Classical Music

I miss playing the viola. It was a part of my life for over thirteen years, and now it's halfway around the world. I find myself listening to more and more classical music on my computer, to my favorite quartets and symphonies, reminiscing. There's almost a complete lack of classical music here. In fact, Cambodian music is basically a cheap rip-off of American hiphop. These singers take American songs (like "My Hump" or "Jump Around") and put their own words to it, with exactly the same rhythm, beat, and melody. It's really weird, actually. I wouldn't really call that making music. When a language is almost entirely mono and disyllabic, it's not too hard to put new words to a song someone else wrote. I'm not surprised that no one listens to classical music, but being a foreigner, I really miss its presence.

You can imagine my surprise at seeing a poster on the street for an International Music Festival. A THIRD one, at that. I looked it up and found that I did indeed see what I thought. There is a German NGO here that promotes classical music, and they sponsor this music festival. There will be concerts every night from December 2-6, and I plan to attend all of them. I also contacted the NGO and will speak with them soon about finding an ensemble (hopefully). Although I don't have my viola here with me, I'm sure I could figure out something.

I'm really excited about that. I feel fairly unproductive here – days seem shorter, and I don't seem to be doing much outside of work. Hopefully that will change. I'm also looking for a gym to correct my now-sedentary lifestyle (not to be confused with sedimentary, which it is also – PP is a VERY dusty city). Anyway, I am looking forward to this return to classical music. It should be a nice familiar territory for me.