Monday in Banff

This is supposed to be a Sunday blog.. hehe.. well well. You know, it´s kinda hard to keep track of the days up here. Sunday, Monday, Friday.. doesn´t really make much of a difference. But that´s just a lame excuse for forgetting to write my blog. I guess I could say that there´s really not that much to say. I get up, meditate, practice, eat, practice, eat, practice, meditate.. or something like that. But today I went swimming! Oh yes. That was hard. Banff is pretty high up from what I´m used to so I was pretty much out of breath after 5 minutes. And when I swim, I swim pretty fast.. not because I´m necessarily so good at it, but that´s just the natural way to swim for me. So I swim across, then back again, and then I take a break to catch my breath. haha. Hopefully my stamina will improve pretty fast... But actually, I heard that the best way to exercise is short and hard. But I´m impressed though by some people, mostly women, mostly my moms age, that can stay in the pool for over an hour swimming without getting their hair wet! That´s just amazing to me.. I´m surprised they don´t sink. It must be like threading the water in a certain angel that produces a certain forward thrust. Vertical swimming.. Anyway..

I think I´ve figured out the next recital program now, "From Grieg to Gershwin." It will be Grieg op 6, the Humoresques, the Nocturne and a couple of pieces from op 71 lyric pieces ending with Summer Evenings (no 2). Then Ravel, Sonatine before the intermission. After intermission: Rachmaninov, 6 Moment Musicals and a selection of Gerswhin/Wild piano transcriptions of famous songs. It should be a fun and pretty likable program I think. I´m lining up some concerts in April and May in the US now, so I´m hoping for a long-term visa + a place to stay in Palm Springs! It would be nice to have a base in the US so I don´t have to go across the atlantic or living in a suitcase all the time.

I think that´s it for this time! I´m really enjoying Banff of course. You know, people always say that this is like escaping "reality." But I´d say that "reality" is wrong. We should bring "reality" to Banff instead. This is an international, creative environment where everybody is doing what they like doing. I think more people should be "filtered" through Banff and bring this life out to the so-called real world. Reality is psychological, and it´s fully possible to live in "heaven" anywhere on the planet.

First week

The first week is over in Banff and things are starting to settle down. It seems like fall lasts about a week or so here... They had high summer temperatures a week before I arrived, but now it really feels like winter. The first snow has fallen in the mountains, and it looks really beautiful. But I have to agree with one of my piano colleges here at the Banff Centre: there are too many trees here... The tree-line is high compared to Norway, so even if the altitude is pretty high, trees cover the valley and the lower mountains. But there are plenty of really rocky mountains if you raise your eyes a few degrees. Being a Banff resident is all about trying to get something done between meals. They have buffet 3 times a day in a panoramic restaurant - and we can swipe our artist cards and dig in. And they´ve placed the dessert selection first.. so this is the first thing you see as you go in. White/milk/dark/combo chocolate mousse, apfelstrudel, strawberry cheesecake and it goes on and on. My plan was to actually loose some weight while I was here. Well.. we´ll see about that.

I have a beautiful practice studio here. It´s quite spacious. When I was practicing the first day to try out the piano, which was a Boesendorfer, the head of the music program Barry Shiffman locked himself into my room. He then asked if everything was ok, and I said yes. Then he said.. oh no, you have the Boesendorfer piano, I hate that piano. It´s not good enough. Then he got hold of 4-5 movers to CARRY a C7 Yamaha from a different room into my studio. And it is much better.. but still. Well, we feel like we´re really taken care of to put it that way. Thanks Barry!! We had visitors this weekend, The Lawrence String Quartet and the composer John Adams. They did a concert on Saturday presenting Haydn, Ravel and Adams string quartet. The Adams piece was a Canada premiere and they´re recording it on CD at this very moment right down the hall here. The Lawrence Quartet was really spectacular. Quite an experience! Then we met John Adams in a conversation yesterday afternoon. He´s probably The most recognized contemporary composer in the US nowadays. The Banff Centre in general is a very vibrant and updated place. Creativity seems to be the first priority, and there´s a big emphasis on contemporary music.

I´m doing my first public appearance here on Friday. I´ll present a 20 minute excerpt of the Nordic Elegance program for the "Friday night concert out" series in Rolston Hall. Besides this I´m starting to get to know people. The atmosphere here is very open and supportive it seems and people are very passionate and aware of what they´re doing. I think art is a way of liberating people. Many artists seem to have a "global consciousness" without strong geographical or national attachments. Especially when they meet in Banff... People come from all over the world. And many of them have moved several times in their lives already. The bad thing about a strong relationship to language or a nation is that it creates boundaries. Actually, all attachments create boundaries. This is a very spiritual concept. So.. is it really that important to guard purity of language or national heritage? I´m just asking... Things evolve whether we want it or not, it´s the Law of Nature. Nothing is exactly the same for even a fraction of a second. The past is an illusion, it´s psychological. This is the dilemma of culture. Is it important to guard the heritage of lutefisk for instance? It´s an old way of preserving fish by drying it and then trying to bring it back to life by adding chemicals. Same thing with language. Language is all about communicating. But we make it into an important cultural factor. We identify with it and let it become part of our identity. This is actually the beauty of coming to an English speaking country for a long time without having English as a first language. This is also the beauty of traveling around for a while observing other people in various cultures within the US. It´s a big liberation because the identity I carry after having spent all my life in Trondheim area of Norway speaking a certain Norwegian dialect is much easier to drop. And identities like this are something we pick up from the culture we live in. They are not the real You. They are societal. Like masks or roles we play. I don´t agree that the identity of a person comes from all the engrams we pick up as we walk our path on planet earth - the morality, way of behaviour, fashion, language, name, memories from past, school, parents etc etc etc. (there are even deeper layers to this.) And I don´t accept that "that´s just the way it is." These are just external conditionings that have become part of our mental setup. Our true nature is beyond this. So breaking up from your "identity," detaching from all cultural factors and all that is NOT about losing touch with reality and following the ego. It´s the exact other way around. It´s about detaching from the ego and realizing what reality really is!