Frutillar Chile

Blog continued.

Frutillar Chile
Out of my window in the Victorian hotel near the theater, I see the glacier across the lake, looking like a version of Mt. Fuji. What I notice the most about this place is the pure sweet smell of the air. I just want to breathe in. The plants all look like they're on steroids.

Today we rehearsed. Mahani, the Chilean pianist who lives now in Berlin, played with Viviana first, then I warmed up in someone's private home on a Blutner piano. And then, after lunch, we all went over to the theater to play in the concert venue. It is not a huge theater, but couldn't be more exquisite, with a view of the lake and the volcanic mountain framed by floor to ceiling windows behind the stage. I think it was Mallorca where there was a similar theater.

I did a brief interview with a Santiago reporter who clearly hates anything associated with "new age.". Oh my. The classical snobism again. They can be pleased only by dissonance and complexity, both of which are way too easy to achieve.

Oh well.

This morning I took a great walk on the beach with a big golden dog, not sure what kind.
He came up to me with a stick and laid it at my feet. I picked it up and threw it. He chased it and brought it back. We did that for an hour, traveling along the shore heading away from town. At the far end of our walk, I was finally overwhelmed with the random deposits of plastic trash and picked up a plastic bag and started loading it with plastic wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic this and that, hoping that at least this stuff wouldn't find it's way into the gullet of a bird or fish. Fido was patient until we returned towards town and dumped the huge load into a virgin trash receptacle. It was completely empty, either from being unused or assiduously emptied.

There is music everyplace in this town. Right now I hear a violin outside the window.
It is a culture fest. Lovely.

Saturday

I'm waiting in my dressing room to go onstage. All is well, but I forgot my jewelry and there is nothing to eat here except chocolate. Chocolate will do the trick. I need energy to perform and it is lunchtime now.

The theater is magnificent and new. From what I understand with my limited Spanish, this building was built last year only, though the festival, La Semanas Musicales de Frutillar, has been going on for over forty years here.

I guess I'll rest a bit.

One hour later
The stage manager just came in and twenty minutes. It's like waiting for a sentence. It's at times like this that I wonder why I do this. One goes from total isolation and stillness to burst upon the stage with nuclear energy. And then it's over after 45 minutes. There's no way around it but through it. I wish I could be eating a big sandwich right now. My hands are cold and the water won't get hot to warm them. The makeup lights are really hot, so I can hold my hands nearby. I'll go do that now.

After the concert

Oh my. What a whirlwind. My CDs sold out in 5 seconds. I brought only 50 here so I would have some for other concerts. The problem is that on the little airlines one has to pay a huge premium for extra weight, which is absurd, because I weighed half what the man beside me weighed. Just a way for Sky Airlines, this time - it was EasyJet in Italy- to justify scraping up a bit more cash.

Anyway, it was so so beautiful, the concert and eventually I will have some photos from the official photographers who promised they would send some.

Now we are off to Santiago.

South American Update

Here I am at the bottom of the earth, where Magellan sailed through the maze of waterways to find a route to the other side of his world. For me, it seemed to take almost as long to get here: 8 hours San Francisco to Lima, 4 hours Lima to Santiago , 4 hours Santiago to Punta Arenas, 7 hours, this time by car, to Estancia Tercera Barranca.

Patagonia is big and windy... It is difficult to open the car doors, it is so windy. There is, not surprisingly, no Wi-Fi here. There is no electricity past 1:00 AM, no problem, and no telephone at all ... just radio contact. Not a good place to have an emergency, though I am sure they can handle just about anything.

I am here with Viviana Guzman. We have a concert in a few days in Frutillar and thought it would be nice to have this little adventure while recovering from the long trip to Chile.

I'm sitting in front of the wood stove now, listening to the wind outside. Viviana has gone to another building to play her flute. Piano is another story. There is one in this park actually, about 2 hours from here, and we will go there either tomorrow or the next day so that we can rehearse together. I need to show her the new piece I wrote in Venice, "Tango Venezia," that keeps going through my head.

Later
We did go to rehearse, with an appointment at the chic Explora Club, nestled above a waterfall and with a view that is priceless, though a room costs $1200 per day with a four day minimum. We arrived in the early afternoon and went through our set, attracting an appreciative small crowd. The stalwart Steinway hated any key with more than two flats. For lunch we were served an impeccably presented sandwich and then perused the low key and understatedly elegant surroundings. There was a quotation on the wall to the effect that we travel in order to come back to where we started and see it as if for the first time. Nice.

Alas, there were no rooms available and so we drove on to a nearby place that was a nightmare compared to the dream we had been in....noisy, cold, with inedible food that tasted of old grease. Viviana got sick in the cold and I didn't sleep at all.

So, here we are now in the lovely little lodging where we started out and it all seems to have gone by so quickly. I just looked at my photos and see the condors and guanaco and ostrich type birds and lambs and sheep and horses and endless vistas of mountains, glaciers and big sky.

Packing for South America

I am leaving day after tomorrow for my first ever South American Tour.
This is a tour that has been on my wish list for more years than I dare to say.
So, finally, like any good Indie Artist, I decided to bootstrap the process and enlist the support of my fans.  Years of waiting on various agents produced no useful results. So now I am packing my concert dresses and bathing suits and a hefty load of CDs that I hope will not create excess baggage fees and flying off to meet my fans and explore summer in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

 January 29th.

Concert in Frutillar, Chile with Flautist Viviana Guzman

http://www.semanasmusicales.cl/artistas.html

           

February 6. 

Concert in Mendoza, Argentina with Julio Mazziotti, a pianist I met in Mallorca late last year at the  PRIMER ENCUENTRO INTERNACIONAL DE PIANISTAS DEL MUNDO, which is now an annual event!

February 10 and 11.

Concerts in Montevideo, Uruguay, promoted by unrelenting fan Juan Carlos Bacino.

February 10 Solo Piano

February 11 With Flautist Viviana Guzman

February 14th.

Concert in Valdivia, Chile for Valentine's Day.

Promoted by Mundovivo Music and my dear friend Subhira Rodriguez.

My first blog post

Here I am writing into space at the suggestion of my niece, Laura Saslow, who set this up in 2 seconds flat.

Let's see what happens!  Here I am laughing, several years ago, while in Taiwan on a photo shoot.
I had intended to start a blog while I was in Venice, Italy this past October and November, working on a new compositions, inspired by Venice, of course, but was too busy actually composing to tear myself away to chat into the nothingness.
It's great to start this right on the cusp of a new year!
And Happy Birthday to my Mom today...she would have been about 97 today!