The recent Easter season brought forth thoughts of transcendence and where it comes from and who it’s for. For some, Easter is just bunnies and eggs. For Christian believers, it’s the holiest of holidays that enfolds them with self-sacrificing divine love that invites, lifts, and welcomes them to a higher state of grace that transcends human frailty and limitations. Regardless your core religious beliefs or lack thereof, fundamental Easter notions of self-sacrifice, giving your all, being open to messages that give grace to go on, and recognizing a spark in our individual humanity that is part of a bigger picture, all resonate strongly with the better part of human nature, our aspirations, and our experiences of the transcendent.

As our duo tours around the state and nation, our goal is to entertain, educate, and uplift our audiences. We often find ourselves on the learning end of the equation through stories and reactions from our audiences, and through what we see and learn on the road. Some recent experiences brought home to us the power and presence, as well as the potentially ephemeral fragility of transcendence. One of the messages came from a performance by the US Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.” Another came from an audience member at a library in Long Prairie, MN. Another came from the back of a semi-trailer on I-94. The last grows from concern about the effects of the ongoing, drawn-out lockouts of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

After our March 9 recital at George Mason University, we heard the US Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” perform a concert outlining the history of the band, up to and including a world premiere of De Profundis for Oboe and Concert Band by Timothy Goplerud. Pershing’s vision inspired us. He founded a great band dedicated to the idea of bringing music of the highest caliber to all people, wherever they were, from world leaders, to liberated civilians, to troops in the field, to concert-goers on the parade ground. He insisted on excellence, believed in the unifying, inspiring, healing power of music, recognized the value of the connections that arose between the army band, the troops and civilians they performed for, and forged partnerships with leading forces in music including Walter Damrosch, The American School at Fontainebleau, and Nadia Boulanger, all of which had a tremendous influence on the leading composers, orchestras, music history, and audiences of the 20th century. Pershing’s vision and commitment created a “service band” that is both a standard bearer for the Army branch of US armed services, and a transcendent “band in service” to humanity exemplifying music’s power to heal, unite, lead, uplift, and transform.

Back in Minnesota,  at the Long Prairie Public Library, we presented our Pages of Music with Rolf and Carrie educational program, “The Spirit Sings,” about the history and legacy of African-American music. This program includes a section about the inspiring life and music of Marian Anderson, including her historic, transcendent performance, sung for a crowd of 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939.  During our DC tour, we stood on the same spot where Marian sang My Country ‘Tis of Thee, and where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I have a Dream” speech, and strongly felt the ongoing power and resonance of these words, sounds and events. After our library performance, an appreciative audience member related a story from his past about a party with U of MN students in the 1950s. His friend who hosted the party pulled him aside and said, “Watch what happens when I put on this LP!” What had previously been simply pleasant background music transformed into an arresting focal point, and a room of partying college students fell silent to listen. It was a recording of Marian Anderson’s peerless contralto voice singing the Easter spiritual, Were you There?  Something about true artistic greatness causes people to “tremble, tremble,” regardless of their artistic training or exposure.

On our drive back to the Twin Cities, we followed a semi-trailer truck emblazoned with the motto, “Our Greatest Resource is 63 feet Ahead.” Our daughters did the math estimate and realized 63 feet in front of that sign was a driver.  A company that advertises its trust, pride, and confidence in its employees on the back of its vehicles sounds like one worth hiring, investing in, or sending in a job application. This stands in sharp contrast to prevalent management pronouncements about the Twin Cities orchestra lockouts, where musicians seem to be seen and treated as recalcitrant children, drags on the budget, and replaceable machine cogs, where seasoning and experience count for nothing beyond seniority that makes them more expensive and expendable. Through recent departures and a lack of auditions to fill positions, the Minnesota Orchestra is currently missing nearly a quarter of the orchestra (23%) and nearly a third of the string section (32%), including half of the titled string players (figures not available for the SPCO). The musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra and SPCO are the greatest resources of our orchestras. They’ve given us more than our share of transcendent moments, including in this year of lockout and bitter strife. Transcendent moments come from recognizing and valuing the contributions of individual human beings, whether their commitment and convictions enable them to drive a truck well, establish a service band, sing a song that stops people in their tracks, or make awe-inspiring music together as an orchestra.

Transcendence isn’t an accident. It comes from people acting singly or in concert, who have dedicated their lives to seeking and making it happen. It isn’t reserved for the few members of a trained or privileged elite. It is intended for us all, and reaches out equally to everyone that has ears to hear. Hopefully it’s still not too late for all of us to open our hearts and minds and demand and expect the best from ourselves, our institutions, and their stewards. Are you the one with the idea, handshake, letter, or pledge to the future that provides the transformative, transcendent, tipping point? Think about it over a third helping of Marian Anderson’s Easter vocal transcendence in Erbarme dich from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

One of our most rewarding activities as a duo is our series of Pages of Music programs we present for senior residences and centers. In November and December of this year, we’ve gotten into the holiday spirit presenting two seasonal senior programs to a number of residences across the Twin Cities area: “The Jazzy Nutcracker,” comparing Tchaikovsky’s original score with Duke Ellington’s jazz arrangements; and “Stories of the Carols,” combining history, story-telling, performing, and singing along. Silent Night always elicits the best response and singing, has the richest history, and generates stories.

Though many carols mix words and music from different times and places, Stille Nacht came together to be performed by its creators at a specific time and place: Christmas Eve, 1818, at St. Nicholas Parish in Oberndorf Austria, with a poem by parish priest, Father Joseph Mohr, set to guitar accompaniment by the church organist, Franz Grüber. Legends have grown up around the event, including the possibility the premiere was performed with guitar accompaniment because the organ was out of order that night due to hungry mice eating and destroying the bellows. The piece went on to be so popular, that everyone assumed it was an ancient folksong and tune. Nobody in 19th century Austria believed it could have been written by contemporaries, and Franz Grüber had to go to considerable trouble to find an old library manuscript substantiating his and Father Mohr’s parts in its creation, and wrote an article about his memories of its composition and premiere. For more info, visit the Silent Night Foundation

We’ve performed this program all over Minnesota, and have independent confirmation of the story. When we were about to perform it in the little town of Belgrade in west central Minnesota, a woman said, “Oh, ‘Silent Night.’ That was written by Franz Grüber. His great-grandson lives on the farm next to ours. We know that story!”

The most famous story of the power of this song to spread peace and joy comes from 96 years after Mohr and Grüber’s first performance, on Christmas Eve of 1914, in the trenches of the Western Front in the “War-to-End-All-Wars.” Someone on one side started singing a Christmas song, and soon soldiers on both sides began singing carols at each other. When the Germans sang Stille Nacht, English soldiers joined them with the English Silent Night. A German soldier walked into No-Man’s-Land holding a white truce flag in one hand and a Christmas tree glowing with lit candles in the other, and started the Christmas Truce. Soldiers from both sides filled No-Man’s-Land, traded chocolates and trinkets, shared photos from home, and polished off the evening with a soccer game. In following days these men became so ineffective as soldiers that the opposing generals had to rotate fresh troops up to the front to resume the fighting. Rolf’s biggest annual challenge is getting through sharing this story without choking up. This story has recently been retold in authoritative books, Christmas Truce, by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton, and Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub; last year’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning Opera, Silent Night, by Kevin Puts, and in Christmas in the Trenches, a beautiful song and children’s book by John McCutcheon. This video shares the story of McCutcheon’s song.

Silent Night revives old memories. After one of our “Stories of the Carols” programs, one man recalled that years ago he had a school unit where a guest came in and taught them German language and culture with the words and translation to Stille Nacht. Years later he realized the charming guest was the local rabbi. A 103-year-old woman told us she grew up in a German-speaking town in Minnesota and had learned Stille Nacht from her immigrant grandparents. she may have sung it 98 years ago as a five-year-old, the same night as the WW I Christmas Truce.

Father Mohr’s words to Stille Nacht have been translated into many languages across the world but somehow never caught on in Scandinavia. When we put together a program for Ingebretsen’s, a Minneapolis Scandinavian specialty shop, we realized that though Grüber’s Stille Nacht tune is a favorite across Scandinavia, the words are from a totally different text, Glade Jul, which translates “Joyous Christmas.” Norwegian and German are very closely related languages. It would have been very easy to translate the German Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht to the Dano-Norwegian Stille natt, hellige natt with minor modifications to keep it in rhyme. This was in fact done in an 1843 publication by a Danish composer, organist, and teacher, A. P. Berggreen, but the words that stuck in Scandinavia were by another Dane, Bernhard Severin Ingemann, who wrote Glade Jul to be sung to the same tune in 1850. The main difference in the texts is that Stille Nacht retells the nativity story, and Glade Jul is set in present tense and relates our current world situation back to the nativity.

A translation of the Norwegian version follows, 1st verse translation from Mike and Else’s Norwegian Songbook:

1) Joyous Christmas! Holy Christmas!
The Angels are descending,
Coming with Green boughs from heaven
Where they know what is beautiful to God.
The Angels walk in our midst unseen
The Angels walk in our midst unseen

2) Christmas joy, eternal joy,
Holy song with heavenly sound
These are the angels the shepherds saw
When the Lord lay in the manger
Eternal is the angels’ song
Eternal is the angels’ song

3) Peace on earth, joy on earth
The Jesus child among us lives
The angels sing of the beautiful child
He has opened the door to heaven
Blessed is the angels’ song
Blessed is the angels’ song

4) Blessed peace, heavenly peace
Resounds Christmas night here below
Angels bring to big and to small
The word of he who in the manger lay
Rejoice in each soul he has saved
Rejoice in each soul he has saved

Whatever your faith or creed, joys or sorrows, we wish you peace, love, joy, and comfort that can come from a song, now in this Silent Night, and in the year to come.

Glade Jul!

We host, organize, and perform on an amazing, unique series of chamber music coffee concerts at the Lakeville Area Arts Center (LAAC).  The top five amazing things about this series are:

1. The Performers -  top area orchestral players, soloists, ensembles, and McKnight Fellowship winners who also excel at connecting with audiences.
2. The Variety - You won’t find a bigger range of ensembles and repertoire anywhere!  Performers across the seasons have included an OboeBass! Duo, usually mixing and matching ensembles with other performers, Balkan dance music, period baroque instruments, a string trio, percussion ensembles,  Classical Indian Veena, Principal Flute, Harp, Horn, and Concertmaster from top area orchestras,  and Minnesota roots music.
3. The Venue – The LAAC is a fun place with a warm ambiance and acoustic.  It also hosts lots of other amazing events, activities and exhibits throughout the year that Twin Cities area residents should know about and experience.
4. The Audience – Our supporters have made this series a crown jewel among gems of south-of-the-river musical events in Minnesota.  You will not find a warmer or more enthusiastic bunch of people anywhere.  Great music brings fun people together!
5. The Food!  We have tasty receptions, often thematically connected to the music being performed!  It’s a nice time to unwind and meet the artists and other audience members in a fun, casual environment, sipping complimentary Caribou Coffee!

This will be the sixth season of the series.  It’s grown phenomenally, and has been awarded substantial support from generous grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC).  This year we just barely missed renewing (by the smallest possible margin!) an MRAC Arts Activities Grant, and have applied for their smaller Community Arts Grant.

We are charging ahead with the series with no compromises made to this season’s performers or programming.

REMEMBER THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 IS “GIVE TO THE MAX DAY!”

We need your help this year.  To insure the continuation of this series, we are reaching out for donors to help on Nov. 15, “Give to the Max Day!” at GiveMN.org.  This annual event generates a huge chunk of operating and outreach expenses and makes a big difference for thousands of non-profits, schools, and other causes across the state.

It’s possible to make a huge difference without spending a dime! 

First, click on this link:

SOS!  Sustain Our Series! Chamber Music Coffee Concerts at the LAAC

Then, click the fan button to show your support, leave a comment saying what this series means to you (no donation needed to put in your verbal 5 cents!), and/or share the link to our GiveMN.org page through facebook, twitter, smoke signals, or your personal favorite form of communication.

REMEMBER THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 IS “GIVE TO THE MAX DAY!”

We need your help.  Every donation of any amount ($10 minimum) makes a big difference.  Your donation could even get substantially multiplied.  On Thurs., Nov. 15, starting at 12:01 am, every hour for 24 hours, one random lucky donation also generates an extra $1,000 for the chosen cause.  At the end of the day, one cause will be awarded the $10,000 “Golden Ticket.”  Night owls have the highest odds of posting a winning donation for the $1,000 prize, but anytime is a good time to help with any amount!  Thank you benefits for donations to LAAC Coffee Concerts range from a thanks line in the concert program, to free concert and season tickets, to the chance to name a concert in honor of a person, occasion or organization, to the chance to propose from stage and get free or discount wedding reception music!

REMEMBER THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 IS “GIVE TO THE MAX DAY!”

We’re also throwing out a modest challenge.  We donate to this series, but we’re constantly amazed at the wonderful things that people are making happen for other people through the arts and other worthy causes.  We are donating $10 each to the following five causes, and challenge you to find some causes (like ours!) that are worthy of a share of $50 from you:

Caponi Art Park

Open Eye Figure Theater

Lutheran Music Program

Hear Projects

Sample Night Live

In past years, we’ve also donated to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra.  In light of the current lockout situation, we are instead buying tickets for benefit concerts put on by and for the musicians of both organizations.  These are not non-profit organizations and are not part of “Give to the Max Day.”  Here are links for info and ordering tickets for those concerts:

SPCO Musicians Mozart Concert with Pinchas Zuckerman, Sun., Dec. 2, 3:00 pm

MN Orchestra Musicians Ode to Joy with Edo de Waart, Jorja Fleezanis and Erin Keefe

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for any support you can give to keep this wonderful coffee concert series thriving in Lakeville.  Have fun browsing GiveMN.org causes and celebrating thanks with your giving leading up to Thanksgiving!  Hope to see you at a live music event soon!

An amazing fact about fine string instruments is they improve with age. In all likelihood, if I and my successors properly maintain its condition, my bass will still be making music at a high level 100 or even 200 years from now.

Of course, instruments are fragile, and can be destroyed through neglect or abuse.

In a similar way, an Orchestra is an instrument. The Minnesota Orchestra is a little younger than my bass. It was founded in 1903, around the time my grandparents were born. The SPCO was founded in 1959, the year I was born. Like my bass, an orchestra requires maintenance. Top-quality talent and equipment are an ongoing expense. A professional orchestra requires a certain number of salaried players to play the parts in the range of scores they are called on to perform. The same way I have to replace worn equipment on my bass, sometimes even musicians move on, “wear out,” or retire, and need to be replaced. There’s a living tradition to be passed on, so one does not get rid of them when they’re contributing at a high level and imparting their musical “mojo” to colleagues through example and collaboration, any more than any violinist would heedlessly discard their 300 year old Strad in favor of a newer, cheaper, untested fiddle. In the event a musician is replaced, this is generally done by a blind, brutal, grueling, Darwinian audition process that narrows a field of about 100 qualified international applicants through semi-final and final rounds, with two or three finalists often required to perform trial weeks to see how they fit in the ensemble, followed by a probationary period before they are fully accepted as tenured members of the ensemble. The SPCO and Minnesota Orchestra, through generations of care, planning, and constant renewal and revitalization, are both sounding the best they have in the memories of most performers, conductors, and audiences.

An amazing fact about fine orchestras is they improve with age. In all likelihood, if management and boards properly maintain their ensemble’s condition, our orchestras will still be making music at a high level 100 or even 200 years from now.

Of course, orchestras are fragile, and can be destroyed through neglect or abuse.

To sustain an orchestra, audiences and donors have to be educated and inspired to attend and contribute. Musicians have to be inspired to join, perform, and leave their legacy. These constitute the basic responsibilities of orchestral boards and administrations: raising funds, educating audiences, and attracting and retaining talented performers. In drastic situations and changing times, these roles and duties can be adjusted with judicious care, planning, and vision. Players and other resources can be deployed in creative ways to optimize their value and impact, and to generate sustainable revenue. Educational outreach of various forms has to continue to nourish and encourage future audiences, performers, composers, teachers, donors, and the like. It’s a group endeavor that requires participation from all parties, including the audience and surrounding community.

No single individual CEO, board group, or performing ensemble can claim, or act as if they had personal ownership of “their” orchestra. They have only been entrusted with the care, promotion, preservation, and advancement of priceless art and cultural institutions for what is a relatively short stretch of time in the life of an orchestra. The orchestra “belongs” to everyone it serves, now and in the future, and makes us all the richer for its existence in direct proportion to its excellence.

Above all, orchestral caretakers on the boards and management in this small slice of history need to learn to love their “instruments,” the orchestras, cherish and promote the music they are designed for and capable of producing, do what it takes to keep them in optimal playing condition for the present, and leave them “fit as a fiddle” for the future. If administrators do their jobs well, both the Minnesota Orchestra and SPCO should still be performing great music for my children, grandchildren, and audiences around Minnesota and the world 100, maybe 200 years from now. Who knows? Maybe a worthy new caretaker will be playing my bass as a member of the SPCO or Minnesota Orchestra from time to time in generations to come.

— Rolf Erdahl

On Friday, Rolf made use of his spare time finishing off a final report on our last MRAC Arts Learning Grant (for series of music learning programs at senior centers and residences), and got to work on putting together a Community Arts Grant to take up some of the slack left by not getting the Arts Activities Grant for the Lakeville Area Arts Center Coffee Concert series.

In a piece of good news, we learned that Rolf’s bass wheel was found at the Cass Lake Library, and they had sent it on to our Saturday engagement at the Bemidji Library.

On Saturday we called the library and told them to plan on us.  Carrie found her health again, but took it easy until we had to leave to get to Bemidji.  As Carrie rested, Rolf hauled cinder blocks.  Rolf’s cousin is building a spec house, and Rolf volunteered to be his pack mule for the morning.  Consider it research on our program about Mozart and the Masons.  Rolf lined up the blocks, Dan did the masonic work, then Rolf used the striking tool to smooth and seal the wet concrete.  It felt great to work outside, it took Rolf back to his summers working for Concrete Design Specialties in South St. Paul (similar gopher work – leave the skilled stuff to the pros!), and it was good catching up with Cousin Dan, who lived on the farm just across Highway 16 from the farm where Rolf grew up in southern Minnesota.  More great breakfast and lunch marvels from Sue, and we hit the road for Bemidji.

Stunning fall colors lit our highway past Itasca State Park (our family crossed the Mississippi there at its source earlier this summer) all the way up to Bemidji.  Despite being potentially one of the last warm weekend days of the summer, we had a very nice crowd of all ages, so we gave them a hybrid of our “Music is for Everybody” intro program and a mini recital.  Very fun, cute kids in the instrument parade finale, who all enjoyed making sounds on our bass and oboe afterwards.  The smallness of the world became evident again as it turned out the library volunteer was a close childhood friend of Rolf’s mom from St. Anthony Park, MN.  She gave us a restaurant recommendation that’s worth a four-hour roadtrip!  Tutto Bene served up awesome appetizers before Rolf’s prosciutto-wrapped walleye and Carrie’s pappardelle bolognese and amazingly good lavender martini polished off this two-week whirlwind tour with a relaxing, memorable dinner before the long drive home.  No dessert afterwards, but we made one last tourist stop, just across the street, and Carrie got a memorable souvenir from the collosus of Bemidji!

So, an amazing tour, very well organized by the KRLS staff, with wonderful people of all ages in the audiences, and spectacular weather, scenery, and fall colors.  (Check out our OboeBass! Facebook page for pictures – still haven’t figured out how to post albums in the blog.) We’ll be back to the Park Rapids area soon to finish up our commitments.  We’re grateful to live in a state where people valued the arts and environment enough to vote to tax themselves to support them, even as the economy was clearly heading into a tailspin.  Music is for everybody, and we’re honored to be able to share our recitals and educational programs across the state.  Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you posted on our ongoing adventures.  Bye now!

This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

Just after we hit the road we learned of the death of our dear friend and producer of our debut CD, the legendary Howard Scott (obituary).  Scottie produced our CD “It Takes Two . . .” at WFMT Classical Radio studios in Chicago in 2007.  As a producer he was tough, efficient, and exacting, with a great ear and consummate musicianship.  He also set us at ease so we could do our best work.  Off the job was fun, vivacious, and full of the most incredible stories from a life as producer of 100s of landmark recordings of the 20th century.  No exaggeration.  Check the credits on your favorite CDs:  Broadway Original Cast recordings of My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Kismet, etc.; Columbia and RCA recordings of NY Phil, Boston, Chicago (Grammy award), Cleveland, and Philadelphia Orchestra; Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations; etc., etc.  Howard Scott is more often than not listed as producer. More people should know about the mark he made in the recording industry.  He will be sorely missed.

Next bad news:  We learned we were not awarded an MRAC Arts Activities Support Grant in support of the Chamber Music Coffee Concerts we organize at the Lakeville Area Arts Center.  We have been awarded this grant for four years in a row, and missed it by just one point from our panel of 9 judges.  We will apply for an MRAC Community Arts Grant to fill the gap in funding to make the series happen, but that means crunching a new grant application as soon as we get home from tour to be in time for the Oct. 8 grant deadline.  We’ve been fortunate to be awarded a fair number of MN Legacy grants (including the Arts Tour MN Grant in support of our current tour), but there’s never any guarantee they’ll come through, and the process is getting more and more competitive.  Back to the drawing board!

We were a little worried about our performance in Menahga.  Usually our audience size limit is 150, but here we were going to have nearly 200 K-3 students to hear our “Music is for Everybody” program.  The challenge was to keep that many kids engaged, and appeal to the full age range.  (You get a different response from Kindergarteners and 3rd graders when you ask them to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle,” for example.)  The kids were incredibly attentive, responsive, and well-prepared with basic music information, thanks in no small part to their amazing music teacher, Mr. Schmidt.  It came off as one of our all-time best presentations in terms of performance/audience interaction and connection.

Onward.  Absolutely gorgeous fall colors, warm, clear blue skies, temperatures in the 70s, and clear sailing to our hotel in Blackduck, including a short visit with Paul Bunyan and Babe in Bemidji on the way.  Two unfortunate discoveries on arrival:  1) The white flecks spackled on the sides of our Midnight Blue Caravan turned out to be hardened paint flecks from crossing freshly painted lines on the highway; 2) despite managing to pack props, gear, and music for five different programs, Rolf managed to forget to put his own suitcase in the car, and it is sitting awaiting our return to Apple Valley.  Yup, no socks, underwear, swimsuit, toiletries.  Hand wash tonight.  Fortunately he did hang up dress slacks and shirts in the car, so he doesn’t have to acquire a whole new wardrobe or wear the same clothes four days in a row.

Dinner was a welcome respite.  We went to the Hillcrest Supper Club, overlooking Blackduck Lake, had a nice dinner at what was clearly a favorite spot with locals, and saw deer in the fields on one side, and a stunning sunset over the lake on the other.

Rolf scavenged some lost-and-found swim trunks (freshly washed!) at the hotel and we were able to rewind in the whirlpool.  Rolf just had to swim a few laps at the end to stretch out road trip muscles.  Bad idea.  Michael Phelps never slammed his fingers into a wall harder than Rolf did finishing his crawl lap, and his bow hand (fortunately!) pinkie finger is at least sprained and potentially compromised for the rest of the tour.  Hurt like heck to wring out that handwash at the end of the day.

Thursday was strenuous, but good, and Rolf’s pinkie, though still sore, didn’t pose too many problems.  Two packed school performances for our “Edvard Grieg’s Music of the Mountains” and “Science of Music” programs for Blackduck and Kelliher 5th-6th and 3rd-5th graders, respectively.  Blackduck’s football team (2-0!) were to play Kelliher that evening, and they seemed inspired by our tales of trolls from “The Hall of the Mountain King!”  In Kelliher we were reminded how much we missed our daughters when the Superintendent of Schools mentioned he had just moved there from Ada, MN, and a cute, bright kid from Red Lake who volunteered to do some demonstrations for us turned out to be named Ella.  Our last performance of the day was a recital in the Cass Lake Community Library. (Cass Lake was formerly thought to be the headwaters of the Mississippi; it still has the distinction of possessing an island with its own lake in the middle of the island!)  Nice appreciative audience and reception afterwards.  The Library is a distinctive stone structure built by town volunteers back in the 1940s, with a ring of photos of Cass Lake Beauty Queens stretching back to that time circling the walls.  Someone should write a book or make a movie about the place and those neat people!

We ended the day at Rolf’s cousins’ beautiful, relaxing place on Straight Lake near Osage, MN to find a beautiful dinner waiting for us.  After dinner we unpacked and discovered Rolf left his bass wheel at one of the day’s venues.  We’ll see if luck turns tomorrow!

No, we’re not trying for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize for concert tour reporting; it was the beginning of duck season! It was also beautiful weather for taking in docks and closing down cabins before the cold sets in. All the same, we had memorable audiences and experiences.

After a fun morning catch up with friends from Rolf’s High School days at Anderson’s Starlight Bay Resort in Nevis (Thanks Sherm!), we drove to the Pequot Lakes Library, for our “Music through the Ages” recital program.  One woman mentioned she collected Tomie dePaola kids books, so we shared one of our “Pages of Music” presentations. As we were in a library and Sept. 22 was “Hobbit Day,” Bilbo and Frodo Baggin’s birthdays, we played some birthday commemoration pieces.  When we talked about Adrian Mann’s Thunder and Lightning,  written in commemoration of Rolf’s dad and twin uncle’s 80th birthday, the  women who collected books rose her hand and said, “Today is my 80th birthday!”  We learned she had 100% Italian heritage, so we naturally followed with Adrian’s Canzone Vecchione, written for Carrie’s dad’s 70th. It was fun to give a command performance as a birthday present! Another woman in the audience introduced herself as a volunteer for the library, and gave lunch spot suggestions, though she said she wasn’t supposed to be partial, as she was also the town mayor!

After lunch (no dessert, so Rolf missed out on his wished-for culinary trifecta!), we drove to Pine River to give our program celebrating African American music and musicians, “The Spirit Sings!”  We’re constantly inspired by this music and these stories.  A gentleman in the audience, very knowledgeable about LP recordings of all sorts, said he just got a box full of swing-era records that he was going to listen to with new ears when he got home.

We started the Sept 22 Autumnal Equinox near Nevis and ended in Apple Valley. Ironically, we came south to face a freeze warning at home. Right after we unpacked, we rushed out to the garden for a rapid harvest and spreading of tarps in the dark. We’ve had a little chance to catch our breath and gather our thoughts.  We think the first 6-performance installment of our Kitchigami Regional Library System tour went very well, thanks to great preparation by the library staff and teachers involved. Our audiences were wonderful, and energized us by their enthusiasm as we shared our repertoire and educational programs.  They reminded us again of the power of music to make connections in all directions.

It will be a longer, action-packed trip next week when we take up the “Travel-Blog” on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sunday-Tuesday Rolf and Carrie put on their teaching hats at Luther, Gustavus, and UW Eau Claire, and perform as school and soccer parents to Ada and Ella in Apple Valley.  Hope you’ve enjoyed sharing a taste of our behind-the-scenes experiences and touring activities as “The World’s Only Professional OboeBass Duo.”  To be continued, Wed., Sept. 26.  6 down, 8 to go!

We got to our next location, Longville, with enough time to stroll the town and catch a bite at the Common Grounds Coffee Shop,  where we were surprised to run into Rolf’s Roe cousins, Del and Katherine Jacobson and one of their friends who was Godfather of their son, Rolf (Rolf E’s namesake – long story), who in turn was the pastor who baptized our daughter, Ada. Small planet, pt. 1. The sandwiches were very good and the lobster bisque was so tasty that Carrie wasn’t willing to share with her family. Rolf’s time as a Caribou barista made him a bit of a coffee snob, but he rates the cappuccino he got there as one of the best ever. Burger yesterday, fancy coffee today – can we dream of the perfect dessert tomorrow?

Longville Library imported a 2nd grade class from Remer, and the back rows were taken up by area adults. One rambunctious boy tracked incredibly well when the music started, and whistled along with Carrie’s “Twinkle, Twinkle” and came up to us afterwards perfectly whistling Grieg’s “Hall of the Mountain King” that he heard for the first time in our performance today. Small planet installment #2:  we met a woman who lived a few doors down from Rolf’s Syrdal cousins,  Alden and Becky Tetlie in St. Anthony Park

Tonight we’re staying at Anderson’s Starlight Bay Resort, owned by Rolf’s HS classmate, Sherm Anderson (planned in advance, not another wild coincidence).  Tomorrow: maybe cast a couple early daredevils, breakfast with Sherm’s family, then on to “Music is for Everybody” in Pequot Lakes, and “The Spirit Sings” in Pine River.

Guess it’s not so strange we run into so many family and friends who choose to make this area a 2nd or transplant home. We walked out on the dock to see the night sky. Ada loved how she could see so many stars, a bright Big Dipper, a shooting star, and the Milky Way, and declared she’d like to live here. It’s a rare privilege to travel to perform in a place like this, meet people like these, and see the stars more clearly.

We had a wonderful first day of tour!  For this first long weekend, we took our girls along, and they’ve been a joy and big help in our opening programs. Everyone’s usually on the run to different activities, so it’s a nice change to all be together as a family, even cooped up in a packed car on a long roadtrip.  Today we hit the road at 7:30 am to perform an 11:30 recital at the Brainerd Library. The maples are starting to show off along the road, and it looks like we picked some gorgeous days for travel in northern MN.  We’ll see how our mood keeps up if the threatened first snow shows up tomorrow night!

In Brainerd we had a good crowd whose grins and laughs during the performance indicated they clearly enjoyed getting acquainted to the sound of our OboeBass! Vecchione/Erdahl Duo.  Thanks again to the composers of our great original OboeBass duo rep – music we love to play and that consistently grabs audiences. Afterwards we enjoyed visiting with audience members including a recorder performer who complimented us with, “you guys should be buskers!” and a dedicated retired music teacher and singer who makes it a point to take in as many musical opportunities as she can, and was very enthusiastic about telling her friends about our upcoming performances.  Heartwarming stuff!

Got a great tip for a Brainerd restaurant on our way out of town.  We had a real treat at the Prairie Bay Restaurant — fire oven pizza, and the best onion rings any of us have ever experienced.  Maybe worth a major roadtrip on their own!  Rolf also had the best hamburger of his life.  They could have stopped at the portabello, but added 1/2 lb of great burger, really good, thick bacon, fresh tomato, Swiss cheese, and a fresh bun all done perfectly — still savoring the memory!

Our next stop was Walker Library, on the shores of beautiful Leech Lake, where we performed our Pages of Music “Spirit Sings” educational program.  It celebrates the contributions of African American performers and composers to the music of America and the world.  Again a good crowd, this time largely thanks to the branch librarian who invited some senior center residents to be bussed to the library to enhance our audience.  In the small world dept., a couple came because they had enjoyed coming to the concert series we organize a couple hundred miles south in Lakeville.  When they saw us listed as performers at the library near their cabin, they had to come again.  Had nice visits with lots of folks afterwards, and we’re always thrilled by the stories that music seems to draw out of people.  In the past when we’ve done this program, we’ve run into people who had heard Marian Anderson perform live in MN.  This time a man shared  fun stories about growing up in Backus and playing on the town baseball team with his brothers.  He was so animated and enthused that it was hard to believe he was “two years short of 100.”

We’re now camped out in the AmericInn in Pequot Lakes, where we polished off the day with a nice unwind in the hotel hot tub and pool and a great apple dumpling at a restaurant across the street.  Two performances down and 12 to go!  This has been a fun family time, and we look forward to the remaining four performances of this weekend.

Thanks also to Barb Mann, the coordinator of legacy programs for the KRLS, who lined up this series of performances, did great advance publicity and laid out a concise itinerary and lodging reservations.  We’re used to lining all the details up ourselves, and it’s been a joy and relief being able to relax a little and focus on the performances.  Time to hit the hay and get ready for tomorrow’s double in Crosslake and Longville.  Aloha!