We were floating rather than sleeping last night. If there’s anything I’ve learned from this tour, it is to expect the unexpected. When presented with the cute five-foot baby grand Kawai piano to fill this big hall full of people, I gasped. I’m strong, but not that strong! Well, it was the little piano that could. What big sound came out of those short strings! It sounded better than one of the nine-footers I played last month! We had the luxury of rehearsing in the hall the day before, so Frank and I were familiar with everything, and our musical skills were freshly sharpened.
At about 6:25PM, people started entering the hall. Frank said, “What, is this an open rehearsal? Should we ask those people to leave!” I looked out there, in tee-shirt, jeans, and no makeup, and politely explained that they could hold seats, but to please come back 20 minutes later. They politely started to turn back when I asked; “The concert isn’t until 7:30, right?” As it was, the show was scheduled for 7:00! Yikes! I laughed and apologized, told everyone to forget they saw me like this!
We were scrambling at that point. Frank still had to set up CD’s get the video camera happening, and get dressed. I had to “hop to” in the dressing room. We pulled it together in time to be wonderfully introduced by the vice president of the association. He talked about Frank having played with some major names in the jazz world, as well as Mark Russell, the political satirist. He spoke of me playing for the King and Queen of Sweden, having started piano at age three. It was easy to come out on stage after that.
The first half went like a dream. No hitches. No problems. We kept looking at each other, smiling. Frank was standing close to me in the curve of this smaller piano, and I loved watching his fingers delicately moving up and down the fret board as he played. The rehearsal had helped, and that little piano was really puttin’ out. The audience was like a racecar; powerful and responsive. We looked forward to the second half.
After playing “Blue Mountain,” the first number in the second half, Frank was signaling to me from the wings to play another number before he came on. He needed to get the video camera going again. I was up there dumbfounded! I couldn’t change the “flow” of the second half at this point, so I looked out to the audience and said, “This next piece requires Frank. Where’s Frank? Well, knowing him, if I do a really long intro, he’ll come running up to play his first note just in time!”
I was way out on a limb here. I didn’t know how much time he needed and what was involved with this new piece of equipment. I played the intro. No Frank. So, I noodled around and played the intro again, slightly differently, looking around and getting the audience to look around too. Then I played some long trills, and in comes Frank, dashing down the aisle, leaping onto the stage and whisking up his bass in time for his first note. The audience roared with applause and laughter. Phew!
I wasn’t sure he’d had success back there, and this was such an exceptional evening, I sure hoped we were getting this on tape. Frank gave me a reassuring nod that we were good to go. At the end people stood, cheering. We did our usual encore and then headed for the lobby to meet and greet. That’s when Frank broke the news to me that John Folin, a senior executive from Allied Concert Services was there with his wife. Amazing. Frank had known all day, but I didn’t have a clue, thank goodness.
As I was shaking hands and signing CDs I glanced over to see this very elegant couple talking to Frank. The gentleman was giving a fine, detailed critique of our show, and his beautiful, well-dressed wife was smiling. “That couldn’t be him,” I thought, “he bought a CD.” It was indeed, and he insisted on buying it, even though they probably had an office full of our stuff. They both congratulated us on our long and successful tour, saying they were amazed at our stamina. They both told us that they enjoyed every second of our show, and then John handed Frank a thick folder of all the critiques and Newspaper reviews they had received on us. There was a glow about that folder, as he said, “Enjoy!”
We felt fulfilled more than ever about all that we had strived to do and become. We celebrated with beer and pretzels in the hot tub at the Super 8!
Frank and I woke up this morning after being a little too excited to sleep. We didn’t have very far to drive today, thank goodness, but we were to meet some people for lunch in New Ulm, with a concert later this evening. These are the ones that found my tape at a garage sale years ago, then booked us for a concert, and after that went well, then referred us to Allied for this tour. These are not just any people for lunch! They drove here from Minneapolis just to see us and hear us perform once again.
New Ulm is a gorgeous little historic town with upscale stores and restaurants, and plenty to do. Why couldn’t we have been here for two nights? Unfortunately with our schedule today, there was not much time to explore. This seems to be somewhat of a tourist destination. It will be interesting to see if the venue matches the town.
It was great to see Paul and Karen again, as we were practically exploding with stories about our tour. We had a nice lunch at a German restaurant, and familiar faces at this point were a welcome sight.
The concert tonight was one of the best attended on our tour. We must have had 800 or so in the audience. The venue and the piano were a bit old and tattered, but we made the best of it. People were unbelievably receptive and excited, which made for a thrilling evening. We only have two more concert stops to go, with an extra school program on our last day. It’s hard to believe we may actually be going home soon!
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