Notes From a Curious Listener

My name is Matthew Geaman, and I am proud to be a SummerFest Spouse. I have been married to a member of the LJMS staff for a little over a year (my wife Leah Rosenthal is the Artistic Administrator). Living with an LJMS staff member during SummerFest can be a little stressful at times, but exciting as well. As the festival approaches, I can see the lines of worry start to cross my wife’s face as she is contemplating all the things that could go possibly wrong, constantly retracing her steps to make sure everything is as organized as possible before the first artist arrives. I have also seen her elated with joy, when she comes home to tell me about the most beautiful performance she has ever heard or shows me a sweet text message she received from Olga Kern sending her appreciation for making her time in La Jolla so memorable.

Witnessing these ups and downs I’ve realized that I have a unique perspective on the festival. As I was wrapping up work last Tuesday and wondering what I should do that evening I remembered that it would be yet another night alone with our dog Sebastian and I thought to myself “…well, there’s a SummerFest concert tonight and if I go I’ll get to see Leah…and hear some great music.” I realized that I had seen her for a total of a few hours since the festival started. It dawned on me that most people probably don’t comprehend the effort that goes into making this festival happen and how the entire organization dedicates their lives to SummerFest.

Us concert-goers get to hear incredible performances, but we rarely think about all the work that goes on behind the scenes. The entire staff is in constant management mode coordinating events ranging from backstage preparation to educational events like coaching workshops and encounters, artist arrivals/departures, artist housing coordination, rehearsal scheduling, development events including intermission receptions and post-concert events, luncheons, etc.

Curious Listener Note: this is a guest post from Nancy Reeves Manzur, SummerFest Artist Liaison.

Waiting for a performance to begin is always exciting. From the audience, after one finds their seat and turns off their cellphone, their eyes focus on the LJMS SummerFest 25th anniversary logo and the beautiful Steinway D as they wait for the first performer to walk out on stage. There is a special kind of beauty in seeing musicians walk out onto the stage, often with a priceless instrument in their hands. The instrument, without musical hands playing it, also waits. It makes no sound until the performer gives it life.

Likewise, performances have no life would it not be for all the people who spend careful hours preparing the structure in which it can come alive. The music directors and creative directors who program the concerts and create the schedule, the musicians who fly into San Diego from around the world to meet with each other and create art, the patrons who sponsor the concerts, the audience members who buy the tickets, the hard workers and stage managers who plan how the lights will look, and where the microphones hang, recording engineers, the staff who manage receptions, CD sales, and the making of program books, the house manager, the ushers, and the woman who sells the beverages outside the performance. Every character, including those I haven't mentioned, has a very important role in giving each performance life.

The Serenades and Romance SummerFest concert on Friday, August 12,  is the epitome of why I love La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest - because the musicians are an amazing variety of people, all of whom excel at what they do. The musicians in this concert are a compendium of experienced and new, competition winners, soloists and concertmasters .

Take DaXun Zhang, double bass. I looked at his website and immediately liked him. How could you not when he puts this photo, with tie askew, on his website? And, the rare person who chooses the double bass to play - and becomes a soloist lugging that largest of instruments around - has to be cut from a different cloth than most. DaXun Zhang clearly is not afraid to be himself, and he has had some unique opportunities because of it. Mr. Zhang's association with La Jolla Music Society began with a concert he presented as a competition winner over a decade ago.  Thereafter, he played with Yo Yo Ma in the Silk Road tour, which stopped in La Jolla at SummerFest 2005.  

Hai-Ye Ni is one of the cellists playing in Serenades and Romances. She is also from China but unlike Mr. Zhang, Ms. Ni was shy. She says she was scared when, in the '80s, she was one of the chosen few to be coached by western musicians traveling to China, which had been closed during the Mao regime. Of course, her fear was understandable given that she was only 12 years old and westerners were rare at that time in Shanghai. She clearly overcame her fear as she is now the principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I wonder if those western musicians realized that Americans would benefit from the classes they provided to the Chinese musicians? This article in the Epoch Times by Pamela Tsai is a very interesting view into Ms. Ni's life.