The Lady In Number 6

The filmmaker and producers of the film “The Lady in Number 6” contacted me this week,  and asked me to write an article about this Academy Award-qualifying documentary.

“The Lady in Number 6” is one of the most uplifting and inspirational films of the year. It was written by Oscar-winning filmmaker Malcolm Clarke and produced by Nick Reed, an international film producer.

So this week I have the great honor to write to you about this wonderful film and hope that you will be uplifted, inspired and comforted by Alice’s story.

This film is about Alice Herz Sommer, the world’s oldest pianist and Holocaust survivor. To see the trailer, go here: http://bit.ly/1bbAfnV

 Before the second World War, Alice was a well known concert pianist performing throughout Europe. But when Hitler declared war on the world, all of Europe collapsed and witnessed many years of unspeakable pain and suffering. Alice’s concert career and life as she knew it was over. Both her beloved husband and mom were deported to Auschwitz and gassed to death, and Alice and her six-year-old son, Raphael, were imprisoned in Theresienstadt concentration camp , where her most painful memories are of her helplessness and inability to feed her child or to answer his many questions about why they and so many others were being subjected to the indescribable nightmare of the Holocaust.

Despite her desperate circumstances, Alice found a way to look beyond the horrors of the concentration camp, and tried to find joy and strength. She found joy, happiness and strength through her music. Music preserved her sanity and her life. She loves speaking of playing more than 100 concerts inside the concentration camp, because it brought hope to the countless prisoners.

Alice says:”Music is beautiful. Life is beautiful. Beethoven, Bach, Brahms gave us a miracle, they gave us their music. One of the greatest philosophers said that music is on the first place of art. It brings us in another world, an island of peace, beauty and love. It helps us to have HOPE. Music is God.”

 “Kids all over the world grow up on superheroes, what we, their parents, must remind them, is documentaries tell stories about ‘real superheroes.’ Superheroes are based on great people, real people, like Alice Herz Sommer.” – Nicholas Reed, Producer

For more information and to see the Trailer of this film, go to:

http://nickreedent.com

Music Transforms You,

Daniela

Bearing Fruit in Season

My parents have a big, beautiful garden where they grow every vegetable and fruit that grows in Germany. We also have apple trees that bear the most delicious, sweet, juicy apples you will ever taste. Every autumn the apples are ready for harvest, and when I look at our apple-trees during that time, I am struck by the sheer abundance that is almost a wasteful amount of apples. Apples on the ground, apples hanging from the branches, apples everywhere. But soon these trees will be bare, entering their dormant stage. They will enter a season of waiting in which they do not bear any fruit.  At least they are not bearing any visible fruit, and the waiting for more apples looks barren when it is actually the preparation for abundance.

Even the Bible talks about bearing fruit in season. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.”  ~ Ecclesiastes 1:3

In years long gone by, the only way to do things was in rhythm with nature, observing and respecting its laws. We could only eat fresh berries and tomatoes in the summer, apples in the autumn, canned and stored foods in the winter, and the little snowdrop flowers were the first messengers that spring is arriving.

Little Snowdrop flower

Now we live in a culture, where fruits and everything else we can think of are available all the time. We don’t have to observe the natural rhythm of sowing and harvest, of night and day, of rest and work. We can produce everything artificially and instantly. And that is where trouble begins: we ignore our own physical limitations, and the limitations of each season of our life. We demand and we expect “fresh fruit” at the snap of our fingers.

But learning to play the piano brings us back to those natural rhythms of life itself; it is a cycle of sowing, which is the daily practicing, then waiting, which is more practicing, then harvesting fruits, which is the playing in recitals or just having mastered a concept or a piece, and then the barren waiting again.

If you focus too much on the barren ground in the winter, then you will miss the abundance that is all around you all year long.

Music Transforms You

Can Birds Fly?

My little daughter Christina who has Down syndrome was playing in the backyard today with her younger sister Maria.

Christina and Maria

Suddenly the girls came running in, telling me “Mom, a little green bird is stuck in the tree and cannot fly anymore.” So I went outside to look at this bird. Indeed, there was a very pretty little green bird stuck between the dividing trunk of one of our Mesquite trees. I picked up this bird, took it inside the house and offered the exhausted little thing some water, which it drank eagerly. I found an extra shoe-box, laid some paper-towels inside and carefully placed the bird inside this box. The girls stayed with the bird while I started to make some phone calls, trying to figure out how to help this little creature.

A few hours later the bird died mysteriously, and Christina and Maria were so sad. In order to divert their attention, I asked Maria to continue with her homeschooling writing exercises, and I took Christina to the piano

Christina playing the piano

for her daily piano practice. After playing a couple of her favorite songs, I tried to reinforce the concept of Low and High on the keyboard. To illustrate this and get her to understand this concept, I asked her a bunch of questions like: can cats fly High in the air or are they Low on the ground? Of course her response was “no, cats don’t fly, they are Low on the ground.” Then I asked:”Can ducks fly High Up?” Yes. “Can chickens fly High Up? Yes. “Can birds fly High Up?” Christina’s response was:”No mom, the bird is dead and cannot fly, poor birdie.”…..her answer startled me a little, and I thought to myself ‘What a precious and caring and truthful answer she had.” That is how our kids with Down syndrome are: very caring and loving, always concerned for the well-being of others.

I finished Christina’s piano lesson

Me teaching Christina piano

with her new favorite tune “Little Train” where at the end she gets to blow into a wooden whistle that sound just like a real train. I am amazed how fast and well she is learning all those little piano tunes. It just goes to show, kids with Down syndrome CAN learn to play the piano!!!

Music Transforms You,

Daniela Clapp

 

 

Life Has an Expiration Date, So Stop and Listen To the Music! A True Story That Happened in Washington D.C.

You just never know . . .

THE SITUATION

In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent – without exception – forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story.  Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and people’s priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . ..

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Enjoy life NOW .. it has an expiration date.

So what does this mean for you and me? Many of us are so unbelievably busy, that we don’t stop enough times to feel gratitude for the beautiful things that are all around us. We don’t even notice them, even if they are right in front of us.

Like the beautiful flowers. When was the last time you stopped and truly admired and smelled a flower? When was the last time you listened to the splashing of a water fountain? When was the last time you marveled sat a breathtaking sunset? We are all too out of sync with the rhythm of nature, and that is where our troubles begin. We run around like crazy trying to make a living, fulfill demanding schedules, chauffeur the kids from activity to activity, and in the process we lose our identity, and we become strangers to ourselves and to the people we love the most. Stress settles in and problems and sickness begin.

However, there is Good News. Let’s take a look at the Amish and some of their wisdom. The Amish always seem to have time. They observe the natural flow of nature, and they go with it instead of against it. They know that there is no harvest every day. “Regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow are twin thieves that rob us of the moment.” “Enjoy today…it won’t come back.” “The most important things in your home are people.”

Make it your goal to listen to at least one good classical piece once a week and attend a live classical concert every once in a while. The music will bring peace and healing to your life. For a moment in time you will escape from your every day worries and enter the beautiful world of music.

Music Transforms You,

Daniela Clapp

If you like to get a copy of my eBook “5 Secrets Why Playing the Piano Makes You Smart and Successful”, just go to my website, fill in the contact form, and I will send you the ebook:  http://danielaclapp.com