Video Transcript:

Ben Zander:

Let’s wait on that because I have something to say. First of all, bravo. It was wonderful, wonderful. It’s gorgeous. Christine, where do you live? Do you live here?

Christine:

No, actually I am partially based in New York.

Ben Zander:

In New York.

Christine:

And in Brussels.

Ben Zander:

Oh, in Brussels. Wonderful, great. What are you doing in Boston?

Christine:

I have an audition for the Frank Beebe Grant.

Ben Zander:

Oh, the Beebe Grant?

Christine:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

Yes, great. Okay, and when is the audition?

Christine:

In a couple hours.

Ben Zander:

Oh, good, great. I have something to suggest and you don’t have to take it in, but are you playing with Dinah in an hour? Great, because she’s great. I’m going to suggest something to you. There are two things about this piece that suggest to me that what you are doing is not right. One is this slur and the other is the awkwardness of this. It feels too slow and it feels as though it’s stuck. I’m going to suggest we do is treat it like a song, like a Schubert song, like a leader. If I were playing this for a singer, I would play the accompaniment quite differently. Let’s just try, what is that, wrong?

Dinah:

It’s the wrong note, this is right.

Ben Zander:

It’s a different feel, isn’t it? It’s a different feel and it’s more like a song because what that does for you is it enables you to time everything exactly the way a singer would do it. Isn’t that interesting? It changes the whole thing.

Christine:

It’s much easier to play.

Ben Zander:

It’s much easier to play. Now if you want to win the Beebe, you have to play it this way, okay? I can’t guarantee you will, can give you a pretty good chance, okay? Now, fortunately, you’ve got a wonderful pianist so should we try just to make sure we got it right, because what I’m just so Dinah understands this completely, but what I’m doing, I’m being so flexible with the aids that I’m creating the illusion of slowness.

Bravo. Bravo, fantastic, fantastic.

I used to do a class at the New England Conservatory and I wanted to call it Disappearing Eighth Notes, but I thought nobody would sign up for it, so I didn’t call it that. The secret of music is the disappearing of the eighth notes, and that’s what just happened. You didn’t realize you had eighth notes, you were just free to play. The secret is Schubert’s sign of one slur for two bars. You are in luck because she’s great and she understands, you notice how fantastic she did. All we’re doing is reacting to the harmonies, that’s all. If the end of a phrase, like the end of the first phrase, all the time in the world, you can take. Isn’t that beautiful? Will you do that this afternoon?

Christine:

I will.

Ben Zander:

Great, terrific. Yeah, wonderful. Really beautiful. It’s great.

Christine:

Thank you so much.

Ben Zander:

So great Dinah. Just stay a moment because everything depends of course on the pianist. You can’t do anything with that unless the pianist is willing to play freely like that.

I want to, I just discovered this morning, you wrote me a white sheet. This guy came two weeks ago. Do you remember? We had the class and he came from Singapore. He stayed all the way through, came to all the razzle and he wrote something, which I just discovered this morning. I want to read it. I don’t want anybody to think this is personal. You write some very nice things. It’s not personal. None of this is personal. You realize this is available to everybody and it’s independent of any individual person.

You wrote, thank you for being in my life and helping me to understand what music and life are truly about. After attending your interpretation classes and open rehearsals and seeing you guide the musicians under your care, I reminded myself of how you once mentioned that as musicians, we can never be better musicians than we are as people.

I used to beat myself up whenever things didn’t go my way. When I failed in meeting goals and had previously set my sights on. I’ve since learned to see my life as a long, expansive, lyrical line that unfolds towards a final resolution, notwithstanding the twists and turns that happen along the journey. Everything that happens to me is a highway to vistas of possibility, be it rejection or acceptance. For that reason, I have learned to be happy no matter what happens.

It goes on. Meeting you in person is just about as great a privilege as I could ask for. My stay in Boston would not have been as wonderful as it has been, if not for your immense warmth and loving spirit, which shows up in the BPYO members and management team also. I’ve learned so much since attending your interpretation classes in the line of musical performance and conducting, but also skills in relating to people and giving love and passion away. Thank you. Thank you. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful.

What Elliot has put his finger on is that this is not about playing instruments, it’s not about singing, it’s not about doing something, it’s about being, it’s all about being. That you have acknowledged and noticed that it’s not just in the music, but in the management, in the relationships, in the orchestra, in the joy that people feel in the presence of other people. That is the secret.

The fact that you’ve come from Singapore to experience it to me is completely normal. It’s absolutely normal. I mean, it’s only 22 hours on the plane and he’s getting on the plane tonight and going back to Singapore and you haven’t wasted a moment and thank you for writing it so beautifully and capturing in words what we spend our time doing.

That’s the chairman of our board right there. He’s the chairman, this gentleman there, and he’s presiding over a whole organization that is based on this idea. Not just in the music, not just in the classes, not just in the rehearsals, but in everything. That’s a dream, that’s a dream for me. Absolutely, it’s a dream for my life. It’s a beautiful thing that we can share these moments together on Saturday morning and find out what it is like.

The difference between the first performance that Christine gave and the second is a world of difference. It’s a world of difference. Thank you all for being here. See you on the 20th of April in Symphony Hall.