On the Fly

There is still over a month until our quartet will play a children's outreach concert, but the office just informed us that they want our program in the next few days.  After rehearsal we talked through some ideas and an hour later had a full program with talking points, copied music, and several scheduled rehearsals to prepare for it.  I commented to an American colleague how incredible this seemed to me, how so often in my past I've done children's outreach concerts that were pieced together on the fly, perhaps a day or two in advance, perhaps even tailored to the situation once we arrived at the location.  Yeah, he said, but there's an art to doing things on the fly.  And I think that's true, but so too is there an art to being fully prepared.  It's another choice in life and good to practice both ways of being, to learn that both can work, but have different benefits and risks.  Spontaneity, preparation, balancing these different aspects of a successful and rewarding performance.  Living on different sides of the world.