Sunday, November 25, 2012

Tuning

The recital hall is a lovely room--a very live space. The piano is a Steinway model D concert grand. We had about a hundred in the audience. Everything went really well.
Here are Ellen and Kristin taking care of the essential preliminaries.

Before the recital

Here is Ellen with our host, professor Wing Ho, who took us all out to a lavish dinner after the concert.

A nice poster

Posted prominently in the music buildings:

A miracle

Friday morning, Ellen and Kristin had master classes scheduled for 9:30 am at the conservatory. We all assumed we would have no trouble finding a cab, but alas, there were no cabs to be found. We walked up to the main boulevard and still no luck.
Time was running short, so I ran up to the doorman at the Beijing Raffles Hotel to see if he could help us. At that moment I heard a voice from behind me asking if I was going to the music conservatory (I happened to be carrying Ellen's fiddle). I turned around and emphatically said yes.
It turned out that this was the very moment when Malcolm Layfield, visiting professor of violin, from Manchester, was leaving his hotel to go to work via the car and driver provided for him by the school. Enormously grateful, we all piled into his car and made a delightful new friend. Plus, we were on time--we would never have made it otherwise.
Talk about divine provision...