Tate (second from right) with friends following a performance.
Salud! I’d like to propose a toast to the Summer Term at Waterford. This summer I had the incredible opportunity to travel abroad to Finland, Estonia, and Russia with the Waterford Chamber Orchestra to play and tour in various venues that otherwise, I might not have thought to visit myself. I shared this opportunity with many of my good friends, and my soon to be friends, most of whom are your kids. If your kid was a part of this tour, you’ve probable heard the stories about Eva, and the Russian police, and Nevsky Prospekt, and this yellow building or that yellow building, so I won’t go into depth about those. What I’m here to share with you today is my personal experience being a part of the Summer Term at Waterford, and a couple of pictures to go along with it.
The first flight was fun. Is that weird? I could be wrong, but usually you don’t say sitting in a plane close proximity to a couple hundred people in seats that are barely wide enough to keep a baby comfortable for 12 hours is fun; but it was. I think a huge part of it was my friends. I think it was because I got to sit next to two of my best friends on the flights. And that is a testament to the Summer trips at Waterford. Sure family is…cool and all. But where else do you get to travel abroad with your closest friends in high school and play music in amazing venues for amazing people. That really is unheard of. I am so grateful for that opportunity for my friends and me.
We got to travel to places that otherwise we may not have even thought to travel before. I can definitely say that Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland were far from the top 10 places I wanted to travel. But I wouldn’t change visiting those places for the world. Our first full day in Finland was also a concert day. We got to perform in an architectural masterpiece of a building/bat cave called the Rock Church, or Temppeliaukio Kirkko. This church is built into the ground, surrounded by huge walls of stone, topped with rings of copper and a glass ceiling. I find architecture amazingly fascinating, so when I found out I was going to play a solo in this rocky church, I was ecstatic. But that wasn’t the most special part of the concert. This was our one and only concert in Finland, which meant we had one chance to play Finlandia, one of Finland’s national songs. This was special. We touched people, and made them cry with our music. The most vulnerable state of the human appearance, and it was because of the way we Utahns played their national song. That is one moment that I won’t forget. After the concert, I overheard some of my friends talking to a member of the audience. The man said in broken English that he travelled on a ferry across the straight so he could watch us perform. That’s incredible! Our next concert was in Tallinn, Estonia in a church right next to the medieval main square. We made our presence known throughout the old town, rapping along to “Humble” by Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar. But if you ask any of the students their favorite part of the concert, I bet you every one of them would say the way the sound rang through the main hall. It was certainly my favorite part. The first time we heard this was while rehearsing Vivaldi’s summer. Every single one of us stopped playing when we heard the way that first D resonated through our bones, and chills ran down our spines. Everyone’s expression held a look of awe, or joy, or both. The last concert I’ll talk to you about today is the one in the Glinka Capella in St. Petersburg. The Glinka has some of the best acoustics in the world, and for a high school orchestra to play in it is actually a once in a lifetime opportunity. This concert hall is a beautiful piece of art. The excitement was rushing through the wooden floored halls backstage. Every once in awhile, a head would pop out from behind the stage door, curious about how many people came to watch us play. Every single one of those red chairs were filled with an eager body ready to hear some music. It was here that we experienced our first true “power clap”, a new way to ask for an encore. Instead of normal clapping, everyone claps at the same beat, producing the sound of a thousand rehearsed soldiers marching down the street.
Ok here’s my cliche moment. One of my favorite books growing up was “Oh the places you’ll go” by Dr. Seuss. Yeah sure it’s a common gift at graduation parties, weddings, new job offers, Whatever because of the inspiration Seuss offers in his writing. But I liked it for a different reason. I liked the pictures that accompany the story. Mostly because I….well I couldn’t read when I first opened the book up. But nevertheless it’s still inspiring, to me at least. I mean, do you see all the places to where this guy got to travel? He’s going to colorful lands, golden buildings and what not. Is it too bold to say that we pretty much did the exact same thing he did? I mean, St. Basil’s is colorful. Catherine’s and Peterhof and literally every other dome in Russia is gilded. Oh the places we went! And Oh the places we’ll go. The thing about the pictures are that they are necessary to make the words work or visa versa. They rely on eachother to tell a story. Similarly, we relied on music to tell our story. Only Charlie and Clark spoke Russian, and they could only speak to so many people. How remarkable it was that we could play music for them. They knew our thoughts and our emotion and our lives through the way we played many of their national pieces. After every concert, there would be people that went up to the stage and tried their shot at English, and those who couldn’t do that would just speak in their language. Many of us would just respond with *the awkward nod and a “yeah”*, but we knew what they were saying. We knew that they were saying how grateful they were that we could travel from across the globe to play for them. We knew that The Waltz brought chills down their spine the same way it did to us. We knew that Scheherezad and Czardas were songs that this woman listened to ever since she was a young girl in the Soviet Union. We knew that we touched the Finnish people’s hearts with one of their national songs in a way that we might not have been able to without music. Music has no boundaries. Music is a universal language that everyone can understand. No matter gender, sex, race, nationality we can all understand music. How great is that. Music is eternal. And I am so incredibly grateful I can speak it.
I can’t begin to describe the amount of fun I had travelling this summer. You all made this possible for us. Everyone here, everyone not here; It’s all possible because of you. Thank you for providing me with memories that will last a lifetime. I’m grateful for Craig and the chaperones that helped organize this trip. And a special thanks to Kathy Morris. Thank you for teaching me how to love music, and how to speak such a beautiful language. Best. Summer. Ever.
After battling traffic this morning we finally got to the Moscow Conservatory. What an incredible building filled with character and history. As we waited to be let in we could hear students practicing from their practice rooms.What beautiful sounds coming out from their open windows.
Czardas, Waltz No. 2 and Lady Gaga were our three encores tonight! The kids were fantastic – especially after a long day on the road in Moscow. When we started playing the Waltz again during the encore people started clapping their appreciation for the kids in the middle of the song! It was so cool. I’m so proud of my students for their focus, effort and beauty! Bravo tonight to all – it was truly outstanding!
At the end of the concert I met several people who came to talk to me and had me sign their programs. It was really sweet. I was honored. 
Waterford Academic travel 