{"id":1388,"date":"2017-03-26T20:01:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T20:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2017-03-26T20:12:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T20:12:23","slug":"tacos-baskets-emanuel-ax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=1388","title":{"rendered":"Tacos, Baskets, Emanuel Ax"},"content":{"rendered":"

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To stage a happening, you put unfamiliar elements together and see what happens.\u00a0 Put a classical superstar pianist like Emanuel Ax in a taqueria like La Lupita, in the Spanish Olneyville neighborhood of Providence.\u00a0 Let it rip. \u00a0In he walks, the stage-famous, black-tails type in his soft shoes and simple clothes, his mussy white hair and beat-up backpack.\u00a0 You give him an electric keyboard (it’s not Carnegie Hall, guys).\u00a0 If the tacos aren’t ready and the server calls out “veinto uno!”in the middle of the Brahms, make it a part of the piece.\u00a0 Same with the sirens and further calls for enchilatas and quesadillas. The crowd in the back are abuzz, kids wandering, people fascinated.\u00a0 The performers – Community MusicWorks musicians who have brought Mr. Ax (now “Manny”) here – are racing to keep up with the maestro like race horses with a grand horse in town. \u00a0His smile shows the grand time he’s having.<\/p>\n

What do you do for encore?\u00a0 Set up another concert in a community center, one familiar to Community MusicWorks students who study violin, in private lessons or in daily orchestra, as part of this extraordinary free program.\u00a0 To show how music can be woven into all lives, set the stage under the sign of a basketball hoop.\u00a0 Welcome, for free, lots of people after a free pasta dinner; this time set up a real piano.\u00a0 Listen to the hush as Ax plays two solo pieces.\u00a0 Feel the deepening of attention in the gym as he and the MusicWorks Collective embark on Mozart’s Concerto No. 14.\u00a0 It leads the audience into wide emotional terrain, but what remains, like a cloud, is the tenderness.\u00a0 Ax has a tenderness when he leans down to listen to little kids who come to hug him afterwards.\u00a0 Same as when he plays “We Shall Overcome” for the entire string-playing collective.<\/p>\n

Ax has been stirred to act, realizing the arts don’t reach across borders unless one makes a point of it; he mentions the “marginalization” of classical artists, even someone of his stature, in the cultural dialog.\u00a0 He wants to be heard.\u00a0 The marginalized kids want to be heard.\u00a0 This is what happens when both sides have an open ear and tremendous receptivity. \u00a0It’s a happening.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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To stage a happening, you put unfamiliar elements together and see what happens.\u00a0 Put a classical superstar pianist like Emanuel Ax in a taqueria like La Lupita, in the Spanish Olneyville neighborhood of Providence.\u00a0 Let it rip. \u00a0In he walks, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[550,103,549,181,548,551,426,552],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ax-residency","tag-brown-university","tag-classical-pianist","tag-community-musicworks","tag-emanuel-ax","tag-la-lupita","tag-sebastian-ruth","tag-westside-community-center"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-mo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}