{"id":2050,"date":"2009-03-03T20:05:49","date_gmt":"2009-03-04T04:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2009-03-03T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2009-03-04T04:48:10","slug":"an-island-of-solace-in-a-sea-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/03\/an-island-of-solace-in-a-sea-of-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"an island of solace in a sea of fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"munchscream2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The news around the world has certainly been dismal lately.\u00c2\u00a0 I find myself hearing about the latest bad financial news, rising unemployment rates, people turned out into the streets, and watch as my anxiety level starts to rise, with my blood pressure in quick pursuit.<\/p>\n

Then, I think of the quartet concert I played in Astoria on Saturday afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the inaugural musical event held in the Liberty Theater’s McTavish Room, a lovely little venue with beautiful hardwood floors and a giant crystal chandelier.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a baby step for the organizers (Margery Bloomfield, Steve Forrester and Brenda Penner), who printed only 60 tickets (and sold them all!), but the warmth and enthusiasm from this small, dedicated audience was amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the epitome of what music-making is all about.\u00c2\u00a0 Four players, brought together from across the country, playing great music for a delighted audience.<\/p>\n

With all that has been going on in the world, and continues to unfold every day, this event was literally an island of solace in a sea of fearfulness – for performers and audience both.<\/p>\n

The same could be said for the weekend’s OSO performances with violinist\/conductor Itzhak Perlman.\u00c2\u00a0 Few artists are known as much for the ebullience of their personality as for their music making as Perlman, and his warmth and gravitas filled Schnitzer Hall with a sense of peace and well-being.\u00c2\u00a0 Some took issue with the performances this weekend, but the orchestra played with the utmost sincerity and devotion to Perlman, and that was good enough for many of us, both onstage and in the audience.<\/p>\n

No matter what is going on in the outside world, the concert hall is a refuge from every day cares and worries.\u00c2\u00a0 People are hurting, and so are many arts institutions.\u00c2\u00a0 But these are the times when performing really is an act of civic caring.\u00c2\u00a0 Now is the time, if you are a supporter of the fine arts, to make a small financial sacrifice and buy a ticket and come to the concert hall.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got a few extra dollars, send a check to the arts organization of your choice – five dollars wouldn’t be looked down upon these days: every bit counts.<\/p>\n

The fine arts heal injuries that no medicine can touch, and put us in touch with those parts of ourselves that are ready to embrace beauty and hope in the face of ugliness and fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news around the world has certainly been dismal lately.\u00c2\u00a0 I find myself hearing about the latest bad financial news, rising unemployment rates, people turned out into the streets, and watch as my anxiety level starts to rise, with my blood pressure in quick pursuit. Then, I think of the quartet concert I played in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[136,115,135,2],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-2050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chamber-music","category-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-x4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}