It’s been a while since I performed on stage in anything musical. Thinking back, I guess it would have been my second Doctoral Recital at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School. Holy Glockenspiel, Batman! That was over 18 years ago!
So, after a long hiatus from the concert stage, I guess I get to return as I entered it, kneeling over a 5–6 bar metal xylophone. Except instead of this being Kindergarten music playtime, it’s as part of an amateur Gamelan ensemble. I’ve mentioned it earlier in this blog. (Gee, that’s twice in two postings that I’ve referred to earlier entries. Could I now just start repeating myself?). I do get to move around a bit, moving from the Saron (aforementioned kiddie xylophone) to the Demung (slightly bigger xylophone) and the gendér (more like a vibraphone, but without the motor).
We have our last set of rehearsals from Friday on, and the concert will be at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, a building that figured prominently in one of the few movies that makes no illusions about the fact that it was shot here in Vancouver, Intersection, made in 1994 (staring Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, and Lolita Davidovich) . It truly is gorgeous. Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 7 PM. Admission is free.
In the meantime, I’m just trying to keep my head together as work starts to kick into a slightly higher gear, and time left for sleep seems less and less.