(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.15, May 2006)

Anna Gutowska

This year’s SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar, the first of three such annual events planned and jointly developed by three SYLFF music schools—the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and The Juilliard School, in New York City—took place at Juilliard from January 9th through 17th, 2006, in conjunction with Juilliard’s ChamberFest; a week of chamber music seminars, coaching, and performances.

As a step leading to participation in the seminar, five of us from our university in Vienna—Bojidara Kouzmanova (violin), Philipp Schachinger (cello), Heidrun (“Heidi”) Wirth (bassoon), David Szalkay (trumpet), and I—met at Vienna Airport on Sunday, January 8th, subsequently arriving in New York City after a long flight.

The seminar started on January 9th. It involved intensive hours of practice and coaching each day. We worked with different coaches on different pieces by a variety of composers, such as Stravinsky, Ives, and Friedmann. Juilliard has some 100 practice rooms, so enough rooms were available for us to practice individually and in groups until 11 p.m.— and some days we did so, meeting only for lunches and dinners. However, our time was not all work. Among the much appreciated ‘extracurricular’ events that Juilliard arranged for us during the seminar were a pizza party and a special Chinese dinner.

I was in a chamber group that also included Helena Madoka Berg and Christian Hacker from Germany, Benedicte Royer from Paris, and Ang Li from China. Helena, Christian, and Ang were students at Juilliard, and Benedicte was a student at the conservatoire in Paris. The piece that we chose to play was Anton Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A-Major, op. 81, a very famous and wonderful piece that actually is for piano and strings and is also my favorite. We practiced in the morning and afternoon every day.

Our coach was Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, chair of the Piano Department of The Juilliard School, from which she had received a doctorate. She has been greatly praised for her musical accomplishments in recitals, chamber music programs, and orchestral performances. Before joining Juilliard, Dr. Kaplinsky taught at the Philadelphia University of the Arts, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music. Widely known for her exceptional knowledge of piano techniques, she is in great demand as a teacher of advanced pianists, and she has lectured extensively and judged major musical competitions across the world.

Dr. Kaplinsky provided us with fantastic coaching. She is a very quiet person, but when she is playing, her performance is like fireworks, full of emotion and also very, very warm. I thought that our Dvorak Quintet needed a lot of color and joy, and a little nostalgia, and as a result of her working with us on every element of this piece, we were able to play it in the expressive way that it deserves. I absolutely adore her, and I loved and enjoyed her lessons. Dr. Kaplinsky’s family came from Poland, and I hope that some day she will come to Poland to visit our school. We, the participants in the seminar, had different personalities, were from different countries and cultures, had studied at different schools, embraced different traditions (musical and otherwise), and had different ways of playing. But I think that this “mixture” was fantastic. It gave us many pleasant surprises, as well as much joy and many smiles, and we learned a lot from each other.

The concert in Paul Hall on the final day (January 17th) was held before a large audience, and perhaps it can best be described in these few words: personally satisfying and musically successful! I very much enjoyed performing with my quintet-friends, and, I’m glad to say, our performance was well-received. After the concert Dr. Kaplinsky came to us and said she was proud of us, which of course warmed our hearts and made us feel even more strongly that our hard work and intensive practice had been worthwhile. During the post-concert reception I met people from The Nippon Foundation, the Tokyo Foundation, and the Nippon Music Foundation. I was very happy to see Ms. Ellen Mashiko again after having met her for the first time in July 2005 during the SYLFF Africa/Europe Regional Forum in Coimbra, Portugal.

* * *

I am now back in Vienna.

My first visit to New York City, in addition to the very rewarding experience of collaborating with other students at Juilliard, was also enjoyable and memorable in other ways. I have many photos that I took while there: Central Park and its squirrels, Manhattan, Ground Zero, Planet Hollywood, the Metropolitan Opera, 34th Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Times Square, and the Rockefeller Center and its ice rink, among others. Sometimes I look at my photos from my time in New York, and I laugh . . . about David Szalkay, who always had his video camera and was singing Jennifer Lopez songs, and about Bojidara, who was worried about her heavy baggage (she bought a lot of CDs and books in New York). And I remember the wonderful spaghetti party and playing the Uno card game . . . among many, many other memories.

Some of us from Vienna went to Avery Fisher Hall to listen to an open rehearsal of a violin concerto, “The Red Violin,” staged by Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and we also saw a Metropolitan Opera production of the great ballet Swan Lake.

I also fondly remember a dinner at a sushi bar with my Vienna university roommate, Heidi, and Mathieu and Magie from Paris. The weather was very cold, but we were very happy to share time together. Heidi made entries in her diary every day, and we talked whenever we had a chance. We thoroughly enjoyed the 10 days we passed in New York with the fantastic people we met, played with, and heard play there.

I worked very hard. I attended all the seminar sessions, where I learned a lot. I did my best to contribute to the success of the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar and our quintet’s performance. I hope I will meet all the seminar participants and teachers again someday . . . perhaps even in New York, which I enjoyed a lot.

After spending such an intense, enriching, and wonderful time in New York, a time that was so meaningful to me, I wish, on behalf of all other musicians who performed at the ChamberFest from the three music schools, to express our sincere gratitude to Ellen Mashiko and the Tokyo Foundation for providing us with such a wonderful opportunity and for the trust they placed in us.

I also wish to express my deepest and very respectful thanks to Professor Wolfgang Klos and Ms. Dorothea Riedel of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, for the trust they placed in me and for making it possible for me to take part, first, in the SYLFF Africa/Europe Regional Forum in the summer of 2005, which in turn provided me with the opportunity to perform in the wonderful chamber music concert in the Biblioteca Joanina (King John Library) at the University of Coimbra during that forum, and then, second, in Juilliard’s ChamberFest this past January.

I will never forget New York. I am very, very happy to have had the experiences I did during ChamberFest, and especially to have been able to play and work with musicians and other people from different countries and cultures around the world. I believe that the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminars, by bringing together in this way such different people, with their varied languages and traditions, will help to eliminate misunderstanding and hatred from this unquiet and uneasy world, and bring goodwill and peace instead.

(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.18, May 2007)

Adriana Paler-Nicolescu

Adriana (third from right, standing) and orphan girls with donated gifts at Floare de Colt (Noble Flower).

There is much we can learn—such as to walk, speak, read, do business, or play an instrument. There also is much we receive—such as life itself, challenges, and opportunities. And there is much more that we are able to give, almost infinitely, that we can find just near us—tangible, obvious, waiting.

I consider myself a lucky person. If I had to write down all the reasons for saying that, much time—too much time—would be necessary. Therefore in this article I will concentrate on one reason. It has to do with the Tokyo Foundation and some SYLFF fellows at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where I’m studying piano in a master’s program.

To receive a SYLFF Fellowship has been a great honor and great financial help for each one of us; but that is not all. Fellowship-related resources, such as the SYLFF Network Program, give rise to creative opportunities too; that is how our SYLFF Network for Music and Arts Vienna (SYNEMAV) came into being. That is how a handful of SYLFF fellows—my co-organizers Monika Guca and David Szalkay, and myself as the principal organizer—had the modest idea of creating something different. How could we combine an expression of our musical art, networking, and initiative to make the world around us a little bit better? The answer was . . . a charity concert.

There are many people in need, we thought, and so we decided to hold a concert for orphan children (I am, by the way, the mother of two children). I began to look for a children’s shelter in my native country, Romania.

I found the Floare de Colt—translated as Noble Flower—Children’s House in Fagaras, a small town in the Transylvanian mountains, about 20 km from the village where I spent my childhood and first touched a piano. The house director, Ms. Cerasela Dogaru, helped me with information and everything else I needed.

We announced our concert for June 24th, 2006. Because I was the vice-chairperson of the OH at our university—and with kind help from our rector—it was possible to arrange for us to use the big Haydn Hall, with a lovely Steinway piano inside, for our concert.

This was the first time for me to organize a concert; usually I “only” play at such events. To organize a concert involves much more to do, but it was pure networking and very instructive for all of us who were involved.

The performers were six SYLFF fellows and one teacher accompanist. Haiyue Yu, a composer, presented her own piano suite; Monika Guca, flutist (and co-organizer), played Toru Takemitsu; Chi Bun Jimmy Chiang, pianist and conductor, played Mozart and Debussy; Tanja Watzinger sang Alban Berg, with piano accompaniment by Eva Mark-Muhlner; David Szalkay, trumpeter (and co-organizer), played Toru Takemitsu and Perz; Adriana Paler-Nicolescu, pianist (and principal organizer), played Liszt. All of us also said a little about ourselves and our pieces before each artistic moment, so that the audience—other SYLFF members, teachers, friend, and music lovers—could be closer to us and better understand the music, some of it very modern. It was a good concert, which means that we felt at home and connected with the audience, which was very warm. We were like a big family in the inspiring atmosphere of the university.

This feeling continued naturally at the buffet afterwards, where we enjoyed delicious food and good conversation, Romanian wine, and Austrian frizzante (semi-sparkling wine). People from many nations joined in a wonderful drop of time.

As a result of the concert we were able to collect a modest sum of money for the children’s shelter; the members of SYNEMAV also made donations themselves. Our imaginations began to work out how best to use the funds to buy presents for 50 children.

We also started a campaign of collecting clothes and toys for the children during the summer; the response was incredible. In November we were ready to start our journey to Romania. My husband Dragos Nicolescu and I needed a Fiat minibus to hold everything that we would be bringing— sweets, oranges, and 15 sacks of clothes and toys—to the orphans. We had to travel almost 12 hours, from Vienna, through Hungary and Transylvania, to get to the shelter.

Haiyue Yu.

We made our first stop in Lisa, the village of my grandparents. My aunt bought and contributed 50 new, warm hats and an equal number of pairs of gloves for the children, along with delicious Romanian maize chips, and gingerbread. With the help of my 80 year-old grandmother, we packed the presents and prepared ourselves for the next, big day: the visit to the children’s house.

November 24th, 2006, was a normal day for many people, but for me it was a special day, as well as a joyful celebration for the 50 children. They were waiting for us; they welcomed us into their adoptive house and showed us their classrooms and dormitories; they got two hours off from classes to enjoy the presents. They greeted Director Cerasela Dogaru like a mother and us like family. They wanted to help carry the sacks, and they embraced us the entire time.

I had such a mix of feelings, and I had a lump in my throat that just wouldn’t go away. It was amazing to find so much love and warmth in a place that is filled with so many sad stories about children with deceased, ailing, alcoholic, abusive or neglectful parents. There were children who did not know what it was like to have their natural parents next to them; some of them came from families so poor, with such big problems, that they had to be taken care of somewhere else. Some were undergoing physical or psychological therapy. But all of them were nicely dressed, clean, and smiling. They were aged between 7 and 16. And they embraced us like they were seeing Santa Claus bringing Christmas presents.

Each one got a present and a kiss; the kiss was as wanted and as precious as the doll or toy (maybe their first personal one) that each received. To see that somebody, a total stranger, cared about them meant everything to them. That meant they were important, that they were worthy of love just as much as anyone, for no reason. They were children, like so many others, no more and no less.

I will never forget that day. Apart from the photos, newspaper article, and television reportage, there was something that touched my heart and bothered me: these children were so lonely even though it would be so easy for someone to bring a little happiness to them. It requires very little money—only showing a little interest. And it makes one little soul happy. Those orphan children didn’t need things, but human warmth. And they gave it back enormously, in a genuine and moving manner.

We are honored to thank the Tokyo Foundation and SYLFF for helping us to start such activities. And we are happy to announce our next, larger charity concert for the children of Noble Flower Children’s House in Fagaras, Romania, which will take place in the Bosendorfer Hall in Vienna in November 2007.

There is so much to do, more than just to bring little presents. The children need a kitchen and dining room in their own building; they are temporarily eating in a big dining hall that is shared with older people from other facilities in the same complex. Most important, they need someone who has a vision and can create plans for the time when they will be old enough to no longer have the right to live in a children’s shelter. They have the right to have opportunities to obtain jobs, to start their own families, and to pursue happiness, and they will need to know how to fruitfully realize those goals.

Romania has done well in the last 18 years, since the revolution that ended the half-century of Communism and fear. For my native country the year 2007 meant the big step of joining the European Union. But although there is still so much to do, I am sure that help will be found. We just have to be open and to search for it actively, to do our personal best, to follow our important path.

After all, it’s a matter of warmth—giving and manifesting eternal values like careful attention, love, and warmth. Is there anything more important?