This was a PACKED weekend for me. . . and I mean it felt like 36 pieces of chicken crammed into a 24-piece bucket. I use that image because everything was delicious, but it was too much. There was a student recital Friday evening, Large Group contest Saturday morning, the Whad’ya Know Kenosha broadcast with reception afterwards, another student recital Saturday afternoon, a Musici Amici concert Saturday night (preceded by a dress rehearsal), Palm Sunday church, an afternoon Palm Sunday concert at Carthage, and a three-hour Racine Theater Guild rehearsal to round out the weekend. (I’m very tempted to wear a name tag on my pajamas so my wife knows who’s climbing into bed with her in case she doesn’t recognize me.)
Actually, Kathy and I spent approximately half of the weekend together- which for us at this time of year is a minor miracle- and we especially enjoyed the Friday night recital of Stephanie Drymalski. She has been at Kathy’s school quite a bit this semester, doing field experience (a precursor to student teaching) – and Kathy has enjoyed getting to know her and was excited to hear her recital. . . as was I.
As it turns out, her recital included much more than lovely singing. Stephanie has some people in her immediate family, including her father, who are deaf – so the entire recital was both sung and signed. And as beautiful as that was (the signer was so expressive) the finale was even more special. At that point, the signer actually exited the stage as Stephanie was joined by seven of her school mates- and together, they all signed the evening’s final song, “Down to the River to Pray.” It was amazing, and by the third measures in, I had tears streaming down my cheeks. I think it was a combination of things: the thought of Stephanie singing for her dad, who could not hear the sound of her voice . . . the thought of her friends taking the time to learn that sign language. . . and the realization that her beloved teacher, Amy Haines, could not be there to experience this wonderful moment for herself. (She was gone because of an unexpected death in the family.) How she would have loved to see this! Yes, there is a videotape – the next best thing – but I couldn’t help but feel so sad for both of them that they weren’t able to enjoy this together.
Watching Stephanie do sign language reminded me of a family I knew back in Atlantic, Iowa. The mother and father were both deaf, but their two daughters had completely normal hearing – and they were a lovely, loving family. I will never forget playing the organ and singing for the wedding of one of the daughters and of looking down from the back balcony over the sanctuary as I played the prelude and seeing maybe half of the congregants signing to each other – and realizing that while we were all in the same room, in some ways we were living in different worlds. And I will never ever forget when the bride’s mom came up to me afterwards to compliment me on my singing and playing (mostly with just simple gestures, and words which she mouthed to me) – and I realized that she hadn’t heard a note of my music. . . not a single note. . . and yet so sincerely appreciated the contribution I had made to her daughter’s wedding. I was a sophomore or junior in high school at the time, and I’m sure I had never stopped to give thanks for the gift of hearing – or ever stopped to seriously imagine what life would be like without it. The finale of Stephanie’s recital was a reminder of that lesson from so many years ago- and I trust it was a similarly moving moment for everyone gathered in that recital hall for one of the most memorable recitals of the entire year.
“A painter paints his pictures on campus, but musicians paint their pictures on silence.” Leopold Stokowski
(Stephanie printed this quote in her program – and the recital was titled “Pictures On Silence.”)