More firsts: First Performance

This is my third blog post in a row that I am not able to put up online right away.  Hopefully I can post my entries today, and share them with all of you readers out there!

Every day that I am here, I get more used to the way things work, and feel less overwhelmed.  It’s still hard to follow everything going on around me, though, because I don’t speak the language.  I’ve been working very hard at learning Bosnian, much to the amusement of my colleagues.

We had yesterday off, which gave us a chance to go shopping for some furniture and essentials. (Even though our apartment is furnished, there are no shelves or drawers to keep stuff in.)  Fortunately, the Sarajevo Philharmonic has an assistant who functions as their official driver, so we were able to get a ride to a store called OBI.  OBI is basically a Home Depot, and we were able to find almost everything we needed.  Our apartment is starting to feel more and more like a home.  In the meantime, I was able to learn a lot of Bosnian words for furniture, though the only ones I’ve retained are the cognates (e.g. lampa is lamp, ventilator is fan, and hanger is hangar).

After shopping, we had some time in the afternoon to eat, nap, and practice, and then we were off to our first performance.  Because everyone is so “laid-back” in Bosnia, not everything went smoothly: a few wrong entrances, missed notes, and lost singers.  However, I was asked during rehearsal yesterday to play louder and more expressively in my solos, and I felt like I was able to do so and still maintain control of my tone and pitch.  I got lots of compliments about my playing afterward, which felt so good, especially because I’m used to the nitpicking critiques that were part of my training in the US. (However, I think it’s important to note that the reason that I was able to play like I do is because I’ve had such demanding teachers, colleagues and conductors.  I enjoyed the compliments, but in the back of my mind I also know I could have done some things better.)

After the concert, we went out to celebrate at the Sarajevo Brewery.  It is a good quality, very large restaurant just across the famous bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. (My spelling and knowledge of the historical details may be off.  I’ll have to look up whether he was shot on the bridge, under the bridge, or near the bridge.)  We had a large party, consisting of the Philharmonic members who live in our building: four of us Americans, an Italian horn player, four Albanian musicians, and the Bosnian trumpet player.  All of the Albanians can speak Italian, so there were conversations going on in so many languages: English, Bosnian, Italian, Albanian.  Very cool, but a little overwhelming as well.  I was quite tired when I got home last night!  I feel energized this morning though, with the prospect of the weekend ahead of me.  We have the next 2 and a half days free, so I will finally get to explore Old Town a little better.  So, I’m off…