Playing and performing music is one of those things that you can keep on going with long after you've stopped doing other stuff. Provided you are not brain fried or too arthritic there are still many performance opportunities. Recently I had the pleasure of playing with Sid, an 89 year old violinist from Perth.
This picture was taken at a beaut cafe that is at Woodbridge House, out the back of my old high school Governor Stirling in Guildford. I was booked to play harp for a wedding and reception. Many of you know that I don't usually take on weddings but it was a sane mature aged couple (no bridezilla things going on here) that I met up at Mundaring while playing at the Artisan Bakery Cafe there. Given that most people are kind of down on weddings the second (or third etc) time around, I found their attitude to be refreshing and figured that if they were that keen then I could take the time to learn their tunes and do the long drive down the hill for the day.
Sid is the father of the bride. He has played violin in various ensembles and is still active today as a player. His pet like is gypsy music - you know like all that hungarian stuff where they do a million notes per second. At one stage Wendy (the bride) asked me if I could do some of that for the reception. Well, I listened to a few things and asked around on the Harp Column Forum if anybody knew anything suitable to play and had a tinker around with modifying some klezmer tunes but in the end found it was a bit beyond me. I like to think I can do most things, but that kind of music isn't really what the harp was designed for. No matter, the couple had plenty of ideas of things that they wanted to hear and I tried to accomodate them as much as possible.
Anyway, getting back to Sid. At the eleventh hour, the groom phoned me up and asked if Sid could get up and do a spot with me. I was quite delighted, as I had already planned on bringing my violin with me and seeing if I could coax him into playing something with me. It was suggested that we play a tune called "He", which is a hymn that I had been asked to play during the registry signing (boy doesn't it take forever to sign things - I'd forgotten all about that). Trouble is, I had learnt the song in Bb, not a friendly key for violinists at all. Nevertheless, on the day Sid took this in his stride and without complaint and we performed an unrehearsed version of He. Sid followed this up with an impromptu version of "Flight of the Bumble Bee". I let him fly solo here, as I had no intention of playing THAT unrehearsed.
I got the impression that Sid is very humble about his playing and his acheivements and his attitude was on the apologetic side as if he felt that he was impinging on my gig. Well I have to say, it was my pleasure to have played with him, as I aspire not to retire!
It was a great day. The cafe owner/manager and staff were professional to deal with (and speaking as a musician that has played many many venues, not all are). I highly recommend them.
I'm greatful to Wendy and John for giving me the opportunity to play at their wedding and for emailing this photo (I was worried that nobody had the presence of mind to take one) to help me share the story.