One Week in The Life of Catherine Manoukian
Concert Date: 01 March 2008
Repertoire: Elgar Violin Concerto
With: Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonas Alber
I'm en route back to Toronto, having arrived here from Yerevan, Armenia a few hours ago. (I hope you'll forgive that I stopped for some steak and fries before committing these thoughts to screen.) It used to be the case that the time I rotated 180˚ onstage while playing solo Bach was the most noteworthy thing that ever happened to me on a concert trip (I'll tell you about it some other time). That incident has now been trumped by the witnessing of my first political uprising and army crackdown. It's very calm here in Paris, so it's hard to believe that I woke up this morning to find several tanks and a large army outside my hotel, or that I passed dozens of burnt-out cars and broken windows on my way to the airport, or that I was unable to play my concert last night because of a government-issued ban on public gatherings.