8-26-19 - John's absolutely amazing concert performance

Day 71.

For Leanne, the day is spent with John preparing for the concert.  A well-regarded New York pianist - Saffron Chung - has flown from the states to perform alongside him.  John gets a much-needed haircut and an even-more-needed beard trim.  Concert clothes are steamed and pressed — this is not as easy as it seems after being jammed packed up in a bag for the past 3 countries since Australia.   Programs printed, music organized, food purchased. Ready.

I take advantage of the fast WiFi in Magnus & Nicola’s house to spend the day booking travel for our Southeast Asia segment later this year.  I also take advantage of having a printer at our disposal to print visas, train tickets and other various travel documents of the old school printout variety.  It is quite a productive day.

Late August brings the prestigious Helsinki Festival so our timing and location for this “Opera in Small Bites” concert is just perfect! John’s concert was held at the Villa Hakasalmi, which is part of Helsinki City Museum and adjacent to the Finlandia Music Hall.  I worked at Bain with Magnus twenty years ago and Nicola works for the Finnish Consulate and used to serve on the Helsinki Board of Tourism; we are so appreciative they helped John with this public performance and invited many of their colleagues, friends and family.  

The concert was amazing as John performed “Se Florindo E Fedele” from the opera La Donna Ancora E Fidele” by Domenico Scarlatti, “O Cessate Di Piagarmi” from the opera Pompeo by Alessando Scarlatti and “Su Vuol Ballere” from the opera Le Nozze Di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Saffron intermixed wonderful classical piano solo pieces as well and the audience is amazed by her playing. John’s tenor voice fills the hall with beauty, strength and passion.  Our ears were well fed with beautiful music this night.  All-in-all it was a tremendous success for everyone involved. It is only his second solo concert and to just to witness our 17-year-old planning and collaborating with a well-established professional pianist for a European solo concert is such a special experience as a parent.

Afterwards, we grab dinner with Magnus and his kids Max and Mai.  Finland has an extremely large reindeer population north of Helsinki rendering reindeer as a popular local dish. I wonder if the children of Finland grow up with some sort of psychological issues eating Santa’s reindeer for dinner.  Or perhaps its no different that our American ease of enjoying the Chick-a-fil cow’s relatives despite his “Eat More Chicken” pleas.

Luckily our children are older and so I am spared getting the possible question “But, Dad, how will Santa come to our house this year if we eat his reindeer?” Fearless, Saffron orders the full blown reindeer rump while I order a pizza with reindeer topping.  In retrospect, I think I should have gone with the reindeer rump meat dish as something didn’t quite taste right eating Rudolph by the slice.   Maybe I’m the one that developed this psychological issue and ponder the question of whether it would be worth my time to start the Save Rudolph Foundation of Finland? 

From beautiful opera music to Rudolph by the slice, Finland is already rocking for us.