Innocents Abroad

As a young cellist, I always had the idea that a period of studying in Europe to learn the European “traditions” was part of a well-rounded musical education. When Lawrence Lesser came to teach at Eastman for 6 months, his advice was: “Go to Europe and learn about life. It doesn’t even matter if you have the best teacher. Just eat the food, breathe in the atmosphere, have a wild time”.

So after I got my Bachelor’s, with a Rotary scholarship in hand, it was off to Switzerland (or was that Sweden? My geography was still a little fuzzy.) The memory of my first year in Europe is fantastically technicolor. I traveled all over with the Camerata Lysy, and within 3 months I knew I wouldn’t return to the States. I mean, what musician wouldn’t want to live in a place where the local grocery store stocks small busts of classical composers next to the tomatoes?

My next stop was to study in London. In spite of the fact that I had to struggle to understand what they really meant (America and England are indeed “two countries divided by a common language”) I fell in love with the country and exciting music scene and wanted to stay. But the immigration office put a stop those dreams: “You can apply, but we never, never, never, NEVER give a work permit to an American musician.”

Well, the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic needed a principal cellist for a year, so why not make a little money and learn Norwegian (my father is Norwegian) while I figured out where I really wanted to end up? Really, I hadn’t come all the way from Nebraska just to end up on the edge of Europe! Five years later I still hadn’t decided where I should settle down, but moved to Oslo with my future (now ex-) husband to think about it some more.

Now having lived 23 years in Norway, you could say I’ve decided. A couple times I have come close enough to getting a job in another country that I have had to seriously consider the pros and cons. But always Oslo has won out. We are a city of only 500,000 but there are 3 full-time professional orchestras, several project-based chamber orchestras, several new-music groups, several baroque orchestras, 2 conservatories and a talent school for young musicians. My orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, has had quite an international profile during the 25 years under Mariss Jansons and we are hoping to continue that with our new chief conductor, Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

As I get older, the quality of life Oslo offers has become more important to me: 30 minutes on the street-car takes you skiing in the mountains while a block away from the concert hall is the sea. But it also has become quite an urban city with an exciting cultural life (40 concerts of different types yesterday; I checked) and a lively nightlife. I live in the middle of the city, 20 minutes walk from work, with every conceivable convenience nearby, yet it is a quiet residential area.

So, Mr. Lesser: I’ve eaten the food, breathed in the atmosphere (I won’t tell if I’ve had a wild time…) and thank you for telling me to go to Europe!