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A night of music uplifts spirits and opens new doors
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LIYA was coming to Beijing with the Kalamazoo Youth Symphony Orchestra. Both her mom, Sisi, and my daughter-in-law Jessica gave me the great news on email. How exciting!
I decided to take my old friend Mr Yeh and his wife and daughter to the concert. I had also decided to bring a cake. And order tickets, of course.
Tickets posed a problem — “not sold online, no reservations either,” I was told by the general office when I called.
Desperate, I called the ticket window, saying that I was over 80, at the other end of town and that I must make reservations. The voice at the other end of the phone sighed: “Alright. A special case. Make sure you mention my name — Su. Someone else will be at this window tomorrow when you pick up the tickets.”
When I added I will be bringing a cake, I was told to call the general manager Miss Tang. I became tense: will there be a safety issue? Miss Tang was helpful; she advised me to show up at 6:30pm, to catch Liya when her group returns from supper.
Actually it was the “writing on the cake” that became an issue. “Congratulations” had been refused — “not enough space left for the cherries.” We compromised with “Congrats.” But when I went to pick up the cake at Maxime’s that evening, what I saw was Cong and Rats! I put my foot down and insisted on change, tried to explain the rule about breaking up syllables. Finally we compromised with Con and Grats. I picked up the cake and Yeh dashed through the evening traffic to the other end of town.
The concert hall was new and very impressive. Walking up to the imposing swath of stone steps, I leaned on a pillar, waiting for Liya. The KJSO group soon showed up, more numerous than I had expected — smiling, pleasant young people and a few somewhat older.
Strangely, they started pointing at me! I realized it was my T-shirt — a gift from my daughter-in-law Jessica with the words: Yes, there IS a place called Kalamazoo. It was as if I had showed up to testify that they were real, that Kalamazoo was real. We laughed, shook hands, hugged, snapped photos. They were warm, lovely people — for a moment, I was back in Kalamazoo with Jessica and Emma and old friends.
Having lived in Kalamazoo off and on for many years, I had long heard of the Junior Symphony Orchestra. Kalamazoo is special in its devotion to the arts.
For a town like Kalamazoo, population 70,000-plus, to have maintained a Junior Symphony Orchestra through 75 years, the fact itself testifies to Kalamazoo’s faith in the uplifting power of music —power to raise the quality of life, power to make us better people.
Their first concert
The KJSO’s hard work today under the baton of Conductor Koehler is keeping that faith alive, is bringing that faith to China. On this occasion, I invited my old friend Mr Yeh, a driver, who had to work since early youth. I invited his wife, who never had higher education, being born in the countryside. And I insisted they bring their only daughter, Zixin, who had just been accepted into the middle school of her choice, after a lot of hard work on her own. It was their first concert, ever.
That night, as we said goodbye to each other, little Zixin said that from now on, she will listen more to music. That she harbored such a thought was for me a rich reward. If this concert could improve the quality of life for one little girl, open more doors to worlds for her to explore, that would have been worthwhile. But we know that the Junior Symphony Orchestra, over three quarters of a century, has touched the hearts and souls of untold numbers of boys and girls, old and young.
It is particularly pertinent that the KJSO is bringing its music to us during the year of 2014, as we are in the middle of celebrating Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. KJSO’s music brings us to mind Shakespeare’s words:
“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet music sounds,
Is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils...
Let no such man be trusted.”
(The Merchant of Venice)
Thank you, KJSO, for lifting us out of ourselves for one memorable evening. From now on, I will always think of you whenever I hear Bizet, or Dvorak. The last three encores were stunning. Even Conductor Koehler’s slightly peculiar Chinese accent was endearing.
Prof. Zhu Hong is a senior translator in Beijing.
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