How Musicians Bring Cultures Together. Argumentative Essay Example

📌Category: Culture, Entertainment, Events, Experience, Life, Music
📌Words: 545
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 18 March 2021

“The next performer tonight will be David Xiong from Massachusetts of the United States of America playing Mozart’s 27th Piano Concerto!” the man announced in front of a crowd gathered from a small yet enthusiastic Russian musical town of Kostroma. 
The moment I had been waiting for months, to share my perspective of what the world of piano players and music was in front of a warm, foreign audience finally came.
As I stepped onto the grand stage packed with professional performers of the Kostroma Symphony Orchestra and locally-renowned conductor Pavel Gershstein, I knew an unlikely warm invitation from the Russian audience and conductor was being extended.  I was first asked an unanticipated question of why I loved the composer Mozart and why I chose his piece.
I simply replied, “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart helps us understand human emotions and urges us to keep calm.” 
Continuing, I explained, “I find joy and euphoria when playing his last concerto he wrote. Playing Mozart’s music uplifts my emotion when I am dejected and sad, and gives me happiness and hope.”
Touching the black-and-white keyboard with diligent care, I began playing the gleeful B-flat major tune of the last piano concerto of Mozart’s life. Yet, as my fingers trickled up and down the scales, I paid more attention to the purpose of why Mozart wrote the concerto as opposed to simply the notes. I began to realize that Mozart’s music was like a metaphor, an operatic depiction of the human turns of emotion and life’s up and downs. There was more to the piece than just that one B-flat major tune illustrating the happiness of life. Over the course of performing, I saw that there were somber or even angry parts of the piece that provided instability that counteracted the happiness of life. Through this, I was able to connect with the Kostroma people. While I empathize with them the fact that they did not have the model D grand pianos or nice bathrooms that the Moscow Conservatory, a famous music school in Russia had, they persevered and made music despite these challenges.
As the audience of Kostroma radiantly clapped, I felt like an insider as part of the community of music. This valuable experience provided me an opportunity to communicate with people of a different culture. We may have not understood each other through words, but I felt as if the music were words that said, “I understand you. We are all part of a community that loves music despite the difference in our cultures.”  We, players or listeners, professional or amateur, from whichever city or town, all share the common interest of expressing our feelings and struggles through music, a tool for healing. I realized our community extended beyond the Boston area of Massachusetts and stretched as far as the Eastern Hemisphere of the world. The language barrier of English and Russian languages extended even beyond the concert. I was able to have a good time with the local Russian people through tasting ethnic foods, talking to a Russian boy on a train using Google translate, or even just using sign-language with people in the streets.
As the pandemic rages on, I will always remember that “We’re all in this together” and we will use music as a powerful tool of healing. No matter how much you love music, every little tune will maybe, just maybe, give you one more drop of happiness in your life.


 

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