From the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association Winter 2009 Newsletter

Recently, Robert Schumann, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Chinese teenager, and American pianist Leslie Hitelman (me), came together in the Chinese City of Harbin. In this pivotal moment, the real meaning and depth of the term “globalization” came home to me. As musicians, we have always seen ourselves as part of a global community. But from my experiences in China, I clearly see how we can be of service to the rest of the world as role models in communication, respect, understanding, peace and harmony.

In late December 2008, I conducted an eight-day concert tour in China. My manager, Qiao, president of Ocean Arts and our translator, Stewart, my husband, and I visited three Chinese cities: Beijing, Harbin and Qingdao. I gave solo recitals in Harbin and Qingdao and two master classes in Harbin.

It was thrilling to experience firsthand how much piano music and teaching is valued in China. There are millions of people who play and want to understand Western Classical music. The audiences in China helped me put into words what an important role the audience “plays” during a performance because I was keenly aware that not only was I giving the music to them, but I was receiving something from them and then putting that “something” back into the music. In this way, the music was always being created anew. This kind of experience is why, for me, classical music remains relevant and exciting. Great music can hold all people’s wishes from all different cultures. We cannot always communicate well through verbal language, but we can communicate through music.

Music can transcend cultural and personal experiences and unite us with each other and with leaders from the past. In one of my master classes there, a young man played Traumerei by Robert Schumann. Traumerei means “dreaming.” I have always thought of it as the dreams we have while sleeping. As I tried to understand the meaning of this piece while the student played, I had a revelation. I asked him if he knew who Dr. Martin Luther King was. He said yes. I recounted to him that Dr. King had given a very powerful speech in which he spoke about his dreams for freedom and equality and dignity for all men and women. This translation was made for the audience.

I then played the opening ascending fourth of the Traumerei. To me, the quality of that reaching up is one of dreaming, of longing. Schumann starts each phrase with the same C reaching up to F. It has the emotional quality of Dr. King starting each of his phrases with “I have a dream…” The student and I explored phrase by phrase the use of the fourth and then the expanded reaching and longing and dreaming of the sixth: C up to A. I instructed him to remember his dreams and play the piece again. His playing soared to another level of emotional intensity. As he played, I also experienced my own dreams as a musician, a teacher and as a human being -- dreams that had brought me to this place far away from my hometown and which was still a familiar place.

These kinds of gifts – tangible and intangible -- were exchanged again and again throughout this trip between gracious hosts and wide-eyed travelers, a pianist and her audiences, a teacher and a student, the composer and musicians, a great leader of the past and new leadership for the future. As musicians, we have worked hard to train our ears and our hearts. Let us also re-dedicate ourselves to how our art can transcend time and space and engage us as members of a global community.