Eastern Impressions

Zheng and I made our recital debut as a married couple yesterday. We had been invited to perform Chinese music, in combination of both violin and viola with piano (unaccompanied would have been fine, but we found music with piano parts. Well, most of them).

I assigned Zheng the task of finding the music and researching its origin (region, composer, a possible program). He did this with might aplomb. I noticed that the audience was very receptive and attentive. 

The third selection had only the solo part at the ready. My task - invent a part that was complimentary (and that didn’t sound like either hokey-Asian-pentatonic or something from the third grade). I was up to the task. I even inserted an homage to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” before the fast section.  

This music is meaningful and specific to time-and-place. Zheng's explanations were very inviting to the audience. The music was *not* difficult, in terms of technical demands (pianistically) or difficult to understand for a first-time listener who was more of an avocational purveyor of concerts. 

What this taught me was ... we don't need to hit the audience over the head at *every* performance with cerebral, esoteric music. Light, tonal melodies and folk music very much has its place - even in 2015.

We will share more videos soon - enjoy this first one! You can find it by clicking on this link.

PHOTO: A photo from our rehearsal dinner!  

VIDEO: The second selection on our program - the "Mongolian Shepherd Song."

Wild, part 2

I would be remiss if I didn’t continue my post from almost a week ago. There are other things to write about this week, but I must finish this idea. 

In thinking about the remarks and feedback I got, the underlying statement which I am choosing to read is:

“Please, when you are newly married, or when you decide to get married, don’t get rid of anything that is quintessentially you. Don’t stop traveling, playing, performing, reading, discovering …” 

Of course not. Let’s think about how Zheng and I met …

While traveling, in order to play and perform with one of the top violists in the United States, and while I was over there, I was writing (the single most-populated category on this blog is still China), and discovering an entirely different world.

So you see, my husband and I met while I was simply “doing my thing.” 

(If I could have a dollar for every time I really worried about my romantic life before hitting 30, I could retire tomorrow).

Zheng and I met when I was on the wildest trip of my life. I don’t see things morphing into the barefoot-kitchen-vacuuming-hairbow stage ever, and definitely not soon.

I will now share the sweet story that prompted this subject in the first place. Zheng and I were off most of last Sunday together. We played church together, and then I was free until 7:30 PM. 

After taking a nap, and then starting to prepare dinner, Zheng asked me what I was going to do next.

“READ!” I said with such reverence … 

So I took some tea into our bedroom. The cats followed me in. I started reading on my Kindle, interestingly, “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. (I highly recommend this book. It’s really beautiful). 

Enter Zheng, with his iPad mini, proceeding to set it up to watch something … meaning make noise, meaning destroy the beautiful reading silence and disturb the sleeping kitties snuggled at my feet.

Absolutely not.

I told him that if was going to snuggle next to me and watch, he had to put earphones on. He protested. 

I assured him that I was serious, and that he could go watch TV out in the den, or else use the headphones. He acquiesced. 

See … I haven’t lost any spark or fire. I’m lucky to have a spouse who understands this. 





 

Notes from Week 2

The fall weather is a reminder of why I love living and working in an area that has all four seasons. It's a little crisp. But perfect.

Last night was the Chinese "Moon Festival" and since I am becoming Chinese, we celebrated! We had a small gathering at our home with moon cakes, wine, tea, and friends. Zheng's and my friends got to meet Aying. 

Syracuse Opera did a run-out to Auburn, NY to perform at a rest home. The drive took us through Skaneatales, NY, a lovely village by the lake. (See the picture). We are back in Auburn tonight for a full performance of the Resident Artist show, "9 Operas in 90 Minutes." 

Speaking of Aying, Zheng's mother,  she arrived safely in Chicago non-stop from Beijing. Zheng went to Chicago to pick her up, and then they took an overnight train to Rochester. I saw them on Monday when I went home for my day off. When I've been home, we've enjoyed good visits and meals together. 

Also, Zheng has truly been "putting on the dog" for his mama, so some of the feasts have been epic. We've also been taking full advantage of the generous gifts from our bridal shower. 

PHOTOS: are from this week! Welcome Aying!

Putting on the Pampered Dog

Dear friends,

Well, it's been a flurry of activity getting "accustomed" to American living again. (And it's not for the faint-at-heart to return to an intense degree, at an intense place, the week before Finals, having been gone for the previous three!). So my presence here has been decidedly absent.

Bob left a note on my blog saying that I needed to finally *explain* two of the running jokes of the China tour. The first is called "Putting on the Dog," an older version of the current "Puttin' on the Ritz." It was fun to explain this joke to Zheng. As anyone knows who speaks several languages, it is a mark of fluency when you can "pun" or use idiomatic phrases in a tongue that's not your own. You can read more about this here: (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+on+the+dog).

People certainly "put on the dog" for us, the entire time. This included: meals with 13-17 dishes on the Lazy Susan, fancy outings, Beijing renting a van and driver for us to go see the Great Wall at Badaling, Ayeing sending us home with more gifts than I could have ever imagined.

The other joke began in the business-class lounge at Sea-Tac. Bob joked that Ellen and I "respond well to pampering." This eventually became the slogan "Better Life Through Pampering," (BLTP for short). We joked about things on the trip being on the "BLTP" program.

Things that were on the BLTP program: lattes, anything in business class, our hotel in Kunming, Ellen getting a massage, etc. Things that were *not*: riding in bread trucks, not being able to find a taxi, taking crowded subways, and problematic or non-existent internet connections in hotels.

(Also, when one of us was ill, or when things weren't going "as planned," like not having lights for a dress-rehearsal, we joked that this was "eating the dog.").

 

Posted with Blogsy

Life returning to "normal"

Hello, everyone! And greetings from the Chicago O'Hare airport. This is my *last* layover before landing in Rochester!

I've some funny things about myself during the trip back to the United States:

1. Complete expectation of my fellow countrymen to dress like complete bums and completely weather in-appropriate (old man wearing sandals with socks and shorts and no coat in Seattle).

2. Still looking at the menu for surprise delights, but not finding any.

3. No more "royal treatment" on economy flights (no food on American flights at all anymore).

4. Walking into restrooms fearlessly, not being afraid of what I would or wouldn't find. (The American-Standard of relatively clean throne with toilet paper is NOT standard everywhere!).

5. Chopsticks are by-request only.

6. It's funny to hear only one language spoken on the airplane.

7. Americans *really* like their space.

8. I am in disbelief and denial about how much work I have to get done before December 21st.

9. I miss: Zheng, Aying, Mari, Amber, the eclectic people we met on the trip, and hearing all of these different languages spoken around me.

10. Water in America - huge with ice. Water in China - smaller glass and usually heated. I don't think I can go back to ice water, actually.

Photo: sweet mini-pastry at breakfast.

The heart of a traveler

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius

We are leaving China today.  In fact, I am writing this from the Business-Class Lounge.  We are boarding in about fifteen minutes, and I can't believe the tour has drawn to a close.  

A very valuable lesson that my parents taught me, and that has served me and many special people on this trip, is that you should do things, "wholeheartedly, even if you don't want to."  

The single most beautiful thing I have found in China is the whole-heartedness that we have received.  Most specifically from Zheng and Aye-yun (who I found out - her name in English is spelled Aying), but not limited to hotel staff, doctors, bell-hops, the people at TCG Nordica, our hosts and translators, or professors at the various schools.  

It will be my mantra, from now on, to copy this beautiful aspect of the Chinese heart.  I will go, with all my heart, wherever I shall go.  

Photo: from the Yunnan Province, Dai minority village

On being a Minority

Throughout my entire post-secondary education, and especially at Oberlin and Eastman, I've had many friends and colleagues from the Pacific Rim countries (mainly: China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) that have been co-enrolled with me.  I now know what it really feels like to be "minority," where you really are a stranger in a strange place.  And, I need to remember that Mandarin is *the* most spoken language in the world.  

Now, after being here for almost a month, I have an even deeper respect and appreciation for how they have navigated their own transitions, and how they have handled the travel back-and-forth on a student budget.  How they have handled the academic work at either Oberlin or Eastman (which is no joke for a native-English speaker!) is also even *more* admirable to me now that I've been here. 

This is the Chinese I know:

Thank you, Please, Hello, How are you, Panda Hat, receipt, sweetheart, I'm full, Fantastic, Yes, No, Square, Avenue, One, Two, Three, Wheat. 

Zheng has been pushing me to learn more Chinese, but when he says something, and I have to repeat it, it comes out in a way which is apparently hilarious.  

To the ears and mouth of a linguist, hearing Mandarin on the streets has been a beautiful inspiration.  Since China is the size of the US, and also has an ocean on one side of it, it faces similar linguistic-isolation issues that the US does.  Add to that the ten thousand characters needed to read a newspaper, four "tones" within the spoken language, and vastly different ways of reading (print looks very different from cursive), and you have a linguistic maelstrom that I now determined to conquer.  I hope to be returning to China sooner rather than later.

Ellen and I have been a "hit" here, I'm happy to report.  Our class at Renmin University this morning (http://english.ruc.edu.cn/en/), and our last one of the trip, was fun.  I also met two Eastman alumni who are working at this university full-time!  

Kunming, the largest city in the Yunnan province, also boasts about how many "minorities" live either within its city limits, or in a collective of representative "minority villages" just outside the city.  On invitation from Mari, we went and had a great time visiting various villages.  Each village had its own dress, architecture, food speciality, performance and religious traditions.  

The picture I'm attaching is a candid of two Miao women, in traditional dress.  It was an inspiration to see such color.

Movie-star status

One of the steady sources of entertainment here are the regular (and fairly constant) requests for random people to want to get their picture taken with either Ellen or I.  This started on our first full day here, at the Forbidden City.  (Ellen has also been sporting a white poofy hat, and, standing at 5'10" and resembling Annette Benning, she is definitely movie-star material).  

I am not exactly sure the source of the fascination with me, but, I find it funny just the same.  When I was in Shanghai, Bob and I were walking home from the art museum in the park, and several women came up behind me and started touching my earrings and my hair, asking if my hair was real, etc.  

So, I got "mobbed" again by a group of six Chinese men or so when were visiting the Bai village on Tuesday, in Yunnan.  They made their request known in Chinese, and then all of the sudden, they all wanted their picture taken with me.

 

--
Kristin Ditlow
kristin.ditlow@gmail.com
215.527.4237
coming soon: www.kristinditlow.com

Master class, TCG Nordica

On Monday, Ellen and I had the immense privilege of giving a joint master class at TCG Nordica (I posted about this location last week, after my Welcome Dinner and practice sessions there).  On the docket that day was:

Schumann, Quartet Opus 44 (first and second movements, with a different pianist per movement)

Dvořák, "American" Quartet

Lunch Break 

Chausson, Opus 21 for Solo Violin, Piano, and String Quartet

Mozart, Quartet in C Major, K. 465 ("Dissonance")

I took the pieces with piano, and Ellen took the string-only pieces.  It was wonderful to talk to the groups about things I've thought about for years about this kind of repertoire (and what Dr. Barr and Professor CR in particular have definitely worked on with me during my time at Eastman).  

The Chausson is a less familiar piece (and composer) to me, but the late-19th-century French-but-Wagnerian style is now familiar territory.  And I'm no stranger to Schumann, and his virtuosic piano parts, his intimate qualities, his devotion to an incredibly vocal line, and a quirkiness and fantasy that brings me back, with delight, every time I get to play his music.  

I adored working with the piano students and the string players of the Kunming Orchestra.  The second violinist of the Chausson had said in a later conversation, 

"You weren't here long enough."

I cannot begin to say how true that feels.  And ... I have been invited back for a three-month (!!) residency in Kunming, dates and arrangements to be decided, but, I am excited about it.  I'm forever telling my students and colleagues to "get rehired."    

The picture is a photo of the morning session string players, pianists, and Ellen and I.  

Lost in Translation - The Menu

One of my favorite pastimes for the past three weeks has been to thoroughly scour the menus of all of the restaurants we have visited.  This is not only because of my curiosity, it is also because we have found some AMAZINGLY funny things printed, due to difficulty of translating Chinese into English.  

I should also share that the menus are printed right-to-left.  So drinks, rice, soup, is at the "end" of the menu.  It took me at least a week to figure this out.  

I'm not really sure how much editing (if any) some of these menus or documents have received before going to print, but I will list you some incredibly funny ones below:

Rice Balls with Glue

Students Addicted to Intestinal Health

Students Addicted to Tree Frogs 

Legend of the Burning of Hakka 

Fishing fans to burn dry sausages

Fatty Beef Balls 

But my favorite is attached as a picture.  

  

--
Kristin Ditlow
kristin.ditlow@gmail.com
215.527.4237
coming soon: www.kristinditlow.com

What's your style?

Greetings, everyone, again from Beijing!

Ellen, Bob, (and now, Zheng and Aye-yun) and I are having a blast in Beijing.  We leave in 48 hours to return to the United States!  There are so many stories:  short, long, hilarious, epic, passing.  And about as many photos to go with them.  

When we were in Kunming, giving our assembly-style presentations to the children at KIA (see post, "134 Waves"), we had received some really stunning gifts as a thank-you for our performances that afternoon.  We are discovering further and further that China is a gift-culture.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy).  

Within the gift-bags were some stunning gifts from Eden Ministry.  These amazing pieces of jewelry and art are made by women formerly held captive by the sex trafficing and prostitution businesses that we have heard about from the Asian countries.  You can read more about the jewelry and Eden's philosophy here:  http://edenministry.org/.  

The jewelry was definitely hand-picked for me and for Ellen.  They nailed our individual styles, which was interesting, because the person purchasing and presenting the gifts to us had only met us 45 minutes prior to the concerts.  Our friend and über-agent in Kunming, Mari, had given her friend Ruth specific instructions as to our styles.  

I was tickled by this, so I pulled Mari aside and asked, "How did you describe my style so well?  What did you tell your friend?"

With a grin, she said, "Well, I told her your coloring (hair-skin-eye).  And then, I just used the words,

"Celtic Bohemian."

I'm not showing pictures of the jewelry here because I have since visited the shop and made some fun Christmas shopping choices.  However, the picture attached is a gift from Zheng when I was in Beijing the first time.  It's not exactly Celtic Bohemian, but it's fun, and this has kept me warm against some pretty cold weather!

--
Kristin Ditlow
kristin.ditlow@gmail.com
215.527.4237
coming soon: www.kristinditlow.com

Unusual Chinese Jobs, a Top-Ten List

Unusual Chinese Jobs, a Top-Ten 

There never ceases to be things which surprise, delight, or inspire me here.  I have noticed that everyone in China has a job.  (Or two or three.  The prediction that China will become *the* world economic power by 2020 is not a surprise to me, seeing the amazing free-market-enterprise and cultural work ethic which are present here).

Here is my top-ten list, à la David Letterman:

10.  Monkey beggar (see post, "Monkey Business")

9.  Omelet guard.  There was an additional person watching the chef at the Hotel "TianAn Rega" (our hotel in Beijing) that ... well, I'm not really sure what she did.  Prevented omelet-theft?  

8.  Street cleaners.  These people work round-the-clock to make sure that you could eat off of the streets, no matter which city you are in.

7.  Panda-hat vendors. (I need to write about panda-hats in another post).  Add to 7b - random souvenir sellers.  It hasn't nearly gotten to the level of Paris-Eiffel Tower vendors, but these people often have several jobs.  Hey, if you could sell keychains to help your savings account, why not? (Chinese typically save **70%** of their income.  Americans, wake up.)

6.  Critter-market vendors and chefs (see post, "To Market, to market").

5.  Transportation assistants.  We would call them "drivers."  They drive taxis, bread-trucks (see post, "Taxi!"), rickshaws, and these metal carts which look like food-stands but are meant to carry people.  Apparently, these are expensive and illegal.

4.  Travel-agents.  We ran into a lot of these in Beijing.  They will find you in the park, strike up a conversation, ("rich Westerner," even though they don't come out and say it.  I'm not stupid), and try to sell you everything ranging from a van-ride to the Great Wall to imitiation silk-screen paintings.

3.  Street-barbecuers.  These are not to be confused with the critter-market vendors.  This is a serious business.  They usually appear in popular-crowded streets at around 9 PM.  They have crowds around them (the locals seem to really know which ones to go to!) and they sell everything from tofu and vegetables to skewers with rice.  Well ... depending on how many critters are walking around ... they may have more in-common with #6.  And every time I see a dog walking around the streets without an owner, I say a silent prayer for him to *not* walk by any restaurants ... Street-barbecuers, according to my Chinese inside-source, make about $5,000 per month.  Which is more than some PhDs make in China (or the US for that matter).

2.  Light-operators in performance venues.  Oh my goodness, this has been quite an adventure.  We played one concert, which we had to start late, because no one was there to turn the lights on.  Obviously, I wouldn't mention which concert this was.  The concert eventually happened, with proper lighting.

1.  Street-choir karaoke director.  I have run into these everywhere - community of amateurs singing, sometimes a cappella, sometimes with a loudspeaker-boom-box.  I always stop and listen.  

--
Kristin Ditlow
kristin.ditlow@gmail.com
215.527.4237
coming soon: www.kristinditlow.com

134 Waves

Hello again, from Kunming!

Yesterday, Ellen and I did two separate assembly-programs for Kunming International Academy.  (http://www.kia-china.org).  This school is one of the most diverse student-populations I have ever seen!  Our two programs were twenty-five minutes each: first for the primary grades (age 5-11), and the secondary school (age 12-18) followed.   

Since each program was only 25 minutes long, and especially with the age of the primary-school children, we did not want to play long excerpts or even whole movements.  We spoke a little about each piece, and we played selections of Albeniz, Boccherini, Vaughn Williams, and Clarke.  

The audience was absolutely delightful.  Especially the younger ones - they sat on the EDGE of their seats, as if we were about to show them a Harry Potter movie.

I had asked the children before the Vaughn Williams (Romance, opus posthumous) to imagine that the surface gestures in the piano part were waves, like what Vaughn Williams would have seen in the English Channel.

Ellen and I played the first part ... 

And then, after the applause, a small boy in the third row says, "One hundred thirty four!"

And Ellen and I just look at each other, and we glance at his teacher ... and we continue.  We had no idea what this was about.

He kept repeating it more adamantly and with more strength.  "134! 134! 134!" 

Finally, the teacher got a little annoyed and urged him to be quiet.

Then, he said, "There are one hundred and thirty-four waves in that piano part.  I counted them!"

He was right.  I went from being slightly annoyed with the boy to immediately choking up.  He had listened so attentively, with such focus!  

And I will admit that - I had never "counted my own waves" before this performance.  

He was right.  134.  

The photo is of Ellen and I with our wonderful host Mari, holding the incredibly generous gifts which KIA gave to us following our performance.  Thank you!

Larger than Life

Today is the day of our concert! We have already had the dress-rehearsal in Kunming's theatre. (800 seats, Steinway D, good acoustic).

Three anecdotes from this morning ...

1. As Ellen and I were standing in front of this big poster, a passer-by wanted her picture taken with the "movie stars." So we did.

2. There is a stray cat backstage IN THE THEATRE and it protests every time Ellen plays on the A-string.

3. The piano sounds best when it is slightly forward. The pit is raised, so currently one leg of the Steinway is on the pit, 2/3 is on the stage. My recurring "nightmare" about playing a piano which is barreling towards a pit might just come true.

Nordica

The related arts speak to me as strongly as my own.  That is to say - I am forever moved and inspired by: poetry, painting, sculpture, woodprinting, dance (all types), poetry readings, novels, short stories, plays, weaving, composition, photography, film, design, non-fiction.  

So, imagine the inspiration that hit me when I walked into this space:

www.tcgnordica.com.  

The website (click on "English") features stories about Ellen and I, both about our theater concert tomorrow night, as well as our master class at this location on Monday, December 3rd.  

This place was an old factory, and the "T" in the name is for Nobel-Prize poet Tomas Tranströmer (Sweden).  Our dear friend and contact in Kunming, Mari (yes, the same fountain of happiness and ingenuity that came up with the bread-truck-as-taxi-idea), being a Finnish national, is very invovled with this incredible space.  It features an open-space gallery, displaying local accomplished artists, a stage with a grand piano, a bar with excellent locally grown coffee (!), a place to study, and artists' studios on the top floor.  

I could easily spend here: some of my savings, my free time, or some of my time, months on end.  

And it's funny that I should mention that, because, at the wonderful "Welcome Dinner" they had for us, Mari mentioned to me that she wanted to apply for funding for me to do a three-month residency at Nordica and in Kunming.

One of my projects that I've been working on, since the summer (funny enough: this inspiration came as a result from conversations with another Swede!) are a series of improvised piano pieces that are synchronized with displaying photographs of the places that I've been.  I tried my first hand with this in Sárospatak, Hungary, this past summer, and I feel it was successful.  I'm looking forward to doing more of these programmes once I'm finished the doctorate ... 

So, her idea would be that my photography-improvisations would be a part of the residency.  I know enough about the field now to say that "nothing is secure until the contract is signed," but ... it is an incredibly exciting possibility.  Once I know where I will "be" next year, the details of other projects like this will hopefully fall into place.   I never thought my curiosity and multi-faceted-nature would eventually be an asset.  In some cases, an abundance of curiosity and can lead to a perceived lack-of-focus.  

But am I past that point?  Thanks especially to my teacher and mentor, Dr. J.B., she has encouraged me to not only "follow instincts" but also to be aware of where my balance-points are.  I have found my time in China to be incredible, beautiful, surprising, inspirational, and eye-opening.  Who knew that in southern China, at the foothills of the Himalayas, that a possibility of further community and artistry could bring me back again?    

I am so grateful to Mari, to Amber and Nadia for helping so with our welcome, and to the wonderful company, fellowship, and food we shared upon our arrival in Kunming (Ellen hasn't been feeling well in the past days, so she and Bob elected to stay home during the initial dinner).  And I am looking forward to our time together there on Monday. 

The photo is a shot of the opening dinner, on the ground floor of the gallery.

Taxi!

Greetings again from Kunming, where we spent our first night (very happily) in the nicest hotel in Kunming! (My budget-traveler tendencies or necessities will never be the same after this trip).

After breakfast, I prepared myself for the day and ... wrestled once again with ...

The Issue of Chinese Taxis.

This has been going on my entire time here. It started at the Beijing airport, where we didn't get a taxi large enough for Ellen, Bob, myself, our stuff, and our interpreter Zheng. So ... logically ... I was thrown into a taxi by myself! And I got myself to the hotel (which is a miracle, since my Chinese knowledge makes my Hungarian look positively fluent).

On another day, Ellen was in a taxi heading back from string-sectional coaching, and the taxi dinged the one in front of her. They just kept going. No stopping and exchanging information.

The days that followed were a myriad of taxi-stories. Couldn't find one in the morning (Beijing traffic is something of a nightmare). Couldn't get one immediately before our concert (that was a near-DISASTER because we really needed to get to the hall!). And had it not been for a miracle, chance encounter that we had with a visiting violin professor from the UK (thank you ML!!!), Ellen and I would have been late to our Friday master class in Beijing. Getting a taxi near Tiananmen Square (where we were staying) is simply near impossible. And we did end up getting to the hall in time for the concert, but we had to find a sleeping cabbie, wake him up, explain to him (in our "Chinese") and pay 5 times the amount you would normally pay to get to the hall.

Shanghai was better (I had learned how to use the metro by then, as I can now read Chinese calligraphy for metro-stop names, the sign for "road," and the sign for "exit"). But we were close enough to walk everywhere, so that wasn't so much of an issue.

And today, I had practice-time arranged at the Nordica Art Gallery (more about that incredible place in another post!). The taxi was to have arrived for me at 9:15 AM. By 9:35, still no taxi for me, so I made the bellhop flag one down for me. He proceded to get lost.

I should also mention that things like U-turns and just deciding "Oh, I should turn around here" are very -- well, spur-of-the-moment. Aside from the rickshaw ride in Beijing our first full day there, my favorite taxi moment of the trip so far was this evening.

(At this point, it is necessary for me to explain currency and cab fare norms):

about 6¥ = 1$
Cab rides within a part of the city where it is too far to walk, or you are carrying flowers and a viola, etc., can cost you about 18¥ (about 3.00$). That's not too bad. Even our black-martet-cab-ride the night of the Beijing recital cost ¥100, or less than $20.00 (I dare say, a standard fare in NYC).

Now, in Kunming, since the city has grown far faster than the roads or metro (which they are building) can accomodate, traffic and taxi-negotiations are ridiculous. So, our friend Mari, our original inspiration and invitation for this entire tour, had figured out something ingenious and hilarious.

For the cost of ¥35 (about $6.00 US), you and four of your closest friends (all included in the price) can be taken around the city, to your destination, in a bread truck. No haggling, no waiting to flag down a cab.

However, the driver can reserve the right to make a bread delivery on the way to driving you to play for 300 children. And no, I'm not making this up. This actually happened. Today.

The picture is at the Nordica Art Gallery, where I practiced today after an anxiety-filled taxi ride.

The Dog Returns: Kunming Arrival

(I will explain the title in a later post).

We have arrived safely in Kunming!  Capital city of the Yunnan Province, Kunming is a place I had never heard of before the genesis of this tour, 16 months ago.  6 million people call Kunming home, and the city boasts a new-airport, California-like weather (no coat needed), and one of the best hotels I have ever stayed at in my life.  Yes, this is going to be a great week.  

Ellen and I have our concert here on December 1st - the week will also be full with workshops for the International School and for the Nordica Cultural Center.  

This photo is what Amber and Mari (our hosts in Kunming) were holding at the airport!  There is nothing to describe the relief and joy that it is to see a familiar face greeting you in an unfamilar city or country.  

Mari and Amber, thank you for the wonderful welcome, and for what promises to be an amazing week!  

--
Kristin Ditlow
kristin.ditlow@gmail.com
215.527.4237
coming soon: www.kristinditlow.com

Front-Row Seats

Front-Row Seats

Hello everyone!

(A big thank-you to VEFM and BD for helping me fix my blog-issues.).

We are leaving Shanghai early tomorrow morning.  I realize that I haven't yet posted about my reactions from the Beijing concert, and I believe that they are important to share.  Our performance in Shanghai is tonight at 7PM at the Conservatory of Music, followed by a "reception dinner."  

Our performance (and really, our entire time) in Beijing was another beautiful reminder about why I do this - why I am an artist, why I have chosen and have been chosen to be a collaborative pianist, why I travel, and why I enjoy playing with Ellen so much.    

I will first reflect on the experiences I had teaching the violists and pianists at the Beijing Conservatory of Music.  I found the students to be open, well-prepared, and eager to learn more.  Ellen and I tag-teamed the students on the day prior to our concert.  I taught in public, for the first time in my life, the E-major solo violin partita (but violists play it in A).  What makes this interesting is that I do not play any stringed instrument nearly at the level that any of these students do, and when I did study the violin, I had no business studying or playing any of the Bach unaccompanied works.

However, I do love them.  I listen to them when I need to be "alone with music."  And I have played Bach's keyboard music since I was a young girl.  I have coached vocalists on it, played rehearsals for cantatas and the major Passions, and have performed a good amount of the Preludes and Fugues, English Suites, Partitas, concerti, and all of the two-and-three part Inventions.  So, I guess that made me qualified to say something.  I think I helped, and Ellen was very positive about my input to that student in particular.  I also had more to say to the piano-viola duos.  

One moment during the class that was incredibly touching was Ellen's demonstration of the opening of the Bruch "Romance."  I teared up, immediately, upon hearing it, and her husband (next to me at the time) did as well.  She played it intimately and beautifully, as if she herself was writing it, and talking to someone.

The concert, last Saturday night (only 4 days ago!), was a wonderful experience as well.  In the front-row were Zheng and his mother, Ayuen (our hosts for the first week and our traveling companions to the Great Wall and to the Forbidden City).  In fact, I could see them very clearly from where I was sitting.  The audience was peppered with people video-taping the concert - with pretty high-powered video equipment, iPhones, iPads, other tablets, etc.  

Though the image that I will never forget is what happened during the first piece of our second half, Messaien's "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus."  This is the first piece that Ellen and I ever played together (it's the cello movement of the "Quartet for the End of Time.").  Messaien has notated it in such a way as to eliminate the feelings of barlines, or really, time at all.  The piano part isn't technically demanding, but the bow-control issues and keeping the tempo slow enough make it challenging for any musician.  Because of my (relatively) easier part, I was able to take in the audience's reaction to the piece while we were playing it.  

There was a young Chinese man, maybe aged 14, in the front row.  He was sitting there, his eyes closed, and looked totally transported by this music.  Was he moved by the inexorable rhythmic quality?  Ellen's etherial vocalism?  Or the message of the piece itself?  I dare mention that it could have been the first time some of the audience had seen the word "Jesus" in print. 

I have noticed here that the pings and pangs of church-bells are noteably absent in China.  Compared to my "beaten paths" around Europe, the sounds of these cities are markedly different.  Noisier in some ways, and more silent in others.  

I dare say that Ellen and I made our mark on Beijing, but certainly this man in the front row.  My job as a sound-painter was able to insert pealing bells into new hearts and ears.  

The young man in the front row did greet us after the concert.  He pointed to the Messaien in the program with tears in his eyes.   He didn't say a word to us in his language, nor did we respond in ours.  We left the hall that night having decidedly done our jobs.

This picture is one I took during a visit to the "Temple of Heaven" in Beijing a few days ago.  

Monkey Business

Greetings ...

I write to you from Shanghai, with a rich trove already of stories, jokes, and travelogues.

I have been thinking as I have been here - how important it is to get the "flavor" of a place simply by walking around and-or taking public transportation. You can smell the street-food smoldering at midnight, you can see groups of Chinese nationals at all ages doing line-dancing in the public squares, or take karaoke lessons from a leader.

Or, you can happen upon a beggar who has this adorable accomplice. I will warn everyone that once you start photographing street monkeys, the monkey starts dancing, AND, other beggars with THEIR street monkeys also want a piece of the "American Pie."

Yes, friends. I'm up to "Monkey Business" in China.

Getting "Shanghai"ed

Dear ones,

First of all, any of you who know me even a little know that I can't resist a pun, even an incredibly bad and cheap one. That will never change.

I write to you from Shanghai now. We left our hotel this morning in Beijing in darkness, and we were taken by a "mega-taxi" (sedan with huge trunk that could accommodate our suitcases) to Peking Int'l Airport. I especially appreciated our taxi driver's "secret ninja driving skills" in order to bypass the immense traffic getting into Terminal 1 this morning. We stood in line to check in, which was fast, and security was even faster. No shoe removal necessary, although security had a small problem with my umbrella. (?) The flight was terrific, and I was aloud to read my Kindle during take-off (though I did have to have the WiFi feature toggled off). We had a great meal on-board too, which, these days in the US, is unheard of on domestic flights. It is about a 2-hour flight from Beijing to Shanghai.

Now, officially after two flights on-board a non-US carrier, I will say this.

United States transportation organizations, you have A LOT to learn. Our baggage was *waiting* for us from the baggage claim when we disembarked! And furthermore, there were guards who made you match your passport to your claim-check tag. There will be no stealing-of-bags here.

The taxi-routine at these airports is also something commendable. You wait in a fast-paced line, and there is a gentleman who funnels the taxis to parking spots. From there, he looks at your personnel (Warning: he does not look at your luggage amount! And we learned this fast.), and then assigns the proper vessel. In our case, he had miscalculated the amount of stuff (I'm fairly laden-down on this trip, I have to say) we had, including an instrument that can't go in the trunk, and luggage for three people, etc.

We eventually commandeered a mini-SUV-taxi and easily checked into our hotel. I headed out ASAP to start exploring, and since our hotel doesn't have WiFi, and I can't read a Chinese map, I am currently at "Você" trying to figure out how to get around this new city! I was able to pantomime "map" (which, I promise sounded like the word for "panda" in the supermarket, but I'm quite sure that I am in the wrong). So, I have a nice map and I will hopefully figure out some things here.

I will keep you posted on our adventures - our work at Shanghai Conservatory begins tomorrow. We are within walking distance of that school, and it promises to be raining here for our entire visit. However, the weather is more pleasant here. Not as chilly ...

Signing off for now ...

Kristin