Monday, September 21, 2015

A Slight Interruption of Service

Let's take a glance back at some of the things we saw in the KSO's September Masterworks concerts. There was a violin section playing their instruments like guitars in the bluesy slow movement of Gershwin's Concerto in F, most of the orchestra snapping their fingers on offbeats and shouting “Mambo!” in Bernstein's West Side Story Suite, and if you went Friday night…. you may have seen me in the audience.  I feel I should explain why.

About a month ago I was working in my garden, staking a tomato cage that had fallen under the weight of the tomatoes it was supporting.  A glancing blow from a hammer struck my left index finger and caused a small, simple fracture that has pretty much healed by now.  Luckily no knuckles were involved and no surgery was necessary.  I am now able to play some things without pain, but not with abandon.  My return is most likely be the Symphony Night Fever Disco Pops concert on October 2nd.  All the while I have been thinking about how many close calls there have been over the years, what can be done and what shouldn't be done.  True, gardening isn't the sort of activity that should break fingers, but hey; a Notre Dame football player blew out his ACL while celebrating after breaking up a touchdown pass.  And don't even get me started about how composer Ernest Chausson died.

I'd like to thank Dr. Robert Ivy and his staff at Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic for the very fine care I have received in this “manual crisis,” and to Kimberly at Ortho Tennessee for the physical therapy. The challenge now that the bone has healed is to restore the tendons in the knuckle, which sort of froze up when the cast was holding it still.

So I attended a Knoxville Symphony concert last week, for the first time in 27 years.  People were surprised to see me, to say the least.  I was so proud of the job “we” did on four American classics! And the Champagne toast before the start was superb. I can hardly wait to get back into the swing of things, the fingers are back on the strings.  There's a fresh batch of music to learn.  And a fresh batch of tomatoes to pick.


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