At this point in residency I can comfortably say that all of our celebrities have come in, and to say the least I'm excited af. Tan Dun came in first, and we rehearsed his piece for him and then with him while he gave us details about the piece and how to play it. Tan Dun strikes me as very spiritual and wise, because he describes his music in a way that makes me feel the meaning behind his piece. His piece, entitled Secret of Wind and Birds, is supposed to reflect nature and unity between it and us as humans. It actually reflects a lot about the concept of unity, including unity between ancient technology/instruments and modern technology/instruments, and between things in nature itself, like birds and wind and wind and water and birds and water. Tan Dun is much better at explaining it than me, so definitely go ask him about it! His piece is also astoundingly written, with a clear melody (the passacaglia) yet with interesting harmonies and effects I can't believe he came up with himself. If you go to one of our concerts or see any videos, you'll know what I mean.
Charles Dutoit came in next, and he's absolutely phenomenal. I could see immediately how much attention he paid to the details, and how good he was at conveying the meanings behind the pieces, especially for the Berlioz. He spent the first 30 minutes with us focusing solely on the first violins in the first movement of the Berlioz, for example, and did the same with each section when we weren't playing it exactly as the music was intended to be. It was rather draining, and it also meant that as individuals no one played a lot, (especially brass) but it was worth seeing how we worked together after his modifications. Maestro Dutoit is also very French. (He'll sometimes randomly shout out thongs like numbers in French, and it'll be too quick for most of us to understand. Tan Dun did the same with Chinese.)
And then Yundi came! Or rather, YUNDI. He is of course a phenomenal player, but we didn't get to see his personality much because he didn't speak and denied us the chance of taking selfies with him. 😄
So that's about it for celebs. I'm still pretty starstruck from being the same room as them; I pretend I'm not though for the cameras. 😝 Once we're done with our Carnegie concert tonight I'll be blogging about that. So stay tuned for more, and as always post questions below!