A vision of peace from the Eastern Hemisphere

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I feel the need to apologize because this is probably not the kind of post you expect to see on a blog that claims to be about the bass.  Current world events are too prevalent to ignore, however, and I think everyone has some feelings to share.  

Wat Buppharam 

As can be expected, the month and a half that I have spent so far in a continent that I had never even visited before has exposed me to an uncountable number of new things and ideas, from greeting people with a bow to public transportation in converted pick-up trucks called Songtaos to toilets that come complete with a hose but no toilet paper.  One of the most impressionable differences to me, however, have been the different religions.  Although I was raised to be openminded and tolerant, during my childhood in the suburbs of Baltimore I knew very few people who weren't either Christian or Jewish.  Now on the other side of the world, it's eye-opening and refreshing to be in the minority and I've greatly enjoyed Chiang Mai where I've visited countless Buddhist temples and recently attended a Bahai community celebration.  

A recent 4-day trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, however, proved to be even more eye-opening.  Kuala Lumpur is made up of an amazing mix of local Malay, Chinese, South Indian, and Middle Eastern people, and those are just the clear majorities.  On my short trip I visited a Chinese Buddhist temple and a Catholic Church; I climbed 272 steps covered with monkeys to enter a Hindu temple; and I donned a hijab to enter a Mosque. The sidewalks are made colorful by different types of faces and head coverings, and though I'm sure that Kuala Lumpur, like any city, has it's problems, this amazing mix of people seem to coexist in peace.  

National Mosque in KL

As tensions are high in the world right now, and I'm expecting that they'll grow for a while before they begin to ease again, it's becoming more important for us to remember that people are people, and that it's our responsibility as one of those people to celebrate our differences and to work together for peace.  An orchestra is a great example.  Every musician shares the common goal of creating the most effective music possible, but players of different instruments have different ideas of how to best serve that purpose.  A trumpet player would not start an argument with a violist saying that the trumpet is the best way and only way to create music.  Instead, we practice our instruments to the best of our ability on our own, and then we come share our abilities with in an orchestra in order to create something greater.  We take turns having the melody and backing off to fill in other roles, and we recognize that each instrument has a unique and beautiful sound.  

This past summer I taught at Peabody Bass Works, which included 80 bassists in one building for one solid week, and at the end we played a concert with a "bass orchestra" of nothing but double bassists.  It was truly an awesome experience to share a stage with 80 other bassists, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the week discussing my chosen way of making music with others who have chosen the same medium.  Despite this, I would never show a video of that concert to a violinist friend and say, "See, this is the right way to make music!  You guys are doing it all wrong, and you'll never achieve the highest level of music making!" 


As I write this, I realize that it's probably redundant to anyone reading it.  You are probably very tolerant and progressive minded and maybe you agreed with everything I've said before you read this.  And I bet most people you know or talk to on a regular basis have the same open-minded views. So the question is, what can we do to share these ideas to those who can't see them?  

One response, which I love and which every musician has heard is Leonard Bernstein's answer, "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."  

My current response, which was part of the advice that Joe Biden gave this past year's graduating class from Yale, is to quit your sphere.  So all of your friends are complaining about the state of intolerance in the same way?  Find a way to talk to someone who disagrees and work to open them up to the world. Travel, maybe just to a different neighborhood, and present yourself to someone who has never known anyone like you.  So there are parts of the world who have a negative view of Americans or whatever stereotype you fit into?  Go there or talk to someone from there and get to know them.  Remind them that people are people (even us obnoxious Americans) and give them a reason to rethink what they have been brought to believe.  You don't have to seek to change their life, you just have to be their friend.  

So this is difficult or uncomfortable?  Too bad!  You'll be amazed what you can do once you start pushing your boundaries.  The more I surprise myself, the less easily surprised I am, and the more confidence I have.  Three years ago, the first time several times I taught a bass class in very poor Spanish, I thought going in that I had no idea what I was doing, and that I wasn't ready.  But when I jumped in, I started to learn what I could do when I didn't think I was ready.  And then when I went back to school and prepared a recital that of course I didn't feel ready for (because who ever really does?), I at least had faith in myself to pull something off that I didn't know I was ready for.  

With my bass in a Songtao

In my time in Chiang Mai, I have not found a musical community to grow in, and to confess, I have not made as much progress personally on the bass as I was hoping to by this point, but I definitely have been pushing my boundaries, and I think that will reflect in my playing.  I have taught English classes, which I never expected that I could do, and I have struggled with the language barrier and have ordered dishes that I couldn't identify until they were on my plate.  I can bargain with a Songtao driver, and last week I sang along to a Macklemore song with one of the teenagers who I'm tutoring in English.  I have an audition next week, back in the awesome city of Kuala Lumpur, and although I definitely don't feel ready right now, I am confident that it's worth it for me to go for something I'm not sure I'm ready for.  

So I apologize for being cheesy or preachy, but this is my vision for the world as we grieve the latest acts of violence and protest the intolerance we see.  Take the time to quit your sphere and celebrate the diversity in your personal world.  It may not seem like much, but hopefully, like the members of an orchestra, we can improve one by one and then come together, and in doing so we can build something greater and more beautiful than ourselves.