March 2, 2010
Atrium hospital
Today we had our two concerts at the hospital of Iowa City, one of the biggest hospitals of the whole USA. Marc Bernat, the organiser of the concerts, is a classical bass player. He is so good that he played for several years in the Israel Symphony Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. He was also invited to have a job with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, but that didn’t work because of ‘political reasons’. he also went to school at the La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts and on to Juilliard. Anyhow. He is programmer of music serie at the hospital here.
We played a short concert in a basketball hall for some patients from the psychiatric ward. I suppose you could say we had a captive audience. You could see that some of them were drugged, but they seemed to enjoy the music quite a bit. And we enjoyed performing for them.
The lunch concert took place in Atrium hospital, a passageway where Mark organises about 200 concerts a year. People who work in the hospital, passengers, can visit the concert. So you get a situation that some people are seated and people are passing by. I would say a…challengin situation but we were able to rise to the occasion.
We had to take a looooong way through the hospital to reach the lunch, and were surprised to see a few grand piano’s in hallways - it appears that the hospital is in possesion of five (!!!) grand pianos, and......3000 employees.
After the lunch we drove to Des Moines. It looks if this country is totally deserted. It was one straight way and the country here is pretty much flat, as in our native country. Maybe a few little rolling hills like in Limburg, but not more than that. Harmen drive us for two and a half hours to Des Moines where we were to perorm at a Jewish Cultural Centre. Touring for weeks with a small band it is almost inevitable to have some bruising. It happened with Harmen and me just before we arrived at the hotel in Des Moines. The tension was rising and rising, almost at boiling point…and then suddenly Anton shouted in the car. “ Look there !!!” There was this hotel sign: “Welcome Fugimundi! Rooms Available” We found this totally hilarious and very sympathetic. Wow!!! We smiled at each other and the irritation was totally gone. Nice hey, how life follows a path and things settle down. The organizer Abe Goldstien was at the hotel to welcome us with a big box of surprises. We had twenty minutes to freshen up before going to the hall, the Caspe Terrace Center, in the village Waukee, next to Des Moines. Abe’s wife Jackie was there and she cooked an incredible meal for us. She is totally into food and made a delicious boeuf Bourgignon.
The concert was in a little auditorium for about 120 people. Abe and his wife organised the concert and all the income was for us. That’s how it is in America. Playing for “the door” happens very often. Abe is an accomplished accordion player and a major player in the Klezmer band “The Java Jews” (though he had suggested “New Yids on the Block” and “Black Shabbath”) but his day job is advertising executive for firms that I am unfamiliar with (fire hydrants and manhole covers). Abe is so in love with his lovely wife Jackie that he wanted to ‘give’ her a song played by us. East of the sun, west of the moon. A song from the American Songbook. It seems to be her favorite song. They asked already months ago what I liked to eat. I told him apple pie. Ha ha. There is a lot of anticipation about our concert over there, so I am very curious about what’s going to happen.
The beginning was very funny. Abe announced us and Susanna had to get on stage as well. Then the Mayor of the town of Waukee came on stage and made a speech. March 2nd was formally proclaimed Eric Vloeimans Day and I got the key of the town. What a hoot !
The music worked out very well this night and the best comment I got was: ‘If people don’t like jazz they will certainly like your music and if people like jazz they will like your music music even more’.
That’s the best compliment I could ever get. A few people thought it was the best concert they ever heard in their life !
We played a short concert in a basketball hall for some patients from the psychiatric ward. I suppose you could say we had a captive audience. You could see that some of them were drugged, but they seemed to enjoy the music quite a bit. And we enjoyed performing for them.
The lunch concert took place in Atrium hospital, a passageway where Mark organises about 200 concerts a year. People who work in the hospital, passengers, can visit the concert. So you get a situation that some people are seated and people are passing by. I would say a…challengin situation but we were able to rise to the occasion.
We had to take a looooong way through the hospital to reach the lunch, and were surprised to see a few grand piano’s in hallways - it appears that the hospital is in possesion of five (!!!) grand pianos, and......3000 employees.
After the lunch we drove to Des Moines. It looks if this country is totally deserted. It was one straight way and the country here is pretty much flat, as in our native country. Maybe a few little rolling hills like in Limburg, but not more than that. Harmen drive us for two and a half hours to Des Moines where we were to perorm at a Jewish Cultural Centre. Touring for weeks with a small band it is almost inevitable to have some bruising. It happened with Harmen and me just before we arrived at the hotel in Des Moines. The tension was rising and rising, almost at boiling point…and then suddenly Anton shouted in the car. “ Look there !!!” There was this hotel sign: “Welcome Fugimundi! Rooms Available” We found this totally hilarious and very sympathetic. Wow!!! We smiled at each other and the irritation was totally gone. Nice hey, how life follows a path and things settle down. The organizer Abe Goldstien was at the hotel to welcome us with a big box of surprises. We had twenty minutes to freshen up before going to the hall, the Caspe Terrace Center, in the village Waukee, next to Des Moines. Abe’s wife Jackie was there and she cooked an incredible meal for us. She is totally into food and made a delicious boeuf Bourgignon.
The concert was in a little auditorium for about 120 people. Abe and his wife organised the concert and all the income was for us. That’s how it is in America. Playing for “the door” happens very often. Abe is an accomplished accordion player and a major player in the Klezmer band “The Java Jews” (though he had suggested “New Yids on the Block” and “Black Shabbath”) but his day job is advertising executive for firms that I am unfamiliar with (fire hydrants and manhole covers). Abe is so in love with his lovely wife Jackie that he wanted to ‘give’ her a song played by us. East of the sun, west of the moon. A song from the American Songbook. It seems to be her favorite song. They asked already months ago what I liked to eat. I told him apple pie. Ha ha. There is a lot of anticipation about our concert over there, so I am very curious about what’s going to happen.
The beginning was very funny. Abe announced us and Susanna had to get on stage as well. Then the Mayor of the town of Waukee came on stage and made a speech. March 2nd was formally proclaimed Eric Vloeimans Day and I got the key of the town. What a hoot !
The music worked out very well this night and the best comment I got was: ‘If people don’t like jazz they will certainly like your music and if people like jazz they will like your music music even more’.
That’s the best compliment I could ever get. A few people thought it was the best concert they ever heard in their life !
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