©Gregor_Hohenberg__Sony_Music_Entertainment

by Wales

In the film Patch Adams, Robin Williams plays a doctor who wears a red clown nose. Terminally ill kids laugh with joy whenever they see him, forgetting their pain. This is a touching moment of love and hope in cinematic history.

Do things like that really happen? I don't know; I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you about an unforgettable experience of violinist Leonidas KAVAKOS.

He once visited the ICU in a children's hospital in Greece. Amidst the quick beeping of machines, doctors worked in dim light to keep the fragile lives there alive. Much of the equipment was far too old, and some machines sounded like they were about to fall apart any minute.

The department head saw him and got up the courage to make a somewhat daring request: "Could you play something for the kids?" The doctor immediately regretted asking.

KAVAKOS didn't answer right away. He knew that medical research has proven music can be soothing, but he wasn't sure about whether it was a good idea for newborns to hear music from so close.

But what he saw was etched in his mind: the frail bodies with tubes inserted and surrounded by machines, and the look of utter helplessness in the doctors' eyes. He thought that the music might indeed do some good, so he brought in his violin.

Standing in front of a clear incubator, he started playing BACH for an infant. The gentle melody slowly filled the tense room. After a few minutes, an amazing transformation took place: The violently fluctuating curve on the monitor gradually leveled out as the child's rapidly beating heart relaxed.

It's been years since then, but KAVAKOS says, "That's an experience I'll never forget." It was an absolutely singular moment in his life, and for me too.

Who is Leonidas KAVAKOS? Anyone can go online and look up his stellar background. He has won the Sibelius Competition and Paganini Competition. The reputed British classical music magazine The Strad has hailed him as a violinist among violinists, and The New York Times went so far as to compare him to the great Jascha HEIFETZ. If that's not enough, the magazine Gramophone said that even if PAGANINI were still alive, he wouldn't compare to KAVAKOS!

But honors are superficial. What is really moving is not trophies or titles but the small amount of effort you are willing to exert in a small, quiet corner that no one knows about and how that ultimately transforms into a radiance that glows in the vast sky.

Imagine the infants' heartbeats slowing with the tempo of the music, the doctors' gazes suffused with gentle light as reflected from a screen, and the tension in the room gradually fading. Yes, even though the world is cruel, good and wonderful things quietly happen. The magic of music doesn't need to be some grand, thundering business. It can be as light as a feather. Even the simplest melody can serenely make its way into the softest places in life.

Even if you forget about his trophies and honors, we sincerely welcome anyone who has been touched by his story. In December, come to a brilliant performance by KAVAKOS, Hans GRAF, and the NSO to feel the allure of music that warms the heart and transcends space and time.

  Program    

12/14(Sun)14:30

►Hans Graf, Leonidas Kavakos & NSO