Can anybody find me a Piano Tuner
Last Saturday was a particularly unusual Saturday in the great tradition of unusual Saturdays in the life of Fergus Thomas. It has taken me the whole week to mull over it and formulate my thoughts. Putting it down on paper, it does not sound like anything remarkable, but last week Kananga experienced the first piano recital in over 50 years…. and a piano recital in a city of 1.3 million people and only two pianos, neither of which could really be described as being in tune is breaking news!.
The Pianist, Kristian is a young IT professional working with an NGO in Kananga; when you meet him, you sense a wistfulness in his eyes: is the fact that he is an artist, that his gaze is constantly fixed in somewhere in the undefined middle distance? Or the sadness of displacement and loss that gives him the air of a profoundly pensive and yet optimistic individual?
Kristian sometimes drives me to distraction, his office, a den of laptops and hard drives emitting a manic profusion of piano sonatas that he has downloaded from the web. He has been talking for months about giving his first concert in Kananga, stealing into my office when no one else is around to conspiratorially confirm that he has identified a location, a functional piano. He’s been talking about this for so long that I was beginning to doubt that he was a pianist at all.
Finally last weekend he invited a select audience of 20 music lovers to a dilapidated and sprawling Belgian villa in the city of dilapidated colonial houses for a concert of his personal selection of pieces, followed by the invitation to a ‘cocktail’ of luke warm Skol.
Kristian was visibly nervous as he took his place at the keyboard and launched with great gusto into his renditions of Bach, Chopin, Vivaldi and even ‘Rule Britannia’ (which, embarrassingly twinged in me a slight feeling of patriotic pride, I must must must go to confession ASAP); It was obvious that Kristian was out of practise, with small slips from time to time, however to the untrained ear the overall effect was incredibly uplifting.
My eyes filled with tears as I recognised his unique approach to pieces of music: to attack with the greatest energy and gusto as possible and not give up till the very last bar; additionally I realised fast that Kristian was playing intricate minuets and sonatas completely from memory. Of course I remembered someone else very important in my life and how he would play the piano that way.
In a flash of an instant of a morsel of time, the concert concluded to enthusiastic appreciation by the audience and visible relief from Kristian.
Kristian’s effort stimulated great enjoyment in the crowd and has motivated Kristian to perform more. On a much deeper level this was a significant achievement for Kristian, a rediscovery of something that has been long suppressed by traumatic memories. Kristian belongs to another place; his strange otherworldly aura is because he is otherworldly…. for Kananga. Kristian was born in Lubumbashi, where he grew up as a happy bright student learning the Piano at the conservatory there; eventually he became he pianist accompanying the Lubumbashi choir. In 1993 when ethnic hate and killing was beginning to ferment in Rwanda, and apparently unknown to the outside world, another genocide was well underway in Katanga, which ultimately resulted in the entire Kasayan population being expelled to their ‘home’ province of Kasaï, (although in reality the majority of Katanga Kasayans had no links with Kasai). Many returning Kasayans starved to death in a crisis that was not sexy enough to make the international media. Kristian was lucky; he came to Kananga with his family intact: he is certainly a rare exception, most of the other raffoullés traumatic tales of killing and loss.
Kristian played many, many times in public in Lubumbashi; there he had a piano in tune, and sheet music. When he fled from his home, he did not have time to rescue his piano or his sheet music from the burning and the riots. Now he has no sheet music.
After 14 years then, Kristian played his first concert, from memory. My hope for him that this performance is a symbolic act of looking towards the future and of healing from a very fractured past. In the meantime classical music lovers of Kananga are rubbing their hands together in eager anticipation of Kristian’s next performance, but we really do need to find a piano tuner!
The Pianist, Kristian is a young IT professional working with an NGO in Kananga; when you meet him, you sense a wistfulness in his eyes: is the fact that he is an artist, that his gaze is constantly fixed in somewhere in the undefined middle distance? Or the sadness of displacement and loss that gives him the air of a profoundly pensive and yet optimistic individual?
Kristian sometimes drives me to distraction, his office, a den of laptops and hard drives emitting a manic profusion of piano sonatas that he has downloaded from the web. He has been talking for months about giving his first concert in Kananga, stealing into my office when no one else is around to conspiratorially confirm that he has identified a location, a functional piano. He’s been talking about this for so long that I was beginning to doubt that he was a pianist at all.
Finally last weekend he invited a select audience of 20 music lovers to a dilapidated and sprawling Belgian villa in the city of dilapidated colonial houses for a concert of his personal selection of pieces, followed by the invitation to a ‘cocktail’ of luke warm Skol.
Kristian was visibly nervous as he took his place at the keyboard and launched with great gusto into his renditions of Bach, Chopin, Vivaldi and even ‘Rule Britannia’ (which, embarrassingly twinged in me a slight feeling of patriotic pride, I must must must go to confession ASAP); It was obvious that Kristian was out of practise, with small slips from time to time, however to the untrained ear the overall effect was incredibly uplifting.
My eyes filled with tears as I recognised his unique approach to pieces of music: to attack with the greatest energy and gusto as possible and not give up till the very last bar; additionally I realised fast that Kristian was playing intricate minuets and sonatas completely from memory. Of course I remembered someone else very important in my life and how he would play the piano that way.
In a flash of an instant of a morsel of time, the concert concluded to enthusiastic appreciation by the audience and visible relief from Kristian.
Kristian’s effort stimulated great enjoyment in the crowd and has motivated Kristian to perform more. On a much deeper level this was a significant achievement for Kristian, a rediscovery of something that has been long suppressed by traumatic memories. Kristian belongs to another place; his strange otherworldly aura is because he is otherworldly…. for Kananga. Kristian was born in Lubumbashi, where he grew up as a happy bright student learning the Piano at the conservatory there; eventually he became he pianist accompanying the Lubumbashi choir. In 1993 when ethnic hate and killing was beginning to ferment in Rwanda, and apparently unknown to the outside world, another genocide was well underway in Katanga, which ultimately resulted in the entire Kasayan population being expelled to their ‘home’ province of Kasaï, (although in reality the majority of Katanga Kasayans had no links with Kasai). Many returning Kasayans starved to death in a crisis that was not sexy enough to make the international media. Kristian was lucky; he came to Kananga with his family intact: he is certainly a rare exception, most of the other raffoullés traumatic tales of killing and loss.
Kristian played many, many times in public in Lubumbashi; there he had a piano in tune, and sheet music. When he fled from his home, he did not have time to rescue his piano or his sheet music from the burning and the riots. Now he has no sheet music.
After 14 years then, Kristian played his first concert, from memory. My hope for him that this performance is a symbolic act of looking towards the future and of healing from a very fractured past. In the meantime classical music lovers of Kananga are rubbing their hands together in eager anticipation of Kristian’s next performance, but we really do need to find a piano tuner!
posted by Gabriello Princip at 7:10 AM
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