Thursday, January 17, 2008

Musical Interlude

We had an amazing treat in class today! One of our fellow classmates from Russia, Janah, plays the violin. She is currently studying at a university in Tel Aviv and is very accomplished on her instrument. She is even going to be in a concert in New York soon.
She brings her violin to class some days because she goes to the university after we are done at the Ulpan. Today was one of those days.
Sarah, our teacher, asked Jana during one of our breaks, if she would be willing to play for us in class. She agreed. So at 10:30 this morning as we all wandered back into class, Sarah begins to teach then stops and says that Jana has agreed to play something for us today.
So, Jana arose from her chair, opened her case, pulled out her violin and knocked our socks off!! She began by playing a piece by Bach, whom she said she loves. It was a beautiful piece and she played it wonderfully! I started crying it was so beautiful! I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face. I clenched my jaw and furrowed my brow to try to make them stop! Brent was overwhelmed as well, though let me be clear that he did not cry! He is the man after all!
When she completed the first song she then explained that she would play another song that was composed by a Spanish composer. It too was splendid!
During all of this, the teacher from the class next door peaked into our class to see where that beautiful sound was coming from. At the next break she asked our teacher, Sarah, if Jana could come play a piece for their class once that break was over. Of course Sarah was proud to share her talented student and agreed. The other teacher then comes into our classroom as we are chatting and asks Jana if she would come play for her class. She says they heard the beautiful music and were so distracted by it they could not continue what they were doing, but stopped and listened through the wall. Jana agreed and played a short tune for them as well.
It was a fun break from having our brains pureed for a few minutes!! She is truly talented and I think we have talked her into giving a short concert for us at the end of our course.

5 comments:

Kris the Girl said...

Oh man, that is so cool!

Natalie Witcher said...

I love stringed instruments! They're yummy

Summer said...

I went to a symphony last weekend and got to enjoy some good violin playing myself. Yay for pretty music!

Kim Heinecke said...

That's definitely a feel good story. Wish I could play SOMETHING...

Aaron said...

you are living life!