Thursday, August 17, 2006

It is always so hard for me to leave Chris, he such an amazing man/musician.

Trip Totals:
Hugs from Chris = 5
Kisses from Chris = 3!

On Saturday night we went to an orchestra concert in Sunriver, Oregon. Chris was doing a Mozart piano concerto in the second half. I went to the will call to pick up my tickets. I gave them my name, and they were there, just as Chris said they would be! We went inside to find our seats and it was a small theater. About 200 seats total, 30 of which where upstairs in the balcony. We had balcony seats! Our seats were looking directly down at the orchestra. They were top notch celebrity seats! During the intermission I went to go look around the building. The restrooms were behind the stage, which just so happened to be very near to the room were the musicians hung out. I was wondering around this hallway, looking into what rooms I could see into. And As I walk up a pair of stairs, I look behind me momentarily and there is a man in a long black concert jacket that zooms by. I knew right away that it was him. I merely saw the back of his head, but I knew.

He went over and sat a piano and began to play something for the conductor. I walked over and stood on the other side of the piano leaning on the wall. He looks up while he is playing and I wave. Then when he stops he smiles and says "Hi Virginia!" Then after a moment he gets up from the piano and gives me a hug (happy me) and says thank you for coming and asks how my seats are. And I later said how I was quite sure I wasn't actually allowed to be seeing him before he plays, and he replied in a who cares kind of way. He told me he had just been planning out his encore. I then went back to my seat. The second half began and Chris came out and I never once took my eyes off him. It is always amazing to watch him play. And where with most pianists I prefer to watch their hands, with Chris, I most definitely prefer to watch his face. His facial expressions when he plays are so incredibly vivid. I am quite certain I have mentioned this before.

After the concert I went backstage and we visited for awhile. I told him I was playing on applying to New England Conservatory (NEC), which is the college he went to. He was very excited about this and asked me if I had told them about my composing and not just my violin work, because "they needed to know about that and my accomplisments with that". We talked a little more and then I told him I'd see him on Tuesday and he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye and I floated out of the concert hall with a smile ear to ear.

On Tuesday we went to his recital in Bend. Our seats were in the center of the hall, not spectacular, not terrible. He played a very entertaining first half. At intermission they were selling his CDs in the lobby. Now this audience was there mostly because they are Sunriver Music Festival regulars, not Christopher O'Riley regulars. So they all wanted one of his albums, but none of them knew anything about his albums, including the people selling them. So a person asked one of the women selling the CDs a question, and she told them that a certain CD was his first radiohead album. When I heard this I quickly went over and said, "Well actually, this album is his first radiohead album," grabbing a CD from the other side of the table. From there I began to tell all of the people buying CDs about them. I would ask them what they were looking for and then tell them a little about each of his albums. One lady behind the table asked me if I wanted to switch spots with her. They were all very impressed that I knew so much about him.

I went back into the theater for the second half, and instead of returning to my seat, I went and sat in an empty seat in the front row. I thought this seat was the best in the house. I was the closest person to him, I could see every expression on his face. I could hear him hum along with the pieces. Before he started to play the next piece he began to tell a story and part of the story was about his hero coming to one of his recitals, and how this made him feel. It was quite the same way that I would feel if he ever came something of mine. Only instead of pianist to pianist, it would be composer/arranger to composer/arranger.

After the Concert I went back to the CD table and continued helping people. He soon came out to sign CDs people were purchasing. He saw me telling people about his CDs, and then the woman sitting behind the table next to him says to him, "She has been selling your CDs. She knows everything about you!" He laughed a little and simply says, "I know." Then he says, "She's my agent!" This made me smile. Then a woman asked me about his radio show. I began to tell her and then she says, "well why don't we get it here?" I told her I wasn't a local but in my city it airs at 2pm on Mondays. Then she asks me, "Do you travel with him?" I loved that question. I only wish the answer had been yes.

I handed Chris the CD I had purchased there and he signed it. The first time he signed something for me he signed "With regards,", the next it was "With warm regards,". This time it was "With Love,". We talked awhile longer and he told me he would help me with my audition/application to NEC in any way he could. It was amazing. I got another hug and kiss and said goodbye and we left.

I was thinking about everything that had just happened, and just remembered that I had forgotten to get my picture taken with him again. So we went back inside, and he took his picture with me. We talked some more, then he hugged me and kissed me again, and we left for good.

It was so hard for me to leave him. It is such a different world with him, it is a world of being everything that you possibly can- not setting limits. Where my normal life is an awful lot of settling.

When I came back, I told all my friends to not let me settle for things anymore. I am not going to settle for UNR, am not settling for anything less than the best I possibly can.

Virginia Faith at 4:33 PM

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{xoxo}

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