The Happening Today

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
— Churchill

Six years ago today, I finished Scene 7 of White Nights, which reminds me how gratified I am to have completed the ballet.

The weekend before my stroke, we had a wonderful time in our Triad concerts, which included It Might Happen Today (the première) and The Mystic Trumpeter (somewhat abridged, with the composer’s leave) I was indeed greatly elated with the concert experience:  it was marvelous to collaborate with soprano Sudie Marcuse in the Trumpeter, and if our performances of It Might Happen Today might have been still tighter, that is true of the first performance of any challenging piece, and it carried well both nights, and I had great fun singing it.

The concerts were probably on Saturday and Sunday evenings.  I watched the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man on Monday evening.  I had my stroke in Tuesday’s pre-dawn dark.

When I emerged from the oblivion of the operation and awoke in hospital, the fresh memory of the wonderful concerts was one of many positive thoughts I held onto.  I knew I would compose more, and that I shall play clarinet again—a goal towards which I still work tirelessly. Months passed, and I was delighted to learn that Triad would program both my Alleluia in A-flat and a reprise of It Might Happen Today, which our Sydney Mukasa led with verve and sensitivity.  And we have just today uploaded the vid to YouTube: