People and Places

Amongst many blessings of living long is the list of people you know. A list that, thanks to both my international travels and workshops where people come to me, is perhaps a bit larger for me than most people. This means nothing in and of itself, but means everything when I get to meet and re-meet people I know and enjoy as I travel. 

 

In the last five days, I’ve had marvelous reunions with people I enjoy and care about so much. A ten-mile walk through the city with my good friend Rodrigo Fernandez, a lovely lunch and tea-time at her home-on-the-mountain with Barbara Haselbach, a festive lunch with former intern Werner Rohrer, Orff Institut teacher Andrea Ostertag, my wife Karen and old head of school Terry Edeli, a workshop at the Institut with old colleagues and students followed by a viewing of my film, a dinner at my Iranian friend Mandana’s house with the most stellar children one might hope to meet, sitting politely during adult conversation, planning piano pieces at our request (expertly, I might add), joining in on a jam session with two other guests, coming around to shake all our hands and bid us goodnight when the hour came. Poster children for what our own American children could do so much better. 

Then today, my Salzburg Doug-bike-tour with Terry and Karen with perfect weather. Hellbrunner Allee, Hellbrunn Park, the Sound of Music Pavilion, the Steintheater, the Folk Museum, the zoo, the Maibaum in Anif, the churchyard with Herbert Von Karajan’s modest grave, the Anif farmhouse where I stayed many times in previous guest teaching at the Orff Institut, the path along the stream, the surfers, the Leopoldskrone Park (another Sound of Music site),  and yet more. All of it still there, all of it still heartbreakingly beautiful and soul-inspiring. 

 

And all of it peopled with memories of all the other people I’ve shared it with—nine different groups of Special Course students worldwide, the SF School kids who performed here in 2011, the scores of people I’ve taught and come to know in the Summer Courses. I could feel them all riding by my side, hair blowing in the wind and that shared exhilarating sense of freedom and delight. 

 

The weather was pitch-perfect for today’s bike ride and we had some time to spare before having to return the bikes. So we walked a bit in Old Town and suddenly, the skies opened and the iconic Salzburg deluge began. The bike rental man had abandoned his post and left a phone number that didn’t work and it was quite a drama to figure out how to leave the bikes and helmet and keys and lock, all amidst the pouring rain. We finally did, the clothes are drying in the hotel room and a glass of Belgium cherry beer awaits before the search for dinner. 

 

And tomorrow? The train to Slovenia.