Also happening during Saturday night's festivities, was an acoustic lounge. I was asked to play for some of it. My favortie part of the evening was the acoustic lounge, actually. 3 other people performed there and they were incredible. The pictures hardly do it justice, but the atmosphere and mood was stellar. It was all about the music. The audience was great.
I love music. I love what it does. How it can transcend culture, location, age, language and bring everyone together...and for a moment there are no differences...we're all the same...we've found a common ground.
The Swiss people received me so warmly and I was moved by their response. Originally I was supposed to play only 20 minutes, but I ended up playing for around 45 minutes to an hour because they kept encoring me over and over. I've never had so many encores in my entire life! It was crazy, but awesome! They paid attention. They listened. They totally got it. And that's all that I could ask for, really.
One woman came up to me afterwards and said, "Listening to you was like coming into a garden. It was beautiful. It was healing to the soul."
It was also said by some people that even though they didn't really speak English, they still understood the music because they felt what I was saying.
The comments and feedback were so encouraging. I have to admit that I was a little nervous going into this particular gig because it was my first international audience and I really didn't know what to expect. But if this is the kind of audience I can be expecting, then bring it!
