Classical Revival

Classical music is one of my passions.  I love it.  I love to listen to it in the mornings.  It helps me focus when I have a big project, memo, or something that needs to be written or done.  I love to go listen to it live, to watch the orchestra or symphony perform together with or without soloists - I have learned many things about myself in doing so.  Sometimes it moves me, sometimes I get bored with it; sometimes I wonder how anyone could think that piece was lovely, and sometimes I get swept up in the artistic moment and beauty of it all.  Being relatively close to DC and the Kennedy Center, I have had the privilege to see some of my favorite soloists and conductors, as well as to discover some others that I had never heard of.

This week I get the privilege to cross off another one of my classical music idols, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.   They are playing at the Kennedy Center, along with another one of my all-time favorite pianists, Jean-Yves Thibaudet.  Gustavo Dudamel is only a year older than myself and in his short life has managed to help transform, not only the musical world, but the lives of inner-city children by sharing his passion with them and offering them another route, another path in life.

60 Minutes has done several pieces on Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra, the youth orchestra that he founded in Venezuela and they just recently did another piece on Dudamel and his vision for the inner-city youth of America.  If you have a spare few minutes and are interested in one way that a person is using his passion to help change lives, watch the video below.


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Sublime

Last night I got to experience the beauty of ballet as interpreted by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.  Every year they come to the Kennedy Center for a week's worth of performances, and it sells out every year.  You can tell why from the video below, which is just a small sampling from their repertoire.



I have much more to say about this later...but enjoy its beauty for now.

Adios 2009, Hello 2010

It is already 7 days into the new year! How did that happen?  It never ceases to amaze me how fast time passes by.  Maybe it is because everything else seems to move more slowly in work time and then when I lift my eyes up and look at a calendar I become shocked at how fast the days and weeks have melted by.  So before too much more time passes in '10, I wanted to take a moment and reflect back on 2009.

Quite a number of things happened in '09.  I went to the Kennedy Center many times and saw amazing musicians (Jean Yves-Thibaudet, Lang Lang) and Cate Blanchett in my new favorite play "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams.  I also got to go to several amazing rock concerts, starting with Muse/U2 in Charlottesville and then MuteMath in DC.   I am so blessed that I got the opportunity to experience such wonderful art and performances by these musicians.

Though I didn't do much traveling last year, I did get to NYC for probably the highlight of my year, Red Bull BC One.  I love New York - I love visiting and being a part of the city. I can't wait till I go back again. Great things always seem to happen to me when I go to New York - or maybe it's because I go there for great things.  And as much as I love NYC, I love that I got to be a part of Red Bull BC One. I wish I could put into words how much I love this event and what it represents to me and how incredible it was to watch world premiere b-boys battle each other.  It also just shows to me how unexpected life can be - who knew that in March, when I first saw this event on MTV, I would just a few short months later be in the actual crowd?? That I actually got tickets when they sold out in half an hour? It's amazing that I got to go and something I will always treasure.

Lots of great books were read, lots of great music listened to, and lots of wonderful fun times full of family, friends, work, baseball, and Young Life.  I don't really want to get into too much depth about all that spiritually happened - if you're really interested, check out this previous post from a few weeks ago.

There are a lot of things that I want to do in 2010.  I want to have a new attitude about life.  I want to be very intentional about what I do and where I am going.  I want to travel, to go places - near and far.  I want to be present in my life, be intentional in the story that I am living.  I do confess to having fear about what that actually means, but that is part of what this year is going to be - overcoming those fears and moving forward in spite of them.

And I think 2010 wants me to be more intentional and fearless.  The few movies that I have seen recently as well as the books that I have read are all agreeing on this point, so I'm taking the hint.  Here's hoping that I can learn, listen, and grow.

Back to Posting!

This fall has been one for the ages, or to borrow a phrase from my high school friends, "epic".  I have gotten to do so many amazing things, create some awesome relationships, and limit my descriptive vocabulary to "amazing" and "awesome" because I'm so overwhelmed by all that I have gotten to experience.  Over the next few days, weeks, I hope to be able to break down some of my thoughts on the fun stuff that I have gotten to experience, as well as get back in the habit of posting on this blog regularly.

Just to highlight some of the awesome things I'll be posting about:

1 - Being in the THIRD ROW from the STAGE at RED BULL BC ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Greatest night of my life to date.  Check out this video...



2 - Seeing U2 live, fulfilling a lifelong childhood dream.

3 - Going to the MuteMath concert, which was probably the most crazy and awesome concert I've been to...unbelievable - I had no idea or expectations of what to expect and my mind was blown.

4 - Getting to see Muse open for U2 and being one of three people in the stands shamelessly dancing away to their songs.

5 - Experiencing the virtuosity of both Lang Lang and Joshua Bell, masters of their respective instruments and superb performances.

6 - Actually watching Cate Blanchett live, bringing Blanche DuBois to life on the stage in A StreetCar Named Desire - so powerful and moving!

7 - Writing and performing "Two-Minute Twilight" for YL Club...was kind of awesome

8 - Having great momentum at Young Life and getting to know some of the crazy (but awesome) kids that have been coming to club - for the first time ever, I feel excited for summer camp next year..

9 - Pulling off impossible work tasks that were thrown at me literally last minute before big events that we were doing or participating in...

10 - Having my sister HOME!

11 - Knowing that God has been lifting me and carrying me through all the crazy, amazing, awesomeness of this fall.  And knowing that He was with me through the depressing doldrums of the summer, just as He is with me now in this time of abundance and blessing.

And I end this post with this thought, because reading it this morning on my wall I realized it's truth in my own life this year:

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the HOPE of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT US, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."
~ Romans 5:1-5

A "Capitol" Weekend

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time and was so encouraging and uplifting.

It all started with an email on Friday, when the Kennedy Center sent me an email stating that it had $20 orchestra seats available for its concert that night. After debating with myself all day, I decided to go ahead and go to the concert and enjoy an evening of classical music on my own instead of sitting at home in my dark house watching some movie or junk on television. I was so glad that I did make that decision, because the concert was sublime. There was a solo cellist performing a Prokofiev concerto, and I have never seen anyone play with that intensity and passion in my life. Prokofiev, being a Russian composer, rifles his works with drama and complexity anyway - the additional breadth of extraordinary musicianship was therefore remarkable. Absolutely incredible.

But I think what was even more incredible, was that after giving that performance, the cellist went on to perform in the next piece with the orchestra. Something about a soloist's willingness to sit within the back rows of the orchestra and play with them in the following piece, spoke to me of this man's humbleness and sheer love of playing beautiful music. It has something to do with the fact that this amazing musician became part of the bigger picture, the bigger sound - stepping outside of himself for the sake of the music - that really spoke to me. It kind of hits on the thing that I was blogging about last week - this feeling that I am supposed to be something more (thanks by the way to everyone for posting your thoughts - very insightful stuff and truthful stuff - I've been clinging to it). This musician is that "something more" but yet, for the sake of playing more music, takes a back seat in the back row, to play with the orchestra and let others shine.

Anyway, on Saturday, I returned to the city with a group of coworkers to sight-see and visit the museums. What a gorgeous day in the city! And it was a good thing too, seeing as we walked our little legs off around the city!! :) I somehow always manage to do that - walk a lot further than I intended, in the worst shoes possible for walking long distances. I also was kind of disappointed in the Natural History Museum - it was like a never-ending fifth-grade diorama scene or an ode to taxidermy - that the cool things that were there got lost in the midst of all the bad displays and bad arrangements of the amazing things that are there. But the beauty in just walking through the city afterwards made up for the cheesiness of the museum. It is also really awesome that there is so much you can do for free in DC (though they make up for the "free" admission by charging outrageous prices on food - the margin they must make on food must be incredible!!). I hope to make it back there soon.

Saturday, before heading into the city, I helped out at the Warrenton Food Bank at the Methodist Church. Apparently Young Life helps out with this every month, but this was my first time doing it. I also almost didn't go and sleep in instead, but a little voice (God) kept telling me to get up and go and work at this thing. I am glad that I did. It is good to be reminded of all the different people that live in Warrenton - that in our little, predominantly white, middle-class suburbia, utopian town, there are real people living in real poverty. Especially after reading the Glass Castle, I am thankful that I got to help people living in these conditions in a very, very, very small way. Most of my volunteer service work is in YL ministry, so it was very beneficial to participate in something outside of YL - as one of my friends said last night, the kingdom is way bigger than just Young Life, and participating in this helps remind me of that truth.

Yesterday was spent in driving around the country observing all the different signs of spring coming to life throughout the landscape. I really cannot wait till it comes! Golf, here I come!!

I also spent the other part of the day in Bracket analysis and research (bracketology) with my dad - I really, really want to win my company's pool this year. I came in third my first year, and then was knocked out last year, so I'm hoping for a much better showing this year. Any advice is much welcome and will be analyzed to the fullest :)! Company pools aside, I am really excited for March Madness - this is one of my absolute favorite times of the year - nothing beats a good college basketball game! Here's hoping some of my low seeds come through for me!