As I watch the headlines this week, with the hostage siege in Sydney, a massacre in Philadelphia, and now a terrible event at a school in Pakistan, I find there are additional challenges for me as I prepare for our Die Zauberflote Holiday concert, which will be this Sunday, December 21, 2014, at 8 p.m. in the Mall of America Rotunda. The last time we did a holiday concert was on the same date in 2012. That happened to be just days after the terrible Newtown disaster. I felt I had to change the theme, from a ‘Slightly Wigged Out Last Day on Earth” concert to performing the carols as though I were playing my children to sleep at night. This year the theme is Baroque — Handel’s amazing Messiah, performed with lavish ornamantation on my antique (silver Louis Lot) French flute. This time there is not much to change, as Baroque improvisation is relatively limited in scope, and the theme is, of course, eternal. But still, I have to wonder what additional turbulence might take place prior to Sunday, and pray and play for peace and healing for everyone…
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 