HITS AND MISSES: MARI LEE
HIT Last November I was in Tokyo for a concert and my boyfriend came with me. After it was over we decided to take a short trip to Kyoto, where I grew up. We walked along the Philosopher’s Path and when it suddenly started pouring with rain we took refuge at the beautiful Honen-in Temple and sat cross-legged across from the bronze Buddha statue, where we stayed totally silent looking up to the sky watching the rain drops fall, calmed by the smell of the damp moss and sound of the rustling autumn leaves. We had an incredible kaiseki dinner in the evening and when we got back to the hotel I realised I’d left my iPhone in the taxi. I called and texted my phone but there was no answer, and just as I had given up on it, I got a call from the front desk telling me the taxi driver was downstairs with my phone! I was so touched by people’s kindness there and felt very moved by the culture.
MISS
When I was 16 I participated in the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan, where I got knocked out in the semifinal round. I was going through security to board the plane home when I was asked to show documents for my violin. It turned out I was supposed to have declared it upon entering the country. Since I had nothing to show and the instrument didn’t even belong to me, they confiscated my violin and I missed my plane. I called the competition office for help, and they told me they had to contact a lawyer to get all the paperwork done to recover the violin, which would take at least two days. By the time I got back to the hotel, everyone knew about it (even the receptionist) and not only was I on the front page of the newspaper the next day, I was chased by media asking for an interview. It was so embarrassing I ended up locking myself up at the hotel until I was finally allowed to go home with my violin in my arms three days later.
Mari Lee is one of the 16 quarter-finalists in the 2017 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, which takes place June 2-10 in Queenstown and Auckland.
violincompetition.co.nz