A sensory delight coming your way this Sunday!
Some may call it confirmation bias; I call it serendipity: that wonderful influx of somehow related ideas and phenomena that keep popping up once one’s thoughts board a certain train. Planning a trip to Italy? Why, suddenly all the wines in Fred Meyer seem Italian. Thinking about buying a kitten? Bet you’re seeing cute fur-balls everywhere. Recently binge-watched a Scandinavian family drama on Netflix? Just look at all the other subtitled series that now get suggested! (Wait … that’s an algorithm, not serendipity!)
This week, while putting the finishing touches on our preparations for Evren Ozel’s September 7th performance – checking program book proofs, listening to recordings, reading interviews, comparing interpretations – I was struck time and again by how often the content of my work-related research and observations in my daily life would overlap. A picture here, a poem there, a historical tidbit in-between … and everything would ultimately tie back to creativity, artistry and the joy and benefits of engaging with the arts.
The most poignant and delightful of these was a podcast, on my drive home one afternoon, in which one of my favorite hosts, author and “Poet Laureate of the Ordinary,” Kelly Corrigan, explored the theme of “Mattering and Making” with author Jennifer Wallace. “Serendipity!” I thought, turning up the volume. “I bet they’ll talk about music at some point!”
And, indeed, music was mentioned, but not at all within the prescriptive context of do-it-yourself which I was expecting. They were not saying grab your ukulele, sign up for singing lessons, join a choir (although there is no denying that making music yourself is wonderfully good for you and you absolutely should, if you feel so inclined!). What they were saying, and what I was radiantly happy to hear, feeling seen and understood for something that I didn’t know I felt so deeply, was this: beholding art (be that wonderful music, a beautiful painting, an exquisite plate of food), or truly noticing and engaging with it at a deep level, provides significant benefits comparable to those derived from creating art itself.
Let me repeat that: Just observing with wonder, allowing your senses to thoroughly take something in, can be just as good for you as making or creating from scratch. (And this is not just a woo-woo granola mom observation: It’s backed up by real neurological research.) No wonder it feels so blissful to listen to live music. In Kelly Corrigan’s words: When we’re truly beholding something beautiful, we enter a sensory cathedral. Or, in more down-to-earth terms: “It’s a neurochemical bubble bath of serotonin and dopamine.”
It's September. Another school year, another fall, another frenzied ramping up of social, work and family calendars. Goodness knows, we all have enough things sapping our energy. Why not join us, and the incredible Evren Ozel, with his calm, collected demeanor and magisterial musicality for a healthy dosage of beholding? He will do all the heavy lifting. You can just sit back, tune in and tune out. And let your senses sizzle with the happy hormones it all produces!
See you on Sunday, 7 September at 4 pm at Lincoln Hall! Get your tickets here.
PS: If you want to practice your beholding skills in advance, we urge you to listen to Evren’s debut recording of two Mozart concertos (click here for iTunes and here for Spotify), released on the Alpha label in July this year, following his prize for the best performance of a Mozart Concerto at The Cliburn. His touch, timing and allover embodiment of the music is a sensory delight.