Day Twelve – Music, Sweet Music

To say today was back to normal, would be to understate what a positive day it turned out to be. The morning and afternoon was normal for me–I continued to plug away at my new screenplay first draft and realized my television pilot needed to be completely restructured. I then began the process of pulling it apart for reassembly. All of that went well, but the real excitement occurred before dinner, which was called “the music soiree”

In the past, there have been musicians who have joined this residency primarily to focus on their composing and performance. We are all visual artists and writers, but it was clear that several of us also possess strong musical talent. It wasn’t simply people with musical skill performing some of their favorite covers–most of the music presented was original.

We began with Jill, a splendid visual artist who evidently has a history as a rock n roll grrrl. Playing guitar and ukele, she sang three songs including two originals. She is a powerhouse. Jill as then joined by Bridget and Sommer for a beautiful cover of an Amy Winehouse song.

Next up was Anandi, performing some of her original raps as Lil Stixxx (I am told she can be found on something called “Spotify.”). She went downstairs into the costume closet and selected a costume and a look. She performed with great confidence and intensity, and like all good raps, they got stuck in our heads. To put it mildly, her performance was something to behold.

Next to perform was Sapir, who sang an original song in Hebrew. She kindly shared copies of an English translation of her song, but it didn’t matter. Her emotional performance, sweet voice and the beautiful melody had most of us in tears. We may not have understood the words, but we knew exactly what she felt.

This was followed by our final duet, Alyssa and the return of Bridget. Like all of us, these two had only known each other a week, but their musical chemistry allowed them to write two songs together. Alyssa has been playing piano since she was five and had written piano chords she was unsure what to do with. She played them for Bridget, who wrote lyrics she could sing with the chords. The result was pure magic. After their songs, Alyssa sent us off to dinner with Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

The excitement at dinner was palpable–we all understood we had been part of something remarkable. Although the timing was a coincidence, after the stress of the previous day, this is exactly what we needed. During the performance, another summer thunderstorm swept through the valley, and we were left with a rainbow.

There could be nothing better.