Fine Arts

We are artsy-type people, to a degree.

At least, I like to think we are.

We enjoy museums (as long as we don’t have to visit them for days on end, or even for an entire day – unless it’s the Louvre). We like taking pictures (even though we’re by no means great at it). One of us (the one who is not the accountant) has fun creating greeting cards and stationery. We love music (though John definitely understands the music better than I do since he is a proficient piano player and I just sing). We attend symphonies and musicals when we can (mostly when we can get free or reduced price tickets).

Since we have lived and traveled in countries other than America, perhaps I think more about cultural and lingual differences than some. Art, music, and math are universally understood. If ever you feel isolated, ignorant, or unaccepted in a foreign country, go to the symphony (or any music event) or a museum where you can understand and enjoy the environment just as well as anyone else there who speaks the native language.

OK, that was a rabbit trail. What I really wanted to share with you today is Dame Evelyn Glennie. She is the only professional solo percussionist in the world, and we had the privilege of hearing her perform Corigliano’s Conjurer with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Saturday evening.

We weren’t sure how well we would like it when we arrived at the concert hall, having never heard her before. But then, I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the violin concerto we endured at the last Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert we attended.

(Not that the violinist was bad – oh no! Robert McDuffie is quite talented! It’s just that, if you must know, I did not care for Rózsa’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 24. I’m sure some people will want to shoot me right about now, but please remember, I have already admitted that I do not understand music so well as I would like, and this is solely by humble opinion. This violin concerto was balanced out by the fact that we got to hear Copland’s Billy the Kid suite accompanied by James Westwater’s photochoreography. It was beautiful.)

I digress.

Dame Evelyn Glennie was brilliant. (And ridiculously talented what with her being a composer, performer, actress, writer, teacher, inspirational speaker, jewelry designer, and film and television personality.) We might actually buy some of her stuff.

Unless, of course, we can figure out a way to get it for free.

I mean, we are artsy and all, but we’re still cheapskates.