We held our end-of-course concert last night, and it was a great success. Everyone on the course played, and Wissam also presented a piece. Although I don't formally participate in the course, Wissam was kind enough to invite me to play as well. The programme covered styles from Bach to contemporary via Latin-American, and also included a piece by one of the course students.
It's held in the pretty local church at St Pierre sur Erve, and I transport one of my pianos there for the event. This is harder than it might sound, achieved only with the help of some local muscle, co-ordinated by the mayor. The mayor rode on the other edge of the trailer, to balance the piano
The audience comprised locals, the mayor and other dignitaries, with a special showing of some of the brits from the area. We were treated to a reception of sparkling wine after the event.
I am often troubled by performance nerves that can kill my performance, and I find it frustrating that this prevents me from communicating what I love about the music. But this time, for whatever reason, although I had felt increasingly nervous (and played correspondingly badly) leading up to the performance, when the time came for me to play, I was up for it.
So despite the stress of the situation that everyone feels, I think I played musically, which is the main thing. Yes I know I fluffed a note or two, the intonation was dodgy in places, and for a few bars the piano and I were walking separate paths, but well, it worked anyway. Perhaps it was down to the special atmosphere of the course.
Now everyone's gone home. I'm exhausted, but I have great memories of a bunch of wonderful people and fabulous music-making. And if you're one of those people reading this - thank you for a special week. It seems too quiet now.....
