Toronto, Heliconian Hall (October 30th, 2013)
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| With the Zagrebački Puhački Trio, the Croatian Consul General and composer Michael Pepa |
The end of the tour is a painful moment to face: coming home to the "normal" life after living for three weeks between incredible excitement, full and heightened concentration, and a generally high level of tiredness. Even doing your laundry in a normal laundry machine seems so uncool!
...but I am shamelessly lucky, and so some guardian angels decided to make it more bearable for me by taking a piece of tour back to Canada to smooth the first two weeks back...and I am not just talking about all the memories and experiences, but the Zagreb Woodwind Trio! which, by the way, in Croatian has for me an almost unrecognizable name: Zagrebački Puhački Trio. In passing, the other very interesting and unrecognizable name discovered on tour was skrzypce: which is the pretty violin in Polish...not to speak of my lovely country, which, also in Polish, is Włochy!
My whole Croatian experience has been distinguished by two main factors: one is meeting incredibly friendly, hospitable, and fun people with whom I felt immediate familiarity, and the other a distinguished encounter and performances for high government personalities. In Montreal with the Croatian Ambassador:
In Toronto, we performed for the General Consul of Croatia with whom we afterwards had a feast of cevapcici and calamari, and in Zagreb, well, among a sea of ambassadors and consuls, for the President of Croatia (!), and the Minister of culture Berislav Šipuš, who also happens to be a fabulous composer whose beautiful Preludes I was honoured to perform already twice!
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| With the Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and the Canadian Minister of State!! |
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| With the trio, composers Berislav Šipuš and Michael Pepa, and violinist Lynn Kuo in Zagreb |
Incredibly, I had never visited Zagreb before, even though it is now, thanks to the new highway, only a few hours away from Trieste (a fact tested by my dad, who at the last minute decided to come to the performance and had some of the best times hanging out with ministers and consuls...and, most of all, with Michael and the Trio!). I found Zagreb incredibly beautiful, full of flowers, parks, fountains, colourful palaces and, what makes me feel right at home, the very strong stamp of the Austro-Hungarian empire in every building!
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| Performing Sid Rabinovitch in Zagreb! |
HVALA Zagrebački Puhački Trio!!!!!
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