Everything comes in its own time, don't worry. I might be saying this to myself, to make it easier to accept my lateness... Let's see.... do you remember where I played in January 2024? A little help? With the choir... on a perfect piano that I fell in love with... who remembers?
In the symphony hall of the Auditorium of the Alicante Provincial Council (ADDA). 😃
I wrote about my day before this event here, how I was distracting myself from being nervous, although I had to focus and visualise the performance. Then, a week after the concert, I said that it was a real honour to perform there, but there was a missing thing... a video that would bring the musical side of it. I didn't have these photos either; just later, the director of the choir sent them to me. And, also, now we have a book published last month about the path that the choir have had since it was established in 2010.
A little sneak peek from the book where we play in this concert hall. 👇
I joined them as the pianist just some years after it was formed (my memory is failing here as I can't recall the exact year 🤦♀) and it was not always that I played with them, just when they needed some extra help or the lady who played until then couldn't do that. Then, slowly, I became a part of that family, and now they can't even imagine a performance without me. 😁
What the future will bring, we don't know. The next year, I plan not to travel so many times per week to our old place anymore for work, and it could affect the choir rehearsals too. The director is worried and a bit quite sad because of that, but we will find the way and make it possible to continue the collaboration.
It is also a big honour for me to play with them. This choir is a group of people who gather to sing and make music. They are not professional musicians (the majority is not, but there are a few who had some previous musical education and involvement in music), however, they have improved a lot over the years. And I learned a lot too with this director.
One of the main things he was constantly repeating before this concert in January 2024 was the purpose of why we play or sing. Why? To fill the space and time with something? Something - anything, a brief entertainment, easy content for consumers? No, no, no! Anyone can do that. But offering something genuine, your everything to the listeners, your thoughts, heart, effort... isn't it a real presentation just then? There is a nice Spanish word for this I want to say, and I can't find the right word in English for it. It is entrega in Spanish, what I want to say.
When someone can touch the hearts of others through music, literature, or art, and the one receiving those notes or words has tears in their eyes while seeing or listening to them (or gets affected or touched in any other way), then something inexplicable happens; something that leaves a permanent mark, indelible from our own experience. If an artist can't do that... then it has no sense to continue with her/his profession. But if yes, then the most honest gratitude can be felt toward that soul, and the same vibe can be extended to others.
Today, I was leafing through this book that I got from my choir last month. The photos you see, and later the same ones in the book, are those from this concert held in Alicante. I am bringing the YouTube recording of the whole concert, though it is a bit long. The artists who performed before us were great, and also the choir that sang after us. We, this tiny choir of amateur singers, were in the middle. 😅 But we did our best, and some bravos were heard as well. 😇
The two pieces I loved the most to play there were El Barberillo de Lavapiés and Negra Sombra, both can be listened to at these links I am leaving here. The first one has a very funny text haha, and the second piece I am sharing here is Negra Sombra, a song that made me have tears in my eyes more than once while practising it.
I am grateful for this community, Throwback Thursday - sometimes being late is actually bringing something at the right time. 😉
