Musikverein Wien
Greetings from Graz, Austria – I’m in the middle of the AIMS music festival! The end of July was a very special musical pilgrimage for me. One of my longtime wishes has been to perform at Vienna’s world famous Musikverein – the Goldener Saal, to be exact. Many of you will probably recognize the hall from the livestreams of Vienna Philharmonic’s traditional New Year’s concerts. The hall has absolute pristine acoustics, and I had the great fortune to join AIMS on the year they had a performance scheduled at this hall for the very first time, in over 50 years of their history.
One thing I learned right away is how close the violinists have to sit next to each other – it was TIGHT on that stage. Almost impossible to NOT play together. I was also one of the lucky ones sitting on risers in the second row for this program – easy to see and hear pretty much everything around me. The biggest thing I learned from playing on this stage is to play very lightly – much less than usual, while still honoring all the phrasing and bow distribution. The response is immediate. Our program was a “sound bite” sampler, as I like to call it. It included many of the great arias from 18th-19th century opera repertory, and one of the main orchestral features was George Enescu’s First Romanian Rhapsody.
The Arrival Fallacy
More Awesomeness
The weekend following the concert was filled with even more exciting moments. I attended some events at Festival Academy Budapest and met one of my biggest heroes (both as a musician and a person), Maxim Vengerov backstage following his performance of Mendelssohn Concerto. The background is blurred here to protect the privacy of other faces who made into the photo.
If that weren’t enough, on my way back to Graz the next afternoon, I received a text message from one of my students that she was accepted into the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School.
The Blues
Over the next couple days, between rehearsals of Bruckner 7 with the AIMS festival orchestra, I was suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion – both physical and mental. At first I wondered if I somehow didn’t give myself enough time to recover from Musikverein – but how could that be? It’s now been four days and we had another concert on the horizon! I figured it might just be post-performance blues – similar to the way an athlete might feel after a major competition.
After meditating on it, I recalled the concept of “The Arrival Fallacy” that was recently discussed in the online community of The Growth Equation. To best describe it, I’ll share a quote from one of their articles by co-founder and author, Brad Stulberg:
“Wherever you are, the goal post is always 10 yards down the field. If you develop a mindset “If I just accomplish __, THEN I’ll arrive,” you are in for a rude awakening. There is no arriving. The Arrival Fallacy…describes the commony held illusion that once we..reach our destination..we will achieve lasting happiness and fulfillment.”
The Process
The best remedy for the human nature that is the arrival fallacy is to double down the focus on the process and the journey rather than stare in the face of any goal for a long time. Goals mostly matter in the sense that they shape a path and give us some clarity for direction. I always talk about “helping you along your musical journey” in my videos – that is because it’s so important to learn to love the process – whatever it may be for you in your current chapter of life. We actually do spend the majority of our lives on a pursuit rather than enjoying the view from mountaintops. After any major fulfilling event, we go back to being the same person from before.