One evening last February I clicked on my email and found a spam message from Moravian College. It is not unusual for me to receive such messages about professional development opportunties (along with invitations for "male enhancement" and pleas for help from Nigerian bankers). This one looked particularly interesting. One month studying "Johann Sebastian Bach: Music of the Baroque and Enlightenment" in Germany in Eisenach, Leipzig and Potsdam.
The message went on:
"The primary focus of this Institute is to understand the intellectual and musical worlds of J. S. Bach. We will investigate the aesthetic and spiritual systems of knowledge and belief of the eighteenth century as mirrored in Bach's music. Participating teachers from a wide variety of disciplines will gain a deeper understanding of Bach's musical universe and a more profound awareness of the various approaches to interpreting his music and setting it in context."
"Wow!" I thought. "That sounds exciting." I later realized that the first criteria for being selected for this institute must be to think that sounds exciting...
I had been thinking I needed an adventure:
So I turned to my long-suffering and infinitely (I hope) patient wife, Allie, and asked "How would you feel if I spent the entire month of July in Germany?" She replied, "Go for it!" - which I thought was a little quick... but I decided to take her at her word, and ordered the application forms.
The end result is - I was accepted! I leave this Friday to fly across the Atlantic by my self (well, actually with some nice people from Virgin Atlantic) to a country where I don't speak the language, have to negotiate my own transportation, sing in an opera (more on that later...), and depend on a whole bunch of people who I haven't met yet. It's not exactly Gandalf showing up with a bunch of dwarves, but it is, for me, an adventure!
And... it's a whole month of BACH!
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