Recently, I stopped the cacophony of my day to day life to consider something for a moment as my subconcious reminded me of it.
Between May and June, I found myself performing at Carnegie Hall twice in around a 2 week period- and yet, I never really did anything with it. I didn’t sit around in awe of the experience for days afterwards or brag to all my friends, nor did I even write about it here.
Let me tell you why.
Performing at Carnegie, while not to say it wasn’t a fantastic opportunity and experience, underwhelmed me. You could look at layer upon layer of rows upon rows of seats, all teeming and filled to the brim with people, and still feel the space was a bit smaller than you expected. I walked into the hall expecting some sort of unimaginable grandure, and left a little sobered to its reality. Just like any other stage, coming onto and even standing on it, the mundane populates everywhere, from power cords and outdated technology to scuffed and imperfect choral risers.
It’s at this point that I should clarify why I was performing at Carnegie- the first time was a planned event in the main hall with our school’s higher level chorus, where we collaborated with a university choir from California, and a professional one from Vancouver; hence, the choral risers. The second time was for the winner’s recital of the Suzanne Culley competition in the Weill recital hall, where I played piano.
Regardless, the ‘dissapointment’ of both the main hall and Weill recital hall popped the idea of Carnegie holding this high, almost god-tier status in music because, just like the beautiful music its (frankly wonderful) acoustics coaxes from performers, Carnegie is universal; and that idea perforates through all levels of musicians and listeners alike.
What Carnegie did for me wasn’t unfathomably awe-inspiring, nor did I leave in shock or inspired- but instead, very much the opposite. It brought great musicians much closer to me, lowering pedestals and evening playing fields, and brought me closer to the music itself. It truly did encapsulate the most important trait of music.
Just, not the one people thought it did.
An Eternal Rhythm 