eastern exposure

I’m here in La Grande, Oregon with the Oregon Symphony, in case you’re wondering.  And it’s been a busy first day.  Yesterday my wife (a freelance cellist who plays often with the orchestra) and I arrived here at around 9:00 p.m., enjoying the great change of scenery and ecosystems that we continually marvel at when we venture across the Cascade Range along the way. 

I got some great sunset shots from the top of the huge hill that I-84 climbs before you descend through the Blue Mountains into La Grande, but no way to post them at this time – I’ll be sure to share photos from the trip with you when I’m back home on Sunday.

This morning at 9:30 and 11:00 we played youth concerts for elementary, middle, and high school students from La Grande and several surrounding communities, including Baker City, Cove, and Union. 

Then, after a lunch break provided by community boosters, we had the first of two rehearsals for our grand finale concert Saturday night.  We’re being joined on part of the program by choirs, bands, and string players from local schools and arts organizations, it’s a great way to mingle and share the experience with them.  And I’m sure that, for them, it’s the chance of a lifetime to perform with a major, professional symphony orchestra.  It’s our pleasure to have them!

Some information to share with you all: I’ve been featured as one of four classical musicians that might influence the future of the arts in Portland, an article by Stephen Marc Beaudoin written for the online journal Crosscut.  You can find the article here.  It’s genuinely remarkable to me that this blog has amounted to anything. 

I’m not being falsely modest, either. 

I know that I have the ability to write coherent sentences (thanks to the Writing through the Curriculum policy at the University of Puget Sound) and that I’m in a unique position to share my thoughts from the “inside”. 

However, I never started blogging as a way to get attention or forward an agenda, unless my agenda is the furthering of classical music in general, and the furthering of symphonic classical music specifically, in Portland.  That aspect of the blogging came for me later on in the journey.  I found myself reading what other musicians and critics where saying in reaction to the big events in classical music, and realizing that those events - which seemingly had little connection to Portland, Oregon – brought up issues or angles on issues which were staring me or my employer straight in the face.

There are a lot of issues about blogging flying around in the mainstream media right now.  One of them is, at least in the sense that some bloggers see themselves as journalists, that bloggers don’t have an ethical obligation like print or broadcast journalists to adhere to.  I feel very strongly that above all else, the one thing that you can claim as your own is a sense of honor, a view of the world that takes in every viewpoint and expresses your own, without vilification or vitriol.  If one can keep to this philosophy, it’s possible to write about almost anything with a sense of respect and perspective. 

If you don’t have your integrity, you have nothing.

There are many, many blog entries that have been started and then thrown out.  Either I was angry when I started writing them, or apathetic, or petty, but as soon as I saw what point of view I was taking, I realized that this was not who I really was, or more importantly – who I really wanted to be. 

It’s easy, so easy, to cast aspersions on others from a place of relative safety.  It’s much harder, however, to put yourself in the place of those with whom you disagree, and try to figure out what is driving them to the conclusion that they’ve reached. 

Many times I’ll have a knee-jerk reaction to something that’s been said or done, and then, upon reflection, I find that I’ve got more in common with the opposing view that I thought possible before.

Well, enough about me – I’m glad that many people are reading and getting something positive out of my efforts here, and I plan to continue as long as I find the inspiration to write. 

Thanks.

 Send any comments you have about me or the article through the comments or contact me facilities here on the blog.  I’m always open to feedback, positive or otherwise.