Can You Play at Carnegie Hall This Weekend? (It’s a Trick Question…)

I was in the middle of preparing for my next monster recording with the London Symphony Orchestra less than 2 weeks away when I suddenly got a call on Wednesday morning from the Orpheus Orchestra. A conductor-less orchestra, they play with their ears and hearts, listening carefully and intensely to the musical line and dialogue of each voice, each phrase. Augustin Dumay had withdrawn from the rehearsal the following morning with concerts at Lafayette College in PA on Friday and Carnegie Hall on Saturday. Mendelssohn Concerto was on the marquis and it had been over 2 years since I performed it last, in Chautauqua, right after my second daughter was born. I was playing on Molly then too (the Molitor Strad) and never performed it on V (the ‘Vieuxtemps’ Del Gesu). The voice on the other end was asking, ‘Can you do it? Please save us?’ And before I could blink my eyes, I said YES!!! I will be there!! Less than 24 hours later, I was standing in front of Orpheus….Amazing how traveling in super-sonic warped speed mentally and emotionally and completely out of your comfort zone can challenge every one of your molecules but it was so incredible to work again with such passionate colleagues. The moment I stepped onto both stages, I knew I made the right decision….