New beginnings
I am a big fan of September. Don’t get me wrong, I love the long lazy days of summer (smoky air notwithstanding) and the absence of so many deadlines. However, there is something about all of the new beginnings that occur in September that gets me excited about what’s ahead.
Once the first day of school happens, all kinds of other start ups follow in quick succession; hockey practise, piano lessons, youth orchestra rehearsals, and, oh yeah, homework.
I know that there is a general practice of thought that we should all be living in the moment.
Buddha, Tolstoy and Oprah, among others, have all given their own version of how staying present in the present is what will bring the best life lessons and sense of peace. I’m not very good at this. I do strive to find time in each day to just be still in that moment, but I really love to experience the feeling of anticipation for what the future might hold.
Anticipation starts with imagination. As we contemplate the blank canvass, the blank timetable, the new business venture or the new arts program we start to build a sense of anticipation. What can we draw? What can we learn? What can we build? How can we be creative?
Asking these questions, for me, is the beginning of creating a sense of anticipation. Maintaining that sense of anticipation inspires me through the planning and the work that follows and becomes instrumental to completing that project, or arriving at that destination.
So, as I reflect on these new beginnings in September, I realize that living inside of all of this anticipation brings me more inspiration and satisfaction than just living in the moment. Oprah would likely not approve, but I would argue that we have to sometimes live in the future in order to plan.
Planning a season for the orchestra starts about two years in advance. It is like a big puzzle where we fit in just the right guest artist for this programme and feature just the right composer for that one. Once the dream is in place the work gets going; booking theatres, inviting guest artists, managing contracts, creating marketing materials, announcing the season, putting up posters, ordering music, selling tickets, studying and practising music, running rehearsals and before you know it, it’s September and our opening night is just around the corner.
After all of the planning, I am so excited for our opening night. Featuring pianist Jane Coop, one of Canada’s foremost pianists, with the Order of Canada pin to prove it, we will perform music by The Three B’s. Bach’s music epitomizes the ornamentation of the baroque period, Beethoven’s the structure of the classical, and Brahms’ the heartfelt beauty of the romantic.
This is gorgeous music to listen to that sweeps us across three centuries of composition from the past. We are all buzzing with the anticipation of our season opening and our concerts of the future. I do believe, however, that when you are sitting in the theatre and the live music washes over you, we will have done our jobs right if everything else falls away and you are left living exactly in the present moment.
Maybe Tolstoy, Buddha, and Oprah knew what they were talking about after all.
The Okanagan Symphony Orchestra presents The Three B’s Music of Bach, Beethoven & Brahms Featuring guest artist Jane Coop performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4
Concert Close-up, a thirty minute pre concert chat with Maestro Thomson one hour before each show
Friday, Sept. 21 7:30 p.m. at the Kelowna Community Theatre
Saturday, Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m. at the Cleland Theatre in Penticton
Sunday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m. at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre Visit: www.okanagansymphony.com Rosemary Thomson is music director and conductor with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra.