Trying On My Chef’s Hat

Dear Friends,

When I left Portland for Vienna in late February following the most recent series of performances I conducted, lots of great memories went with me – from the very successful concerts in Portland and Salem (with great work by the orchestra and our soloist, the Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen) to the very successful unveiling of our 2008-09 season.

I even got to attend the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s French program one evening when I wasn’t on stage at the Schnitz with our orchestra. I always enjoy seeing what our friends in other arts organizations are doing, because seeing our colleagues thrive shows me the appreciation of culture in our community.

And I finally met my biggest challenge so far: cooking an exclusive Viennese dinner for some close friends of the Oregon Symphony. The dinner was one of the charity auction items donors bid on at last fall’s Symphony Ball – and, I’m happy to report, it turned out to be a good meal with a lot of fun conversation. I even got to bring some fantastic Austrian wine to the table.

After that I set aside some time to spend with my family and didn’t work for the next two weeks. But I did enjoy the birthday party my daughters set up for me in Vienna. (Don’t ask which birthday it was, but I will say this: Time flies!)

Before heading back to Portland for my next concerts, I spent some time during March with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, revisiting the dramatic piece you heard us do in January, Scottish composer James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie.

Later, I traveled to Reykjavik to conduct there. Not my first time; it's a fine orchestra, and Iceland is a very unusual place. Imagine a country whose capital city has only 100,000 people living there. At least traffic problems are unknown in that part of the world. And the air is clean – and the scenery magnificent.

Warmly,

Carlos