On the very last day of the festival...

...I was at dinner with my Beethoven group and Ellen dePasquale (the Associate Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and our chamber coach). As we were driving to Applebee's we learned that she had named her car Atticus. And since none of us was making the connection to the famous fictional character she soon asked if any of us had read To Kill a Mockingbird. Sadly, somehow, we had all made it through highschool and an undergrad degree without having read this Pulitzer prize-winning book. We were all shocked that out of the whole group none of us had read the book. None more shocked than Ellen though who over dinner decided that we had to email her a book report when we finished. Haha! I thought it was funny getting an assignment from her but I enjoy reading and always appreciate a good book suggestion.

So here is my book report on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

This is a story about the South, racial injustice, a child's view of the world, and the character of a man. It's told as a reflection of a young girl's adolescence and of a volatile time in American racial history. This was a time when if you were black you were guilty.

It's told in the first person narrative by a young girl Jean Louise "Scout" Finch during the 1930's. She tells of her and her brother Jem growing up in Maycomb county Alabama during a time when their father Atticus, a lawyer, was appointed to defend a black man on charges of rape; ostensible rape.

During the year leading up to the trial Scout and Jem had troubles at school and in the neighborhood on account of Atticus's determination to defend this innocent man. Most of Maycomb county didn't think it right for Atticus to stand up for a black man while calling a white man a liar but that's what he did and it was true.

Atticus was a man of character. He loved justice and law, and had respect for the due processes of such. He knew that the jury he'd have would be made up of prejudiced white men but he knew that he couldn't live with himself or expect his children to unless he did what he knew was right.

They convicted Tom Robinson of a rape he never committed and he was shot trying to escape from jail before Atticus could get him out on appeal. None of this happened though before Bob Ewell, the father of the girl who was raped, was shown to be a liar before the whole town.

Bob, being the coward that he was ended up attacking Jem and Scout leaving Jem with a broken arm and himself dead; a kitchen knife found its way in-between a couple of ribs.

This is a wonderfully written, funny, sad, and all-together powerful book. It shows a strong man of character unswayed and inviolable, with a mind for justice and a strong heart for raising his children towards the same. All this in the midst of injustice and cruelty that was once America.

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When I read such examples of injustice it makes me angry, and rightfully so. I always tend to be resentful that I wasn't born earlier. I surely would have made a difference. I surely would have been a source of justice during the time when justice was hard to come by. Wouldn't I?

Then I have to ask myself, do I really think that the world is perfect now? Isn't there still a need for just men in the world?

There certainly is! Then the final question I have to ask myself is this: Where is the injustice happening today where men of character are badly needed to bestow justice?

Am I one of those men? Can I be one of those men? Only if living dead to myself and alive to Jesus Christ.

Back in Cleveland

Actually I'm in Westlake but who really cares. I'm glad to be done with the festival even though it was fun and productive. It's nice to be back to normalcy. I have some work to do getting my place back in order but it will be a good break from my excerpt work every so often.

I've read a couple books recently. Tender Warriorby Stu Weber and Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture Art and Musicby Sherree O. Zalampas.

Stu Weber's book was a great encouragement. It's about what God wants a real man to be. I suggest this book to any man who is looking for encouragement in being manly, not in the typical sense but in the real sense of what the purpose of a man is as opposed to woman. Unfortunately men sometimes aren't manly and women aren't womanly. Animals don't seem to have this obvious lack of common sense. You'd think that it would be easy for a man to be manly but there are fewer examples of manliness every day, making it harder to model.

You may be asking what I mean by "manliness," well...read the book.

The book I read about Hitler was interesting because it gave Hitler's views on culture and the broader scope of what he was trying to do culturally, in art, architecture, and music. Interestingly enough literature and film were not discussed even though they are tied directly to the three subjects that are covered in the book. The book got immediately boring when the psychology aspect of it was discussed but thankfully the author saw fit to compartmentalize it in to one chapter. Easily avoidable. :)

On Monday I spent the day in Cleveland with Jakub (a violinist from the Czech Republic who was at the festival) before taking him to the airport. He's supposed to send pictures so I'll put them up when I get them. Here's a picture of him from my friend's blog (they were roommates at the festival).

so-tee-YAY!

I'm almost done here at the Kent/Blossom festival. I had my last orchestral repertoire class with Robert Vernon (principal violist of the Cleveland Orchestra) today, I perform the Beethoven Op. 18 No. 2 string quartet on Saturday, and then I'm done.

I've really enjoyed this festival and I would definitely consider coming back next year. I have learned a lot from Mr. Vernon and look forward to when he publishes his book on how to play the orchestral excerpts.

Mr. Vernon taught me the sautille stroke (pronounced SO-tee-yay with the emphasis on the first syllable unlike my punned title) at my lesson this week and now for the first time in my life I really understand how it works. This is very important because it's impossible to play some of the orchestral excerpts without it. I spent a substantial amount of time on it yesterday and played it for him again today and he said that it was a lot better.

I won't have a break before school because I want to work on the excerpts for the two auditions I have coming up in September. It's very important that I take every audition seriously and with respect even if it's a community orchestra. Besides that I have a lot of fellow students from the Cleveland Institute of Music that will be auditioning as well and I have a lot of respect for their ability so I have to be as prepared as possible.

I never stop reading though so I might put a book review or two up in the interim.

Making connections

As I said in my last post I was sitting with Arthur Klima of the Cleveland Orchestra during our side-by-side concert. While chatting with him I came to find that his time with the orchestra overlapped with Rosemarie Goldsmith's tenure as a violist there. Having just read a book about her and her husband this summer (which I blogged about here) it was enjoyable to meet someone who actually had known them. It's nice to make a connection between what you read and who you meet.

Having now re-read my post about the book, I realize that I didn't mention either of their names or that Rosemarie (one of the names I didn't mention) was a violist in Cleveland.

Arghh! I will be a better writer someday. I promise.

My evening with the Cleveland Orchestra

I have to say that getting to play with the Cleveland Orchestra is definitely the highlight of my summer. Yesterday we had a long day of rehearsals followed by a marathon of a concert with two intermissions. The Kent/Blossom group (us) first played Schubert's 3rd symphony and Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin. Then the Cleveland Orchestra (them) played an overture, a bass concerto, and a violin concerto (I'm too lazy to find the names). And finally Kent/Blossom and Cleveland Orchestra (us and them) played Da Falla's Three Cornered Hat and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol.

It was definitely a long concert as I could tell not only from my own weariness but also by the fact that everyone I happened to sneak a peek at in the audience was yawning. One lady was yawning both times I looked at her. I later found out that my friend Anton in the cello section also noticed her yawning every time he looked at her. Maybe she had her mouth open the entire time because she was awe-inspired by our playing.

Ok, maybe not, but I know that I did enjoy getting to play with TCO very much and count it an honor to have played with these fine musicians. I had the opportunity to sit with Arthur Klima, a very nice and talented violist. He mentioned that he was a professor at CSU and invited me to an upcoming performance of his.

While the Cleveland Orchestra played I sat out in the lawn at Blossom Music Center with the Roger and Jennifer Meng and their kids. This is the family that I've gotten to know very well over the past two years. They have been very helpful and I've learned a lot from them. I enjoy playing with their 6 children and of course the free meals at their place! Roger is also one of the elders at Westlake Bible Fellowship where I've been a part for two years. Anyway, it was beautiful weather and I enjoyed seeing them and chatting for a little while. The Morris's were there as well sitting in a different section; another family I've gotten to know. Don (Mr. Morris) is also an elder at WBF. It's nice to have people you know enjoy what you do for a living.*

My fellow Blossom participant blogged about the opportunity of playing with the Cleveland Orchestra as well.




*Davis Holden does not actually earn an income so he is technically not "making a living." Please continue to make donations. Thank you, The Davis Holden Legal Staff

This is my Hummel Piano Quintet group (and our coach) that performed this past Tuesday. From L to R: Jerry Wong (coach), Matt (bass), Jake (piano), Anton (cello), Morgan (violin), me (viola).

I've been reading...

Brainwashed : How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youthby Ben Shapiro. I've already read and reviewed his only other book. In that review I did not mention how he could be kind of - I think Dalton over at D-Town Values has said it best:

There is only one bad thing about this book. Shapiro almost seems juvenile when he talks about these subjects. Let me try and be more specific. Every time Shapiro gives a point, he always fits in some sort of sly comment at the end.

Well, his first book is even worse in this area. Not only are the comments juvenile but at times they're uninformed. They seem to point out the areas where Mr. Shapiro has not completely thought about the issue.

Having said that though, again, I want to commend Mr. Shapiro for writing about this topic. His basic premise is correct. America's universities are full of liberal thinking professors and they are in complete control over what they teach and how they teach it.

I experienced this myself when I was at Kansas University for one semester. I had to write a paper on the controversial subject of Needle Exchange Programs. I used logic and reasoning in my NEP-condemning paper. Apparently these two things were out of fashion at the time and he gave me an F on my draft that I had spent weeks working on. He told me that the paper was irresponsible and that I needed to use statistics. I then proceeded, over the next two days, to rewrite my paper with his suggestions and to change it to a NEP-condoning paper. He loved it. In fact he liked it so much that he wanted my permission to hand it into the Freshman/Sophomore essay contest.

So the valuable lesson I learned in that class (and I do mean valuable, because I learned it quickly in my freshman year) was that logic and reasoning are dying and that statistics and feelings are replacing them.

To get back to Mr. Shapiro's book, I want to add that I thought his solution, while ostensibly impossible, is a good idea. He proposes that conservatives start up politically moderate universities and uses the success of the Fox News channel as an example. (It seems like I've heard of a university for homeschoolers but I can't seem to find it. Does anyone know?)

If I were a parent I wouldn't be waiting around for these start-up universities so I could send my children there and besides that I'm sure they would at some point start subverting youth as well. What I would do is spend my childrens youth on teaching them to be reasonable, logical thinkers and to fear God and his wisdom; to teach them to be discerning.

I believe the idea to keep children protected from contradictory teaching (to the parents teaching that is) is foolish. At some point these children themselves will be leaders of families and will need to know how to combat and protect their children from intellectual suicide and false teaching. How will they be able to do this without practical experience doing it (while they're still under your guidance I should add).

Of course there is a natural progression from protecting to teaching, with an overlap of them somewhere during adolesence, but at some point you will not be able to protect any longer. It's at this point that they must already be inviolable.