the
Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo.
Now it starts to get
scary finishing my work in Tokyo, but again destiny is kind; I’m fully booked
with masterclasses and conducting for the next year with attractive part time
situations in Mexico and Okayama, Japan.
Perhaps I’m just a
wanderer; sometimes I long for a family and a stable life with the same wife,
children, grand children and a beautiful house, but that wanderer in me always
dominates.
After 35 years of
playing the single line horizontal tuba parts hundreds of times in the music
that I loved so much, I was enjoying it less, something previously magical was
slowly disappearing. Although I enjoyed playing in a symphony orchestra and
adored symphonic music, it was a great and beautiful surprise to me to discover
that I love teaching even more.
Each student is a
special situation and a unique challenge. Since I stopped playing my musicality
was reactivated and continued to develop, with teaching I remain an active
student; I continue to learn and improve.
There is, of course,
another choice! I could really retire, But no! In passed years I used to spend
my summers in the small town of Vatera, on the Greek island of Lesvos. The old
pensioners, whom I imagined were all retired fishermen, sitting on benches
facing the ocean, usually alone but sometimes with a friend, fascinated me. How
I would like to know their thoughts as they watched the horizon line (that
horizontal line again!). I could do that; I could go back to Vatera and
contemplate that same horizon line. But still, what is there in that horizon
line, the sound of the sea, the changing sky that feeds the thoughts of those
fishermen, Aye there’s the rub! I
fear I don't want to know, the curiosity is perhaps more interesting than the
experience.
I have just returned
from a beautiful festival called Instrumenta Oaxaca, which was a great
experience. First let me say that the general level of playing in Mexico is
very high and the potential is huge; they learn quickly, they seem to have the
physical aptitude to realize a new idea and they radiate an eagerness and
enthusiasm that is quite refreshing, especially just coming from Japan and
making the inevitable comparisons.
I’ve never thought
much about going to a small indigenous town in the mountains of southern Mexico
but I will be doing just that next September. It seems every country has a
center, or centers, where brass playing evolves in a noticeably superior way.
Oaxaca and especially the indigenous town (population 3000) of Santa Maria
Tlahuitoltepec, and the highly talented Mixes people, is just such a center.
This will be a true adventure for a wanderer.
One could say that
the culture shock of a quick change from teaching in Japan to teaching in
Mexico results in severe whiplash.
But that’s another
essay, (the next essay), it will be called “FEEDBACK”: a view of some typical
frustrations of a western teacher in Japan.
November 10, Oaxaca,
Mexico and November 23, Okayama, Japan, 2013.
