The Passion of Amateurs

This is an English translation of an article published in Nikkan San on Aug 29, 2019, as a part of my column, “The Way of the Pianist.

One of my favorite saying in Japanese is “Suki koso mono no jo-zu nare (What one likes, one will do well).” I am surprised to learn, after a Google search, that there is not an equivalent phrase in English. The closest I found was “Who likes not his business, his business not likes him” by William Hazlitt, but he seems to attribute it to an older French proverb.

Whether there is a ready-made phrase describing it or not, it is true that passion is the best driving force for any endeavors. I am convinced of this more than ever after a week teaching and performing at ArtsAhimsa, a chamber music festivals for the music loving non-professionals. It takes place in a beautiful mansion in Lenox, MA, where several dozen students eat, sleep and play in ensembles with professional musicians as their coaches. Some have switched careers after attaining some degrees in music. Others have played as children. And yet others have taken up an instrument much later in life, like an eighty-something cellist who started playing in her seventies. College professors, international rescue workers, medical professionals, film makers…their careers are diverse, but all stellar. But for this week, they are all music students, sneaking away to practice at whatever sliver of time they can find in the strictly enforced daily schedule of rehearsals, performances and meal times.

This was my fourth year, teaching at ArtsAhimsa. Many of the students are repeaters. So, during the course of the one-week reunion, I get to experience many of their lives’ milestones. Some of them talk about the weddings of their children. Some have new grandchildren. And yet, others tell me about losing their spouse in the course of the last year since I saw them last, or that they have been diagnosed with serious illnesses. They also share their challenges outside of their personal lives. Many have professions that take them to disaster stricken areas of the world, addressing current global issues. Others volunteer their times to address inequality in their communities. But for this week, they gather together to devote a week to their music making. Witnessing their focus and passion makes me reevaluate music as a source of our humanity. It is in its motivational force that music is valuable, not in the level of refinement in its performance, I now realize. I learn more from my student during the course of the week, than the other way around, despite my status as a member of the faculty at this historic institution.

Music is, indeed, so, very powerful.